Date of Conviction: 17/04/1817

Age at Conviction: 30

Crime Convicted of: Theft

Court Convicted at: Lancaster Quarter Sessions (held at the Old Courthouse, Preston)

Sentence Length: 7 Years

Ship Transported on: Maria

Where Arrived: Port Jackson, New South Wales

Departure Date: 15/05/1818

Arrival Date: 17/09/1818

Biography: Mary was a single woman of Preston, who had stolen from Joseph Sudell. She left Lancaster Castle with a child on the 17th March, according to the governor’s diary and was put on board three days later on the 20th. This child is not mentioned as travelling to New South Wales. Perhaps he was handed over to family as the prison wagon made its way south. Like many of the women, the surgeon recorded Mary suffering with constipation onboard ship.

Mary was designated a servant on arrival. Permission was given to Mary for her to marry seaman Joseph Leeburn/Le Burn (ship- Princess Charlotte) who she had sailed on the Maria with in April 1819 and they married the following month at St Philips, Sydney. However, by 1820 and 1821, she was recorded as being in the female factory. In 1823 Joseph was discharged from service and given permission to remain with Mary in Sydney. In 1824, Mary received her certificate of freedom at which time she was described as 5ft 1 with a ruddy complexion, dark brown hair, hazel eyes and a native of Manchester. In 1825 she was noted as the wife of ‘John LeBurn’ at the Rocks.

In August 1825, Mary sailed back to England on the Harriet, landing at Christmas that year. She was recorded as taking some gold sovereigns to sell in England but was arrested and held on remand in London, accused of forgery as the gold coins were base metal. She managed to convince the court of her innocence and the reason for her return becomes apparent. Mary arrived back at Sydney onboard the Harvey in August 1827 with a boy named as Thomas Leburn, aged about 13. This was either her nephew (if going off his recorded documents) or potentially could have been her son, brought up by his uncle and aunt under assumed parentage; potentially the child mentioned she had back in Lancaster Castle, and they are recorded together on the 1828 census as lodgers at Cumberland Street with her occupation given as laundress. In Sydney, Mary’s husband Joseph was a publican and as a family they ran the ‘Sheer Hulk’ on King’s Wharf, George Street and briefly (ending in a law suit) the Coach & Horses on Cumberland Street. By 1829, Mary had convicts assigned to her. One of these convicts was fellow Lancastrian Catherine Richardson who had arrived in Sydney the year before. Mary gave Catherine a good character reference when she married the later that year.

Mary died at home on George Street, on the Parramatta Road, on the 17th November 1835, aged 47 and was buried two days later in the Devonshire Street Cemetery- she was later joined in her grave by Margaret Reynolds (aged 37)- the wife of publican James Reynolds- Mary’s brother. They had emigrated to Sydney a year or two earlier. Margaret would very soon be re-interred as their were suspicious circumstances around her death, later disapproved. Sometime after Mary’s death, son/ nephew Thomas appears to leave Sydney and returns home to Ormskirk, England where the Reynolds came from. Mary and Margaret were later re-interred at Bunnerong Cemetery.

Mary is the only known Lancastrian convict who returned to England and then went back to Australia.