Date of Conviction: 10/01/1815

Age at Conviction: 18

Crime Convicted of: Theft

Court Convicted at: Lancaster Quarter Sessions (held at Lancaster Castle)

Sentence Length: 7 Years

Ship Transported on: Mary Anne (2)

Where Arrived: Port Jackson, New South Wales

Departure Date: 01/07/1815

Arrival Date: 19/01/1816

Biography: Found on Green Lane, on the outskirts of Lancaster, Beaumont Hall was the home of Mr Edward Foster Buckley Esq (who as a local gentleman, regularly sat on the Grand Jury at the Assizes and whose daughter had married into the slave trading Hinde family). In 1815, whilst working at the hall as a servant for Mr Buckley, 17 year old Ann from nearby Skerton stole from Jane Lewis, perhaps a fellow servant, a workbag, silk bonnet and other items.

Ann was convicted of the thefts at the Epiphany (January) Quarter Sessions at Lancaster Castle and was handed a seven year sentence of transportation. After being held in the castle’s dungeon tower cells for six months, Ann and eight other women were taken to Woolwich where they boarded the convict ship, the Mary Anne.

Her description from the convict indent was a follows- ‘5ft 2, slender, a sallow complexion, brown hair and blue eyes, originally from Kendal (Cumbria)’.

A gruelling six month voyage brought Ann to Sydney in 1816 where she was placed in the female factory on arrival. Shortly after in March 1817, she married fellow convict William Birkenshaw (ship- General Hewitt) at St Johns, Parramatta. The couple had four children, with their son dying in infancy.

After living a quiet life in Australia, Ann returned to crime in her later years; she received several sentences of imprisonment in Sydney, one of which, in 1845, was alongside her husband for theft (her) and receiving stolen goods (him). Ann received a further one year sentence, partially in solitary confinement in Parramatta’s Female Factory.

Ann died aged 56 in early January 1854 and is buried in St John’s Cemetery, Parramatta, Sydney.