The women of the Female Factory

Of the women convicted and transported to NSW, over 90% had 2 or less convictions, suggesting the majority were not of a crime class.  Over 90% were transported for theft, largely related to common opportunities and items that could easily be exchanged for money in order to survive. The remaining female convicts had been convicted of breaking, vagrancy and violent crimes.

Just over half of the English were literate and just under half of the Irish. There was little difference between convict women’s literacy and that of the general population.

The women brought over 180 trades with them, including the trades of straw plaiting, knitting, spinning and laundry employed in the Factory.

These women were the mothers, sisters, workers, teachers, businesswomen of the colonies. They were the hidden revolution of thought, ideas and actions that became a significant part of the Australian character we are familiar with today.

The women were segregated into three classes - well behaved to poorly behaved. The Merit or First Class women could keep their children with them until the age of four when they were sent to orphanages. The Third or Crime Class women had typically committed crimes in the colony. Accommodation, kitchens and workshops were duplicated to keep the classes separate. The Merit Class were eligible for assignment, e.g. caring for colony families or teaching, or, in the Factory they were employed as hat makers, wool pickers, needleworkers and washed laundry; for all of which they received a small payment. The Crime Class were confined to the Factory, and tasked with breaking stones and oakum picking (caulk for ships).

A man desiring a wife would approach the matron and any of the women willing to be married would be walked past him until someone took his fancy, a process that took up to three days.

October 26, 1827, Riot Day was the day women of the Crime Class rioted in response to reduced rations. Their punishment was a further reduction. Around 100 women broke out of the Factory and went to Parramatta where they were ‘convinced’ by soldiers to return.