Mary Wade: The Littlest Convict

While https://hillstohawkesbury.com.au/mary-wade-littlest-convict/ are serious about Sugar Plum fairies and Santa Claus, the thoughts of ten 12 months outdated Mary Wade should have been vastly completely different. At Christmastime in 1789, Mary was the youngest convict aboard a ship bound for Australia: one of 200 and fifty or so women, half approach to a wierd land. Their feminine convict ship The Lady Juliana, a half of the Second Fleet, had set sail from Portsmouth in July.

Months earlier Mary, (born in England in 1778), had been arrested and found responsible of stealing another child’s garments. Her demise sentence, commuted to transportation for life, was bitter candy. Mary had escaped the gallows however would never see her household once more. She spent the spring of 1789 in horrendous situations at Newgate Prison. Mary was considered one of fifty ladies fed bread and water in a cell that had neither beds nor toilets. However, once aboard The Lady Juliana, her state of affairs improved. All convicts had been fairly fed and given heat beds. Only five women and two kids died during the eleven month voyage and the condition of those that arrived within the colony in 1790, had improved.

To relieve the strain on Sydney Cove, Governor Phillip sent many new arrivals together with Mary, to a place described by Captain Cook as, ‘a Paradise’ – Norfolk Island. There, at age fourteen, Mary gave start to a daughter. She had two extra children with emancipated Irish transportee, Teague Harrigan and by 1806, the family was living in a tent on the banks of the Tank stream in Sydney. Harrigan joined a whaling ship however by no means returned.

By 1809, Mary had married and set up residence close to the Hawkesbury River with convict Jonathan Brooker. Emancipated circa 1812, the pair took possession of a thirty acre farm in Airds, Campbelltown and lived happily till Harrigan’s dying in 1833. Twenty six years later in 1859, eighty yr outdated Mary died at home. She had given delivery to twenty one kids. In her lifetime, her family had grown to include five generations and over 300 descendants. Now, Mary’s descendants number in the tens of thousands, including Kevin Rudd, former Prime Minister of Australia.

At Christmastime in 1789, ten 12 months previous convict Mary Wade was dealing with an unsure future. Today, she is acknowledged as one of Australia’s founding moms.

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Pub: 06 Jul 2023 13:18 UTC
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