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Elizabeth Pipkin (c. 1765–1801)

Elizabeth Pipkin (c.1765-1801) was found guilty on 25 February 1787 at the Westminster Sessions of the Peace of stealing, with a female companion, a silver watch from a house. Sentenced to 7 years transportation, she arrived at Sydney aboard the Prince of Wales in January 1788 as part of the First Fleet.

Pipkin was sent to Norfolk Island on the Supply in February 1789. She was sentenced to three dozen lashes on 17 February 1789 for infamous behaviour. Her unnamed child, born on the island, died there on 1 December 1790. (Catherine Pipkin, born on the island in 1793, who also died there during Elizabeth's time, was probably also her daughter.) Ralph Clark commented after the death of Pipkin's first child, 'It is a good thing that it is dead poor thing for the mother took no cear of it'.

Pipkin fainted after receiving six of the 25 lashes ordered for coming to town without leave on 6 June 1791. Clark's comment this time was, 'it is a thousand pittious that She is abandond woman for She is in figure a fine woman and has got a handsom face'. Pipkin returned to Port Jackson on the Reliance in June 1798.

Elizabeth Pipkin died on 16 October 1801 at Sydney.

* information from Mollie Gillen, The Founders of Australia: A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet (1989), p 289

Citation details

'Pipkin, Elizabeth (c. 1765–1801)', People Australia, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://peopleaustralia.anu.edu.au/biography/pipkin-elizabeth-31059/text38432, accessed 29 March 2024.

© Copyright People Australia, 2012

Life Summary [details]

Birth

c. 1765

Death

16 October, 1801 (aged ~ 36)
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Cause of Death

unknown

Passenger Ship
Occupation
Key Events
Social Issues
Convict Record

Crime: theft
Sentence: 7 years