Date of Conviction: 29/03/1823

Age at Conviction: 19

Crime Convicted of: Burglary

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

Sentence Length: 7 Years

Ship Transported on: Brothers

Where Arrived: N/A

Departure Date: 20/11/1823

Arrival Date: N/A

Biography: Mary, her mother, also Mary, and younger sister, Ellen, were all charged with burgling Richard Donovan’s house at Liverpool, stealing 10 sovereigns, large amounts of clothing and shoes, bedding and other articles along with Jane Miller and Ellen Meadows. Mary and her mother were both found guilty, Mary junior given seven years, Mary senior sentenced to death, commuted to life transportation but Ellen was acquitted and left to return to Liverpool where their brother John remained.

Just four months later, Mary’s sister Ellen was convicted at Liverpool Borough Quarter Sessions of theft of clothing with a group of other young people including their brother John and was sent to Lancaster Castle, reuniting the family in jail. Here, a description of Mary was taken, she was born at Liverpool, had a dark complexion, brown eyes, dark brown long hair and a scar on her lower left arm and was a single woman. Mary and Ellen were to be transported first, their mother at 52 was probably unlikely to have been transported due to her age but personally asked to be sent (presumably to be with her daughters) and followed the next year. John, her brother, was sent to the hulk ‘Captivity’ and after five years, was eventually granted a free pardon in 1828.

Elizabeth Fry recorded that the Lancaster women (including Mary and Ellen) arrived at the ship chained together with iron hoops around their arms and legs which required all to move at once if they needed to get up or down. Whilst at sea, Mary, believing herself separated forever from their mother was recorded (through her sister’s words) as suffering overwhelming grief from the separation of her mother. She rapidly declined and died onboard ship April 1st 1824 from pulmonary heart failure identified from dissection, never knowing they would all have reunited in a few years (as Ellen and Mary senior did in 1827).