HEBBORN FAMILY HISTORY & NEWS - December 2002

HANNAH EBBON [etc] CAN YOU HELP?

I received a fascinating e-mail from Lisa Irving in Australia. The story is too good to keep to myself, and with Lisa's permission, it is passed on to you all.

Hello All,

I have read your page with great interest! I have been researching my GGGG Grandmother, one Hannah Ebbon/Ebborn/Hibbon/Hebben/Hebbern who was transported to the colonies (Port Jackson in Sydney to be exact) in 1831.

I've had some fun (?) with the variation in names…the convict indents, permission to marry, marriage certificates, death certificate, husband's death certificate are all in a variation on the same.

The facts about Hannah that I have discovered:

Hannah was born in Birmingham around 1812. Parents ???

She was tried in Warwick on 3rd August 1831 for the crime of 'manrobbing'. Yes it is what you are thinking… wrong change to a client…

At the time of her arrest (this was her first offence) she was a single woman, employed as a housemaid in Warwick.

Hannah was sentenced to 7 years. She was transported on the 'Pyramus' (1) on 10th November 1831 and arrived in Sydney, NSW on 5th March 1832.  The ship transported 151 women convicts, with 147 surviving the 116 day journey.

According to convict indents, she was 19 years of age on arrival, of Protestant faith, 5'3" tall with a 'fair ruddy complexion' sandy brown hair and brown eyes. As was the custom for convicts of the time, she sported some tattoos… FEALM in a heart with dart on upper left arm. The initials EM on lower left arm and FRE HS on upper right arm. She had a scar on her right cheek.

Hannah married a ticket of leave convict, George Elliott (arrived in NSW 1823 from Derbyshire) on 18th July 1832 in the Parish of Saint James, Sydney. Although her convict indents claim that she could read and write, she signed with an X mark. I believe that lack of education accounts for the many variations of her surname.

Convict women of the time were 'assigned' to their husbands. George has procured his freedom in 1828. It is recorded in the colonial secretary's reports that Hannah 'absconded' from her husband several times in the first two years of their marriage. George was under obligation to report these incidents, and the authorities would arrest her and take her home.  On at least one occasion, she was sentenced to 14 days (on a charge of insubordination, presumably to her husband) as a 'cow keeper for a local family - The Howells.

The irony is that Hannah's grand-daughter (Agnes) was to marry the Howell's grandson (James) in 1892.  My paternal grandfather was a child of that marriage!

Hannah obviously decided that life with George was better than life on the run… they moved to a town called Wollombi in the mid 1830's and produced 13 children between 1835 and 1859, with 7 surviving to adulthood.  Hannah and George became well respected citizens in their area, and ran the local store.

George passed away in 1869. Hannah remarried to William Vile, a free immigrant from Somerset in 1871.  They settled in Leichardt, Sydney, where she lived until her death in 1885.  She is buried in Rookwood cemetery.

At this stage I've been unable to locate Hannah in English records.  The one clue I have is that she had an 'uncle' in the colony - a Joseph Parish, transported in 1818.  The LDS website shows a record of Sarah Ebbern marrying a John Parish at St Laurence, Foleshill, Warwick in 1828.

It is only in the past week that I've been adding the 'r' to variations of Hannah's surname - thanks to discovering the 'r' variations on a recently acquired certificate.

Can you recommend any avenues of search? I would like to secure more information about this fascinating woman. We 'colonials' are very proud of our convict ancestors!

Hoping to hear from you,
Lisa Irving.
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EDITOR’S COMMENTS.

THANK YOU Lisa for a most interesting and well researched piece. I do hope someone will come forward with information to help Lisa trace Hannah's origins. If you can help Lisa please e-mail her at lisairving@fishinternet.com.au I like to think that sharing information and helping each other is what this site is all about.

Transported for seven years for what sounds a pretty minor first offence is unbelievable in this day and age, but I suppose the new life she eventually found down under was better than the near starvation the poor were suffering in 1830's England.

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