People Australia

Mary Carroll (c.1751-1803), a dressmaker, was found guilty on 25 October 1786 at the Old Bailey, London, of the theft of a linen sheet and shirt. Sentenced to 7 years transportation she embarked for New South Wales on the Land Penrhyn in January 1787, arriving in the colony in January 1788 as part of the First Fleet.

Carroll as (Carral) married John Nicholls on 24 March 1788 at Sydney Cove. She was sent (without her husband) to Norfolk Island in October 1788 on the Golden Grove and in June 1784 was living with William Thompson. She returned to Port Jackson on the Francis in July 1784. She may have been the Mary Carroll who married Michael Gay at Parramatta on 28 November 1796 (there were several with that name in the colony by this time). She was granted 30 acres of land at Mulgrave Place on 1 January 1798. She was buried (as Mary Carrol) on 8 June 1803 at Sydney.

* information from Mollie Gillen, The Founders of Australia: A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet (1989), pp 65-66