Date of Conviction: 08/08/1839

Age at Conviction: 21

Crime Convicted of: Manslaughter

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

Sentence Length: Life

Ship Transported on: Gilbert Henderson

Where Arrived: Hobart, Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania)

Departure Date: 10/12/1839

Arrival Date: 24/04/1840

Biography: Julia and husband James were from Ireland and were convicted of the manslaughter of their lodger; railway ‘navvy’ supervisor Michael Donohoe in their lodging house in Brown Street, Preston, in October 1838. Michael had accused Julia of falsifying a bill of provisions provided for his workers and an argument ensued. This led to the Lacky’s calling a gang including James’ brothers and others to deal with Michael and he was killed in their house. She shouted out in court ‘What will happen to my children?’ Julia’s husband James begged to be allowed to be together with her. The newspapers described her as ‘a very pretty young girl’.

Julia travelled with her child and James’ arrival (ship- Asia) took place in August 1840, reuniting the couple, and though James was stationed in barracks for the first two years and Julia was in the House of Correction they had another child in April 1841. However, soon after this, Julia had an illegitimate child in 1842 and was sent to the female factory for six months. She had several other convictions for absenting herself and misconduct during this time. James who had volunteered as a special constable in November 1842, died in January 1843 in the Colonial Hospital at Hobart. In 1844, Julia went to work for a William Wilson.

Julia remarried John Byfield (ship- Elphinstone) at St Joseph’s Church in Hobart in February 1845. She received a conditional pardon in September 1848 as ‘she has been four years without offence and married to a free man’. She was given her freedom after serving eight years of her life sentence.

By the 1860, Julia had slipped into alcoholism and she received a further two month prison sentence for disturbing the peace in 1863 and had a number of other convictions for being drunk and disorderly and for threatening her husband around this time. She was described by the newspapers as ‘a nuisance to the neighbourhood of Goulburn Street’. In 1865, Julia took her husband to court after he shut her out of the house and refused to let her back in. It appeared that he had had enough of Julia’s drinking and selling his belongings to buy alcohol, ‘leaving him in debt and all but ruining him- he and the neighbours had done everything they could for her’.Julia died from chronic enteritis at Brisbane Street, Hobart, in March 1867, aged 46.