Date of Conviction: 03/03/1832

Age at Conviction: 46

Crime Convicted of: Uttering Forged Coins

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

Sentence Length: Life

Ship Transported on: Frances Charlotte

Where Arrived: Hobart, Van Diemen’s Land

Departure Date: 30/08/1832

Arrival Date: 10/01/1833

Biography: Described as ‘an antiquated adept at passing bad money’, Margaret (also known as Margaret Mackay) had passed a forged half crown at Liverpool paying for cream cheese. She had the death sentence reprieved on condition of being transported for life. Margaret had previously been imprisoned at Manchester for the same offence, two years earlier and complained to the constable at the bar in Lancaster’s Crown Court that she was owed money that had been taken off her at that time, unsurprisingly, the judge ignored her.

Margaret avoided the cholera and dysentery outbreaks which killed a number of the convicts, passengers and crew before the ship had even left Woolwich.

On arrival, the ship’s report said she had been ‘very bad’ but also states she was a widow with two children. In 1835, she was absent without leave from service and was sent to the washtub for a month. In 1835, Margaret received permission to marry Edward Tippin (ship- Medway) but no marriage took place. In 1836, she was found drunk with an assistant male servant in her bedroom at night for which she received four months in the lowest class at the factory. In 1838, she was again approved to marry James Rice (ship- Castle Forbes) and this marriage did take place. In August 1843, Margaret received a conditional pardon- the reason was stated that she had shown proof of reform and was otherwise eligible.

Her description was given as a native of County Tyrone, 5ft 2, a servant, aged 47(?), a dark complexion, dark brown hair, black eyebrows, an oval face with high forehead, hazel eyes, a straight nose a large chin and she had lost two upper teeth.

Margaret passed away at Christmas 1875 at her home on Margaret Street, Launceston, recorded as aged 88 and the cause of death senility. She was buried nearby and remembered and recorded as the beloved wife of James Rice (who passed the following year) on his stone at St Michael’s Cemetery Campbell Town, Launceston.