People Australia

Mary Gabel (c.1749- ) was found guilty on 13 January 1784 at the Southwark Quarter Sessions of grand larceny (Bowes gave her crime as defrauding). Sentenced to 7 years transportation to America, she was held at Southwark Gaol until discharged to the Lady Penrhyn in January 1787, arriving at Sydney a year later as part of the First Fleet.

In June 1789 Gamble (as she was generally known in the colony) received three dozen lashes for theft. The next month she told Commandant Philip Gidley King that her sentence had expired (she still had almost 1½ years to serve). With no records to check, King declared her free to work for the crown or other Norfolk Islanders. In May 1792 she was recorded as the wife of John Price (probably James Price, Alexander, 1788). She remained with him until leaving the island for Port Jackson on the Daedalus in November 1794.

Mary Gamble was recorded as George Wilkinson's housekeeper in 1806; they had no children. Wilkinson advertised in July 1811 that he was planning to leave the colony. As there are no further colonial records for Gamble she may have left with him.

* information from Mollie Gillen, The Founders of Australia: A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet (1989), p 139