Female Convicts: Mary Bryant

Picture of Tasmania's First

Female Factory

Mary Bryant is remembered because her husband William Bryant, their two children (Charlotte and Emanuel) and herself escaped Australia and sailed to Coupang on Timor Island, but were eventually caught and sent back to London but on the way William, Charlotte and Emanuel all passed away and by the end Mary was discharged.

Mary Reibey is remembered because after she was discharged after seven years and became a respected business woman and one of the wealthiest people in Sydney at the time. She is now featured on the Australian $20 note.

Esther Abrahams is a significant female convict because while being on the ship to Australia she met Lieutenant George Johnston who she later married and had seven children with. She also became very wealthy - she and Lieutenant Johnston owned over 5,000 acres of land, including a farm that is now occupied by the inner city suburb of Annandale. After Bligh was disposed, George became the Lieutenant-Governor of the colony for six months, making Esther his 'First Lady'.

Female Convicts: Mary Bryant

Mary Bryant

Crime Detials:

In 1786, Mary Bryant was found guilty for assaulting a spinster and robbing her of a silk bonnet and was sentenced to death; but Mary's sentence was then changed to seven years of transportation and she was sent to the prison in Plymouth.

Profile:

Name: Mary Bryant

Age: 21 years of age (First arrested)

Place of Birth: Fowey, United Kingdom

Picture Of Mary Bryant

Facts:

• Her daughter Charlotte and Emanuel half siblings as Charlotte has a different father from Emanuel.

The daily life of female convicts

Bibliography

Locations and conditions of Female Convicts around Australia

The first Female Factory was built in Parramatta in 1804; at first it consisted of a single long room with a fireplace at one end of the building for the women to use to cook on. Women and girls made rope, span and carded wool. Their living quaters was very basic as they slept on the piles of wool that were used in their work. A three-storey female factory was built in 1821 and was mostly used to house the women who had committed local offences, convict women with children and young convict girls who were unsuitable for work. As time passed, the work done in the female factory became less difficult and needlework and laundry became the main duties. In later years, there was a Female Factory built in Hobart and women were either sent there from Sydney or directly from England.

Slide One: http://www.myplace.edu.au/decades_timeline/1820/decade_landing_18.html?tabRank=2&subTabRank=2

Slide Two: http://members.iinet.net.au/~perthdps/convicts/confem.html

Slide Three: Mary Bryant: https://heroinesofhistory.wikispaces.com/Mary+Bryant

Mary Reibey: Darlington, Robert, "Chapter 4.7 Convict Lives." History Alive 9 for the Australian Curriculum, John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd, 2012

Esther Abrahams: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/earshot/podcasts/esther-abrahams---convict-27first-lady27/6031166

Slide Four: Profile:

Crime Details: https://heroinesofhistory.wikispaces.com/Mary+Bryant

Other Facts:

Female Factory Picture: https://www.google.com.au/search?q=female+factory+tasmania&safe=strict&espv=2&biw=1366&bih=667&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiu6dqmgvTLAhWo6aYKHWr7A9sQ_AUIBigB#imgrc=9ohJW2i4mghMYM%3A

Mary Bryant Picture: https://www.google.com.au/search?q=mary+bryant&safe=strict&espv=2&biw=1366&bih=667&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi68t_DjfTLAhVJJ5QKHbrmAVIQ_AUIBigB#imgrc=9bQtWs5ac9FkZM%3A

During the 1820's, Female convicts were kept in places that were called 'female factories'. The factories were prisons and work places. Those who were in charge could own a domestic servant there, and it was also used as a free settler or a place for a pardoned convict to select a wife from among the female inmates. They were shelters for women convicts between work assignments or for women who were pregnant or ill. The conditions in the factories were terrible, with a lot of overcrowding and harsh treatment. The punishments included the immates hair being cut very short, being forced to wear iron collars, solitary confinement, smaller rations of food and water and hard physical labour. More than half of the 25,000 female convicts sent to Australia were placed in female factories in Tasmania. Some evidence of the factories are that if you were to dig up the site of the factories you'd find the floors of the rooms of different sections of the factory.

Significant female convicts