Mary Bryant (1765 - ?) was a Cornish convict sent to Australia. She became one of the first successful escapees from the fledging Australian penal colony.
Born Mary Broad (referred to as Mary Braund at the Exeter Assizes) in Fowey, Cornwall, United Kingdom, to William Broad and Grace Symons Broad, a fishing family. She left home to seek work in Plymouth, England, where she became involved in petty thievery. After being arrested and committed by J...
more
Mary Bryant (1765 - ?) was a Cornish convict sent to Australia. She became one of the first successful escapees from the fledging Australian penal colony.
Born Mary Broad (referred to as Mary Braund at the Exeter Assizes) in Fowey, Cornwall, United Kingdom, to William Broad and Grace Symons Broad, a fishing family. She left home to seek work in Plymouth, England, where she became involved in petty thievery. After being arrested and committed by J Nicholls, Mayor of Plymouth, to Gaol (prison) with two accomplices, Cathrine Fryer and Mary Haysoning, for highway robbery of a silk bonnet, jewellery, and a few coins, she was sentenced to seven years transportation to Australia. In May 1787 she was sent as a prisoner with the First Fleet aboard the ship Charlotte.
Bryant gave birth on the journey to a baby girl, whom she called Charlotte after the ship, and gave the surname Spence, after one of the other convicts, David Spencer, possibly the father. When she got to Australia she married...
less