Beth - The Story of a Child Convict, is an incredibly moving tale inspired by the experiences of Elizabeth Hayward, the youngest female convict on the First Fleet and the journals of naval officer William Bradley and Arthur Bowes Smyth, the surgeon and artist also onboard.
was the youngest female convict, at 13, on the First Fleet.
Hudson, John (c.
Recaptured, he was sent to the Dunkirk hulk in June 1784. He was discharged to the Friendship in March 1787 and arrived in Sydney in January 1788 as part of the First Fleet. Hudson was probably the youngest male convict (when sentenced) to be sent to New South Wales.
While today's children are thinking about Sugar Plum fairies and Santa Claus, the thoughts of ten year old Mary Wade must have been vastly different. At Christmastime in 1789, Mary was the youngest convict aboard a ship bound for Australia: one of two hundred and fifty or so women, half way to a strange land.
After 93 nights in the Newgate Prison Mary set sail for Australia. King George III was declared mad. As a result, many waiting to be executed were instead bound for transportation to the penal colony of Australia. At 10 years old, Mary took voyage, the youngest ever convict, aboard the Lady Juliana.
Mary Wade
The youngest ever convict to be transported to Australia at the age of 11. Her hideous crime was that she stole another girls clothes and for that she was sentenced to death by hanging.
It is estimated there were about 50 children on the First Fleet when it arrived at Botany Bay. Over 20 children were born at sea during the eight-month voyage.
John Hudson, a thirteen-year-old boy, was the youngest convict on the First Fleet. He had been sentenced to transportation, aged just nine, for breaking and entering.
Dorothy Handland is claimed to be the oldest female convict to have sailed on the First Fleet and one of the most colourful. Arthur Bowes Smyth estimated Dorothy be 82 years old, but in Newgate Prison she was recorded as 60; another entry has her as 62, which is most likely correct.
Mary Wade (17 December 1775 – 17 December 1859) was a British teenager and convict who was transported to Australia when she was 13 years old. She was the youngest convict aboard Lady Juliana, part of the Second Fleet. Her family grew to include five generations and over 300 descendants in her own lifetime.
It's estimated that 164,000 convicts were shipped to Australia between 1788 and 1868 under the British government's new Transportation Act — a humane alternative to the death penalty. Approximately 25,000 of these convicts were women, charged with petty crimes such as stealing bread.
The Survey Motor Launch HMAS Shepparton (II) assumed the mantle of 'First Lady of the Fleet' upon the decommissioning of her sister ship HMAS Paluma (IV) on 18 September 2021.
Clothing in the Female Factories
Documents from the time tell us that these convicts were given: petticoats, jackets, aprons, shifts (smocks), caps, handkerchiefs, stockings, shoes and straw bonnets. They'd be made from cheap, coarse material.
During the second period, from 1814 to 1842, just over 5400 female convicts arrived. In 1840, the number increased significantly when transportation to New South Wales ceased, and all female convicts were shipped to Van Diemen's Land.
The First Fleet was the expedition that established the first permanent European colony on the continent of Australia. A British naval officer named Arthur Phillip led the expedition and served as the first governor of the colony.
The First Fleet was comprised of 11 ships. The ships were carrying convict transports, officers, free people, and supplies for the future penal colony in Australia. There were about 1,000-1,500 convicts on board who had been accused of many different crimes.
The First Fleet's 11 ships comprised two Royal Navy escort ships, the HMS Sirius and HMS Supply, six convict transports, the Alexander, Charlotte, Friendship, Lady Penrhyn, Prince of Wales and the Scarborough, and three store ships, the Borrowdale, Fishburn and Golden Grove.
Seebaer van Nieuwelant (born 27 July 1623), son of Willemtgen and Willem Janszoon, was born south of Dirk Hartog Island, in present-day Western Australia. His father, not to be confused with the earlier Dutch explorer of the same name, was a midshipman from Amsterdam.
The chief surgeon for the First Fleet, John White, reported a total of 48 deaths and 28 births during the voyage. The deaths during the voyage included one marine, one marine's wife, one marine's child, 36 male convicts, four female convicts, and five children of convicts.
Under the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, for the purposes of determining the obligations under the convention, a birth on a ship or aircraft in international waters or airspace shall be treated as a birth in the country of the ship or aircraft's registration.
Samuel Terry (c. 1776 – 22 February 1838) was deported as a criminal to Australia, where he became a wealthy landowner, merchant and philanthropist. His extreme wealth made him by far the richest man in the colony with wealth rivaling that of England.
Child convicts
Children as young as 9 years were transported to Australia as convicts. 20% of the transported convicts were under 20 years. The age given on records is usually the only way to tell if a convict was a child.
Dorothy Handland (c. 1720- ), who, by 1786, was separated from her second husband and worked as 'an old clothes woman' (dealer), was estimated by Surgeon Bowes to be aged 82, and was recorded at Newgate Gaol as 60, was found guilty on 22 February 1786 at the Old Bailey, London, of perjury.
Floggings were given to both men and women, although the flogging of women was stopped by British law in 1791. There are few records of head shaving as punishment for women until the 1820s. Women saw it as personally degrading and humiliating.