Mary Ann Whitlock love token (front)

Mary Ann Whitlock, 22, was tried and convicted at Norfolk, Norwich City Quarter Sessions, for stealing a purse, and was sentenced to 14 years’ transportation. She sailed for Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) on the Hydery, which left Plymouth on 2 April 1832. After a journey of 121 days, the ship arrived in Hobart. Whitlock had previously been convicted for vagrancy, and it was only a few weeks after her arrival that she started to face further problems with the authorities. On 27 March 1833 she was convicted of being ‘drunk 7 days solitary confinement on bread and water’, followed by numerous similar incidents over the next couple of years.

Whitlock married William John Brighten, a free settler, on 15 April 1835. Because she was still a convict, their marriage was by bans with the consent of the government. The marriage document shows a cross by her name. Marriage did not solve her problems — the gaol report for 1835 states ‘17th June 1835 Wife of W. Brighton … three months imprisonment Female House of Correction Launceston’. By 1842, her life had degenerated further, and she was convicted of ‘misconduct in having formed highly improper companionship and suspected of being accessory to a felony, ordered to be removed to Launceston and recommended that the ticket of leave promised in 1843 be withheld’. She was eventually granted a free certificate at age 36, having served her full term of 14 years.