Mary Offley

71

Robin Sharkey on 17th November 2025

MARY OFFLEY as the Ship Steward’s Girl Many of the sailors, soldiers, and some of the officers, began relationships with the convict women on board. Some probably even started while the ship was still in England. The captain turned a blind eye, as was often done on voyages with convict women. Ensign Minchin, the most senior Officer of the NSW Corps (who had his wife on board), was offended and complained to the captain, who moved the women forward on the lower deck, and put a guard on the forward hatchway quarters. No sailor was to go there unless as part of his duties. So the women simply went to the men’s sleeping quarters or the officers’ cabins instead. The Captain’s action contributed to some resentment against him by his men. [Hardie, p40-41] MARY OFFLEY partnered up with the ship’s Steward, WILLIAM LEWIS, as his girlfriend. ****************** INTO THE LONGBOAT MARY OFFLEY escaped the ship by getting into a long boat that was put off to sea by the mutineers. The passengers on it included her boyfriend, William Lewis, who had probably insisted of the mutineers that she be allowed to go with him. The longboat was launched fourteen days into the mutiny. The mutiny organisers were removing the threat of anyone else being able to navigate the ship. They were also removing the unwilling from the ship. 29 people were put into the boat: senior officers from both the ship and the NSW Corp, the ship’s boy (Michael Richards), some other soldiers, their wives and children, three convict girlfriends of men on the longboat, and the male convict Semple. Besides Mary, the two convict girlfriends who got a place on the longboat were Jane Barry (girlfriend of the Second Mate, Murchison) and Ann Williams (girlfriend of soldier, Private James McLeod). [Hardie p.63-64] From statements of Murchison (2nd Mate), Drummond (3rd Mate), and Black (Purser), Nat Archives, HO 42/44/27, folio 85: - The mutineers gave the officers on the longboat a quadrant, but no compass. But the Second Mate had secreted a small pocket compass on him. They were given four bags of bread, and three small casks of water. But Mary Offley’s boyfriend, William Lewis, had access to the ships stores because he was the Steward, and had secretly obtained 2 cheeses, 2 hams, some pieces of boiled beef and a 5 gallon cake of rum. Above para from Joint statement of Murchison (2nd Mate), Drummond (3rd Mate), and Black (Purser), Nat Archives, HO 42/44/27, folio 85: They were pushed off from the ship about 6:30pm so they wouldn’t be seen by any English ships. Purser Black had got a look at the charts by means of a subterfuge, and knew their position. He and other officers decided to head to Rio Grande. The longboat encountered dreadfully stormy, rough and gale-like conditions. Many were dreadfully seasick. Several of the men constantly bailed water, and Purser Black, and officers Murchison & Drummond undertook management of the boat. [SEMPLE, Lisle, Autobiography p.275-6]. And for more details see Hardie, pp66-68. After 46 hours the longboat arrived in the harbour of Rio Grande, a Portuguese town, with no loss of life, but with everyone exhausted. MOVING ONWARD [Edited from HARDIE, pp 68-71] The longboat passengers were well treated in Rio Grande but they all wanted to get to Rio de Janeiro. Bad weather and then lack of wind prevented them leaving in September. Eventually most of them took berths on four ships and could eventually leave when the wind arrived in early – mid October. They arrived at Rio de Janiero in November. By late January 1798,some of the longboat passengers had already departed – Ann Williams & her man James McLeod; Third Mate Drummond, and Purser John Black. Mary Offley and William Lewis together with the rest of the long boat passengers, together with the rest of the passengers departed Rio de Janiero on different Brazil merchant ships. They arrived further north in Salvador, in April 1798. They were two months in Salvador before getting on a ship to Portugal, and after that another ship to England. [per “Mutiny on the Lady Shore’, ‘Star’, London, 2April 1799]. Back in England, Mary Offley was still subject to the order of transportation hanging over her. The seven year sentence would not expire until 23 March 1802, and until then she could be charged with illegally having returned from transportation. She needed to keep her head down and avoid people who knew her from her old life in Warwick. William Lewis married Mary Offley on the 1st April 1799 at Saint Mary's Church, WhiteChapel. Her convict status was never detected while her seven year sentence was still running.

338

Penny-Lyn Beale on 2nd August 2023

UK Criminal Registers - Criminal Entry Records. Ship; Lady Shore No; 46 Trial; 23 March 1795 Age; 17 years Place of Transportation; Beyond the Seas.

343

Maureen Withey on 1st January 2022

Mary Offley, for stealing metal and rings from the workshops of Messrs Pope and Tart, in Birmingham; ... were ordered to be transported for seven years; Derby Mercury, 2 April 1795.

20

Linda Starke on 1st January 2022

Research is underway to establish whether Mary Offley ordered onto a longboat and cast adrift off the shore of Brazil, (a William Offley, steward from the "lady Shore" was on the same longboat). They landed after two days in a small town in Brazil where the authorities said they would get them on a boat back to London. I am searching for an update. If these two became a couple , and if they got back to London instead of going to NSW Mary's sentence would presumably have had to be reversed, prior to the wedding in Whitechapel Middlesex London in 1799. I am a descendant of the couple who married, but not finding evidence they are the same people as those from the LadyShore

MARY OFFLEY - without Beginning of Days or End of Years Mary Offley was sentenced at the Warwick Assizes on 23 March 1795 to be deported to New South Wales for seven years. The offence that brought about this sentence has not been discovered, neither has she been keyed to any of the Offley Pedigrees; her date of birth, parentage and marital state are unknown. But from the time of her conviction something of her life during the next two or three years is known. The "Lady Shore" left Gravesend and called at Torbay in May 1797 and then at Falmouth, leaving there on 8th June, bound for the penal colony of Port Jackson, now known as Sydney. Mary Offley was one of 69 female convicts aboard but it is not known when she joined the ship. The intended route was to round the tip of South America and then to sail westwards across the South Pacific. In addition to the female convicts there were 70 recruits destined for a regiment stationed in New South Wales, including six from the military prison hulk "Savoy" brought aboard in chains, a dozen or so French and German deserters, Irish political prisoners who hated everything English and ten notorious criminals. The purser, John Black, described them as "the most disagreeable, mutinous set of villains that ever entered a ship". He also recorded that two of the sergeants behaved so badly they were put in irons. Mutinous they were! At 4 a.m. on 1st August 1797 they struck. The chief mate, Lambert, was stabbed to death and the master of the vessel, James Wilcox was killed by a young Frenchman, Jean Prevôt, who was the only mutineer to be captured. On 19th August the vessel, now firmly in the hands of the mutineers, was 100 miles to the south west of Rio Grande and the Officers, their wives and children and 29 others (including three female convicts) were set adrift in a long-boat and after a stormy journey they landed two days later near St. Pedro on the Rio Grande in Brazil. They eventually were able to make their way home to England. Meanwhile the "Lady Shore" sailed on to Montevideo. As war with Spain had commenced in 1796 the Spaniards seized the ship and sold it for 40,000 dollars, interned the mutineers and assigned the women convicts as servants in Spanish households. One report suggests that it was only the prettiest of the women who were dealt with in this fashion and the less than pretty were imprisoned. So what happened to Mary Offley? Was she one of the three cast adrift and did she return to England? Was she pretty and therefore made a servant in a Spanish household? Or was she less than pretty, imprisoned and suffered an undisclosed fate? Perhaps the most important question is "Who was she?" and "what was her fate?" Please note that the records of the Warwick Assizes for that period were destroyed by a clerk in 1860. However, there is a slim chance that there may be a record in one of the newspapers held at Birmingham Library, England. The Offley Family Society