Date of Conviction: 21/10/1817

Age at Conviction: 26

Crime Convicted of: Theft

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

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: Ann was a single woman of Manchester who had stolen 20 yards of linen cloth belonging to Ralph Pollitt which she then bleached to try and obscure its origins.

Whilst at Lancaster Castle, she was believed to be ‘exhibiting symptoms of derangement’ and had been noted as experiencing this before. Nonetheless, Ann was sent south and put on board ship on the 18th March 1818 accompanied by her seven year old daughter Margaret (born at Bolton). Ann suffered bowel pain on board- she was given opium and calomel, which afterwards, caused a sore mouth. Her daughter Margaret also suffered from pain in bowels though (thankfully) was given a much gentler rhubarb tincture.

Ann and Margaret were sent to the female factory on arrival. The following year, having put her daughter into the Parramatta orphan school, in December 1819, Ann married Abel Simpson (ship- Duke of Portland) who was around 30 years her senior. They had a daughter, Elizabeth in 1822 and had a convict assigned to them, whilst living at Prospect and at this stage her eldest daughter, Margaret can still be found in the Parramatta orphan school. The marriage may have broken down around 1824 as Ann was working for Thomas Lisson/Leeson at Windsor at this time rather than her husband. The same year, 1824 Ann’s ‘very old and deaf’ husband Abel was found guilty of horse stealing- he had borrowed a horse and cart from a prospective employer then sold it, so was sent away to Port Macquarie penal colony where he probably died sometime after the the 1828 census where he was last recorded.

Ann then had a relationship and two further children (Hannah and Maria) in 1824 and 1825 with Thomas Lisson, her employer (an ex-husband of Ann Bradwell, who had returned from a 14 year penal sentence, ship- Royal Admiral) which ended upon his death in 1827. Ann had a final relationship and two more children (Robert and William in 1828 and 1830) with Robert Gee (ship- Grenada). Ann, Robert, Hannah, Maria and Robert Jr can be seen on the 1828 census at Robert’s farm at North Richmond. In 1829, Ann’s daughter Margaret who had married another of Thomas Lisson’s employees (which suggests the family were probably reunited at this time), started her own family and Ann became a grandmother.

Throughout the next few decades, they farmed at Wilberforce until June 1860 when Robert died. Ann died just four days later, aged around 67 and they were buried together at Sackville Reach Cemetery under a memorial stone.