Date of Conviction: 22/07/1817

Age at Conviction: 22

Crime Convicted of: Theft

Court/s 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: Catherine was a single woman of Bolton. She had stolen money there along with Elizabeth Almond. They left Lancaster on the 14th March and were put on board ship three days later on the 17th. During the voyage, the ship’s surgeon noted Catherine, ‘Complains of great weight and oppression at the chest with great difficulty of breathing, has a most severe cough which she has been troubled with for two years past, the countenance is flushed. Pulse quick and full. The expectoration is tinged with blood [all highly suggestive of tuberculosis]. Catherine was given a blister/plaster of opium, acacia, potassium nitrate. Later on in the voyage she cut her finger onboard which was dressed.

Within days of arrival in New South Wales, she was transferred to Van Diemen’s Land onboard the Elizabeth Henrietta and she was assigned to be a servant which she was recorded as to a Mr Cook in 1819. In February 1822 Catherine was caught with a stolen shift in her possession belonging to a Mrs Dane. She was jailed for ten days in solitary confinement. A few months later, she received the same punishment for being drunk and missing church, followed by a further ten days for being drunk and out after hours. The next month, in July 22, she was handed another eight days solitary for being absent overnight. She then settles down and has no further infractions until after gaining her freedom in 1824. In 1823, she was listed as a servant to W. Addy at Georgetown. In October 1826. Catherine was arrested for stealing a glass from the house of a Robert Hay Marr at Launceston and was sent to trial- she was found not guilty. The final infraction against her was the following year in March when she was fined for being drunk and disorderly. Further records of her have not yet come to light.