Ann Thompson

48

Naomi Parsons on 26th January 2023

20/7/1803- Ann was convicted of having thieved calico at Manchester along with Rachael Robinson. She was a single woman who was held at Lancaster Castle until July 1805 when she was taken to Spithead for boarding the ship along with Rachael. Like Rachael, Ann received her certificate of freedom on the 20th July 1810. Ann lived on Bell Row (later renamed Bligh Street). Her premises were broken into and a large quantity of dresses, petticoats and fabric as well as bills was stolen in July 1808. The level of detail provided of the goods and variety of them suggests Ann may have been a seamstress or dressmaker. By 1816, Ann, is now named as Mary Ann Thompson on the muster and as wife to Robert Lack (ship- Canada) though this appears to be a common law relationship and had ended before 1824 when he began a family with another convict. In the 1825 muster, Ann was recorded as the wife of Thomas Conner/Connor (one of the Irish Rebels) and an overseer and the 1828 muster (listed as Mary) shows them again as landholders at Camden, now aged 60. This land had only been recently granted after they had exchanged it for an area without water supply. It was situated in what is now Tahmoor, then Myrtle Creek, next to his previous overseer, John Bent. Thomas died either late 1834 or early 1835 supposedly from an accident on the road and his remains were not discovered for many months. He was later buried at the new Catholic Cemetery (St Johns) at Campbelltown in a shared tomb with other Irish Rebels of 1798. In May 1838, Mary Ann assigned their land to a new claimant. Whilst no records seem to show what happened to (Mary) Ann there is a grave at the same cemetery as her husband for a Mary Conner in October 1838.