People Australia

Ann Owston/Houston was found guilty on 8 August 1787 at the Surrey Assizes of the theft of eight yards of muslin from a shop. Her death sentence was commuted to 7 years transportation. She arrived in Sydney in June 1790 aboard the Lady Juliana as part of the Second Fleet. In August 1790 she was sent to Norfolk Island. By July 1791 she was living with William Blunt; they married in November 1791 in a mass wedding ceremony on the island. By the end of 1791 the couple moved to Grenville Vale. Their son James (b.1794) appears to have died in infancy.

The couple appear to have separated by the time William Blunt died in 1807; Ann had returned to Sydney sometime during 1797-1801. In 1806 she was recorded as childless and living in New South Wales. She was living at Windsor when she signed a deposition on 15 May 1810 stating that she had been raped by Lawrence Finland in her home. He was acquitted when she failed to appear at his trial.

Ann Blunt's burial was recorded on 17 September 1811 on the register at St Philip's Church, Sydney. Her age was given as 65 and she was described as being from London.

* information from Michael Flynn, The Second Fleet: Britain’s Grim Convict Armada of 1790 (1993), p 486