Date of Conviction: 27/08/1817

Age at Conviction: 34

Crime Convicted of: Uttering Forged Coins

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

Sentence Length: 14 Years

Ship Transported on: Maria

Where Arrived: Port Jackson, New South Wales

Departure Date: 15/05/1818

Arrival Date: 17/09/1818

Biography: Judith uttered a base shilling to Richard Walker at Manchester. She had a death sentence reprieved. A housekeeper and native of Drogheda, County Louth, Ireland, she was put on board ship on the 20th March, travelling with her 1 year old daughter, Ann. Judith suffered from colic and diarrhoea onboard and was given peppermint, ginger and opium. Her baby daughter suffered a viral rash which Judith had kept secret in fear of it being thought smallpox. They were sent to the female factory on arrival. Judith married fellow convict James Mu(t)ch at Sydney in 1824 and lived together with her daughter. She worked as a laundress in the colony.

Judith had a ticket of leave cancelled in 1828 for buying a blanket from a convict which was crown property but she still got her certificate of freedom in 1831, at which time she was described as being 5 foot tall with a fair complexion, grey eyes and brown hair, turning grey, her nose was a little crooked, she was missing several front teeth and her left arm was dislocated. Judith and her husband were clearly on bad terms in 1834 as he placed an advert in the Sydney Herald, cautioning he would not be responsible for any debts that his wife incurred and that she should not be given money or credit. Judith was in court with two other men in 1837 for holding a drunken street ‘concert’, complaining to the judges that she was being treated far too harshly. As she and her friends couldn’t pay the fine for their terrible singing, she was placed in the stocks for an hour! Judith died the 11th May 1853 at her daughter’s house, aged around 67. She was buried in a Roman Catholic plot, probably in the Devonshire St Cemetery where her husband had also been buried.