Mary Wade Aged 10

Convict Transportation to Australia - Mary Wade Aged 10

Mary Wade: Sentenced to Hang – Aged 10.

Although today we are sadly accustomed to hearing of terrible crimes against children, we do not expect the law itself to threaten their lives. A judicial system in 21st Century Britain that would sentence a 10-year-old girl to death would be unthinkable. But this was not always the case.

Crime or Prank?

Ten year old Mary had been spending her time begging and sweeping the streets when, on 5 October 1788, an act of desperation or a momentary prank would change her life forever. Mary and her friend, Jane Whiting aged 13, physically assaulted another child, 8-year-old Mary Phillips, who had gone out to fill a bottle with water for her Mother, Jane Forward. Breaking her bottle, they took her into the ‘necessary’ (lavatories) and stripped her of her clothes. They told her to wait there while a friend went to get her another bottle. Mary and Jane then made off with her cotton frock, linen cap and her linen tippet (a strip of material worn around the shoulders and hanging down in front), immediately pawning the dress for 18 pence in Mr Wright’s Pawnbrokers shop in the Almonry. The items were valued at three shillings and four pence in total, and were the property of John Forward, Mary’s father.

Hard Times

The latter half of the 18th Century was a difficult time for children and adults alike. The population of Europe had doubled since 1450 and unemployment in Britain was increasing. Soldiers back from the Anglo-French wars were looking for jobs that did not exist. Many ended up begging on the streets and resorting to drink. Others took jobs traditionally performed by women, but this lead to an increase in the number of single, homeless and out-of-work women. A rise in prostitution, theft and petty crime were the inevitable result.

In order to raise enough money to eat it was not uncommon for people to rent rooms, sub-let the bed to someone slightly worse off than themselves, and then pawn all the furniture. Prisons were overflowing and the American Revolution meant that convicts could no longer be sent to the American colonies. These were the conditions under which Londoners George Wade, who worked as a drover, and his wife Mary English tried to raise their daughter; Mary Wade.

The Trial

It appears that Mary’s actions on this day were not an isolated incident. At the subsequent Old Bailey trial, a joint trial for both Mary and Jane, held on 14 January 1789, it was revealed that Mary Wade had previously stripped a child and ‘chucked her in the ditch’ although at that time she was too young to be prosecuted. Neither did she seem repentant over Mary Phillips, since Catherine McKillan, a witness at the trial, reported Mary as saying: ‘I was in a good mind to have chucked her down the necessary and I wish I had done so’.

Mary’s mother was told by the Lord Chief Barron that he hoped she would take better care of her other children, ‘or else they will all come to the gallows’. She blamed Jane Whiting for leading Mary astray. Baron then addressed the petty jury saying, ‘ the tender years of these persons may be a circumstance to be attended to in other views: but….I think it would be a dangerous thing to society …to lower the offence at all below the rank of actual robbery, …and not larceny.’ Mary was duly found guilty by the jury, and received the sentence applicable: Death by hanging.

Newgate Prison

Mary would have spent the spring of 1789 eating bread and water in a stinking Newgate Prison cell, surrounded by thieves, drunkards and prostitutes, as she awaited her fate. There were three female cells, each accommodating over 50 women. There were no beds or lavatories in the cells, but you could rent a blanket if you could afford one. The lack of food and hygiene meant that disease and illness quickly spread amongst the inmates.

Why was Mary sentenced to death for such a petty crime? The range of sentences available to the courts at the time was very narrow. Capital offences included rape, arson, and theft of items valued at more that 39 shillings. However, other aggravating circumstances could mean that stealing items valued at more than one shilling became capital crimes. The system, which had built up over many years, was completely inadequate when trying to sentence for differing and varied crimes. The Judges would often go through the motions of sentencing prisoners to death, knowing that at the end of the sessions they would submit a list of capital convicts to the Crown recommending mercy in the form of conditional pardons, usually ‘transportation to parts beyond the seas’. There being no court of appeal, the monarch held the royal prerogative of mercy, exercised in practise through the Home Secretary. In fact, between 1781 and 1790, 1188 people were sentenced to death at the Old Bailey, but only 501 were actually executed; 57.5% being pardoned.

Conditional Pardon

On 17 April 1789 the Recorder of London, James Adair, wrote to Lord Sydney the Home Secretary, enclosing a list of 26 female convicts all of whom he humbly recommended to his Majesty’s pardon. Mary Wade is number 21 on the list, and Adair recommends a pardon on condition she is transported for life. Jane Whiting is 22nd in the list, also recommended for transportation for life. He adds that ‘if the pardons are received in time sentence of transportation shall be passed upon them at the sessions which begins on Wednesday next; after which they may be sent off whenever it suits the convenience of Government.’ HO 47/9 f. 12-15.

It is at this point that James Adair could have used his discretion to recommend transportation for 7 or 14 years, or even perhaps a free pardon due to Mary’s age or circumstances, and there was a good chance that the Home Secretary would have rubber stamped it. But on that particular day Adair chose to seal Mary’s fate by banishing her from the Kingdom.

And so it was that , on Wednesday 22 April Mary and Jane were brought with 6 other women from the cells and put to the Bar, where the Recorder of London informed them that his Majesty’s pardon was granted to them on the following conditions, viz. ‘To be transported during the terms of their lives’.

Mary’s relief that she would not now be executed would have been short lived as she realised that she would never see her parents again. She was to sail to Port Jackson, New South Wales, on the Lady Juliana convict ship, one of the five ships that comprised only the second fleet to sail to the new land of Australia.

A New Life Begins

The Lady Juliana had been waiting in the Thames for 6 months for female convicts from prisons all over England. Those from the country gaols arrived in irons which had to be broken off by John Nicol, the ship’s Steward and Cooper by trade, since they were riveted, not locked. The ship finally sailed, after moving down to Portsmouth, on 29 July 1789, taking somewhere between 222 and 244 female convicts (exact figures differ depending on the sources used.)

Mary Wade, would have grown up fast on board the ship, and conditions were a vast improvement on the cells of Newgate. They had reasonable victuals, a warm bed, and some were given certain responsibilities, one being Shepherdess to the 73 sheep and 1 ram on board. The Captain, Robert Aitkin, allowed the women to wear their own clothes once they had left England, and in many respects the crew and the convicts worked as a team on their voyage together. Each member of the crew soon took a wife from the convicts, and rules on board appear to have been very relaxed.

Adventures

The year-long journey to New South Wales, 13000 miles away, would in itself have been an adventure for Mary. She would have learned more in those 12 months than she had done in her previous 11 years put together. She would have seen things in countries she had never heard of, nor could she have dreamed of living in the dirty streets of Westminster. Their first stop, a month after leaving Portsmouth was at Santa Cruz, Tenerife. They stocked up on provisions, and visitors were allowed on board. In fact one convict bought a cask of wine and loaded it on the ship with the permission of the government agent, Thomas Edgar. Some of the Jewish convicts on board obtained crucifixes and pretended to be Roman Catholics, receiving many presents from the islanders for the journey ahead as a result.

There were many characters on board the ship, and Mary would have witnessed many strange sites. One convict named Nance Farrel would deliberately misbehave in order to be locked up in the hold. The crew could not understand why, until the remains of a supply of liguor was discovered in the hold, and an alternative punishment had to be found. John Nicol was asked to cut holes in the sides and top of a barrel, and when Nance played up again, instead of confining her in the hold she was fitted into the barrel. At first she thought it great fun, wagging her head from side to side like a turtle, and capering about the deck, but after a few hours the novelty wore off. She could not sit or lie down, and Thomas Edger would only release her after she begged his pardon and promised to amend her ways in future.

Rio de Janeiro

The Lady Juliana spent 8 weeks at Rio de Janeiro taking on supplies of coffee and sugar, and allowing the convicts to benefit from the constant stream of visitors that made their way on board for female company. While they were there a number of babies were born to the women, and a birthing tent of sorts was strung up on the deck.

The Cape

The next leg of the journey was the 50-day trip across the Atlantic to Cape Town, Southern Africa. Mary would have stood on the deck as the majestic Table Mountain came into sight. More supplies were taken on board during their two-week stay, and at one point the ship caught fire when a carpenter knocked over a boiling pot of pitch. As the flames rose Mary and the other women shrieked and ran about the deck, but the fire was soon brought under control.

Whilst they rested at the Cape the crew discovered that the supply ship Guardian, which had been taking desperately needed provisions, and 25 convicts, to New South Wales, had hit an iceberg 1300 miles off the coast on Christmas Eve. Some of the crew had abandoned the Guardian in lifeboats, never to be seen again. The ship itself had managed to limp slowly and rudderless back to the Cape, where any stores that had not been jettisoned were transferred to the Lady Juliana for the rest of the journey. Interestingly, of the 20 surviving convicts from the Guardian that reached Australia, 14 of them received conditional pardons from the Governor of the colony for their good conduct.

A New Home

At last, on 3 June 1790, almost a year since she left England, Mary Wade now 11 years old, arrived with the other convicts within site of Sydney Cove, Port Jackson, New South Wales. Only 5 women and two children had died during the journey, and those that survived were in better shape than when they had left England. On 6 June they were towed into port, passed Bennelong Point, named after the first aboriginal to speak English, and the spot where Sydney Opera House would be opened 183 years later. The Lady Juliana docked at the foot of the Governor’s garden, his house being the only decent brick built building in the colony.

The colonists had been expecting the Guardian, a ship laden with food, tools and other supplies. What they got was a ship laden with ‘a cargo so unnecessary and unprofitable as two hundred and twenty two females’ as the mortified Judge Advocate Collins wrote to Lord Sydney. Nevertheless the women were a popular cargo amongst the men of the colony, and most were assigned to free men as house servants.

Norfolk Island

To relieve the pressure on Sydney Cove Governor Phillip decided that some convicts would be sent to Norfolk Island, a lush island (Captain Cook described it as ‘a Paradise’), but with a dangerous coral reef coastline. Mary Wade was among those that made the journey on board the Surprise in August 1789. It was here that Mary gave birth to her first daughter, Sarah Wade, in 1793. Mary was only 14 years old, and the father is thought to be Teague Harrigan, an Irish convict who arrived on the Salamander in August 1791.

They had a second child in 1795, William, and Mary is still shown to be with Teague in the 1800 Settlers Muster Book, living again in Sydney, this time in a tent. They had a third child together, Edward, before Teague finally left her to join a whaling ship in 1806.

Family Life

By 1809 Mary had set up home with Jonathan Brooker, a furniture maker from Bermondsey, transported for 7 years for theft, and who had arrived on the Atlantic in August 1791. They lived near the majestic Hawkesbury River, outside Sydney, an area today surrounded by National Parks and renowned for its natural beauty.

Mary is known to have had a total of 21 children, 7 of whom went on to have her grandchildren. She and Jonathan were emancipated c. 1812, and took ownership of a 30-acre farm in Airds, Campbelltown in 1822. A bush fire destroyed everything they owned the following year, but by 1828 they had recovered, owning 62 acres in Illawara where they lived happily until Jonathan’s death in 1833 aged 76. His gravestone can be seen in St Peter’s Church graveyard, Campbelltown.

Mary’s Resting Place

Finally, 26 years later at the age of 80, after having endured many hardships and adventures, Mary herself died on 17 December 1859. Her funeral was the first to be held in the local Church of England church, St. Paul’s Fairy Meadow, the land on which it stood having been donated by one of Mary’s sons. She was buried in the Old Church of England cemetery, which in 1940 was renamed Pioneer Rest Park, Wollongong.

Little did the Lord Chief Baron know that in sentencing Mary to death 70 years earlier, he was doing her the biggest favour she was ever to receive in her long and eventful life.

Bibliography:

• The Life and Adventours of John Nicol, Mariner, Ed. Tim Flannery (Cannongate Books Ltd, 2000)
• The Floating Brothel, Sian Rees (Headline, 2001)
• The Convict Ships, 1787-1868, Charles Bateson (Library of Australian History, 1988)
• The Crimes of the Lady Juliana Convicts – 1790, John Cobley (Library of Australian History, 1989)
• The Second Fleet Convicts, Ed. R J Ryan BA (Australian Documents Library, Sydney, 1982)

Original Documents

• Old Bailey Proceedings
• HO 47/9 – Judges reports on Criminals
• CO 202/5 - Letters from Secretary of State (despatches): commissions, instructions, etc
• CO 207/9 - Alphabetical list of convicts with particulars 1788-1825
• HO 10/2 - Settlers and Convicts Lists
• CO 201/4 - New South Wales Original Correspondence, Port Jackson
• HO 11/1- Convict Transportation Registers , Convicts transported
• 1800 Settlers Muster Book, (Ref: Safe 1/104-5, New South Wales, Parliamentary Library)

Categories: Transportation | Women's History