Pioneering Australian MatriarchFrom the age of 10yo, Mary spent her days sweeping the streets of London as a means of begging. Young Mary was one of a large family of a single mother living in poverty. With another child - said to be 14yo - Mary stole the clothes off a small 8yo girl and pawned them. However, young Mary was turned in by yet another child; she was arrested, and brought before the court. Both young girls were condemned to be hanged. Mary spent 93 days in the notorious Newgate Prison till her sentence was commuted to transportation for life, to Australia. Mary was transferred to the ship the "Lady Juliana" of the Second Fleet.
Mary arrived in Australia barely 11yo (c.1789) - the voyage from England to Australia took 11 months. It was not an unusual practice for the officers aboard to take a mistress from the female convicts for the duration of the voyage. Once in the colony, most female convicts were assigned to free-men - ostensibly as house servants. There was no record of who was Mary's master, nor was there any record as to who the father of her first two children was. The first child was born on Norfolk Island before her 15th birthday (c.1793), the other was born two years later (c.1795).
Mary was taken from Norfolk Island to Sydney. Here she lived in a tent, where she gave birth to a third child by a emancipated Irish transportee, Teague Harrigan - who joined a whaling expedition three years later. After this Mary married, and lived with her husband Jonathon Brooker near the Hawkesbury River (1809). It was here that Mary raised her family which numbered 21 children, seven of which lived to have their own children.
When Mary became emancipated, she and her family moved and established a farm at Airds, in Campbelltown, New South Wales. Mary and her husband owned 30 acres (1822) until bushfires destroyed their property (1823) - and Jon's livelihood (he was a carpenter by trade and his tools were all destroyed). The family was destitute. But they recovered. Mary (50s) and Jon (68yo) went on to own 62 acres in Illawarra (1828). Here Mary lived till Jon's death (1833), and then her own death (1859). Mary's funeral service was the very first to be held in St Paul's Church of England church, Fairy Meadow - her son donated the land on which the church was built.
24 comments:
Hi could I find out where this photo came from thanks
Marys great great great grand daughter
Irene
Really because I'm her great great great great grand daughter found out threw the family tree ha!
hey we are matilda and mackenzie and we are marys great great great great great great grandaughters
Well you know she has, like, tens of thousands of descendants so...
Everyone attributes the "first two chldren" (1793, 1795) to this Mary Wade. How do we know they weren't the children of Mary Wade per Lady Penryhn who was also a convict at Norfolk Island at the same time?
Hi on another website it said that Mary had 21 children in the end not 3 so are you right or the ather website I don't know who to trust
Is this definitely a picture of Mary Wade? Do you have a JPEG you could send to me for a history story for the Southwark NEws? My email is amelia@southwarknews.co.uk Thank you
I would also like to use a jpeg for a book from the National archives if any one has a printable one please hallvictoria@hotmail.com
There is absolutely no way this is a picture of her. The very, very earliest photographs weren’t around until the late 1820s – in *Paris*, not a convict settlement on the other side of the world. This woman’s clothing and hairstyle are decades later than that. And if this was Mary photographed in the 1850s, then she would have been an old woman.
And - quite honestly - I'm a bit worried that the people who want a copy of the picture for various books know so little about history they could even entertain the fact it was her.
Maybe do a bit more research (other than Google Images!) before setting out to write something with historical themes.
I am a direct descendant of Mary Wade and have been researching her for over 10 years and thus I believe I am correct in pointing out a couple of errors (apart from the obvious error with the photo). Mary was actually 13 when she was convicted and she arrived in Australia as a 14 yo. She (and her mother) lied about her age during the trial in an attempt to avoid the death penalty. The Westminster Baptism records show the birth of a Mary Wade in December 1775 and her baptism in January 1776. There's also no proof she had 21 children - I can only find 9. A claim made by her husband, Jonathan Brooker, to the colonial secretary for help after a fire in 1823 refers to there being only 7 children (2 having died in infancy).
Hi all
I'm looking to speak to descendants of Mary Wade for a piece for Daily Mail Australia.
If anyone would be interested in speaking to me please email me at lucy.gray@mailonline.co.uk
Many thanks
Lucy
I have an original pic of her son Edward 1803-1891 if somebody needs a copy.
the photo is of sarah wade, Mary's daughter
the photo is of sarah wade, Mary's daughter
In response to Anonymous who asked 'Everyone attributes the "first two chldren" (1793, 1795) to this Mary Wade. How do we know they weren't the children of Mary Wade per Lady Penryhn who was also a convict at Norfolk Island at the same time?'
In the case of Sarah Wade (the first born), we know she is connected to Mary Wade from the Lady Juliana because when she died in 1887 the Australian Death Index named her father as Jonathan Brooker (although her real father was Teague/Thady Harrigan/Horgan). The same is true of Mary's 3rd child William who was also born on Norfolk Island. As far as the 2nd child Edward is concerned, Mary had 3 sons named Edward. Each time she bore a male child following the death of the earlier Edward, she named that new-born son Edward and this continued after she and Jonathan Brooker left Norfolk Island.
Does anybody know names of Marys parents
Her parents were Lawrence Wade and Mary Smith
My maiden name is angel and mary wades daughter married henry angel. My father was eric norman angel and died 1963 buried at rookwood sydney. I am interested in finding out pre mary wade england. My family has a copy of from mary wade to us ut unfortunately stopped just before our family.
Hey uhh what age is she in the picture?
There is a news article that you can find on TROVE of her death that states '21' children. But even doing a timeline of births and take in the environmental factors of Sydney during a certain timeframe - time of drought. There is no possible way Mary had 21 children, as there would have had to have been multiple twins and triplets to make 21.
The number 21 comes from how many years she was 'pregnant' from 1st to last birth. She had children for 21 years. A reporter of some male ?? may have thought if she was having children for 21 years... then it could be assumed that there were 21 births, since it only takes 9 months for a pregnancies.
If you feel the need to check this data... start with a timeline to include all known births and children...
I am also a direct descendant on the angel line maybe great great great and i am very interested in your accuracies and would like more
Not 21 children- that error came from a mis-reading of Mary's death certificate. It states "7 children living /4-dead" This last part is often misread as "14 dead".
The newspaper obit article has been quoted many times and hence the belief of 21 children. Without access to death certificate most believe in the article. It was even used in the ABC doco about the ship.
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