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HANNAH SMITH
Hannah Smith and Daniel (Janel) Gordon
were committed for trial on the 17th January,
1785, for robbery at the house of Charles Hancock in
Upham, Wiltshire. They stole a quantity of clothing,
which included a checked apron, a dowlas shirt, a red
cloak, 2 pairs of shoes, a pair of worsted stockings, 2
handkerchiefs and a pair of shoe buckles valued at 7/6d
1.
Hannah was tried at the Winchester Assizes on the 5th
April 1785. She was sentenced to 7 years transportation
and held in gaol until December 1786, when, at the age
of 28, she was ordered to the Dunkirk hulk, which
was moored in Plymouth. She was received there on 7th
December 1786 with a baby son about 3 months old.
According to Major Ross’s List (Commanding officer of
the Marine Corps Detachment of the First Fleet) Hannah
was taken aboard the transport Charlotte on the
21st March 1787.
Hannah and her son William sailed from Portsmouth
on board the Charlotte with the other ships of
the First Fleet on the 13th May 1787. How
did this young mother feel as she left behind the land
of her birth for a strange new land thousands of miles
away? Maybe she was full of hope that this would lead
to a new and better life for both her young son,
William, and herself.
On the 11th August, 1787 while the fleet was anchored at
Rio de Janeiro, Ralph Clark noted in his journal that
Hannah was discharged to the Friendship with the
child, William. After arriving at the Cape of Good Hope
on the 28th October, 1787, Ralph Clark stated
she was once again transferred, this time to the Lady
Penrhyn The surgeon on board this ship, Arthur
Bowes Smyth, kept a journal in which he named Hannah’s
child as Edward.
After the First Fleet arrived in Sydney Cove on the 26th
January 1788, Hannah, along with the other female
convicts, was not allowed on shore until the 6th
February. One can only wonder at her feelings on this
auspicious occasion and at her chance to make a new
life. After a long voyage of nine months Hannah was one
of only six convicts to be moved aboard three of the
transports in the fleet.
Nothing more is recorded of Hannah until the 6th
June when her young son William died 2. What
a sad time for this mother, with no other family to
support her, in a country so different to the homeland
she had to leave behind.
However, during this time she had made the acquaintance
of another convict, a carpenter by the name of Edward
Pugh.
Edward had also recently experienced tragedy, his wife
Elizabeth Parker, a convict, dying just thirteen
days after coming ashore in February. He had a young
daughter Ann to look after, so he and Hannah
would have been able to understand and comfort each
other. They married on the 15th June 1788,
just four months after arriving in the colony 3,
with their name being recorded as Pue. Sadly,
just fifteen days after their wedding, tragedy struck
again when Edward’s daughter, Ann, whose mother was
Elizabeth Parker, died. So Hannah and her new husband,
Edward, continued on alone, both suffering the loss of a
very young child in the early months in this new
country.
On Christmas day, Thursday 25th December
their house was burgled and a pound of flour was
stolen. The following day Michael Dennison
was charged with stealing a bag and a pound of flour
from Hannah Pugh. Hannah and a Jeremiah Leary
gave evidence. He was found guilty and was sentenced to
200 lashes, of which he received 150 4.
Hannah and Edward’s first child, a son named David,
was born on the 8th March, 1789 5,
and five months later, on the 15th August,
1789, Hannah was charged with having nine worsted caps
in her possession 6. She pleaded that the
caps had been given to her and that she had made them
into a bed quilt to cover her child. This was
substantiated by John Harris and others, and so
she was discharged. This shows a very tender side of
Hannah, caring so much for her young baby and trying to
do her best to keep him warm.
They had another son, Simon,
baptised in the parish of St. John’s Church, Parramatta,
on the 29th May 1791 7. Edward’s
sentence expired on the 17th July 1791 and he
and Hannah were among the first settlers to be granted
70 acres of land at Prospect Hill on the 22nd February,
1792 8. They must have felt very happy
regarding their life at this stage, as it would have
been very difficult for this couple to become
landholders back in England. How proud they must have
felt having their two healthy sons and a parcel of land
only four years after arriving in this harsh new land.
On the 12th September 1794 Hannah gave birth to their
third son Edward
9
and on the 1st October 1796 Hannah had
another baby, their first daughter whom they name
Harriet 10. On the 29th May
1799, Hannah gave birth to their last child, another
daughter, named Charlotte 11. They now
had a family of five children and all seem to have been
healthy.
In January 1800 Hannah’s husband enlisted in the NSW
Corps and the next record of her is in The General
Muster of 1806. Here she is listed as Hannah Smith or
Pugh and being Free by Servitude, and in the remarks
column is written Edward Pugh, Scott. In The Sydney
Gazette & New South Wales Advertiser,
on Saturday 16 June, 1810, is a notice from the Colonial
Secretary’s office stating that Hannah has been granted
her Certificate of Freedom by his Excellency the
Governor. She had achieved much since arriving here in
the colony. In the same year her husband was discharged
from the New South Wales Corps. Once again they were
farming together.
Hannah was still on the land in 1814, as in the Muster
of that year she is listed as being off stores, Free by
Servitude, ship Lady Penrhyn, one child and wife
to Edward Pugh, who is also listed as being a landholder
at Parramatta. Charlotte, the youngest child, was the
only one still at home with her parents.
Things changed, however, and in the 1820 Muster they
were living in Richmond and Edward was working for a
Mr Withers.
In the 1822 Muster they were in Windsor and on the 1st
May, 1824, it appears she and Edward were looking after
two of her grandchildren (eldest daughter Harriet
Parker’s children, David and Sophia)
and applied to the Colonial Secretary to receive them
into the Male and Female orphan schools 12.
They were accepted and so it is possible that Hannah was
not in good health at this stage of her life. It is
difficult to know her true age at this time as her age
differs on the various documents.
Sadly, in 1826 Hannah Pugh nee Smith died and the
funeral ceremony was performed in the Parish of St
Phillip’s, Sydney. She was buried in the Sandhills
Cemetery on the 17th October. Her age given
on her Death Certificate was 77 years but this may be
incorrect as it means she would have been born in 1849.
If the age given when she was taken aboard the
Dunkirk Hulk in 1786 was 28, it means she would have
been born in 1858. This would have made her 68 years of
age at the time of her death.
According to the book The Old Sydney Burial Ground,
Hannah’s body and headstone were moved to Botany
Cemetery in 1901. In 1976 when the Pioneer Memorial
Park, was established at Botany, the headstone had
become illegible, and could not be included.
Hannah was a true founding mother of Australia. She
arrived with the First Fleet and survived the early
difficult years of a struggling new colony so far away
from its homeland. She stayed with her husband all their
married life and together they raised five children and
helped in their own small way to make the Australia we
know and love today. Her many descendants are very
proud to say Hannah Smith was my ancestor.
Some of these descendants are busy working on a full
family tree for Edward and Hannah, and interested
persons are directed to their website
www.ffps.org.au
In May 2016 a memorial plaque to Hannah Smith Convict
"Lady Penrhyn" was installed in the First Fleet
Memorial Park in the Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park
Valerie Williams #8050
Sources
1 Hampshire Record Office Winchester
Crimes
of the First Fleet by Dr. John Cobley
2 Copy of Death Certificate No, 77 Vol 2
3 Copy
of Marriage Certificate V178850 3A/1788
4 John Cobley’s book 1788
5 Mutch Index
6 Minutes of Proceedings, Bench of Magistrates
Returns,1788-1792
7 Mutch Index
8 Land Grants 1788-1809 page 6, item 42, entry 69,
9 NSW Births V1794382 1A/1794
10 NSW Births V 1796674 1A/1796
11 NSW Births V 1799262 148/1799
12 Colonial Secretary’s Correspondence 1788-1825
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