Date of Conviction: 31/08/1814

Age at Conviction: 49

Crime Convicted of: Uttering Forged Notes

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

Sentence Length: 14 Years

Ship Transported on: Northampton

Where Arrived: Port Jackson, New South Wales

Departure Date: 01/01/1815

Arrival Date: 18/06/1815

Biography: Ann uttered a forged £1 bank note to John Pearson at Liverpool along with Ann Paul whilst being caught having two others the same in her possession. She had a family and left four children behind in England. Whilst they were onboard the Northampton in November 1814, awaiting its sailing, they petitioned the Bank of England, Ann Downs writing:

“Mr Westwood Sir Whe take the Liberty of trobiling you as wee are In the Greatest Destress In this world Being Confined this 9 Months In the Castell of Lancaster and having No friends to help Us to aney think whe are almost Lost for Cloathing And Being Confined for the bank Business whe hope that your Hounour Sir will Consither Our Destress Situation and please to Relieve Us as whe are Now going On Bord of the Northamton Going to the Bay and in the Utrmos of Destress and Likewise I Ann Downs Leaving 4 Desolate Children Behind Mee Whe Remaine your Umbel Servant Ann Downs and Ann Pall”.

They were awarded £5 each.

Initially employed at the Parramatta female factory, three months after arrival, Ann married a free convict, John Wilkinson (ship- Royal Admiral) at St Johns, Parramatta. John was recently widowed and had a young son, John (junior) after partner Sally Eddleston had died in 1813. This marriage was short- lived too as John died just two years later and Ann found herself at St John’s altar again several months later, marrying blacksmith Robert Foulcher (ship- Albermarle) in July 1818. Within a few months of this marriage, Ann had placed John and Sally’s son John (jr) Wilkinson into the orphanage. In 1826, Robert and Ann claimed their ‘son-in law’ John back from the orphanage so they could use him as an apprentice to Robert in his blacksmith’s shop. This same year they also took on another ‘orphan’ Thomas Roberts- son of fellow Lancastrian and Northampton shipmate Maria Roberts, suggesting the two women must have become and remained close through their shared journey to NSW.

Ann died, free, in 1833, aged around 67 and is buried in a marked plot in St John’s cemetery, Parramatta along with many other members of the Foulcher family. An obituary in the newspaper commented on her many good qualities.