Margaret Allen (1752 - 1796)

Born 1752 in London, England

Died 1796 at about age 44 in New South Wales, Australia

Biography

Margaret Allen was a convict after the Third Fleet transported to New South Wales

Margaret was born in 1752 in London, England.^[1]

She married Thomas Allen in London.^[2] It is not known whether they had any children.

Margaret was a retailer of kitchenwares, particularly china and earthenware. She and her husband must have been reasonably stable financially as she employed a female servant, Sarah Jarvis. Margaret was described in 1791 as being 5'4" tall, brown hair, grey eyes and of fair complexion; an Englishwoman.

Margaret was convicted at the Old Bailey on 29th October 1791 of receiving stolen china and sentenced to transportation to New South Wales for 14 years. She pleaded innocence and called several character witnesses in her defence. It seems that the circumstantial evidence of her servant did irreparable damage as she testified that she had seen Margaret with a David Fright on two of three occasions (it always intrigues that a supposedly reliable witness can recall one fact perfectly but not the difference between two and three!). Fright had been found guilty of the theft of the china. Following imprisonment in Newgate Prison, she boarded the Bellona on 28th July 1792 with 16 other female convicts and sailed on August 1792 to the penal colony in the Southern Hemisphere. The voyage hit particularly poor weather most of the way with storms, lightning and heavy swells. The Bellona moored in Sydney Cove on 16th January 1793 and the convicts were rowed up the Parramatta River to the Female Factory the following day in the ship's pinnace.

Margaret passed away in 1796 in Sydney, New South Wales and was buried on 12th Deember 1796.^[3]

Sources

1. ↑ ascertained from age given on trial record
2. ↑ probably about 1775, but has not yet been located
3. ↑ New South Wales Death Index #1264/1796 V17961264 2A