People Australia

Frances Davis, a servant, was found guilty, on 8 March 1786 at Clemsford, England, of breaking into a house and stealing a bag containing £178.12s.6d in money, and bills of exchange totalling £654.14s. Her death sentence was later reprieved to 14 years transportation. She was sent to Southwark Gaol and arrived in Sydney in January 1788 aboard the Lady Penrhyn as part of the First Fleet.

Following the death in childbirth of Susannah Allen on 24 October 1789, Davis cared for her daughter, Rebekah, until she also died on 1 February 1790. On 4 March 1790 Davis was sent to Norfolk Island on the Sirius. She left the island in March 1793, having completed her sentence, by the Kitty. In 1801 she was listed as 'gone to England'. She returned to New South Wales and, listed as a widow, married Martin Mintz, a widower, at Sydney on 9 January 1811; Mary Marshall was her witness. She died on 11 November 1828. It is said that she had returned to England three times. Frances was buried in the same grave as her friend Mary Marshall.

* information from Mollie Gillen, The Founders of Australia: A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet (1989), p 97