Ann Forbes

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Kate Laaksonen on 3rd November 2024

Anne was my 4x Great Grandmother

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iain Frazier on 14th October 2023

Family connections for Ann (Forbes) are: FORBES Ann (Forbes) daughter of John (Forbes) & Hannah (???) was born on 15 9 1771 at Stepney London & became a dressmaker. She was tried, while living at St Olave Southwood Surrey, for stealing w/1other, on 30 10 1786, material of James (Rollinson) at Surrey Kingston on Thames Assizes on 5 4 1787, was sentenced to death by hanging commuted to 7years, held at Newgate Prison & arrived in NSW as a convict on 22 1 1788 after a voyage of 9months on First Fleet ship PRINCE OF WALES. She had her first relationship (1of3) with George (Bannister) with whom she was sent to Norfolk Island on HMS SIRIUS, arriving on 17 3 1790-the date of its sinking on reef near Kingston Pier Slaughter Bay. She married secondly (2of3) William (Dring) on 5 11 1791 in group ceremony on Norfolk Island & produced 3children.>>> [Some information taken from this Website] William (Dring) son of William (Dring clerk of Customs) & Elizabeth (Harrison) was born on 9 4 1769 at South Shield Yorkshire & christened at Christ Church Spitalfields London. He became a tidesman in his fathers calling. He was tried for stealing w/2others bottles & clothes of Joseph (Mitchinson) & separately clothes of Morris (Wall) at York Kingston upon Hull Sessions on 7 10 1784, sentenced to 7years & arrived in NSW as a convict on 26 12 1788 after a voyage of 12months on First Fleet ship ALEXANDER. He was sent to Norfolk Island, arriving on 13 10 1788, on GOLDEN GROVE & worked on landing stores. He assisted in unloading the wreck HMS SIRIUS in March 1790, but in this & many other episodes displeased the soldier/police force-even with the support in his circumstances of Commandant (King). He was granted a small plot of land. He became a coxswain & encountered difficulties as clearly described on this Website concerning the soldiers & his wife. He left Norfolk Island on 6 11 1794 with his family on DAEDELUS. He may have died on 15 3 1845 age75 maybe lost at sea on WILLS WATCH. [Some information taken from this Website] .. >>>Ann (Forbes) was Free by Servitude by 1797 & had a third relationship with Thomas Jones (Huxley) & produced 11children. She was Free by Servitude by 1802. She died on 29 12 1851 age80 mother of perhaps 14children at Lower Portland & was buried at St Thomas CofE Sackville Reach. [Thomas (Huxley/Huckles/Uxley/Oxley/Ugly/Jones) maybe son of Uriah (Huxley/Huckles) & Mary (???) may have been born on 31 7 1768 in Middlesex. He may have become a farmer ploughman. Smee shows him as arrived in NSW as a convict in 1791 after a voyage of 6months on SALAMANDER & on Norfolk Island in September of that year where he became employed by Mr (Sindney). He left Norfolk Island in October 1796. He was Free by Servitude by 1802. In 1822 he passed 35acres at Paradise Point to his son Thomas. Information for Thomas (Huxley) can be gained from this Website. However, there seem to be 3 of the name convicted & 1only identified in NSW; doubts regarding the correctness of details of his crime/sentencing, property ownership use of the name (Jones) & life make identification of his real life difficult, but he certainly accumulated much property & a wheat grinding mill. He died on 4 7 1854 age85 at St Peters CofE Richmond. [A Thomas (Huckley) is recorded as arriving on Norfolk Island also in September 1791 & leaving on 28 5 1796.] .. [Reg Wright's 'Forgotten Generation of Norfolk Island & Van Diemens Land' also has information showing Jno (Huxley) who moved to Hobart possibly with a wife Martha (Huxley) & 2children] .. [Thomas (Huxley) is described in Ann (Forbes)s entry on this Website as being a buggy builder of Windsor & a coach builder in High St NSW.] References: Craig James Smee 'Births and Baptisms Marriages and Defacto Relationships Deaths and Burials New South Wales 1788-1830' ..a complete listing from church & other records in the early colony.

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Maureen Withey on 25th April 2020

National Archives. HO 47/6/71 1787 Certificate/memorial of Henry Gould and Alexander Thomson on several convicts attainted and for whom 'some favourable Circumstances' appeared after their trial and now recommended for mercy on the conditions set against their names: Surrey Assizes at Kingston, 2 April 1787 4. Ann Forbes and Lydia Monro, for stealing goods, value 20/-, from the shop of James Rolison. Recommendations: Forbes: 7 years transportation: Monro: 14 years transportation.

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Eric Broome on 8th May 2018

Ann Forbes was my 3 x great grandmother and Thomas Huxley, her last husband and also a convict, was my 3 x great grandfather . They are related to me on my maternal side. ANN FORBES (1771-1851) Ann’s story begins in London in the late 18th Century. Her parentage and lineage have not been established with any certainty, but a Christening of an Ann Forbes in September 1771 at Christchurch, Spitalfields in Stepney is just across the river from her residence and corresponds with her age given at the time of her trial. In April 1787 Ann Forbes appeared in court at Kingston-on-Thames, along with her co-accused, Lydia Munro, on a charge of stealing 10 yards of printed cotton valued at ?1 (pound). Both girls were found guilty and sentenced to hang and were left languishing in a London prison. At that time prisoners were being sought for the voyage to found the new colony in New South Wales and there was considerable concern about the lack of females assigned to take part in this voyage. Ann and Lydia were selected as two of the 183 females to make this first journey and accordingly their sentences were commuted to transportation - Lydia for 14 years and Ann for seven, implying Ann was the junior partner in the crime. Ann was assigned to the only all-female convict ship in the fleet - the “Prince of Wales”. She had survived the many threats to her health both in Newgate Prison and on the long sea voyage and again she was extremely fortunate not to lose her life even before the First Fleet entered Port Jackson. Arriving at their destination the ships had entered Botany Bay but it was decided Port Jackson was a more favourable site - and quote - “Captain Hunter made signals for the transports to get underway but the wind still blew as before and there was exceeding difficulty proceeding from the bay. There was a great fear when the Charlotte ran foul of the Prince of Wales and it was only by the greatest fortune and goodness of the Almighty that they did not find themselves up on the rocks with all hands lost.” As with all female convicts, Ann had no rights and no protection and probably in company with most female convicts, decided that she needed the protection of a “relationship”. Her first association was with George Bannister who had also been convicted of stealing and was transported aboard the “Charlotte”, his occupation listed as Sawyer. Ann and George had a daughter, Sarah, Christened on 15th November 1789. There are no further records of Sarah so she possibly died as an infant as she was not listed as a passenger when Ann was transferred to Norfolk Island in March 1790. Her next known association was some 3 years later with fellow convict William Dring who had been selected by Arthur Phillip to be one in the group previously sent to Norfolk Island aboard the “Golden Grove” in October 1788. About 6 days after Ann arrived on Norfolk Island the “Sirius” was wrecked. William Dring and another convict volunteered to swim out to the wreck to assist with the salvage - which they accomplished very well but then distinguished themselves by drinking too much of the rum they had found on board and accidentally set fire to the wreck. Dring spent 2 months in leg irons and was again punished for theft in 1791. It was recorded at this time by Lt Ralph Clark that Dring “was the greatest rascal living”. The next we hear of Ann is when she was married to William Dring in a mass ceremony conducted by the Rev Johnson in November 1791. Their first child was a daughter Ann. They had a second daughter Elizabeth in 1794 and a son Charles two years later. Perhaps his new family responsibilities motivated him to change his ways as Lt. Governor King described him in 1794 as a “well-behaved free man - of great use as a coxswain”. However his duties as a coxswain resulted in William’s absence on and off from Norfolk during which times he found a soldier by the name of Windsor “repeatedly connected” to his wife which resulted in Dring being fined for striking a soldier. The soldier’s anger at Dring was such that he was knocked down and beaten so much that he had not a feature that was not covered with blood. Two constables who were also settlers intervened and saved the coxswain’s life. Such behaviour by the soldiers towards other men’s wives (due to the severe imbalance in the sexes) obviously played a significant role in the Norfolk mutiny. Personal records from Norfolk are very scanty as many were lost during the many evacuations and we do not know much more of Ann and William there. They both returned to Sydney in November 1794 and their elder daughter Ann died in 1795. Both William and their son Charles disappeared from the records without explanation. It is suspected that they had either died or may have returned to England. Thomas (Jones) Huxley was transported in 1791 with the 3rd Fleet aboard the ‘Salamander’. Because of the desperate shortage of supplies in the colony, the Salamander didn’t land in Sydney Cove but was ordered directly to Norfolk Island where Thomas would have first set foot on Australian soil. We know nothing of what happened to Thomas while on Norfolk. However given the size of this settlement, it is likely that Thomas and Ann became acquainted during this period. Thomas didn’t return to Sydney until 2 years after Ann by which time he had served out his sentence and was granted land at Mulgrave Place (near Windsor) in 1798. Subsequently, in the 1806 muster Ann is recorded as housekeeper to Thomas Huxley and clearly Ann was more than his housekeeper as 5 children were listed with the surname Huxley at this time. In the 1821 census they are listed as being married and had had 10 children between 1798 and 1818. They later also farmed 70 acres at Paradise Point at the junction of the Hawkesbury and Colo River and Thomas apparently also held land in the Sutherland area. An interesting diversion from Ann’s story is that of the naming of Tom Uglys Bridge in Sydney. Although the bridge was named after Thomas it is no reflection of the poor man’s looks. The local aborigines had difficulty pronouncing the letter “x”, and in the course of time his name had locally developed by them into “Tom Ugly”. An article in the Windsor and Richmond Gazette of 21st July 1888 reported: “Yesterday we were shown a splendid double-seated piano-box buggy, with side bar carriage ...... made by Mr.T Huxley, the well-known buggy building of Windsor. The vehicle will probably be the first of its kind taken to Colo and it is a really first-lass specimen of workmanship.” The same paper later reported: “OLDEST CHURCH BELL - Mr. Thomas Huxley, coachbuilder, of High Street has on view in his workshop the oldest Church Bell in Australia. This bell was used in the first Anglican Church Parramatta upwards of 7 years ago..... it has a sweet sound and will be erected at Mr. Huxley’s workshop to warn his employees when to commence and when to leave off work.” From the 10 known surviving children of Ann Forbes there were at least 115 known grandchildren. In this regard she was one of the treasures of the new colony, bringing strong and healthy genes to pass onto future generations. Most convicts subsequently became law-abiding citizens and the records do not reveal any misdemeanours of Thomas and Ann’s children or their grandchildren - quite an achievement given the odds against them. Ann nearly, but not quite, took the honour of being the last of the First Fleeters to pass away. She died in 1851 at the age of 80 - but her colleague in crime back in London, Lydia Munro, who had settled in Tasmania, survived Ann by a further 5 years. Ann was buried in the St. Thomas (Church of England) graveyard at Sackville Reach on the Hawkesbury. (As an aside: the Library at Newcastle Uni is the Huxley Library.)

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Donna Walker on 15th February 2018

Ann was my 5th great Grandmother. Convicted of stealing fabric to the value of 20 shillings, she was sentenced to be hanged but it was changed to 7 years as a convict in Australia. She was last of the first fleet to die at age 80!! She had several children to 3 men and was part of the cause of an uprising on Norfolk Island. When the convicts were out working the police were fraternising with their wives. William Dring Anne's husband from the third fleet, protested against the police and changed the laws of the island so that the police were not to visit the ladies, which didn't stop the fraternising as the ladies would then arrange to meet the men elsewhere. I found so much about her on Ancestry.com I am happy to be contacted via Facebook as Donna Starr-Walker

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Leigh Ryan on 3rd June 2014

Ann FORBES, convict Place of Burial: Sackville Reach Birth: September 15, 1771 Stepney, London, England Death: December 29, 1851 (80) Lower Portland, NSW, Australia Immediate Family: Daughter of John Forbes and Hannah Forbes Wife of William DRING, convict and Thomas Huxley, convict Partner of George BANNISTER, convict Mother of Sarah Bannister; Ann DRING; Elizabeth Dring; Charles DRING; Jane Forbes Huxley ARNDELL; Charlotte Ellem; Thomas James Huxley; Ann Wall; James HUXLEY; Samuel HUXLEY; John Richard HUXLEY; Esther Huxley; Sophia HUXLEY; Sarah "Ann" Huxley; Ann Huxley and A A Huxley Ann Forbes was a convict on First Fleet. She had large family. Her complete genealogy is in 'Transported to Paradise: a genealogy of Ann Forbes ' by Douglas R. Huxley -------------------- Ann Forbes was tried at the Surrey Lent assizes which began at Kingston upon Thames on Monday, 2nd April, 1787, before Sir Henry Gould Knt and Sir Alexander Thomson Knt. She was tried on Thursday morning, 5th April, 1787. Ann Forbes together with Lydia Munro had been committed on 30th October, 1786. The charges read as follows: "That Ann Forbes late of the parish of Saint Olave within the borrough of Southward in the county of Surrey, ..spinster and Lydia Munro, late of the same.. spinster on the 28th October.. ten yards of printed cotton of the value of 20 shillings of the goods and chattels of James Rollinson in the shop of said James Rollinson .. feloniously did steal.." She was found "Guilty, no chattels, to be hanged, reprieved. To be transported for 7 years. Sent 30th April 1787." Transport Ship: "Prince of Wales".

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Jacquie Smith on 19th August 2013

Ann Forbes ..My 5th great grandmother .. She was tried at Kingston upon Thames, Surrey on 5 April 1787 for stealing material with a value of 20 shillings. She was sentenced to transportation for 7 years having been originally sentenced to death, and left England on the Prince of Wales aged about 16 to 19 at that time (May 1787).Ann was the last of the first fleet that came to Australia to die in 1851