Date of Conviction: 31/01/1815

Age at Conviction: 22

Crime Convicted of: Theft

Court Convicted at: Lancaster Quarter Sessions (held at the Old Moot Hall, Wigan)

Sentence Length: 7 Years

Ship Transported on: Lord Melville

Where Arrived: Port Jackson, New South Wales

Departure Date: 29/08/1816

Arrival Date: 24/02/1817

Biography: Susan was the wife of William Brown of Liverpool and a servant. She had stolen from Maria Sutton. In Lancaster Castle, along with Margaret Pollitt and Sarah Halliwell– the women planned an escape attempt through the roof of the dungeon tower where they planned to let themselves down with their blankets. Susan was searched and found to be hiding a pair of tongs, a smoothing iron, three knives, a fork, a flint and steel and candles made of weft and fat– the escape was quickly thwarted. They left Lancaster Castle for Sheerness on the 8th July. Susan was recorded as travelling with a child.

In Australia she was set to work as a washerwoman and lived with stonecutter Thomas Shaw (Cumbrian convict on the Isabella). She was free by servitude in 1822 where she and Thomas were employed by surveyor John Oxley at Liverpool (NSW). The couple had three children, Mary Ann in 1822, Thomas in 1824 and John in 1826. Susan and Thomas lived at Minto in 1825 and officially married at St John’s, Parramatta in 1828 and had two of their children baptised there the following year.

Further Notes- Three women on the Lord Melville all married men called Thomas Shaw. Susan Brown married Thomas Shaw (Isabella) 1828, Frances Brown married Thomas Shaw (General Hewitt) 1820 and Mary Airyman married Thomas Shaw (Indefatigable) 1820.