Elizabeth Thackery
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Elizabeth Thackery of Manchester, Lancashire was an English convict tried on May 4, 1786, and sentenced to seven years' transportion for the theft of five handkerchiefs to a value of one shilling.[1] She is the last-known female survivor of the First Fleet, and is said to have been the first ashore at Botany Bay when she arrived on January 26, 1788 on the Friendship. This would make her the first white woman to set foot on Australia.
After conviction, she was sent to the hulk Dunkirk.[citation needed] She left England on the convict transport Friendship in May 1787. She was about 20 at the time. She was placed in irons a number of times during the voyage.
After arriving in Australia, she received 25 lashes on July 14, 1791 for coming in from her settlement without permission. She lived for a while with James Dodding and subsequently made her way to van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) on the Porpoise.[citation needed] There she married Samuel King. They settled in the Derwent Valley.
There is a headstone to a "Betty King" in the churchyard of Magra, Tasmania (3 km north of New Norfolk), who was buried August 6, 1856, aged 93.[2]
