The Convict Connection: From Chains to Legacy
The Convict Connection: From Chains to Legacy Foundations: The Convict Era Chapter 1 – Mary Turner (Wilks): A First Fleet Woman In the spring of 1785, nineteen-year-old Mary Turner stood trial in Worcestershire for theft. Convicted and sentenced to seven years’ transportation, she was torn from her homeland and thrust into the unknown. Two years later, she boarded the Lady Penrhyn , one of the eleven ships of the First Fleet. The voyage was brutal — cramped quarters, disease, and meagre rations — yet Mary survived, arriving at Sydney Cove in January 1788. Transferred to Norfolk Island in 1790, she endured isolation and hardship, returning to Port Jackson in 1793. In 1794, she began a relationship with David Batty, a Third Fleet convict. Together they had four children, though tragedy struck with the death of their infant son Richard. Mary herself died in 1808, buried in the Old Sydney Burial Ground. Her resilience embodies the First Fleet women — ordinary people tran...