Steel, Elizabeth

Deaf convict who at the time of her trial at the Old Bailey, London on 23 May 1787, was described as 'mute by visitation of God'. She was transported for seven years for stealing a silver watch from George Childs, a customer at the public house she worked at as a prostitute. Described as the 'first deaf Australia', after arriving in Sydney she was sent to Norfolk Island. After returning to Sydney, she died and was buried at Old Sydney Burial Ground. In 1991, her headstone was discovered during drainage works under Sydney Town Hall.