Date of Conviction: 23/03/1811

Age at Conviction: 25

Crime Convicted of: Uttering Forged Notes

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

Sentence Length: 14 Years

Ship Transported on: Minstrel

Where Arrived: Port Jackson, New South Wales

Departure Date: 04/06/1812

Arrival Date: 25/10/1812

Biography: Ann had uttered a forged £1 note to John Milnes at Chorley and was found with another four in her possession. Ann was very ill whilst in jail at Lancaster ‘due to the prisoners indisposition/dangerous state of health,’ she was held over from the August 1810 assizes to the March 1811 assizes instead once recovered.

In January 1815, Ann married convict tailor Peter Murphy (ship- Boyd) at St Philips, Sydney. They had been living together for at least a year. In 1816 she was mustered as ‘wife to Peter Murphy’. In 1821 Ann found herself in the female factory. Ann gained her certificate of freedom in 1825. At this time she was now 40, and was described as being 5ft 4, a native of Yorkshire and servant with a sallow complexion, brown hair which was turning grey and brown eyes.

Ann’s husband Peter placed an advert to say she had absconded from their home in Castlereagh Street in September 1825 and he would not be responsible for any debts she incurred. After Ann left him it seems he either passed away or found a way to leave the colony as there are no further records for him and by 1826 she had been granted land called Mulbong/Mullbone Farm at Brisbane Water. In October 1827, Ann applied for permission to marry a ticket of leave convict sawyer, William Booker (ship- Ocean 3) and they married the following year in March 1828 at St Philips. They were recorded on the 1828 muster together as landholders/farmers at Brisbane Water, north of Sydney. Ann is believed to have died around 1834 as after this date the land was in William’s name and by 1837 he had remarried.

In 1838, William was legally granted this land and gave it its name, Booker’s Bay which it still holds today. William died in 1850 and was buried in an unconsecrated cemetery on their land (today Bogan Road) which is potentially where Ann is also buried. The cemetery was converted to housing after 1920.