People Australia

Elizabeth Thompson (c.1749-1839) and Eleanor Scott were found guilty on 19 July 1788 at the Northumberland Assizes of stealing 20 yards of printed cotton, 26 yards of calamanco cloth and 12 yards of linen cloth from two linen drapers' shops. Sentenced to 7 years transportation the women arrived at Sydney aboard the Lady Juliana in June 1790 as part of the Second Fleet.

Thompson was sent to Norfolk Island on the Surprize, arriving in August 1790. She married Thomas Headington in November 1791 in a mass wedding ceremony on the island conducted by Reverend Richard Johnson. In 1794 she was recorded as a convict, married, off stores with one child, supported by Thomas Eddington (Headington); they also had a son when Thomas died in 1796. She bought another five acres to add to the 24 acres Thomas had accumulated and supported her two children until they sailed for Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) on the Estramina in May 1808. She lived mainly at Hobart. She died at Hobart (as Elizabeth Eddington) on 10 April 1839; her age was given as 92 and cause of death as old age.

information from

• Michael Flynn, The Second Fleet: Britain’s Grim Convict Armada of 1790 (1993), pp 567-68
• Cathy Dunn, 'Thomas Eddington – Heddington – Headington, Convict Alexander 1788,' in HMS Sirius, https://hmssirius.com.au/thomas-eddington-heddington-headington-convict-alexander-1788/, — accessed 13 November 2020
• John Boyd, 'Thomas Headington Convict ''Alexander" (c1763?-1798)', Fellowship of First Fleeters website, http://www.fellowshipfirstfleeters.org.au/thomasheadington.htm — accessed 13 November 2020
• 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