Mary Hitchen

  General Notes:

On 14 June 1805 an unmarried Mary was pregnant and living in Crompton, Lancashire. On that date she was the subject of a removal order which required the "Overseers of the Poor" in Crompton to facilitate her removal to the township of Warley, which was the "Place of last legal settlement" for Mary. Under the laws of the time the Overseers of the Poor in Warley would be responsible to provide for her. It may be this order that prompted her marriage just a few months later.

Mary Hitchen of Yorkshire, England married James Buckley in 1805 at Halifax in Yorkshire. James was recorded as being from Crompton and Mary from Warley (in the Parish of Halifax). Both James and Mary made their mark indicating they were illiterate.

They had 5 children together in England and lived for a time at Shaw in Lancashire which is where James and his family hailed from.

Mary was convicted of Larceny on 21 October 1817 at the Lancashire Quarter Sessions and sentenced to 7 years transportation. She boarded the ship "Maria" with four of her children on 17 March 1818 and sailed from Deal on 15 May 1818. Mention is made in the Surgeon Superintendent's diary of Mary and her children - Elizabeth Buckley aged 20 mths vaccinated, Mary Buckley's child with diarrhoea, Elizabeth Buckley "child with small red pimples resembling the first appearance of small pox.", Mary Buckley's child with a scalded foot.

Mary arrived in Sydney on 17 September 1818, she was described as a cotton weaver aged 31. Mary and her children George, Sarah, Mary and Elizabeth were then sent to the Factory at Parramatta. Her eldest child Abraham remained in England with grandparents to continue his education and later came to Australia with his wife Frances Greenwood.

Mary was granted a certificate of freedom on 16 March 1826 (same day as her husband James), she was described as a servant and cotton weaver, 40, 5' 2 ¼ " tall, ruddy complexion, brown hair and hazel eyes.

Her husband James died in August 1836. In the 1841 census Mary is listed as 60 and upwards, together with a male 21-45, 1 male married, 1 female married, 1 male other free person, 1 female other free person, occupying a wooden house finished and inhabited.

In early 1852 Mary, with her son William, his wife and family, daughter Mary Duffey and family, daughter Martha Kennedy and family went from Tumut to the Ovens River Goldfields in Victoria. Many of the family died on the goldfields.

Mary was buried at Parramatta NSW on 13 September 1855.

Mary married James Buckley, son of George Buckley and Martha Bashlor, on 12 Aug 1805 in St Johns, Halifax Yorkshire, England. (James Buckley was born circa Mar 1786 in Whitefield, Lancashire, England, christened on 5 Mar 1786 in Shaw Holy Trinity Chapel, Shaw, Lancashire, England, died on 22 Aug 1836 in Windsor, New South Wales, Australia and was buried on 23 Aug 1836 in St Johns Church, Parramatta, New South Wales, Australia.)