Date of Conviction: 27/04/1803

Age at Conviction: 20

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: Margaret was a single woman of Manchester. She had stolen a linen shirt, shift and an apron belonging to a Jane Eastwood.She left Lancaster Castle, bound for the ship on the south coast at the beginning of December 1803.

Margaret met fellow convict John (S)Park(e)s (ship- Barwell), having thirteen children with him over the years. One of their children, William became a well known boxer (Bill Sparkes) who came to England to fight. Margaret herself was free by servitude in 1810. In the 1828 muster, Margaret and her large family were living on Upper Pitt Street. At some stage, they established a home on land named Parkes Camp/ Parkes Town (occasionally called Sparkestown), now Earlwood which Margaret’s common law husband John had been granted for logging purposes from 1827.

Margaret was widowed when John died in 1839 and she can be seen on the 1841 census with two older sons with other children in nearby properties. Margaret died on the 24th March 1859 after accidentally setting herself alight whilst lighting her pipe, compounding ‘chronic influenza’ (possibly pulmonary disease). Her funeral took place the following day at St. Peter’s Church of England, Cook’s River Road. The funeral service was one of the most heavily attended services ever to be conducted at St. Peter’s Church. She was recorded as 84 but was probably around 75 or 76.

Today, her many descendants have a Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/291589151236736