Date of Conviction: 29/03/1804

Age at Conviction: 37

Crime Convicted of: Theft

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

Sentence Length: 7 Years

Ship Transported on: William Pitt

Where Arrived: Port Jackson, New South Wales

Departure Date: 10/08/1805

Arrival Date: 11/04/1806

Biography: Mary and Ann Hughes stole four pieces of printed calico, totalling 59 yards from a shop at Manchester belonging to Hugh Bennett and Joseph Benton. Ann and Mary (who were possibly sisters), along with eight other women were taken to the ship moored at Spithead (315 miles) from Lancaster Castle in July; a receipt exists for this transaction at a cost of £15 5′ per woman.

In New South Wales, Mary married convict John Pearce (ship- Perseus) in October 1811 who went on to be a policeman then district constable in Sydney. They had two sons in the year before and after their marriage. In 1828 they lived on Castlereagh Street where Mary ran a local hotel. Bad years followed when they lost their son, Richard in 1839 and their other son Robert in 1840 and grandson in 1841. John died at their home in 1849, and Mary followed two years later in 1851, recorded as aged 97, though more likely in her 80s, making her another of the oldest Lancastrian female convicts. She was buried in the Devonshire Street Cemetery but as the last of her family, it is not clear whether Mary was re-interred at Bunnerong with the rest of her family.