Date of Conviction: 04/05/1786

Age at Conviction: 20

Crime Convicted of: Theft

Court Convicted at: Lancaster Quarter Sessions (held at unknown location, Manchester)

Sentence Length: 7 Years

Ship Transported on: Friendship (1) and Prince of Wales

Where Arrived: Port Jackson, New South Wales

Departure Date: 13/05/1787

Arrival Date: 21/01/1788

Biography: Sarah stole two pieces of gold to the value of ten pence. Her surname was also variously spelled as Cormack and Mac Cormack. She was a single woman of Manchester and was one of only four Lancastrian women sent to a Hulk (the Dunkirk- the only hulk that held female prisoners prior to sailing) along with Elizabeth Thackery, Jane Parkinson and Isabella Oldfield before sailing. Despite only meaning to be on the hulk at Plymouth for a week or two, they were there over four months.They were put aboard ship on March 11th.

Sarah, along with friend Elizabeth Thackery was recorded as being very troublesome onboard, sleeping with crew and was locked up as a punishment in a makeshift cell but was then released after becoming very ill. She was bled eight times by the ship surgeon and eventually recovered after initially being expected to die. She again fell seriously ill just weeks later (said to be the pox by Lieutenant Clarke- unproven) but recovered again. In the October of the voyage Sarah also announced she was pregnant. She was transferred to the ship Prince of Wales at the Cape of Good Hope.

Eighteen months after arrival, and no further evidence of a pregnancy, Sarah received 25 lashes for abusive behaviour to a soldier and was sent to Norfolk Island. Sarah was sent back to Sydney in 1792 where she lived in a house as a servant and later a housekeeper. In 1806 she was living with John Bootle/Boodle as his housekeeper and in 1814 with a G.Atkins. Sarah didn’t marry or have children and the 1816 muster records she died in 1815, aged about 49.