TROVE TUESDAY, 20 JUNE, 2017... THE INNOCENT CONVICT..

Parramatta_Female_Factorypainted by Augustus Earle, c. 1826

Who was the Innocent Convict...on reading the article of that title, (see below) the name given is Mary Green. Was she living in the female factory?

 There was a Mary Green at the Female Factory...was she the right Mary Green?

https://femalefactoryonline.org/police-reports/law-report-of-bridget-reynolds-mary-green-anne-ball-ann-mcmullen-9-november-1832/

A 'Mary Green' appears on the list on Convicts to Australia at  http://members.iinet.net.au/~perthdps/convicts/confem44.html
arriving on the Wanstead...
Wanstead - Arrived 9 January 1814.
Sailed 24/8/1813 from Spithead in 138 days.
Embarked 120 females.

SURNAME        CHRISTIAN NAME      TRIAL PLACE        DAY  MONTH   YEAR   DEPARTED        

Green          Mary                Nottingham         13     03    1813   ENGLAND

However the Mary Green the article labels as the 'innocent convict' appears to have come out in the First Fleet according to the time mentioned in the story.

On a list of convicts, published by Gutenberg Australia, only one Mary Green is mentioned.   http://gutenberg.net.au/convicts.txt


"The Innocent Convict..."

Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser (NSW : 1843 - 1893), Thursday 9 March 1865, page 4 

Please click on image to enlarge..

THE INNOCENT CONVICT.

(From Diaries of a Lady of Quality: by A. Hayward, Q.C.)

November 18th, 1803.—"We left Buxton in

the midst of a deep snow, and after a very cold

and wretched journey arrived at Elton [Elton

Hall, Oundle : the seat of the Earl of Carysfort]

the next day. During the time we were there,

I heard the following story, which appeared to

me very interesting:—Some years ago some

passengers in a vessel bound for Botany Bay

were very much struck by the appearance of a

female convict who was on board. She was a

very beautiful woman, and appeared to be only

eighteen or nineteen : her elegant manners were

as striking as the beauty of her person. To

these charms she added one still more powerful

—great modesty and strict propriety of de-

portment. It was this quality, so extra-

ordinary in this most abject situation, which

first called forth the attention of her su-

periors. The captain of the vessel was re-

quested to examine the register which was sent

with every convict detailing their offence and

their sentence, and inform the passengers what

had been the crime of a creature who appeared

so lovely. He found that her name was Mary

Green, and that she had been convicted on the

clearest evidence of stealing a card of lace from

a shop in Oxford-street. During a long passage,

her continued good conduct gained her so much

respect that, a maid-servant belonging to one of

the officers having fallen sick on board, his wife

took Mary Green to supply her place; she

found very soon that she had gained by the

change: the more she saw of Mary the better

she liked her. At last she tried to persuade

herself that her favorite was innocent of the

crime laid to her charge. She questioned her

as to her former situation, and as to the reasons

which could have induced her to the commission

of a crime which seemed so foreign to her

nature. Mary replied, as she had to all her

former inquiries, that no power on earth could

make her reveal any part of her story. She

added that she was perfectly resigned to her

fate, and determined to pass the rest of her

days in New Holland, as she could never re-visit

her native land. Still, in spite of the mystery

which hung about her, she rose every day in

the good opinion of her mistress, who, after

some time, placed her about her children ; then

only she discovered that, in addition to all her

amiable qualities, Mary possessed, in a superior

degree, all the talents and accomplishments

which belong to an exalted situation. She

spoke several modern languages, and understood

both painting and music—in short, she soon

became the favorite companion of her mistress,

who could no longer treat this superior being as

a servant. Still, however, Mary resisted her

urgent entreaties to discover her former situa-

tion ; she owned that it had been superior to

that rank in which she now found herself ; con-

fessed that her present name was assumed;

added that she had been very unfortunate ; but

would never add to her other misfortunes that

of thinking her relations and friends were

blushing for her. About three years after

this time, the chaplain of the settlement was

called upon to attend the deathbed of an old

female convict who was lately arrived. Though

an old offender who had grown up in the paths

of vice, this woman felt in her last moments

great contrition, and made a full confession of

all her crimes. She said that what laid the

most heavy on her conscience was the recollec-

tion of her having laid one of her offences to the

charge of an innocent young woman. She said

that, having gone in one day to a shop ¡n

Oxford-street at the same time with a very young

girl who appeared to be fresh from the country,

she had spoken to her ; and, after having stolen

a card of lace, she followed the young woman

out of the shop. Soon after, hearing the cry of

" stop thief," she made a pretence of her clog

boing untied to ask the assistance of the young

woman, who was still close by her, and while

she was stooping had contrived to slip the lace

into her muff, and to escape herself be-

fore their pursuers reached them. She

said she had afterwards heard that the

poor girl had been convicted of an offence of

which she knew her to be perfectly inno-

cent. This account immediately brought to the

chaplain's mind the Mary Green who had ex-

cited so muoh curiosity, he went immediately

to her, asked for her story, and received from

her the usual answer, refusing all intelligence

on this subject. He, however, pressed her, told

her that it might be of the utmost importance

to her to confide in him, as some circumstances

had lately come to light which he hoped might

lead to her exculpation if she would give him

all the particulars of her case. She burst into

tears, told him that she was the only daughter

of a respectable merchant of Birmingham, but

still refused to tell her name : she said that at

eighteen years of age she had gone to London

for the first time, to an uncle who lived in New-

man-street ; that a day or to after her arrival

she had, in the dusk of the evening, gone to a

haberdasher's shop, to which she had been di-

rected as being only a few steps from her

uncle's house. On coming out of the shop she

had heard a cry of 'stop thief,' and had hastened

home to escape the mob, by whom she had been

very much hustled. On the steps of her uncle's

house she was arrested, the piece of lace was

found upon her, and she was immediately car-

ried into confinement. She said she thought it

was hardly possible that any testimony of her

character could avail against the positive evi-

dence brought against her, more particularly as

her only defence was that she knew not how,

the lace came into her muff. She therefore de-

termined to conceal her name and never apply

to her family. This happened just before the

time of sessions. Mary's trial and condemna-

tion ensued so soon after, that her relations had

not had time to make all the enquiries which

they afterwards sent in vain all over

the kingdom. These circumstances tallied so

exactly with the old woman's confession that the

chaplain ventured to tell Mary that he had no

doubt of her acquittal. He informed the

governor of the whole transaction, who promised

to transmit this information by the first ship to

the English Government, and said that her

innocence appeared to him so clear that, without

instructions, he would venture to say that she

should no longer be considered as a convict, but

as a planter. In England the strictest inquiry

was made, and every circumstance exactly tallied

with Mary's deposition. The next ship brought

her complete acquittal and conveyed her back

to her disconsolate parents, who had not ceased

to lament the unaccountable disappearance of

their beloved child. Soon after her return she

married extremely well to a young clergyman,

who had a very good living.

The question remains unanswered...