Morgan, Mary (Molly)

Dressmaker convicted of stealing hempen yarn from a bleaching factory. After arriving in Sydney, she was sent to Parramatta where she and her husband opened a small shop. In 1794, she escaped the colony and worked as a dressmaker in Plymouth, England and bigamously married another man. Her husband accused her of burning down their home and she was found guilty at the Croydon Sessions and once again transported. In Sydney she acquired a protector and was given land and cattle near Parramatta but was sent to Newcastle penal settlement after she branded the cattle as her own. After receiving a ticket-of-leave in 1819, she was given land which she farmed herself at Wallis Plains. She opened a wine shanty, was granted more land at Anvil Creek and opened the Angel Inn in Maitland which, by the 1820s, made her a wealthy woman. Wallis Plains became known as Molly Morgan's, however, during her final years her wealth was dramatically reduced.