Date of Conviction: 19/07/1792

Age at Conviction: 22

Crime Convicted of: Theft

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

Sentence Length: 7 Years

Ship Transported on: Indispensable

Where Arrived: Port Jackson, New South Wales

Departure Date: 01/10/1795

Arrival Date: 30/04/1796

Biography: Rebecca, a single woman, was part of group of eleven prisoners sent to Lancaster from Salford after the Quarter Sessions. She had stolen ‘diverse items of clothing property of Sarah Jones along with a Richard Cain’. She was described by John Higgin, the Governor of Lancaster Castle, along with Mary Brown as ‘two of the most infamous women I ever had under my care, and other prisoners behavior has improved since I got quit of them’.

Rebecca married seaman Thomas Webb of HMS Sirius just two weeks after arrival in New South Wales but tragically appears to have been widowed very shortly after. She then married (listed as Rebecca Plummer, suggesting an as yet undiscovered relationship in between) in February 1804, convict Isaac Gorrick (ship- Atlantic). Married life had clearly been unsteady though as in 1809 at Hawkesbury, Isaac announced in the newspapers that he and Rebecca had been separated nearly two years and he would not be responsible for any debts she incurred. This is probably why Rebecca was recorded this year as being in receipt of provisions from the government stores. Rebecca received her certificate of freedom in September 1810.

Though separated, Rebecca and Isaac must have maintained their relationship to some degree though, as she appears on every muster and census over the years at Windsor (albeit varying as single, widowed and married), and Rebecca is listed as renting a small farm, sublet or divided from Isaac’s much larger holdings. Isaac however, begins a family and ran the pub called the Safe Retreat at Wilberforce with an Ann Leeson ‘who was commonly called Mrs Gorrick as a courtesy but not in law’. Rebecca was supported financially by her husband only and she passed away, aged 58 in 1828 at Wilberforce.