People Australia

Mary Newton was found guilty on 7 August 1787 at the Warwick Assizes of privately stealing goods from a shop. Her death sentence was commuted to 7 years transportation. She arrived in Sydney aboard the Lady Juliana in January 1788 as part of the First Fleet.

Newton married Patrick Burn on 29 July 1790. Following her husband's death a year later she lived in Sydney as a widow, known as Mrs Mary Newton. She built up a business in her own right as a baker and victualler. By 1801 she was employing two men and owned the Red Lion in Sydney. In July 1806 she advertised that she was returning to England and left her entire estate to John Collingwood. Newton returned to New South Wales on the Indian in 1810. She married George Parsons, a musician, on 1 April 1811 and died the next month. She was buried on 3 May 1811 at Sydney; her age was given as 45

* information from Michael Flynn, The Second Fleet: Britain’s Grim Convict Armada of 1790 (1993), pp 459-60