Date of Conviction: 25/10/1819

Age at Conviction: 17

Crime Convicted of: Theft

Court Convicted at: Liverpool Borough Quarter Sessions (held at Liverpool Town Hall)

Sentence Length: 7 Years

Ship Transported on: Morley

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

Departure Date: 17/05/1820

Arrival Date: 29/08/1820

Biography: Catherine had stolen a watch belonging to an Archibold Ewan with an Evan Jones (ship- Mangles) and a pocketbook and other items from a James Brear at Liverpool. She had already been charged at aged 14 with the theft of a shawl. She left Lancaster Castle along with eleven other convict women at the end of April 1820 and arrived on board ship on the 28th that month. Ship surgeon Thomas Reid described the Lancaster women as displaying ‘riotous conduct and mischievous behaviour’. Catherine was disembarked at Hobart Van Diemen’s Land and the ship carried on to Sydney with others. At arrival, Catherine’s character had been assessed as ‘excellent’ and she was assigned to house work

The year after arrival, Catherine was jailed for absconding from her employer, HJ Emmett (in order to be with her future husband). In 1822, Catherine married Charles Bradshaw Tomkins (ship Lord- Sidmouth) and they had a son, also Charles the next year. Bradshaw. However, in 1825 she was sent to the factory for a month for absconding from her husband and being found a week later in the house of another man though they also had another son, Henry this year. She was given her certificate of freedom in 1826 but the same year was bound over to keep the peace for brawling with a Susan Johnson. In the next few years, she was again bound over for fighting with a Mary Thomas but also was let off three further charges of being drunk and disorderly and stealing due to lack of proof. That same year her husband was found guilty of selling spirits without a license and then seriously assaulted a man who owed money. After this time, he was either jailed, in iron gangs or in penal colonies, leaving Catherine alone.

Catherine died at Hobart Hospital in November 1829, aged (recorded as 21) but about aged 27. She was buried at St Davids Cemetery (now St David’s Park).