Mary Kelly

74

iain Frazier on 1st October 2025

Family connections for Mary (Kelly) may be: SILK/KELLY Mary/ia (Silk/Kelly) was born about 1770. [Noted a Mary (Kelly) was born about 1765. She became a school mistress. She was tried at Mullingar co. Westmeath Ireland in March 1815, sentenced to 7years & arrived in NSW on 4 4 1816 after a voyage of 6months on ALEXANDER (apparantly too ill to be placed in service); she was sent to Hobart Town Van Diemens Land (Tasmania) on KANGAROO arriving in April 1816. She is recorded in Ref:'People...' as with Andrew (Redding/Reading/Readdon/Readin a second relationship)-whom she seems to have later married-& a child on Norfolk Island. She married Andrew (Redding his second marriage) on 27 3 1820 at St Davids CofE Hobart. She is recorded as Mary (Kelly now Reading) at Buckingham district (Tasmania) in 1821. She was Free by Servitude by 1822.] [These details taken from this Website] Andrew (Redding/Reading/Readdon/Readin) was born about 1745/51. He was tried at Maidstone Kent on 19 3 1787, sentenced to 7years & arrived in NSW as a convict on 9 7 1791 after a voyage of 8.5months on Fleet ship MATILDA; he was sent to Norfolk Island in August 1791 on MARY ANN. He had a first relationship with Ann (Garland). He had 10acres of land, 6 under cultivation by 1805 & was recorded in February 1805 as settler landowner. He is recorded in August 1807 on 10acres off stores with daughter Ann. He had 10acres on Norfolk Island when he left with daughter Ann on 25 12 1807 as part of the first evacuation (for which volunteers apparantly had been called with appropriate compensation offerred & for which he may have tried to decline as some successful farmers were asked to stay) on HMS PORPOISE to Derwent Tasmania, arriving on 17 1 1808; to a grant at Queensborough/Sandy Bay where he had 17acres by 1809. He was granted 25acres at Queenborough/Sandy Bay in September 1813 (which was put up for sale in 1822-but not sold). He was granted 25acres at Sandy Bay Creek Argyle Hobart on 30 6 1828, which he sold in September 1829. In July 1830 he gave the 25acre Sandy Bay farm to his daughter Elizabeth & her husband, who were obliged to support him. He died in May 1833 age88 father of 4children. Andrew (Redding) does not have an entry on this Website as yet; added by me. 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. Irene Schaffer & Thelma McKay 'Exiled Three Times Over! Profiles of Norfolk Islanders Exiled in Van Diemens Land 1807-1813' James Hugh Donohoe 'Norfolk Island 1788-1813-The People and Their Families' Reg Wright 'Forgotten Generation of Norfolk Island & Van Diemens Land'

218

Dianne Jones on 15th June 2022

SCHOOLMISTRESS: Mary Kelly was also one of only 29 female convicts sent to VDL who said they were schoolmistresses or governesses. Ten of those women were the subject of a study by Don Bradmore whose paper, “Convict schoolmistresses in Van Diemen’s Land”, was presented in November 2015 in Hobart at the Female Convicts Research Centre seminar, “What the convicts brought with them – and what they left behind” (see https://www.femaleconvicts.org.au/docs/seminars/DonBradmore-Nov2015.pdf). About Mary Kelly (2015, p2) he writes: "Although very little is known about her life in the colony, it is thought unlikely that she taught in schools there. She was 53 years of age when she arrived in 1816." --0--

218

Dianne Jones on 15th June 2022

MORE ABOUT MARY KELLY: 10 April, 1816: Mary Kelly was one of 60 female convicts who had arrived in NSW per Alexander only to be forwarded to VDL, per the brig Kangaroo, arriving on the Derwent in 1816 (https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON13-1-1$init=CON13-1-1p55). Mary was #54 on the manifest and her occupation, previously given as servant on the Alexander's records, was listed as school mistress. The writing in this document is quite faint, but it appears that Mary was deemed too ill to go into service. She had been sentenced to 7 years' transportation, and this document says her trial was in April 1814 at Mullingar in County Westmeath. This is at odds with the records for the Alexander that give her trial date as March 1815. The Kangaroo's manifest also notes that Mary Kelly received her freedom in 1823. It's much more informative than her VDL Conduct Record. It merely lists her as #10, arriving per Alexander 1816 and Kangaroo 1816, to serve 7 years, having been convicted at Mullingar in 1814 (https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON40-1-5$init=CON40-1-5p229). --0--

341

Maureen Withey on 1st July 2020

Irish Convict Database, by Peter Mayberry. Mary Kelly, per Alexander II, 1816, age on arrival, 51, Tried at Westmeath Co., 1815, 7 years, servant, DOB 1765. ---------------------------------------------------- PUBLIC NOTICE. THE undermentioned Persons have obtained Certificates of Freedom during the last Week, viz.— Alexander (Brig), Mary Kelly. Sydney Gazette, 22 Nov 1823.