Ann (Livingstone) Johnson

Someone had seen a link to my family tree and asked if I knew the story of Ann Livingstone. As it happens, I didn’t know her story, or who she was. I found her in my maternal grandmother’s family. Ann Livingstone was her grandmother. Aged 14-15, she was a convict on the Third Fleet, bound for Van Dieman’s Land.
Ann was an extraordinary character with a colourful past and has left a trail of records giving us an insight into the kind of life she lived. Indeed, it is rather lengthy, so I shall publish it in parts.
Ann was born in about 1809 in Paisley, Scotland. Her mother came from the Isle of Mull in the Scottish Hebrides. Her early life was tough. She lived on the offensive, was belligerent, and at times uncontrollable.
Her first recorded sentence was a fortnight in Paisley Gaol, possibly at about the age of twelve. Her occupation is a Tambour worker, or lace maker.
Her next was eight months in the same place for housebreaking. By the time of her final Glasgow arrest at the age of about 14, she was quite experienced in the ways of the justice system.
At this time, Ann was in company with Alexander Stevenson, a ‘habitual thief since birth’ according to his convict record. He was 18 when Ann was about four years younger. They were arrested together for “housebreaking and theft”.
There is a brief reference in the Caledonian Mercury 17 April 1824:

CIRCUIT INTELLIGENCE
Lord Meadowbank arrived in town from Rosehall, the seat of General Pye. His Lordship was preceded by the Sheriff and the city Magistrates in their dragoons, with their mounted band.
Tuesday April 13
The court met this day at nine o’clock. Alexander Stevenson, and Ann Livingstone, accused of theft by opening lock-fast places, were found guilty, and sentenced to transportation for fourteen years. On receiving sentence, Livingstone exclaimed “I hope your Lordship will be in hell before that period!”

Ann displayed the same spirit throughout her whole life.
She spent five months in gaol in Glasgow before being sent to the London prison hulks.

11 September 1824: Thursday the following female convicts arrived at our jail (Edinburgh) from Glasgow, on their way to the hulks, preparatory to transportation, viz. – Ann Hunter or Dunsmore, Margaret McAslan or Paisley, Janet Gardner or Buchanan, Mary Little, Margaret Gordon, Margaret McTeague, and Ann Livingstone. They were the same afternoon conveyed to Leith, and embarked on board the smack Hawk, for the Thames.

Ann was transported to Van Diemen’s Land in the Henry in a season of heavy rain and storms which brought at least a hundred vessels onto the shore.

14 October 1825: The Grenada and the Henry, two transports, sailed on Thursday for New South Wales, with 160 female convicts on board, for Hobart Town and Sydney.
23 October 1824: In the late gale ….the Ann, of Whitby; Dwarf, of Hull; Rigby, of Ipswich; Vie Erndte, Kraft, from Stralsund for Newcastle; Henry, of Portsmouth; and Mary, of Yarmouth, were driven ashore near Blyth on the 11th instant. The sea broke with frightful violence on the pier at Newhaven, and the light-house at its extremity was battered down by the waves.

Reports of the storm were in the newspapers for days, and the death toll was very high. The harbours were filled with damaged ships, but fortunately, the Henry had come to shore on a low sandbank and was ‘got off’ to resume its journey within just a few days. For 79 female convicts, stuck below deck, the time must have been very frightening and exhausting.
Nothing more is heard of the Henry until arrival in Australia.

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