Elizabeth Haywood

Elizabeth Haywood (born July 20, 1773 in Stepney , a district of London in England , † October 29, 1836 in Launceston , Tasmania ) was the youngest convict ever to be deported to the then convict colony of Australia at the age of 14 . Elizabeth Haywood arrived in Port Jackson with the First Fleet on January 28, 1788 .

Life

Little is known about the early life of Elizabeth Haywood. She was the daughter of Samuel and Elizabeth Haywood. On January 10, 1787, at the age of 13, she stood before the English Criminal Court of Old Bailey on charges of stealing a linen dress, silk bonnet and cloth cloak on December 19, 1786. Elizabeth was sentenced to seven years of deportation. She remained in Newgate Prison until the First Fleet left . Then she was transported on the Lady Penrhyn to the convict colony of Australia, where the ship arrived on January 28, 1788. The conditions on this ship were inhuman during the voyage, not only because the ship was poorly in the water, but also because the convicts suffered hunger and there was not enough clothing. Even on the ship, the female convicts had to endure the fact that they were viewed and treated as prostitutes by seafarers, Royal Marines and officers .

The women had their first shore leave on February 4, 1788, which turned into a series of sexual assaults. Elizabeth Haywood was assigned to Mary Johnson as a house helper. On February 9, 1789, she was sentenced to 30 lashes in the colonial court, presumably for disobedience to Mary Johnson's husband.

Elizabeth Haywood came to Norfolk Island in March 1790 with the HMS Sirius , which was shipwrecked off the island. She had two daughters with William Nicholls, who arrived on Norfolk Island as a convict in December 1792. Their son George was born in 1802. It is believed that George Collins was the father, as Nicholls left the island long before that.

After George Collins died in 1803, Elizabeth Haywood lived with Joseph Lowe, who was pardoned as a convict on September 17, 1810. She had two children with him.

When the Norfolk convict colony was abandoned in 1813, Elizabeth Haywood, Joseph Lowe and their two children traveled on the Lady Nelson to Port Dalrymple in what was then Van Diemens Land, now Tasmania.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Elizabeth Haywood , at firstfleetfellowship.org.au. Retrieved September 16, 2016
2. ↑ Whores, damned whores and female convicts: Why our history does early Australian colonial women a grave injustice , on theconversation.com. Retrieved September 16, 2016