Date of Conviction: 19/03/1806

Age at Conviction: 27

Crime Convicted of: Theft

Court/s Convicted at: Lancaster Assizes (held at Lancaster Castle)

Sentence Length: 7 Years

Ship Transported on: Sydney Cove

Where Arrived: Port Jackson, New South Wales

Departure Date: 11/01/1807

Arrival Date: 18/06/1807

Biography: Ann, along with Isabella Mathum stole 12 1/2 yards of Irish linen cloth from the shop of Hannah Foster at Manchester, valued at £1, 17s, 6d. They were described as ‘notorious shop lifters’. They left Lancaster Castle to head to Portsmouth to board the ship in the second week of November 1806 and Ann was recorded as travelling with her twins (sons).

At some stage between arrival and 1809, Ann sailed to Van Diemens Land (Tasmania), possibly as an assigned servant. There, Ann had a daughter, Margaret and married emancipated convict John Taylor (ship- Coromandel) at Hobart in November 1809- there were not yet any churches so it was likely an outdoor wedding! By 1811, they were back in New South Wales. In April 1812, the couple had a son who died at just a week old. Daughter Elizabeth was born in 1814.

In July 1814 Ann, who had been free for just over a year, was sentenced for stealing 48 shirts and receiving 34 others along with a Robert Young; a private of the 73rd Regiment. She was pilloried at Parramatta and Sydney and was sent onboard the Endeavour Indiaman to Newcastle penal colony to serve a 14 year sentence. In 1816, Ann appeared twice on musters but on both occasions is possibly mixed up with others as they record her as having different husbands and don’t mention if she was actually at Newcastle.

If Ann did actually go to Newcastle she was certainly back as in 1819 she was listed as as a housekeeper at Sydney. 1820 and 21 musters just state she was married and by 1822 and 25, she is again recorded as John Taylor’s wife at Parramatta. In 1823, Ann’s twin boys submitted a joint memorial (under the surname of Martin- their father back in England), petitioning for land now they were 18 and stating they had arrived with their mother as babies. The 1825 muster shows the whole family- Ann and John, Ann’s twin boys Charles and James, and Ann and John’s children Margaret and Elizabeth.

In 1825, Ann’s son James married at Sydney. The following year, other son Charles married at Parramatta with his half sister Margaret as a witness. By 1828, Ann, John and their teenage daughters Margaret and Elizabeth were recorded as living on York Street in Sydney and Ann was officially free again for a second time. Daughters Margaret married in 1829 and Elizabeth in 1835. Ann’s son Charles died, aged just 28 in 1833 and had a very poignant memorial stone raised at Devonshire St. Ann’s first granddaughter, also Ann; child of Margaret died in early 1835, aged just 13 months and joined her uncle in the soon to be expanding family plot.

Ann died the year after, in August 1836, a widow, aged about 57 (though recorded as 65). She was buried under the surname Martin- perhaps she had been married to her sons’ father all along, or to make sure they were all associated in death. They would be joined by Ann’s other son James and son-in-law James a few years later. The whole family group were later re-interred to Rookwood Cemetery.