On 19 October 1791, the marriage of a Robert Forster to a woman named Mary Frost was recorded in the parish registers of St Philip's Church of England in Sydney.[1] Robert made his mark but Mary signed her name, unusual for women in Sydney at that time..
Who was Robert’s bride? When 'Robert Forrester, First Fleeter' was published in January 2009, it contained an Appendix canvassing Mary's possible identity (Appendix 3). With a Second Edition of the book nearing completion, that Appendix has been omitted to allow space for new material.
Despite extensive research for the Second Edition, we still don't know who Mary was.
Here's why.
1. Mary Frost/Forrester
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| Excerpt from Parish Registers, St Philip's Sydney, SAG Film 90, Mitchell Library |
Who was Robert’s bride? When 'Robert Forrester, First Fleeter' was published in January 2009, it contained an Appendix canvassing Mary's possible identity (Appendix 3). With a Second Edition of the book nearing completion, that Appendix has been omitted to allow space for new material.
Despite extensive research for the Second Edition, we still don't know who Mary was.
Here's why.
1. Mary Frost/Forrester
Living on Norfolk Island at the end of 1791 were Robert Forrester and his wife Mary Frost, fresh from their marriage in Sydney.
Proof of Robert’s arrival on Norfolk Island comes from the government’s victualling lists, giving his date of arrival as 4 November 1791, aboard Atlantic.
In another government list, those aboard the Atlantic included 10 ‘male convicts become settlers’ (one being Robert Forrester), no free women, 13 female convicts and 3 children of convicts.[2] It’s the only evidence we have that Mary must have been a convict. Her transport ship and date of arrival in Sydney remains unknown.
Mary’s arrival at Norfolk Island with Robert on 4 November 1791 is taken as a fact, as he was recorded as a married man there on 5 November. [3] He was also recorded as a married man in a list dated 6 December, that list included in correspondence dated 29 December 1791.[4] From this date Mary disappears from the records.
Her husband Robert Forrester is recorded in the Norfolk Island Victualling Book throughout 1792 with an arrival date of 4 November 1791 and a departure date of 9 March 1793.[5] But no-one named Mary Frost was listed as an arrival or as a departure on those dates, making her an example of ‘a number of major errors and missing people in the Norfolk Island Victualling Book, 1792 - 1796’.[6]
Unfortunately, this means that Mary, an unlisted arrival in NSW, with no specific record of her presence or death on Norfolk Island, or her departure from there, is unlikely ever to be identified.
The material which follows proves that she could not have been one of the three other women named Frost already living on Norfolk Island when she arrived there in November 1791. Two of these women were named Mary Frost and one was named Frances Frost. They’d been there for 18 months, being shipped there from Sydney on 7 August 1790 aboard the Surprize, the Second Fleet transport vessel making its homeward journey via Norfolk Island.
2. Mary Frost/Peck
Surprize definitely brought the Mary Frost who was tried at Thetford in Norfolk on 19 March 1789, for the theft of wearing apparel and some flour, and was then reprieved from a death sentence to transportation for 7 years. She arrived in Sydney in June 1790 aboard the Second Fleet ship Neptune and two months later was sent to Norfolk Island aboard Surprize. There she teamed up with Joshua Peck, married him in November 1791 and had a number of children, the eldest being John, born on Norfolk Island in 1792 but too young to make an appearance in the victualling records before the Pecks left for Sydney in 1793.[8]
In 1792 the Norfolk Island Victualling Book records her as one of two convict women named Mary Frost being fed from the government store, both women having arrived on the island on 7 August 1790 aboard Surprize.[9] Read on - the other Mary was not Robert's wife.
The Norfolk Island Victualling Book 1792-1796 shows this Mary Frost {i.e. Joshua Peck's wife) receiving rations for a total of 365 days in 1792 and 89 days in 1793.[10] Her husband also received rations for 365 days in 1792 and for 89 days in 1793, with his record showing the Pecks leaving Norfolk Island aboard Chesterfield on 30 March 1793.[11] Victualling records prove that the Pecks with their children returned to the island some years later. Only one Mary Frost was still ‘on stores’ in the Muster taken in February 1805 on Norfolk Island.[12] This ‘woman from sentence expired’ would have been Joshua Peck’s wife.
Mary and her husband Joshua Peck and their children were resettled in Tasmania at the end of 1807.[13] Mary Peck/Frost’s life on Norfolk Island, in New South Wales, back on Norfolk Island and then in Tasmania has been well tracked by others until her death in Tasmania in 1847.
3. Mary Frost
From later records, the second Mary Frost on Norfolk Island appears to have been an unlisted arrival in Sydney on 3 June 1790 aboard the Lady Juliana, the so-called ‘floating brothel.[14] Victualling records show her as arriving on Norfolk Island aboard Surprize on 7 August 1790, receiving either full or meat only rations for a total of 365 days in both 1792 and 1793, and full rations for 365 days in both 1794 and 1795.[15] No details of her crime, trial or sentence are known.
It’s possible that Mary was the mother of a mysterious convict’s child named Mary Frost, added in 1792 to the bottom of a page in the Norfolk Island Victualling Book with no other details.[16] Her listing in the Mutch Index as born on the island in November 1791 is an estimated date of birth.[17] It’s possible that baby Mary was born during or soon after the voyage of the Lady Juliana in 1790.
Mary Frost Snr is assumed to be the mother of a convict’s child named Sarah Frost, who was born on the island on 17 June 1791, ten months after Mary arrived there, and died there on 23 October 1795 according to victualling records.[18]
Unless she made a trip to Sydney after 17 June 1791 and before October 1791, this Mary Frost could not have been marrying Robert Forrester and signing her name on the marriage register in Sydney on 19 October 1791, as she’d been living on Norfolk Island since August 1790. Rations issued to her indicate that she did not leave the island from the start of 1792 through to the end of 1795. However Norfolk Island researcher Cathy Dunn has listed Mary Frost, convict, Mary Frost, convict’s child and Sarah Frost, convict’s child among 62 passengers aboard the Atlantic when it sailed from Norfolk Island to Port Jackson (Sydney) on 21 September 1792.[19]
Rations issued indicate that Mary (on full rations) and her daughter Sarah (on half rations) soon returned to Norfolk Island (if they ever left, because there are no gaps in issuance of mother Mary’s rations).[20] Babies Mary and Sarah did not draw rations in 1792 but baby Mary didn’t draw rations later either, suggesting that she never returned to the island with her mother and sister. Baby Sarah drew half-rations for most of 1793 (from around the time she turned two?), all of 1794 and up until the 296th day of 1795, 23 October, the day 4-yr-old Sarah died.
Still living on Norfolk Island at the end of 1800 was settler Mary Frost, pardoned by Governor King on 16 December 1800.[21] She’d arrived in Sydney on the Lady Juliana in June 1790 after trial in 1787.[22] Her benefactor, the newly-arrived Governor King, now living in Sydney, would have known her during his previous role as Lieutenant Governor on Norfolk Island. As the other Frost women who’d lived on the island (Mary Frost/Peck and Frances Frost) did not need a Pardon, their sentences of 1788 and 1789 having long-since expired, the pardon must connect to this ‘mystery’ lady. With no subsequent references to her, it could be that she took the surname of her unknown husband, or permanently left the colony.
In New South Wales, a Mary Foster was buried on 1 December 1801, not described as a convict or as a wife, as some others were at the time, just as a ‘woman’ whose abode was Sydney.[25] The 1800-1802 Muster book records the death of two adults named Mary Foster, on 1 December 1801 and 30 December 1801, but the second Mary is not listed in parish burial records and could be a duplicate of the first burial.[26] She appears to have been the Mary Foster who arrived aboard Britannia on 27 May 1797 after being tried at Dublin City in January 1796 and sentenced to 7 Years.[27] The Mary Forster who died in Sydney Hospital aged 51 in September 1826 was a convict who’d arrived aboard Indispensable in 1809.[28]
4. Frances Frost
Lady Juliana also brought Frances Frost from England. At her trial at the July 1788 Devon Assizes held at Exeter, 20-yr-old Frances Frost received a 7 year sentence.[29] Her crime was the theft of a linen gown and other items.[30] Peter Selley, from Devon in England, advises that Frances was born in 1768 in Sandford, Devon as the seventh child of Francis Frost and his wife Sarah nee Collins. Her victim was young Jane or Jenny Drake, born in 1771, the eldest of four daughters of the local miller. Jane married Richard Browne, in 1802.[31]
Frances, living on Norfolk Island from August 1790, had at least one child, a ‘convict’s child’ named Margaret Frost who was born on the island on 21 Dec 1793.[32] Peter Selley has located a separate published record for the father of another daughter Sarah, born 17 June 1791, died 23 October 1795, the father's name given as John Frith and rations are issued in Sarah's name for most of 1793, all of 1794 and up to her death in 1795.[33] Margaret’s rations issued in 1794 and 1795 fitted the pattern for Frances Frost, who received stores continuously through 1792, 1793, 1794 and for 310 days in 1795.[34] Frances Frost, a married woman who’d arrived in Sydney on the Lady Juliana in 1790 and on Norfolk Island on 7 August 1790, departed Norfolk Island after November 1795.[35] With Margaret, Frances departed from Norfolk Island on 6 November 1795 on the Supply.[36] Frances returned to Norfolk Island and was back on stores on 1 October 1796.[37] This is the date noted for the birth of her third daughter, the second Sarah (alias Elizabeth Frost, according to the Biographical Database of Australia), father once again listed as John Frith, about whom nothing is known.[38] The convict’s child receiving rations from that same date was listed as Sarah Frost, not Margaret.[39] Does this mean the almost 3-yr-old Margaret had been left behind in Sydney, or had died?
Frances, living on Norfolk Island from August 1790, had at least one child, a ‘convict’s child’ named Margaret Frost who was born on the island on 21 Dec 1793.[32] Peter Selley has located a separate published record for the father of another daughter Sarah, born 17 June 1791, died 23 October 1795, the father's name given as John Frith and rations are issued in Sarah's name for most of 1793, all of 1794 and up to her death in 1795.[33] Margaret’s rations issued in 1794 and 1795 fitted the pattern for Frances Frost, who received stores continuously through 1792, 1793, 1794 and for 310 days in 1795.[34] Frances Frost, a married woman who’d arrived in Sydney on the Lady Juliana in 1790 and on Norfolk Island on 7 August 1790, departed Norfolk Island after November 1795.[35] With Margaret, Frances departed from Norfolk Island on 6 November 1795 on the Supply.[36] Frances returned to Norfolk Island and was back on stores on 1 October 1796.[37] This is the date noted for the birth of her third daughter, the second Sarah (alias Elizabeth Frost, according to the Biographical Database of Australia), father once again listed as John Frith, about whom nothing is known.[38] The convict’s child receiving rations from that same date was listed as Sarah Frost, not Margaret.[39] Does this mean the almost 3-yr-old Margaret had been left behind in Sydney, or had died?
To conclude, the old Appendix 3 information about Mary Frost, as published in 2009 and uploaded to this blog on 12 December 2018, badly needed revising and this current post is the result of that work. Hopefully it clarifies the confusion about the four women named Frost who lived on Norfolk Island in the early 1790s. I believe it eliminates three of them as the potential wife of Robert Forrester. We are left wondering who she was and what happened to her. I thank Cathy Dunn of Australian History Research, a specialist researcher into Norfolk Island history, for her input into some of the points I raised with her
Endnotes
[1] PRs, St Philip’s, Sydney, SAG Film 90, ML
[2] HRNSW Vol 1 Part 2, p 561, ‘State of the Settlements at Port Jackson and Norfolk Island the 18th of November, 1791’
[3] Bigge's Appendix, Return of Lands Granted in His Majesty's Territory of New South Wales, 5 Nov 1791, Ref A2131 CY Reel 727, p 61, ML
[4] Bigge's Appendix, A List of Persons Settled on Norfolk Island who have not got their grants, 29 Dec 1791, Ref A2131 CY Reel 727, p 55, ML
[5] Norfolk Island Victualling Book, 1792 - 1796, p 28b, A1958, ML (microfilm copy in State Records NSW at SR Reel 2747 and at SLV, GM)
[7] Research of Cathy Dunn, http://www.australianhistoryresearch.info/surprize-to-norfolk-island-august-1790/ , accessed 2 Feb 2019
[8] Flynn, Michael, The Second Fleet, Britain's Grim Convict Armada of 1790 (Library of Australian History, Sydney, 1993), pp 280-281
[9] Norfolk Island Victualling Book 1792-1796, p 59b & p 60a, GM 115, SLV
[12] Baxter, Carol J, (Ed), Muster of New South Wales and Norfolk Island, 1805-1806 (ABGR in assoc with SAG, Sydney 1989), Ref D0517 p 195
[13] Departed Norfolk Island 26 Dec 1807 aboard Porpoise, ‘Convict Settlement on Norfolk Island’, Compiled by Kaye Vernon, SRNSW, 2012, p 260
[14] Recommendations for Absolute Pardons, 1826-1846, NRS 1179, Australian Convict Conditional and Absolute Pardons, 1791-1867, SRNSW, Reel 800
[19] Research of professional Norfolk Island researcher Cathy Dunn on her Australian History Research website http://www.australianhistoryresearch.info/atlantic-from-norfolk-island-to-port-jackson-september-1792/, accessed 31 Jan 2019
[21] Baxter, Carol J, (Ed), Musters and Lists, New South Wales and Norfolk Island, 1800-1802 (ABGR in assoc with SAG, Sydney 1988), Governor King’s Lists 1801, List 6, Ref BF088, p 119
[22] Recommendations for Absolute Pardons, 1826-1846, NRS 1179, Australian Convict Conditional and Absolute Pardons, 1791-1867, SRNSW, Reel 800
[24] Tasmanian Pioneer Index, 1803-1899, Archives Office of Tasmania, CDROM 2003, at SLV
[26] Baxter, Muster, 1800-1802, King’s Lists 1801, List 9, General Return of Deaths in the Territory of New South Wales from 1st September 1800 to 31st December 1801, Refs BJ087 & BJ095, p 129
[30] Convict Records website, https://convictrecords.com.au/convicts/frost/frances/129072, accessed 7 Feb 2019
[31] Email from Peter Selley to Louise Wilson, 16 Apr 2019
[32] Norfolk Island Victualling Book 1792-1796, p 81a, GM 115, SLV
[33] Norfolk Island Victualling Book 1792-1796, p 76a, GM 115, SLV and Donohoe, James Hugh, Births in Australia, 1788-1828, (J S Shaw North Publishing, 2004), p 186
[31] Email from Peter Selley to Louise Wilson, 16 Apr 2019
[32] Norfolk Island Victualling Book 1792-1796, p 81a, GM 115, SLV
[33] Norfolk Island Victualling Book 1792-1796, p 76a, GM 115, SLV and Donohoe, James Hugh, Births in Australia, 1788-1828, (J S Shaw North Publishing, 2004), p 186
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