Mary Shipley

48

Naomi Parsons on 3rd December 2025

Mary was the wife of Stephen Shepley. She had stolen cotton print. In October 1800 an order was delivered to Lancaster Castle to clothe Mary and the twelve other female convicts and they were sent to Gravesend to board the ship. Following arrival, she used 'Shipley' as the more common spelling of her name. Mary met fellow Mancunian Samuel Terry onboard the ship and began a common law and business relationship with him. Terry would go on to be a kingpin of the Sydney property world. Now free, in 1809, she amicably separated from Terry who said she had served him faithfully for nine years and was given 37 rods of land at upper Pitt's Row, Sydney and acquired two properties there. The following year in 1810 she was given a licence as beer seller, running the Seven Stars on Pitt Street. The same year she married Thomas Ford (ship- Anne) at St Philip's, Sydney. She had advertised in 1811 that mail in her previous name should be now brought to her as Mary Ford at Pitt Street. In 1812 she was implicated in a case of forged notes being used. She issued promissory notes in her name which were now being forged so wrote to the newspapers saying they were all to be cashed back in due to the forgeries circulating. Just two years later, in 1814, Thomas died. With the land she held she was a provider of meat to the government. In 1819 Mary sold her house, garden and orchard at 24 Pitt Street. In the musters Mary was noted as a householder at Sydney in 1816 and a widow in 1817, married in 1819 and a housekeeper in 1820/21. Soon after the death of Thomas, Mary had begun a common law and business relationship with Joseph Allen (ship- Fortune). Joseph was a landholder of property very near to Mary (potentially also a publican) and like Mary also issued promissory notes and provided meat to the government from his farm at Liverpool. In July/August 1822, Mary and Joseph were jointly charged with an unascertained crime- they were released on bail pending a court trial. In 1825 they were joint owners of the Seven Stars and leased it out from 1826. From 1827 and through the 1830s, Mary ended up with a 50 acre farm at Salt Pan Creek (known as Mary Shipley's Farm) and after being in a relationship for many years, Mary and Joseph married at the Scots Kirk Sydney in August 1834. In 1835 a final move saw Mary and Joseph sell the farm at Salt Pan Creek to John Terry Hughes the nephew of Samuel Terry who had initially given Mary her first land back in 1809. They then bought property that had belonged to John Terry Hughes at Frogmore at Port Macquarie and sold other portions. On the 1841 census they declared they had arrived free (Joseph claiming he arrived at the same time as Governor Bligh in 1806 in HMS Porpoise as a land scout). They lived with a male and female servant. Mary and Joseph were returning back to their house at Thrumster, outside of the town in their horse and carriage on 10th March 1842 when the horse took fright at seeing another carriage suddenly- throwing the occupants of all carriages into the road. Mary badly broke her arm, hip and head and died just hours later, recorded aged 84. Joseph lingered but followed only two months later in May recorded aged 80. They were buried together at the Port Macquarie (second) Cemetery on Gordon Street- Their names appear on a memorial tablet in the cemetery. A scandal followed Joseph's funeral when his Catholic servant who had claimed she had married Joseph on his death bed was arrested at his funeral for disturbing the peace- both Catholic and Protestant service simultaneously took place, the priest and servant/wife claiming that he had converted to Catholicism in his final days.