Date of Conviction: 22/01/1817

Age at Conviction: 21

Crime Convicted of: Theft

Court Convicted at: Lancaster Quarter Sessions (held at the New Bailey, Salford)

Sentence Length: 7 Years

Ship Transported on: Friendship (2)

Where Arrived: Port Jackson, New South Wales

Departure Date: 03/07/1817

Arrival Date: 14/01/1818

Biography: Mary, a single woman of Manchester and a servant, had stolen from Charles Alcock. During imprisonment at Lancaster Castle, along with Ruth Guest, Mary Ann Buckley and Sarah Robinson they broke through locks in the dungeon tower and got onto the roof, claiming they just wanted ‘to see the fine prospect’. Following this, they were kept in irons until departure. Following an attempted mutiny during the voyage, the ship’s surgeon commented on many of the women involved. Of Mary he said she was “a prostitute, shameless and mutinant”.

Within two weeks of arrival, Mary was selected to be sent to the Derwent River in Van Diemen’s Land onboard the Duke of Wellington. The year after arrival, she married Henry Boyle (ship- Union), an ex-soldier, court martialed in Madras. In 1821, she was noted as a servant of Captain Bracken.

Mary was free by the time she began re offending, having been given a certificate of freedom in 1824, she was sent to the Georgetown female factory for four weeks for being drunk and disorderly in 1826. That same year in the November she was convicted of stealing a fowl belonging to Peter Archer Mulgrave, the superintendent of police and was jailed for two months. Her husband was equally in trouble for assaults and harbouring convicts in the pub they ran, the ‘Red Lion’ in Brisbane Street, Launceston. The relationship between Mary and Henry must have broken down as by 1827, he was advertising in the newspaper that she should not be given any credit and he was not responsible for her.

In 1829 she was bound over to keep the peace for six months against Thomas Wood Rowlands. Later that year she was in trouble for assaulting Rebecca Young, though the complaint was later withdrawn. Three times during 1830, she was fined for being drunk and disorderly. By 1835, Henry had sold the pub and left Van Diemen’s Land for Sydney alone. It is not clear what happened to Mary from 1830 onwards.