George Faulkner arrives in Sydney

George Faulkner's occupation, when he arrived in Port Jackson (Sydney) on 22 November 1822, was listed as coachsmith. He was 19 years old, five feet three and a half inches tall with black hair, grey eyes and a fresh complexion.

On 18 July 1823 he was assigned as a blacksmith to an Alexander McLeod, of Burwood, who commenced payments to the government for him the same day. A week later, he went to Newcastle on the Fame with McLeod. For some reason - the assignment register is hard to decipher - he was returned to Government service, the barracks in Newcastle, on 4 October 1823.

From where I am in Sydney's west, Burwood is only four stops along the suburban train line.

Convict indents, State Records NSW, (Reel 395)
Convict assignment registers, State Records NSW, Location 4/4520 Page No. 67 Entry 723 (Reel 586)

Mary Ann Smith alias Mary Steward

Mary Ann Smith was transported to Australia on the Henry Wellesley, arriving in Port Jackson (Sydney) on 22 December 1837.

On 14 July that year she had been sentenced at Lancaster to 14 years transportation for stealing a cloak. The convict indent describes her as 40 years of age, a widow with four sons and one daughter. She was an American, born in Philadelphia. Unlike most of the women on her ship, she had previous offences, two of them, for which she had been sentenced to seven years and for three weeks.

Mary Ann Smith was a milliner and dress-maker. She was five feet, one and a half inches tall. She had a sallow complexion, brown hair mixed with grey and grey eyes. Her distinguishing marks were a missing top front tooth and a small mark on her cheek.

Glancing at the descriptions of her fellow passengers, it is striking how many of the women on the Henry Wellesley had tattoos. One had a blue mark beneath the eye, some had initials on their upper arms, and several had the same tattoo - five dots and a cross tattooed on the back of their hand.

By 1846 Mary Ann Smith would have been in her late forties - too old, I think, to be the Maria Steward who married George Faulkner and had two children.

Was Maria Steward her real name...

There is a Maria Steward listed on the Ireland-Australia transportation database. It is the alias of a Maria Kane. But there are no details of her age, trial place, trial date, crime or sentence. There is a document reference that could be followed up.

And a Mary Ann Smith who was transported in 1837 used the alias Mary Steward.

http://www.nationalarchives.ie/search/index.php?category=18

Frederick Faulkner and Mary McCarthy

Frederick Faulkner (George and Maria's son) married Mary Elizabeth McCarthy in a Church of England ceremony at Christ Church Cootamundra in 1882. He would have been about 34. She was a widow, from Temora. Her age isn't stated.

Although Frederick gave his occupation as storekeeper, like his brother George he could not write. When it came to signing the certificate he made his mark, a cross, above which are the initials S.B.H. (signed by him?). Mary signed her name.

Both witnesses were from the McCarthy side of the family - Charles Brisbane McCarthy and Ruth Neal McCarthy. Like Mary, they signed their names.

The marriage certificate has a lot of blanks - Frederick and Mary's places of birth, their fathers' names, mothers' names and maiden surnames and fathers' occupations.