People Australia

Elizabeth Stringer (c.1764- ) was found guilty at the March 1788 Gloucester Assizes of stealing a cloth coat, four check window curtains, a linen apron, and a linen napkin. Sentenced to 7 years transportation she was held at Gloucester Castle until she embarked for New South Wales on the Lady Juliana, arriving in Sydney in June 1790 as part of the Second Fleet.

Stringer was sent to Norfolk Island on the Surprize, arriving on 7 August 1790. On 6 December 1790 she was ordered 50 lashes for leaving her workplace, Smith's Farm, without leave and going to town to visit a seaman. In February 1791 she, and Thomas Dixon, were jointly supplied with a sow. The couple settled on a 12 acre plot at Mount Pitt Path in 1792. They were described as married with no children in 1794. They were probably married in the mass ceremony on the island in November 1791.

Thomas Dixon died in May 1802. Elizabeth returned to Port Jackson some time during 1807-10. In 1814 she was a described as a widow, living off stores at Sydney. In the 1822 and 1825 Musters she was listed as the wife of George Tennyson; the couple were married on 28 September 1829 at St James Church, Sydney; her age was given as 58. No further records have been located for the couple.

* information from Michael Flynn, The Second Fleet: Britain’s Grim Convict Armada of 1790 (1993), p 556