Date of Conviction: 10/09/1810

Age at Conviction: 31

Crime Convicted of: Theft

Court Convicted at: Lancaster Assizes (held at Lancaster Castle)

Sentence Length: 7 Years

Ship Transported on: Minstrel

Where Arrived: Port Jackson, New South Wales

Departure Date: 04/06/1812

Arrival Date: 25/10/1812

Biography: Susannah was charged with stealing with force a trunk containing £17 and diverse articles of clothing the property of Jane Coleburn from the house of Jane Houghton of Liverpool. Her death sentence was reduced to seven years transportation. She had almost two year’s wait at Lancaster before being taken to the south coast ships. In Australia, she married John Rogan just two months after arriving in December 1812, even though she had only married her current husband John Brookshaw back in Manchester in 1810. Susannah and John went on to have seven children, living on a large farm at Castle Hill, north of Parramatta until his death in 1830. The area went on to be named after the couple and is still called Rogan’s Hill today. Susannah received her certificate of freedom the same year. At that point she was described as 5ft 3 1/2 inches, with blue/grey eyes, a fair complexion and dark brown hair.

In 1831, a widowed Susannah and her children were subject to an armed robbery in her home which they all survived and saw the perpetrator eventually hanged for. In 1832, Susannah remarried, under her maiden name of Farnen/Farning to Irish convict farmer Richard Donnelly and they continued to successfully farm nearby at Baulkham Hill with her son carrying on with the Castle Hill farm. Susannah died from lung/heart disease in 1853 and is buried in a family plot with headstone at St Patrick’s Cemetery, Baulkham Hills.