For the great majority of the 13,500 (approx.) women who were transported as convicts to Van Diemens Land (VDL) between 1812 and 1853 their period of servitude was a sad and painful experience. But that endured by Sarah WALLACE (alias WALLIS and WHALLEY), who arrived aboard America in 1831, was surely one of the saddest and most painful – physically as well as mentally and emotionally – of all. It is difficult not to feel great sympathy for her. Born Sarah SMITH at Prescott, Lancashire, England, about 1790, she had married Samuel WALLIS (sic) at Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, on 4 January 1808. It is likely that Samuel, a potter, worked for Josiah SPODE, founder of the pottery works at Trent-on-Stoke which was to become known worldwide for the outstanding quality of its wares. The marriage produced five children. With Samuel in such good employment, the Wallis family might have been able to live in relative comfort but, alas, when Samuel passed away in early April 1825, his wife’s economic circumstances would have been very much reduced.
Mary Ellen Walsh
Earl Grey (1850)
By Rae Blair
During Mary Ellen Walsh’s lifetime, she was abandoned by her family as a child. She was arrested and gaoled twice, and was forced to leave her home country. In her teenage years, she resisted authority, often paying a heavy price. With so much against her, Mary was determined to create a life for herself. She looked for opportunity; marrying twice and delivering twelve children—sadly burying three of them. At times, she struggled to feed her children, being forced to give some of them up. Later, with her husband away for long periods of time, and despite constantly having children hanging onto her skirts, Mary ran a business in Campbell Town and became a popular figure in the village. In time, Mary achieved the life she wanted and knew prosperity.
Mary was a survivor. This is her story.
Sarah Whitby
(Sir Charles Forbes 1837 to NSW, Louisa 1846 from NSW)
By Helen Ménard
Introduction
Various records suggest Sarah was born between 1784[1] and 1792.[2] She was probably born in Kings County, Ireland before moving to Dublin and having the first of her many children, possibly as young as 12. Sarah travelled under a number of aliases generally connected to the current ‘man in her life’ and, in most cases, they were also her partners in crime. Her will in 1859 suggested her family name might have been Lynch but there are no verifiable records of her birth under that name.
Sarah’s transportation records stated that she had no previous criminal convictions but her own evidence in court in Dublin in 1834 testified otherwise. On transportation, Sarah stated her trade as a midwife but there is little indication that this was her means of earning income. Given she allegedly had 24 children in about thirty years - spending at least two of those years in prison in Dublin - ran a thriving business as a ‘receiver of goods’ and frequently managed houses of ill repute, her opportunity to work as a midwife would seem to have been rather limited.
Inducted into a life of crime at an early age and eventually transported to the other side of the world for her transgressions, Sarah was either unable to or chose not to lead a different life. In the end, she died a few days after being released from prison and her life epitomised the maxim ‘live by the sword and die by the sword’.
EMMA WELLS (Tasmania, 1844)
by Don Bradmore
At the time of her conviction in England, Emma Wells, twenty-eight years old and single, was employed as the ‘friend and travelling companion’ of Mrs. Ann Elizabeth Earnshaw, a woman of independent means, almost ten years her senior.[1] In April 1844, both were found guilty of shoplifting and sentenced to seven years’ transportation. They arrived together in Van Diemen’s Land (VDL) aboard Tasmania in December 1844. Of the two, Mrs. Earnshaw had more difficulty in adapting to their new circumstances. She was gaoled twice for new offences in the colony and, within five years of her arrival, had passed away. Emma, on the other hand, managed to serve out her time without being charged with any new offence. In 1849, she married forty-five-year-old Edward Desmond, a former convict, who was working as a police constable at that time. A couple of years later, however, she was convicted in the Supreme Court, Launceston, of the theft from a shop of a roll of fabric and was imprisoned for eighteen months. Soon after her release, the marriage, which had been troubled from the start, disintegrated completely and she and her husband separated. There were no children. What happened to Emma after that remains a mystery. Did she remarry? Did she leave the colony? Frustratingly, there are no answers to these questions yet.
This is Emma’s story:
Introduction
Elizabeth was born in Birmingham, England in 1825 and the fourth of eight children to Elizabeth (Stretton, 1796-) and Joseph Village (1796-1836).[1] Why or when she adopted the name Woodcock is unknown. It also appears than none of her surviving siblings followed her path into crime and transportation.[2] What happened in Elizabeth’s life that set her on a convict voyage to the other side of the world? Did the death of her father when she was only 11 years old impact on her life? As a teenager she had one previous conviction for theft and, by the time she was 21, her second conviction landed her a sentence of 7 years’ transportation to Van Diemen’s Land (VDL).[3]
Yet, even though she had five children of her own, ultimately, she would be separated from all of them and not only isolated from her family network in England but also her family in Australia. Was she the architect of her own misfortune? Why did she return to the UK and depart again for Victoria a few years later leaving her two eldest children behind? Why, once back in Australia, when her new family moved from Victoria to NSW, did she return to Tasmania alone?
