ANN MARSH

Ann Mash or Marsh, born on July 16, 1767 in Buckland Brewer, Devon, UK., was the sixth of the seven children of John Marsh and Mary Andrew, a family of four sons and three daughters. Her mother, Mary Andrew, born March 17, 1731, was the daughter of John Andrew and Mary Morrice, both of whom were born in the early 1700's, and who married in Buckland Brewer on August 3, 1728. John Marsh and Mary Andrew were married, also in Buckland Brewer, on June 3, 1754.

With another young woman, Mary Edwards, Ann was charged at the Assizes held at the Castle of Exeter in Devon on March 16, 1789, with stealing a bushel of wheat, the property of William Welland. Ann was then about 21 years of age. While both women were found guilty, they received different sentences, Mary Edwards, believed to be married, being fined six shillings and given six months hard labour, while Ann, a single woman, was sentenced to seven years' "beyond the seas", to the infant colony known as Botany Bay, and in due course, joined the 229 other women and six of their children on the "Lady Juliana", a ten years old Whitby built ship of 401 tons burthen, which finally sailed from Plymouth on July 29, 1789. This was the first convict ship to arrive in New South Wales after the First Fleet, and was chartered by the East India Company to continue on to China for tea, leaving the colony on July 25, 1790. The voyage from England to Port Jackson took 309 days, and five of the women died before reaching their destination. Incidentally, of all the "crimes" of the female convicts of the Second Fleet, there was only one case of stolen wheat!! In our early colonial records, Ann is known by both "Mash" and "Marsh".

The government contractor, William Richards junior, employed Captain Aiken and his crew. Also on board was Lieutenant Thomas Edgar, R.N., who, as the Naval Agent, had to ensure that the terms of the contract were being fulfilled, and that the convicts were properly cared for. The ship's surgeon was one Richard Alley, who appears to have taken pains to see that the women were as comfortable as possible. Alley agreed to the women's request for some tea and sugar in lieu of part of their meat ration, and also suggested that they be given a supply of soap. Richards requested that government approval be given for one-quarter of a pound of tea, three pounds of brown sugar and four pounds of additional bread to be given three times a week to each mess of six women, and two pounds of soap per month. As some of the women were pregnant, a supply of child bed linen, flannel and other suitable items were also put on board.

Sadly, the logbook of the Lady Juliana has not survived, and we are indebted to a slim volume, published in 1822, for details of the Juliana's voyage and passengers. This was the autobiography of John Nicol, the Juliana's steward, and because of the passage of time between the years described and the book's publication, may possibly have contained some slips of memory or embroideries. Nonetheless, his reminiscences are colourful and interesting, and have been found to be reasonably accurate. Nicol asserted that " when we were fairly out to sea, every man on board took a wife from among the convicts, they nothing loath". Generally, women are realists, and they probably saw a willing acceptance better than a rape!

Ann's partner was no less than the kindly and thoughtful ship's surgeon, Richard Alley. He fathered a child by Ann Marsh, baptised Charlotte Maria Alley on June 5, 1791, some twelve months after the Juliana's arrival in Sydney Harbour, on June 3, 1790, (one day short of twelve months after leaving the Thames). Charlotte only lived a few days after her baptism, and Ann had to mourn her death alone, as Richard Alley had sailed to England in March, 1791. He returned to the colony in October, 1792, on the East India Company ship Royal Admiral, in the dual role of Naval Agent and Ship's Surgeon, but there is no record of his resuming his earlier role of Ann's partner and protector.

Ann - and all the single women in the colony - needed a protector, and she lived with John Irving/Irwin/Irvine, a First Fleet convict, who was the first convict to obtain an absolute pardon in 1790. John, tried in Lincoln in 1784 for stealing, and sentenced to seven years' transportation, came to the colony on the Lady Penrhyn as ship's surgeon, and had been to Norfolk Island with King, where his medical expertise was highly regarded . On his return to Sydney in 1792, Irving was appointed as assistant surgeon at Parramatta, and had 30 acres of land granted to him, roughly in the area known as Irving Street, Parramatta. John and Ann had a son, John Irving, born on January 17, 1796, some four months after John's death in September, 1795. The title to John's land went to Ann, his common law wife, and she held it until 1798, when she sold "Irving's Farm", as it was known, to one Richard Fitzgerald, who resold it in 1799 to William Wilkinson, and he in turn sold the farm in 1810 to George Palmer. Details of these transactions were obtained from the historical officer at the Lands Titles Office in Sydney - there were no registrations of these sales, as they appear to have been private transactions amongst the parties concerned.

A single woman with a young child, Ann desperately needed a protector, and in November, 1796, she married Robert Flannagan, an Irish convict, born circa 1767, tried at Armagh, and transported per Boddingtons in 1793, the NSW marriage registration being #1796/365/3A, St. John's Church, Parramatta. Two daughters were born to Ann and Robert, the latter absconding for the second time, but successfully on his second effort in mid-1798. Ann then lived with William Chapman, (per Pitt in 1792), and had six children to him. The two Flannagan children were known as Chapman, but John, Ann's son to John Irving, kept his father's name (see detail).

Apart from bearing this large family, from the 1790's Ann also managed a small goods and passenger boat service from Sydney to Parramatta, employing men to handle the boat, which probably had small sails supplemented by oars. She also assisted Chapman in various business activities - a bakery, a butchery and a general store, and after his death, from 1811 she held a wine and spirit licence for the King's Head Tavern, a replica of which has been built as part of Old Sydney Town. Ann was literate, and her firm and well-written signature exists on documents with the early Bank of New South Wales (which started trading in 1817). She had her share of good times and bad days, and two of the latter have been recorded.

On May 24, 1802, Ann Marsh was "convicted of selling spirits without a license on the Sabbath, and bribing a Constable to say she had only half-a-gallon in her house when she had eight gallons. Exclusive of the forfeiture of the spirits and the bribe of five pounds, she incurred the different Penalties amounting to twenty pounds sterling, which has been levied on her effects. This example, it is hoped, will deter others from incurring similar losses. It is the Governor's express Orders that no Spirits are even to be given by any person, or sold by any licensed person, upon the Sabbath", (Historical Records of Australia). On the same day, an amount of fifteen pounds was recorded by the Reverend Samuel Marsden as having been received from Mr Smith on account of Ann Marsh - presumably part of her fine.

The Sydney Gazette of May 8, 1803, mentions that..."yesterday afternoon, the Passage Boat belonging to Mrs. Ann Mash was brought to opposite the Magazine, for landing, contrary to General Orders, which specify that no boat shall land in any part of the harbour but at the Public Wharfs, (sic), and receiving on board 2 bags of sugar, 1 chest of tea and 6 pieces of calico; all which were ordered to be detained; but the boat to proceed in her usual employ till further orders".

A week later, the Gazette says: "The articles mentioned in our last week's paper to have been taken out of the passage boat and detained, were restored to the owners, upon a compensation being made to the owners for the trouble they had been at".

NOTICE

Ann Mash, licensed proprietor of a passage boat, particularly requests, that places and parcels may be paid for, agreeable to the rates of charge specified in His Excellency's General Order of 6th inst., before the boat quits the wharf either at Sydney or Parramatta.

Ann had a lucky escape from death in mid 1810. William Chapman inserted an account of her accident in the Sydney Gazette of June 2, 1810:- "A report having reached me that an accident which occurred to Mrs Chapman on Thursday morning last was occasioned by the mistake of one of the young men who dispenses medicine at the General Hospital; as I am ignorant of the source from whence the report could have arisen, and of the motives why it has been so industriously circulated, I feel myself called upon to give the following explanation to the public:- Mrs. C. being desirous to take salts, told her daughter to weigh one ounce from a paper containing a quantity which had been for some time in the house; but there being a paper of sugar of lead which I had for the purposer of adding paint to in order to expedite the drying of it, the girl unfortunately took the latter. It was dissolved and swallowed, when Mrs. C. discovered by the different taste that it was not salts which she had taken. Immediate application was made to the Gentlemen of the General Hospital, and I take this opportunity of expressing my gratitude for their exertions in the preservation of her life."

William Chapman died on June 15, 1810, leaving Ann with nine children under the age of fourteen years. All survived and did well for themselves in both the young colonies of New South Wales and New Zealand.

The Sydney Rocks Information Centre shows a letter written by Ann in 1811 to the governor's secretary, in which she pleads that, as a busy mother of 10 children, (yes, she had given birth to 10, but the eldest, Charlotte Alley, died shortly after birth, so this was a small and easily forgiven exaggeration!), she is finding it difficult to cope with all her work, and Ann pleads for a man from the next boat from Europe to be assigned to her. Two weeks after William Chapman's death, on June 30, 1810, an advertisement appeared in the Sydney Gazette:- "Taken from alongside the Edwin schooner, on the night of the 18th inst., a boat about 20 ft long and 7 ft. in the beam. Whosever shall give information whereby she may be recovered, will receive twenty shillings for their trouble from Mrs. Chapman, Kings Head, High Street, Sydney".

Her youngest child, James, had to be placed in the Sydney Orphan School for a while, with the note "father dead, mother poor". Ann was finding life tough going without her strong and able partner, William Chapman.

An adventurous and busy life came to an end when Ann died on March 7, 1823, her age given as 54 years. Her final resting place has not been identified, but oral family history says that her eldest son, John Irving, caused her to be buried with his father in the old St. John's graveyard in Parramatta. Her NSW death registration number is #1823/832/V8, St Phillips Church, Sydney.