Convict Queen

Few convicts returned to England, but Molly Morgan was one who did. She lived in a Shropshire village, first as a maid to a wealthy farmer, then with her husband William, who was somewhat light-fingered. He escaped when they were accused of the theft of flax from a drying field, but Molly was tried and sentenced to transportation. She went with the Second Fleet, and survived being on the Neptune, the worst ever ship to carry convicts to New South Wales. Many of the convicts died or were too weak on arrival to walk. Molly found a protector on the ship, and another for whom she worked on land. After a few years she persuaded an American Whaling ship captain to hide her and take her back to England, where she lived in London and worked as a seamstress until she married a Plymouth whitesmith. They quarrelled and she went back to London, where she was accused of more theft and again transported. After a while, and the accusation of stealing Government cattle, she began farming in the Hunter Valley, and opened taverns. She became wealthy, known for giving help to convicts, and support for charities. At the age of sixty she married a man of one and thirty. She was named the Queen of Hunter Valley.