Michael (convict third fleet) Lamb

  General Notes:

source: Keith Shrimpton where it is noted:
Michael Lamb: - arrived ar a Third Fleet convict on the "Gueen" on the 26/9/1791.
Source: - The Pragmatic Pionees
Page 92/93/94
Michael Lamb was born about 1773 probably in Dublin and was convicted at that place in October 1790. How he offended is unknown. He was sentenced to seven years Penal Servitude
and Transportation and arrived on the Queen a vessel of the Third Fleet. The Queen was the first ship to bring convicts from Ireland to New South Wales. She sailed from Cork in April 1791 and arrived in Port Jackson on 26th September of that year.

Apparently a tailor by trade, he was to follow this occupation at least on a part-time basis for much of his life. By 1802 he had purchased a farm on the Hawkesbury, he had a total of twelve and a half acres with ten acres cleared, had planted wheat, barley and maize and had three pigs. He also had a Londoner, Mary Carroll, who arrived on the Lady Juliana in 1790, living on the farm with him. She had been found guilty at the Old Bailey Sessions which
began on 18th April 1787, in company with Hanna Jones, with

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stealing a child's frock to the value of three Shillings, and was sentenced to seven years Transportation. The Judge made some scathing remarks in regard to their crime. What upset him was not the theft of the frock itself, but the fact that the child was still wearing it at the time. After taking the child away and stripping her of the dress, they had abandoned her naked in the street. Four years later in 1806 according to that Muster, Mary Carroll may have been still with him, it is recorded that Michael had female company and he was working for Captain Rowley and living on a farm of seven acres rented from Douglas and Boston.
There are indications that he may have been in turn renting out his own farm to William Drayton and John Martin. What subsequently happened to Mary Carroll is unclear, she does not appear in the 1811 and 1814 Musters under that name, so she may have died or left the Colony. In April 1806 he was in trouble over an allegedly stolen pig, he was possibly involved in one of the many disputes over wandering
domestic animals, that fill the court records of that era.

On 14th January 1811 at St.Matthews Windsor he married Mary Farrell, a convict who arrived on board the Canada on 8th September 1810. She came from the Middlesex Gaol Delivery
and had been sentenced to Seven Years Transportation. Soon after they married Mary is said to have run away with Michael's labourer Thomas King. A child Rebecca was born to Thomas King and a Mary Lamb in 1813. Fate was not kind to
the faithless Mary; she died at Portland Head on 15th February 1815, at the age of forty years. (The entry appears in the St.Matthews Windsor Register).

The third and final woman to come into Michael's life was Susannah Thompson, described in the indents as having a
fair pale complexion, light brown hair and hazel eyes. She was a servant aged twenty-seven years from Dublin; her transgression unknown except it was such that she received
a seven-year Sentence. She arrived on the Francis and Eliza, which sailed from Cork Ireland on 5th December 1814 and arrived at Port Jackson on 8th August 1815. Four months later, on 13th November, she and Michael were married at St.Matthews Windsor.

By this time Michael the tailor had turned farmer and was a solid citizen. He served on the jury at the Coroner's Inquest into the murder of Richard Evans in 1813 and the
inquests into the accidental drownings of John Pollard and Matthew Everingham in 1817.

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By 1828 according to that Census, Michael was well established on his farm of one hundred and ten acres on the Hawkesbury opposite Maun's Point, (William Sherwin's grant of one hundred and fifty acres) a short distance West of it's junction with the Colo. He had forty acres under cultivation and twelve-head of cattle.

Michael and Susannah had three children, John born in 1816, (he was to take over his father's property when he died) Mary in 1818, (she was to marry Thomas Christie) and Michael Junior in 1820. According to family legend, Susannah eventually deserted the family for the bright lights of Sydney; her subsequent fate is unknown. She can not have been so badly thought of by her children however, her daughter Mary apparently named her first born daughter Susannah after her. Michael died in 1860 and was buried in a small isolated cemetery on the Northern-side of the Hawkesbury at Half Moon Reach. His headstone can still be found there.

Michael had a relationship with Mary (convict second fleet) Carroll. (Mary (convict second fleet) Carroll was born circa 1780.)

  Noted events in their marriage were:

• fact: lived together only.

Michael next married Mary (convict) Farrell on 14 Jan 1811 in St Matthews R C, Windsor, NSW Australia. (Mary (convict) Farrell was born circa 1775 and died on 15 Feb 1815 in St Matthews R C, Windsor, NSW Australia.)

Michael next married Susannah (convict) Thompson on 13 Nov 1815 in St Matthews R C, Windsor, NSW Australia. (Susannah (convict) Thompson was born circa 1770.)