People Australia

Amelia Levy (c.1769- ) and Ann Martin were found guilty on 9 January 1787 at Southwark Quarter Session, Surrey, of stealing silk handkerchiefs. Sentenced to 7 years transportation, they arrived at Sydney aboard the Lady Penrhyn in January 1788 as part of the First Fleet.

Levy shared a hut, next to Ann Farmer's, with Ann Warburton at Sydney Cove. On 17 January 1789 Levy was sentenced to 50 lashes at the cart's tail, to be administered on three successive Saturdays while provisions were being issued, for stealing a shift of white linen. On 14 November 1789 she was ordered to receive a further 50 lashes for uttering scandalous and abusive language to Sergeant William Clayfield. In her defence she claimed she had not used bad words and that the working party had pelted her with stones. She was Jewish and there may have been some prejudice against her.

As Mary Leavy she was sent to Norfolk Island on the Sirius in March 1790. She married William Knight in a mass wedding ceremony held on the island in November 1791; no children were recorded. The couple left the island for Port Jackson on the Francis in March 1794. They seem to have separated not long afterwards. As a witness in a court case in November 1795 Mary said she was living with a settler on the road to Prospect Hill. No further records have been found for Mary Levy.

information from

• Mollie Gillen, The Founders of Australia: A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet (1989), pp 218-19

• HMS Sirius 1786-1790 — https://hmssirius.com.au/mary-amelia-levy-convict-lady-penrhyn-1788 — accessed 9 September 2020