Date of Conviction: 19/07/1809

Age at Conviction: 17

Crime Convicted of: Theft

Court Convicted at: Lancaster Quarter Sessions (held at the New Bailey, Salford)

Sentence Length: 7 Years

Ship Transported on: Canada

Where Arrived: Port Jackson, New South Wales

Departure Date: 23/03/1810

Arrival Date: 08/09/1810

Biography: Elizabeth (Betty), a single woman of Manchester, had stolen a gown belonging to a Mr King.

On arrival, in New South Wales, Betty immediately found herself in a sadly not unusual situation. An Ann Wilson had acquired Betty as an indentured servant, claiming to the government that Betty was her sister, however, in reality, she had recruited Betty as a prostitute. The matter came to the government’s attention within a couple of months after Betty made a complaint against Ann for being ‘treated with gross impropriety’ and the case went to court.

Betty married a soldier, Michael Duggan at St John’s Parramatta in 1811 but by 1818 and 1819, she was noted as a widow but also a nurse. In 1820, Betty married or formed a common-law relationship with James Cox and can be seen as his wife, at Sydney on the 1825 muster, now free by servitude.

In October 1828, Betty was arrested (she was named as Cox in the gaol records but Duggan by the newspapers) and in December received a 14 year colonial sentence for receiving stolen goods at Richmond along with a Mary Robinson and was sent to Moreton Bay in January 1829. Elizabeth’s sentence was reduced due to good behaviour and she was permitted to return to Sydney in July 1837.