Date of Conviction: 20/01/1823

Age at Conviction: 19

Crime Convicted of: Theft

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

Sentence Length: 7 Years

Ship Transported on: Brothers

Where Arrived: Port Jackson, New South Wales

Departure Date: 20/11/1823

Arrival Date: 07/05/1824

Biography: Ann had stolen two purses and £2 at Manchester. She had only just finished a six month jail sentence from a theft the year before. Whilst in jail at Lancaster, she was described- ‘Says she was born at Dublin, fair complexion, a little pitted with the smallpox, grey eyes, brown hair, a small scar upon her forehead, a weaver’.

Elizabeth Fry recorded that ‘Eleven women from Lancaster (including Ann) 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.’

Ann suffered from fever, believed to be typhus, onboard ship and was purged and had her blood let. On arrival, after a supposed mutiny against the surgeon onboard ship, she was described by ship’s surgeon as ‘A bold and daring woman but loyal and obedient. Has suffered much injury from the mutineers’. Ann had been an informer and pre-warned James Hall, the surgeon that an attack was expected.

The year she arrived, Ann applied to marry free man Thomas Greenbank (ship- Tottenham) in the Catholic church though no marriage took place. She was assigned to Ann Reynolds on Cumberland Street. Another wedding application to Thomas Wilson (ship- Guildford) was refused in 1826 as both parties were still in bond. Ann had been placed in the female factory at Parramatta and in June 1827 escaped- whilst on the run, the newspapers further added to her description saying she was 5ft, and had been brought up in Liverpool.

Ann applied to marry locally born man Peter Henry in January 1827 but no marriage took place. By 1828 Ann was assigned to farmer/ landowner William Johnstone at Valville in Bathurst and instead in May 1829, she married time-served convict baker Edward Williams (ship- Hebe) at Holy Trinity in Kelso. The following year, Ann received her certificate of freedom in February 1830

Sadly the marriage was not a success- indeed it was an immediate failure and Ann moved back to Sydney in 1831. By 1834/5 Edward was in a relationship and had begun a family with another woman and was eventually declared bankrupt and died from alcoholism. In 1833 Ann, after sobering up for a night in the watchman’s box, was witness in a forgery case and was described as ‘a very old customer at this office’.

In February 1834 she was in trouble for convincing a drunk man to come home with her and robbing him (to pay off some debts) whilst he was asleep. She was bailed until the trial in May then sent to the female factory for two years. She saw further trials and time in 1836 and in 1838, released after eight months in jail, saw three lots of solitary confinement in 1839 for being drunk, followed by twelve months for stealing from the person. About this time she seems to move to Windsor. In 1842 she was locked up in the female factory for a year for theft. In 1843 she was inside Darlinghurst for six months and separately for two weeks, and in 44 in the factory for six months for theft. In ’45 she was discharged for breaching the peace but was then again jailed for two months for being idle and disorderly and keeping a house of ill-repute.

Reports throughout this time strongly suggest she was running a brothel and/or acting as a prostitute herself- she even had two young girls acting as prostitutes for her and she was living with a Samuel Williams. In 1846 she committed an almost identical crime to her 1834 one of getting a ‘patron’ drunk then robbing him. She was also described this time as ‘The Queen of Durand’s Alley’ (a notorious Sydney rookery) and described in the newspapers as ‘an antiquated remnant of an ill-spent life’ . She and a neighbour/bailiff/landlord Samuel Murphy had a blazing row in court over a threatened assault on Ann which ended up with Ann attacking him.

After this Ann’s trail goes cold.