Date of Conviction: 04/05/1786

Age at Conviction: 22

Crime Convicted of: Theft

Court Convicted at: Lancaster Quarter Sessions (held at the Bull’s Head Session Room, Manchester)

Sentence Length: 7 Years

Ship Transported on: Friendship (1) then Charlotte

Where Arrived: Port Jackson, New South Wales

Departure Date: 13/05/1787

Arrival Date: 21/01/1788

Biography: Elizabeth was the wife of Thomas Thackery, a soldier, of Bury. She had stolen black handkerchiefs and other items from a shop.

Elizabeth was one of only four Lancastrian women sent to a Hulk (the Dunkirk- the only hulk that held female prisoners prior to sailing) along with Sarah McCormick, Jane Parkinson and Isabella Oldfield before sailing. Despite only meaning to be on the hulk at Plymouth for a week or two, they were there over four months.They were put aboard ship on March 11th.

Due to her troublesome behaviour onboard the ship (fighting with fellow convicts, sleeping with the crew- she was labelled a ‘damned whore’ by Marine Officer Ralph Clark), Elizabeth was transferred to the ‘Charlotte’ at the Cape of Good Hope on October 28th. As punishment for her onboard crimes she had been placed in irons, Popular culture and Elizabeth’s own words say that she was the first non- indigenous woman to set foot in Australia; what is more likely is that she was the first convict woman and certainly the first Lancastrian to set foot on Australian soil. The story goes that the officer’s wives were to be landed first but not wanted to get wet, Elizabeth hopped on the back of a sailor and was carried to shore.

On the 4th March 1790, Elizabeth was chosen to be part of the group of convicts taken on the Sirius to establish a further colony at Norfolk Island. It was a disastrous landing, losing many provisions. In the first few weeks Elizabeth and the other women were employed in preparing flax for thatching, collecting firewood and farming. Elizabeth was given 25 lashes in July 1791 for coming into the town from her settlement without permission.

By 1794, Elizabeth (later known as Betty) lived with James Dodding (who she had met on board the Friendship) in a common law relationship and earned her freedom. She purchased land from Marine Samuel King (ship- Sirius) who had arrived with the First Fleet and had come to Norfolk Island. By 1807, she moved with James to Hobart, in Van Diemens Land. Here, they separated and she bought more land in her own name. She later married marine Samuel King, who had also travelled with them at St Davids on the 28th January 1810. They lived and farmed together until Samuel’s death in 1849.

Elizabeth was the longest living woman of the First Fleet, she died in August 1856 aged 89 and was buried with her late husband in the Back River Cemetery, New Norfolk, under a marked memorial.