Date of Conviction: 13/01/1801

Age at Conviction: 52

Crime Convicted of: Theft

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

Sentence Length: 7 Years

Ship Transported on: Glatton

Where Arrived: Port Jackson, New South Wales

Departure Date: 23/9/1802

Arrival Date: 11/03/1803

Biography: The Storrs family lived at Melling, a Lune Valley village, near Lancaster. Documents show the family were in poverty and had been removed from nearby parishes for becoming a burden on the ratepayers, Mary was an unmarred mother. Times were clearly hard enough for Mary, age 52 and her adult children Ellen Storrs (Eleanor), 31 and Edward, 18 who stole milk. All three were arrested and sent to Lancaster Castle to await the Quarter Sessions in October 1800. Found guilty, the family were each sentenced to 7 years transportation.

The family awaited the long journey to the south coast in the gaol at Lancaster Castle. Ellen was sent first in May 1801 along with two young Manchester women; she was given £2 and 13 shillings to buy clothes and provisions for her new life and was put aboard the Nile, a ship which travelled in convoy with two other male convict ships.

Next to go was Mary in September 1802, she was sent along with a number of other prisoners and put aboard the Glatton which transported both male and female convicts, her journey to Australia via Rio de Janeiro also took six months, arriving in March 1803.

Edward was the last to leave Lancaster. In April 1803, he was sent to the prison hulks moored at Woolwich where he was held onboard the Retribution. A different turn of fate though meant he was offered a pardon in January 1804 on condition he served in the army.

Mary arrived to find her daughter had already had a child, named Edward for his uncle/Mary’s son and was now widowed. Mary gained her certificate of freedom in February 1811.

Mary married farmer George Gambling (sometimes written as Gamble) ship- Barwell in 1818 when she was around 70 and they farmed on George’s land, Toothill Farm at Petersham Hill. In the late 1820s and early 1830s they began to sell off the farm but lived as tenants on it. Some sources have Mary living until 1841 and George c.1848 though the last firm evidence I have found of Mary is in 1831, then aged 82 or 83. Gambling’s Creek at the side of their farm is still found in the Lewisham area of Sydney today.