Date of Conviction: 21/07/1802

Age at Conviction: 12

Crime Convicted of: Theft

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

Sentence Length: 7 Years

Ship Transported on: Experiment

Where Arrived: Port Jackson, New South Wales

Departure Date: 02/01/1804

Arrival Date: 12/06/1804

Biography: Mary was a single woman from Bolton. She had stolen a bonnet and various other items the property of John Stott. She was the youngest of all the Lancastrian women at conviction aged 12.

Soon after arrival, aged 14, Mary fell pregnant with convict John Cawson (ship- Minorca/Canada/Nile) and they had a daughter, Ann in 1805; Mary was in the female factory at this time. Clearly a passing relationship, Mary then began a relationship with Thomas Reynolds (ship- Atlas) and they had a daughter, Harriet in 1807 and a son Francis, in 1809. In June 1810, Mary got her certificate of freedom. In 1811, they had Thomas (who was christened both as a baby and for extra surety again as a ten year old! In 1813 Mary had another child, John, baptised who she’d had with previous flame- John Corson/Corsey (probably Cawson) and had another daughter, Mary the same year. They had Elizabeth in 1816 and Charles in 1818 and finally in 1821 they had another baby boy, John but he died at just two months old. Collectively Mary had at least nine children. Mary and Thomas finally tied the knot in July 1821 at St Mary’s Sydney, Mary was still only 31 at this point.

Mary lived for much of her last decade at 100 Pitt Street, running a haberdashery with assistance from her daughters Harriet, Elizabeth and Mary. She regularly advertised hats, bonnets, shoes, dresses, gloves, parasols, children’s wear and fabrics that arrived for sale in the colony and took on a number of convict women as needle women or laundresses to work for her but was frequently the victim of thefts. She died 13 December 1833 aged 43 and was buried at the Devonshire St Cemetery, later re-interred to La Perouse. Her gravestone was engraved with the sombre but revealing poem “Affliction sore, long time I bore, physicians were in vain, till God did please my life to ease, and free me from all pain.