People Australia

Elizabeth Bruce, a servant, and Elizabeth Anderson were found guilty, on 10 January 1787 at the Old Bailey, London, of the theft of tablecloths and aprons from a basket on a sidewalk. Sentenced to seven years transportation the pair arrived in Sydney in January 1788 aboard the Lady Penrhyn. Bruce's age was given as 29. She married John Anderson on 16 March 1788; both were then sent to Norfolk Island on the Golden Grove on 2 October.

In mid June 1794 Elizabeth appeared in the records as having three children and living with John Anderson, settler. On 3 September 1808, as the wife of Francis Flexmore, she moved to Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) on the City of Edinburgh; the couple left with her five children (three had with Anderson and two with Flexmore). John Anderson had either died or deserted his family.

Elizabeth died at Green Ponds (Kempton), on 14 June 1835.

* information from Mollie Gillen, The Founders of Australia: A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet (1989), p 55