ELIZABETH  MURRAY.

ANN WHITE

Ann White was witness to a wedding on September 2, 1790, when an Elizabeth Jones married Daniel Kindling. The bride was not the Elizabeth Jones of the Neptune as she had arrived on Norfolk Island by the Surprize, on August 7, 1790

On July 24, 1791, Ann White gave birth to a daughter, Elizabeth Ann Scott, the daughter of John Scott, a sailor from the Sirius. This child died and was buried on September 6, 1791. John Scott was discharged in October 1791, and he and Ann White sailed for Norfolk Island on the Queen where it was his intention to become a settler. They had no other children.

In a letter dated March 10, 1794, from Lieutenant Governor King to the then Secretary of State, instances are given of difficulties encountered by the administration when some of the New South Wales Corps were sent to the island. He reported that John Scott was fined twenty shillings 'for assaulting a soldier who was on Scott's ground enticing his wife from him' * Ten shillings went to the soldier and ten to the use of the school. On September 26, 1795, John Scott abandoned the notion of becoming a settler, and left the island, bound for Asia.

For some years, Ann White and Sarah Woolley were neighbours on Norfolk Island.

In 1799, Ann White gave birth to a son whose father was Kennedy Murray. He had arrived in Port Jackson on the Pitt and was sent to Norfolk Island on October 1, 1796. On the 4th August 1799 Kennedy jnr was born followed by Elizabeth on the 20th March 1802.  Kennedy Murray left the island a month after the birth of Elizabeth. He settled at "Evan on the Nepean River" (Penrith was originally called Evan), where he was granted 30 acres of land 25th November 1809 (Grant No. 1731.

The great grandson of Kennedy Murray, Henry William Murray, 1st December 1880 became one of the Worlds most highly decorated soldiers. Much has been written about this man but none has truly done justice to his courage.

Richard Sydes arrived in Port Jackson aboard the Ganges in June 1797. He had been convicted in Warwick in August, 1794, and sentenced to transportation for fourteen years. His name appeared in the victualling list for Norfolk Island for 1800-1802. Ann White and Richard Sydes became the parents of three children, and they remained together for the rest of her life, her older children forming part of the Sydes family.

In the 1806 muster Richard Sydes was shown as a Blacksmith on government stores. He later became an overseer of stock.

They did not take part in the early embarkation's to Van Diemens Land in 1807 and 1808 but remained on Norfolk Island for five uneventful years, with the population of the island reduced to about 200. They boarded the government vessel, Lady Nelson, on January 20, 1813, for Port Dalrymple.

One other Neptune, Rebecca Chippenham, remained on the island after 1808, departing in 1810. Both were wives of superintendents.

Ann White and Richard Sydes with their family arrived in Launceston on March 1, 1813. Five children were listed, aged 13, 11, 8, 7, and 2. They celebrated the beginning of a new life by marrying on March 14, 1814, the same day that their two youngest children, one born in Launceston, were baptized.

The Hobart Town Gazette of October 14, 1817 reported a shocking accident by burning to Elizabeth Murray Sydes, a daughter of a superintendent, Richard Sydes.---She is in a dangerous state. In addition to her suffering her sick mother is deprived of the assistance of an industrious girl.---Elizabeth survived, and in time married James Lucas, and became the mother of twelve children. James Lucas was the son of Nathaniel and Olivia Lucas who had also been residents of Norfolk Island transferred to Van Diemens Land. Ann White's youngest daughter, Margaret, married James Lucas's brother Thomas, and had thirteen children. Ann White had at least forty-two grandchildren.

The 1819 muster at Port Dalrymple lists Richard Sydes Ann Sydes and four children, Mary Ann, 15, Ann 12, Thomas, 9, Margaret, 4.

Richard Sydes was employed as superintendent of government blacksmiths at George Town from November 1814 until December 1820.

Ann White died on December 12, 1820, aged 49 years, making her 19 at the date of her arrival in the colony.