People Australia

Mary McCormack (c.1754- ) was found guilty on 12 August 1784 at Liverpool, England, of receiving stolen goods. Sentenced to 7 years transportation, she was received on the Dunkirk hulk on 23 October 1786. Discharged to the Friendship in March 1787, and transferred to the Prince of Wales at the Cape of Good Hope on 28 October 1787, she arrived at Sydney in January 1788 as part of the First Fleet.

McCormack married William Parr on 10 February 1788. Theirs was the first European marriage recorded in the colony; as they both came from Liverpool it is possible they had known each other in England, perhaps in prison. They settled on 50 acres at the Northern Boundary Farms.

No further records have been found for Mary Parr or her husband after 1792. It is likely that they returned to England.

* information from Mollie Gillen, The Founders of Australia: A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet (1989), pp 228-229