People Australia

Ann Dutton (c.1763-1813), and three others, were found guilty on 26 April 1786 at the Old Bailey, London, of stealing several items from an unoccupied house. Sentenced to 7 years transportation, Dutton remained at Newgate Gaol until she embarked for New South Wales on the Lady Penrhyn in January 1787, arriving in Sydney in January 1788 as part of the First Fleet.

Dutton was sent to Norfolk Island on the Golden Grove in October 1788. On 14 June 1791 she was ordered to receive 48 lashes for being drunk and noisy with Mary Shepherd on spirits given to them by marines Richard Clinch and Ralph Brough. Dutton left Norfolk Island on the Chesterfield in March 1793. Back at Norfolk Island by 1796, she was credited with £6 for a boarded and thatched house on 17 June 1808. She presumably left for Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) not long after. She was living at Hobart in 1811.

Ann Dutton was buried at Hobart on 25 March 1813; her age was given as 45. No partners or children have been identified. It is thought that she probably worked as a servant.

* information from Mollie Gillen, The Founders of Australia: A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet (1989), p 112