Date of Conviction: 16/08/1826

Age at Conviction: 46

Crime Convicted of: Breaking Entry/Machine Breaking (Rioting)

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

Sentence Length: Life

Ship Transported on: Harmony

Where Arrived: Port Jackson, New South Wales

Departure Date: 12/05/1827

Arrival Date: 27/09/1827

Biography: Ann, a widowed weaver, with three older children had a death sentence reprieved for her role in the 1826 Lancashire Loom Riots. Ann was considered one of the worst offenders and encouraged the loom breaking when she was heard shouting “roll up you soft devils and come forward” at Helmshore Mill. She was arrested but freed by the rioters before going on with the others to Chadderton where she was again retaken. She was tried along with Mary Hindle who had been a bystander at Helmshore and whom Ann may have known. She was described as 4ft 9, with a ruddy and pock-pitted face, dark brown-grey hair, hazel eyes, a scar over her right eyebrow and the first finger joint on her right hand had been crushed. She was a widowed Catholic with three younger children and several adult children, could read and had been born at Darwen. She had twice before been in Preston’s House of Correction.

She was briefly employed in Sydney as a washerwoman but was soon sent to the female factory due to her unsuitability as a household domestic. By 1836 Ann had gained a ticket of leave and eventually received a conditional pardon in 1843. She married constable John Butcher at Parramatta in 1830 who she had been assigned to, though his death saw her remarry Richard Birking in 1838 at which time she was described as a ‘steady industrious woman’ (who was a washerwoman by trade). By 1855 she was widowed for the third time and Ann herself passed away ‘a pauper’ at Hyde Park in 1868 aged 95 (more likely 85). She was buried at Balmain cemetery (now renamed the Pioneers Memorial Park)