Summary
Personal Information
Voyage
Transportation
Sarah Maccormack was transported on the Friendship, departing 13th May 1787 and arriving 21st Jan 1788 with 107 passengers.
This convict ship, being 274 tons and 75 feet long was one of the light weight ships in the fllet and was skippered by Master Francis Walton. Built in Scarborough in 1784, she carried 76 male and 21 female convicts. During her return voyage to England her crew came down with scurvy and with insufficient crew to man her, she was scuttled in the straights of Macassar. The survivors were transferred to the Alexander.
FriendshipReferences
| Primary Source | http://www.firstlanding.com.au |
Claims
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Convict Notes
Sarah stole two pieces of gold to the value of ten pence. Her surname was also variously spelled as Cormack and Mac Cormack. She was a single woman of Manchester and was one of only four Lancastrian women sent to a Hulk (the Dunkirk- the only hulk that held female prisoners) along with Elizabeth Thackery, Jane Parkinson and Isabella Oldfield before sailing. Despite only meaning to be on the hulk at Plymouth for a week or two, they were there over four months.They were put aboard ship on March 11th. Sarah, along with friend Elizabeth Thackery was recorded as being very troublesome onboard, sleeping with crew and was locked up as a punishment in a makeshift cell but was then released after becoming very ill. She was bled eight times by the ship surgeon and eventually recovered after initially being expected to die. She again fell seriously ill just weeks later (said to be the pox by Lieutenant Clarke- unproven) but recovered again. In the October of the voyage Sarah also announced she was pregnant. She was transferred to the ship Prince of Wales at the Cape of Good Hope. Eighteen months after arrival, and no further evidence of a pregnancy, Sarah received 25 lashes for abusive behaviour to a soldier and was sent to Norfolk Island. Sarah was sent back to Sydney in 1792 where she lived in a house as a servant and later a housekeeper. In 1806 she was living with John Bootle/Boodle as his housekeeper and in 1814 with a G.Atkins. Sarah didn't marry or have children and the 1816 muster records she died in 1815, aged about 49. I cannot find any death record to match this up.
Sarah Mac Cormack was tried at Manchester, Lancashire on 4 May 1786 for stealing pieces of gold with a value if 1 shilling. She was sentenced to transportation for 7 years and left England on the Friendship aged about 20 at that time (May 1787). On 15 August 1788 ordered to receive 25 lashes for abusive behaviour.