Ann Lang, a housemaid, was convicted of stealing money in Limerick, Ireland in 1824. Born in Kilkenny in about 1799, she was transported for life on the Mariner, arriving in New South Wales on 10 July 1825 aged 27 years. The indent of the Mariner described Ann as ‘deranged’ and stated that her husband was a publican in Dublin. Other documents described Lang as having a cast in her left eye, while an 1831 news article stated that her nickname was “Funny Ey’d Anne”.

In 1826, Ann was sent to Port Macquarie for three years for stealing wearing apparel and other items from her mistress. After serving her sentence, she returned to Sydney. In August 1829 Ann applied to marry George Tigley, a convict per the Baring (1819) and in August 1830 she applied to marry Charles Jackson per Anne (1810). Both applications were refused as the indent of the Mariner stated that Ann’s husband was a publican in Dublin.

In fact, as noted in Jennifer Harrison’s 2016 book, Female Convicts at Moreton Bay 1826-1839, Lang may have been married twice in Ireland prior to her transportation to Australia. In attempting to convince the authorities to allow her to marry in New South Wales, Ann stated that her husband Michael McSweeney, a soldier in the 39th Regiment, had been killed at Bergen op Loom in Holland. It is not clear whether Ann’s surname of Lang was her birth surname or that of her second husband, the publican in Dublin referred to in the Mariner indent.

Having been refused permission to marry both Tigley and Jackson, Ann continued her acts of resistance against the convict authorities, as evidenced by her multiple abscondments and gaol sentences. She also took part in a riot at the Parramatta Female Factory in September 1830. The following month she was tried at the Parramatta General Sessions for ‘mutinous and turbulent conduct in the factory and being the ringleader of the 3rd class who attempted to break out’. She was sent to Moreton Bay for three years, finally returning to Sydney on 22 October 1833.

Ann Lang lived less than two years after serving the second of her three-year sentences, dying at the Parramatta Hospital on 24 August 1835 aged 37. She had spent six of her ten years in Australia at the Port Macquarie and Moreton Bay penal settlements and further amounts of time serving shorter sentences in the Sydney Gaol and Parramatta Female Factory.

Citation

Jan Richardson, ‘Ann Lang (1799 – 1835)’, Harry Gentle Resource Centre, Griffith University, 2022, https://harrygentle.griffith.edu.au/life-stories/ann-lang/.