People Australia

Margaret Eddington/Headington (1792-1822) was born on 16 November 1792 at Norfolk Island, the daughter of Thomas Headington and Elizabeth Thompson. She travelled with her mother and brother John to Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) on the Estramina in May 1808.

Eddington had a son John Eddington in c.1807. His paternity is uncertain but the most likely candidate is Captain John Piper; the boy was known in VDL from 1816 as John Piper. In 1809 Eddington had a daughter, Eliza, with David Collins, Lieutenant Governor of VDL. Following Collins' death in 1810 Eddington married George Watts on 9 May 1811 at Hobart; they had one daughter, Maria, before Watts died in 1817. Eddington then married Charles Connelly on 17 January 1819; they had one daughter, Ann.

In the land and stock muster of 1819, when her son John was eleven, he was listed as the beneficiary of a government grant of 80 acres and owner of 200 sheep and 25 cattle. Eliza, who owned no land, at this date, grazed 900 sheep. Margaret probably actively managed her children's affairs.

Margaret Connelly died on 19 January 1822 at Hobart, Tasmania.

sources

• Bourchier, Steve and Leader-Elliott, Ian, 'The metamorphoses of John Eddington Jr', Papers and Proceedings: Tasmanian Historical Research Association, vol 43, no 4, Dec 1996, pp 201-16
• Bourchier Steve and Leader-Elliott, Ian, ‘John Eddington and John Connelly: stepbrothers of uncertain degree’, Papers and Proceedings: Tasmanian Historical Research Association, Vol 43, no 3, Dec 2025, pp 42-56
• Ian Leader-Elliott and Steve Bourchier, ‘Catherine Connelly: Convict, Innkeeper and Litigant’. This is a substantially revised version of a paper originally published in proceedings of the FCRC Autumn Seminar, 2015: ‘Succeeding in the regular economy: the aftermath of convict sentences’. The most significant revision is a correction of errors in the original paper relating to the parentage of John Connelly, Catherine’s husband. He was the son of Charles Connelly, a Fortune convict and an unknown mother, born in Sydney c.1810.
  https://femaleconvicts.org.au/docs/seminars/IanLeader-Elliott_session2_May2015_BourchierV2026.pdf