Date of Conviction: 21/07/1823

Age at Conviction: 32

Crime Convicted of: Theft from the Person

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

Sentence Length: Life

Ship Transported on: Brothers

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

Departure Date: 20/11/1823

Arrival Date: 15/04/1824

Biography: Mary Ann had stolen a pocketbook containing £45 and 10 shillings from a man at Manchester along with a John Walton. She was described whilst in jail at Lancaster Castle as a single woman, having been born at Manchester and had a pale complexion with grey eyes and dark hair with her skin a little pitted with the smallpox. She was tattooed on her upper right arm with the initials ‘IH’ and ‘ID’ and had lost two front upper teeth and had had her ears pierced, She had been in prison six months in New Bailey before.

Reformer, Elizabeth Fry saw the Lancaster women boarding Brothers and recorded that ‘Eleven women from Lancaster were sent to the ship ‘iron-hooped round their legs and arms, and chained to each other. The complaints of these women were very mournful, they were not allowed to get up or down from the coach without the whole being dragged together; some of them had children to carry, they received no help, or alleviation to their suffering.’

Whilst onboard ship, Mary Ann fell whilst carrying an earthenware pot, causing several severe lacerations to her hands and fingers, most healed up but she was left with a disabled forefinger, which she was unable to bend.

In Van Diemen’s Land, Mary Ann had numerous misconducts and trips to the female factory for absconding for weeks at a time, assaults and insolence. She married fellow convict Alexander Hudson (ship- Dromedary) in January 1829 at St John’s, Launceston but later ran away from him and was put in the house of correction for six months. In 1836, she permitted prisoners to drink in her house and was found drunk. In 1837, she was found drunk but asked to be returned to the female factory due to being ill-treated by her husband- this was granted and then she was reassigned upon leaving despite her being termed ‘a bad character’.

Mary Ann received ticket of leave in 1838 and then a conditional pardon in January 1846. In March 1847, Alexander left Van Diemen’s Land for Portland Bay, Victoria, alone.