People Australia

Elizabeth Barber, a book stitcher, and two female companions were found guilty on 11 September 1782 at the Old Bailey, London, of assaulting a man and stealing his watch and money. Their death sentences were commuted to seven years transportation to America. After escaping from the convict transport Mercury in March 1784, Elizabeth was sent to the Dunkirk hulk. She was discharged on 11 March 1787 to the Friendship and on 28 August was transferred to the Prince of Wales (all the women were transferred to other ships to make room for stock). She arrived in Sydney in January 1788 as part of the First Fleet.

Barber married Thomas (or John) Brown on 17 February 1788 at Sydney. Her first two children died not long after their births. Her daughter Elizabeth, born in June 1791, was living with her parents in December 1791. No further trace of Elizabeth has been found in colonial records.

* information from Mollie Gillen, The Founders of Australia: A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet (1989), pp 22-23