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Female convicts in Australia in the 18th and 19th centuries

Female Convicts

Black-eyed Sue and Sweet Poll of Plymouth taking leave of their lovers who are going to Botany Bay
Reasons for Transport
The Voyage
Female Factories
Treatment
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Introduction There is a belief that all females convicts during the transportation period were all prostitutes, yet this is a common misconception. Although undoubtedly many women may have been prostitutes in England, or were driven to that profession for survival after arriving in Australia, none were transported for that reason. Prostitution itself was never a transportable offense in Britain. The majority of the women sent to Australia were convicted for theft. The image of the transported women in Australia as being whores is a description of immoral behavior more so than the actual practice of prostitution. Between 1788 and 1852, male convicts outnumbered the women six to one. The British Government called for more women to be sent to Australia in order to prevent sodomy and to promote development of a family. While the women of the First Fleet were more or less randomly chosen, the Second Fleet on board the Lady Juliana consisted of women of a "marriageable" age.

Convict Population of New South Wales during the convict period.

Year	Males	Females	Total
1788	529	188	717
1790	297	70	367
1800	1,230	328	1,558
1805	1,561	516	2,077
1819	8,920	1,066	9,986
1828	16,442	1,544	17,986
1836	25,254	2,577	27,831
1841	23,844	3,133	26,977
Total	78,077	9,422	87,499

The voyage

Friendship (ship)

Ralph Clark, a marine officer on board the Friendship (ship) in the First Fleet kept a journal of his journey to Australia. His descriptions of the female convicts on board the ship created an ugly picture of "abandoned wenches". When four marine sailors on board the Friendship were caught with four female convicts, the captain of the ship had the sailors flogged, and in Clark's journal he confesses, "if I had been the Commander I would have flogged the four whores also". However, Ralph Clark did not include in his journal that he fathered a child to a convict women named Mary Branham in July 1791.

Lady Juliana

The Lady Juliana was part of the Second Fleet. As with the following voyages, the female convicts on this ship immediately began to pair off with the seamen. John Nicol, a Scottish steward recalled, "Every man on board took a wife from among the convicts, they nothing loath"

Women often used their bodies as ways of bettering their conditions. A closer relationship with a marine would give them resources for certain goods they would not normally be allowed.

Female Factories

Life in these factories was miserable. The women were not given mattresses or blankets to sleep on and the social conditions inside were indecent. These factories were often described as brothels.

Parramatta Female Factory

The factory had room for a third of the female prisoners while the rest were to lodge with the local settlers at some cost, usually about four shillings a week . Most women could only pay for this cost by selling sexual services. Their customers were usually male convicts who came and left as they pleased. In 1819 Macquarie had ex-convict Francis Greenway create a new design for the factory. This new design had the inmates divided into three categories: the "general", "merit", and "crime" class. The "crime" class women had their hair cropped as a mark of disgrace and were the incorrigibles. The "merit" class, or first class consisted women who kept good behavior for at least six months and women who had recently arrived from England. These girls were eligible to marry and for assignment. The second, or "general" class was made up of women who were sentenced for minor offenses and could be transferred to the first class after a period of probation. This class also consisted of many women who had become pregnant during their assigned service.

The factory at Parramatta was a source of wives for settlers and emancipated convicts. With a written permit from Reverend Samuel Marsden and a written notice to the matron a bachelor could take his pick of a willing "factory lass".

The Flash Mob

The Flash Mob were the "old hands" of the factories, distinguished by niceties such as earrings and scarves. They wielded power over the other female convicts and were tougher and in charge.

Treatment

Reverend Samuel Marsden categorized women into married or prostitutes. This is a manifestation of the general outlook of female convicts from one extreme to the other. They were either deemed as saints or as whores. The women were scarred from being convicted and could not redeem their status because it differed so greatly from the British ideal of a women, who was virtuous, polite, and a woman of the family.