Ann Balfour, aged 25, was the unmarried mother of 5 children, all of whom - so she claimed - had the same father (John Arnie). The youngest child - an infant aged 9 months - was with her on the voyage to Van Diemens Land. Ann came from Fife and had worked as a country servant: she said she could cook, milk and make butter. The initial notes in her VDL convict record describe her as ‘habite and repute a thief’ and as having been ’on the town’ for 3 or 4 years. Her record also states she was ‘often in Bridewell, 66 days & 20 days for disorderly conduct’.

In 1835, Aberdeen was a bustling maritime city which attracted visiting business men, wealthy merchants, sailors and those arriving from the countryside looking for work.
By July 1829, the streets of Aberdeen were so crowded that newspaper reports suggested that people pass each other on the left. As police sought to keep the streets clear for the respectable classes of the North East, handcarts were introduced in 1830 to clear drunks away [1].

Ann was among those who had moved to Aberdeen from the country, and lived in Drum Lane in a district known as The Vennel, accessed from Gallowgate - a long winding street in the centre of the old town. The evidence presented at her trial has been added to the female convicts database [2].

Image 1: Gallowgate house with lane entry

Image 2: ‘Leading him on’ Prostitute on Stairs

Ann and two accomplices were found guilty in April 1835 of stealing £44-0-0 from a gentleman’s pocket book. Their victim Jachinn Illingworth (‘late coachman and coach proprietor’) had just been to the theatre and was walking home late in the evening when he encountered Ann and another woman Margaret Forbes. The women convinced Illingworth to come with them to have a drink in their house, which turned out to be a brothel. Thanks to the very extensive trial notes, every detail of the evening’s activities and the movements of key witnesses in the days before and after the event are known. Ann and Illingworth agreed that he would have a drink with her and then lay down with her. When he felt his pocket and realised the pocketbook was missing, Illingworth shouted that he had been robbed and ran into the street to summon the watchmen. When they arrived, Ann invited them to search the bed and the pocket book was found under the bedding. She told the watchmen that Illingworth had removed his coat and waistcoat and that she had not seen the pocketbook. However, other witnesses agreed with Illingworth’s assertion that the pocket book was always kept in a buttoned inside pocket and that due to a shoulder injury, he was unable to remove either coat or waistcoat unassisted.

’Precognition’ statements were gathered from all the residents of the house, others who had visited on the evening in question, the watchmen, the new owner of Illingworth’s coaching business, a bank clerk who was able to attest to having issued a specific number of new notes to Illingworth … and from women who had been held in the same cell as Ann and Margaret between their arrest and trial, who claimed the women had shared details of the theft. Most of the money was subsequently recovered from Margaret’s mother, the legal occupant (lessee) of ‘the House’. Ann’s accomplices received prison terms, but having a prior conviction meant she was sentenced to seven years’ transportation.

Ann arrived in Hobart Town on the Hector, on 20 October 1835. Surgeon Superintendent Morgan Price reported that considering the

…unusual length of the voyage and the very indifferent manner the Prison and between decks was ventilated, it is rather extraordinary that no illness of any consequence appeared on board….and on arrival, all the prisoners, free women and children were landed in a clean and healthy state[3].

He also remarked that a majority of the 74 Scottish women on board had ‘suffered severely from a very tedious voyage from Scotland in a small sloop’ Ann was described as being 5’ 3.5” tall, with grey eyes, brown hair, a contracted little finger on the left hand, and a small scar at the outer corner of her left eye [4].

Ann was apparently not assigned immediately on arrival, probably because her baby had not been weaned. The December 1835 muster records her living at the Cascades Female Factory. Her child is not recorded in the register of infant deaths at the convict nurseries but is also not recorded in subsequent years as entering the Orphan Schools. The mortality rate at the convict nurseries was as high as 40% and the officials responsible for registering births and deaths in the nurseries were ‘notoriously lax in their duties’ [5].

Between March 1836 and November 1838 Ann was assigned to a master named McDougall. She was found guilty of six misdemeanours during this time. On the first five occasions she was either reprimanded or served the magistrate’s penalty before being returned to the same master. These events are noted on her Conduct Record [6].

March 23 1836 : Absent from her service without leave & being found on the streets at 9 o’clock at night : Cell on Bread & Water 2 days
April 12 1836 : Allowing 2 men to be in her master’s house and having spirits with them : Reprimanded
May 25, 1836 : Refusal to accompany her master to church : Crime Class - 1 month to be worked at the wash tub
July 23 1836 : Disobedience of orders, drunkenness & insolence & absenting herself without leave : Crime Class 3 months. First 6 weeks in the solitary working cells
August 16 1838 : Out after hours Drunk & disorderly : 3 days cell on B&W

Image 4: Women at the washtubs, Simon Barnard

On November 4 1838 she was found guilty of being, ‘Drunk & making use of bad language - returned to H of C being pregnant’. By this time, the Convict Nursery had moved - following considerable public outcry about the conditions at Cascades - from the Factory to a house in Liverpool Street, opposite the Colonial Hospital. It seems likely that if Ann’s child was born alive, he/ she died within a few months - although again there is no record of the death. In general, convict mothers were permitted to stay with their infants until they were weaned at around 9 months, following which the mother had to serve a 6 month sentence in Crime Class (for the crime of delivering an illegitimate child).

By early October 1839 Ann was assigned to Haig - but not for long! On 11 October, the Gazette listed her as having been apprehended - on the same day that Grace Heinbury (see previous blog post) was named as having absconded from Captain Haig. [7]

For this misdemeanour, Ann’s sentence was extended 3 months, and she was detained at Cascades for 6 weeks. By 26 November she had gone AWOL from another master, but after a reprimand was returned to him. By late December she had been reassigned and when she again chose to leave her master, she earned a 12 month extension of her sentence, and before being re-assigned 4 months were to be served in hard labour at Cascades.

Following this punishment, Ann was assigned to a Mr Johns and after 2 months, decided once again to abscond. On June 29 she was sentenced to 6 weeks at the washtub and was then to be assigned ‘out of town’. Her conduct record gives no evidence of where and to whom she might have been assigned, but by July 1841 she was back in Hobart Town - at Government House! All we know of her time there is that she had to leave after being found ‘drunk, with 2 bottles of rum in her possession’. After another 3 months at the washtubs, she was again assigned ‘out of town’ - to Mr Fenton of Allanvale (near Gretna in the Derwent Valley) where she remained until at least the Muster of 31 December.

Image 5: T. E. Chapman, From the Old Wharf, Hobarton V.D.L .

Ann’s whereabouts for most of the following 18 months are unknown, but it would seem her next master was once again in the vicinity of Hobart. She gave birth to an un-named boy in Hobart on 9 December 1842 [8], and was declared Free by Servitude on 28 July 1843. For those seven months Ann and the baby would have been housed at Dynnyrne House - to which the Convict Nursery had moved during 1842. Both Ann and her son then disappear from the records, but her life story up to that time amply demonstrates her ability to make the most of every opportunity. We would love to hear from anyone who believes they know any more of Ann’s story.

Image 6: Dynnyrne House (Convict Nursery)

References

Image 1. http://www.mcjazz.f2s.com/Gallowgate.htm

Image 2. ‘Leading him on’ Prostitute on Stairs. Image from Prostitution and Life of Hookers in Victorian Society, Naman Dhanju https://medium.com/@namandhanju/prostitution-and-life-of-hookers-in-victorian-society-de7b5d323071

Image 3. Newborn, A - Z of Convicts in Van Diemen’s Land, Simon Barnard.

Image 4. Women at the washtubs, A - Z of Convicts in Van Diemen’s Land, Simon Barnard.

Image 5. From the Old Wharf, Hobarton V.D.L https://stors.tas.gov.au/AUTAS001142927789, T. E. Chapman. With permission TAHO

Image 6. Dynnyrne House (Convict Nursery), https://stors.tas.gov.au/PH30-1-5134. With permission TAHO

Images from Simon Barnard’s book A - Z of Convicts in Van Diemen’s Land used with permission of the author

The Crime of Pregnancy