Date of Conviction: 24/03/1821

Age at Conviction: 32

Crime Convicted of: Uttering Forged Notes

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

Sentence Length: 14 Years

Ship Transported on: Mary Anne (3)

Where Arrived: Port Jackson, New South Wales

Departure Date: 25/12/1821

Arrival Date: 20/05/1822

Biography: Along with Isabella Hammill and her husband Hugh Hammill, Mary Burns and Margaret Kelly, Mary Pimblott aka Collins who also went under the false identity Mary Taylor, paid and put off to Thomas Pennington at Liverpool a forged £5 note and 40 counterfeit shillings.

Reformer and close associate of Elizabeth Fry, Mrs. Pryor, complained that “the prisoners from Lancaster Castle arrived, not merely handcuffed, but with heavy irons on their legs, which had occasioned considerable swelling, and in one instance, serious inflammation”.

In the colony, Mary was initially placed in the female factory before being asked for and assigned to a Mr Nicholson, the harbour master as a servant. Strangely a group of other men, including one of the crew of the Mary Ann also turned up to see Mary at the female factory at the exact same time; it seems she was in demand!

Mary married James Coogan (ship- Guildford) at St Mary’s Catholic Church Sydney in March 1823. By the time of the 1828 census, the couple were living in Argyle county. With only a year until Mary’s 14 years were up, in 1834, she was recorded in court as ‘an elderly looking dame’ in a flamboyant bonnet, who had absconded from her husband. Mary earned her certificate of freedom in August 1838.