Mary Wade: The Littlest Convict

While today’s youngsters are excited about Sugar Plum fairies and Santa Claus, the thoughts of ten year outdated Mary Wade should have been vastly completely different. At Christmastime in 1789, Mary was the youngest convict aboard a ship sure for Australia: one of 2 hundred and fifty or so girls, half method to a wierd land. Their feminine convict ship The Lady Juliana, part of the Second Fleet, had set sail from Portsmouth in July.

Months earlier Mary, (born in England in 1778), had been arrested and located guilty of stealing one other child’s garments. https://hillstohawkesbury.com.au/mary-wade-littlest-convict/ , commuted to transportation for all times, was bitter sweet. Mary had escaped the gallows however would by no means see her family once more. She spent the spring of 1789 in horrendous situations at Newgate Prison. Mary was one of fifty women fed bread and water in a cell that had neither beds nor bathrooms. However, as soon as aboard The Lady Juliana, her state of affairs improved. All convicts were moderately fed and given heat beds. Only 5 ladies and two youngsters died during the eleven month voyage and the situation of those who arrived in the colony in 1790, had improved.

To relieve the strain on Sydney Cove, Governor Phillip sent many new arrivals including 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 youngsters 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 but by no means returned.

By 1809, Mary had married and set up house near 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 until Harrigan’s demise in 1833. Twenty six years later in 1859, eighty year outdated Mary died at residence. She had given delivery to twenty one youngsters. In her lifetime, her family had grown to incorporate 5 generations and over 300 descendants. Now, Mary’s descendants quantity in the tens of thousands, including Kevin Rudd, former Prime Minister of Australia.

At Christmastime in 1789, ten year old convict Mary Wade was going through an unsure future. Today, she is recognized as certainly one of Australia’s founding moms.

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Pub: 06 Jul 2023 13:23 UTC
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