Orphan, horse thief, convict, wife and mother, businesswoman and pillar of colonial society. The amazing story of Mary Reibey
Mary Reibey was born on May 12th in Bury, Lancashire and baptized as Molly Haydock. Her family were middle class
yeomanry and were moderately well off. Both her parents died while she was still a child and she was raised by her grandmother. She attended Blackburn Grammar School. Later she was sent into service. In 1790 her grandmother died and Mary left Lancashire.
She was arrested at Stafford for horse stealing in July 1790. When arrested, she was dressed as a boy and went by the name of James Burrows. It was not realized that she was a girl till the time of her trial on August 24th 1791. She was sentenced to transportation for seven years. Along with 46 other female convicts and 299 male convicts she was sent to the penal colony of Sydney on the 941 ton East Indianmen Royal Admiral and arrived in October 1792.
Upon her arrival she wrote a somewhat upbeat letter to her aunt in England, Penelope Hope.
She was assigned as a nursemaid in the household of Major Francis Grose, commander of the NSW Corps. On the journey out from England Mary had met 25 year old Irishman Thomas Reiby, a junior officer and trader working
for the East India Company. On September 1st 1794 they were married. Thomas Reibey was one of the first free settlers in the new colony. He was given land in the Hawkesbury area of Sydney and he and Mary established a
grain-carrying business. A few years later he established an importing business on the Sydney waterfront, which he named Entally House after a suburb of Calcutta. By 1803 he owned 3 properties on the Hawkesbury River,
properties in Sydney and three small boats used for transporting wheat, cedar and coal in the Newcastle and Hawkesbury areas. Both Thomas and Mary Reibey were astute enough to avoid becoming involved in the ongoing
conflicts between the colonial government and the officers of the NSW Corps. The Reibeys had seven children, three boys and four girls: Thomas, James, George, Celia, Eliza, Jane Penelope and Elizabeth.
In 1806 there were major floods in the Hawkesbury area and Thomas Reibey rescued several people. The story of the rescue was published in the Sydney Gazette and NSW Advertiser of 6th April 1806.
The particulars relating to the death of the late unfortunate John Chapman Morris and William Green are as follows: — The boat they were in contained 8 persons, among whom was T. Reiby, the only one that could swim. — Morris steered the boat, and accidentally drove her against a bough that had fallen into the river, occasioning a rent through
which the water poured. Reiby would have stopped the leak with his handkerchief, and thus have gained time to get on shore, as the distance was trifling; it was prevented by the terrible consternation that seized the whole of his companions, who rushing forward weighed down the gunnel of the boat, under which one of the streaks being open, she tilted in an instant. They all called on Reiby for assistance, and were almost one and all about to grasp hold of him; but conscious that inevitable death must be the consequence to himself as well as them, he threw himself into the water, and passed under the boat, expecting if they saw him rise they would leap towards him, and by an overstrained exertion accomplish what their terrors seemed to ? : — he rose under the bow, and got hold of the end of the peinter, with which he struck, off towards the nearest bank, and towed her within a few yards of shallow water ; but much embarrassed by the weight of his cloaths and boots, was obliged to relinquish his hold : — As soon as he gained the bank he assured them he would yet save the whole if they would summon a moment’s patience : — their outcries were at this moment dreadful ; they were all standing in the boat, which sunk gradually; Reiby tore up a sapling, and wading as far as he could, presented the end of it to four alternately, and by this means saved their lives ; a fifth managed to gain the bank without assistance; Reiby, as soon as he had disengaged the bough from the last, again plunged in; they had unfortunately all sprung towards the bough as soon as it was presented; and the two deceased persons had kept above water till the other four were saved; Reibey made towards Morris, whose cries for help had not yet ceased ; but unhappily assistance came too late one single instant! — his hat alone was not to be seen. — This likewise was the case with Green, who has left a widow and three helpless infants to deplore his loss.
In October 1809, Thomas Reiby made a business trip to Bengal. He
returned in March 1810 and died from sunstroke in April 1810.
After the death of
her husband, Mary Reibey was left in charge of the various family businesses. She proved to be a very capable administrator and the businesses prospered. She bought several more ships as well as land and buildings. Unlike many of the other enterpreneurs in colonial Sydney she was reluctant to engage in litigation although she did resort to it when necessary. She sometimes used a more direct approach with respect to difficult business affairs. In May 1817 she was found guilty of an assault on one of her debtors. Mr. John Walker.
Despite having been married, served her sentence, and being a wealthy member of colonial Sydney, Mary Reibey’s name appears as Mary Haydock in this 1814 convict muster. The last column also lists her as “Widow Reibey”. She was now a wealthy member of the colonial Sydney establishment and was estimated to be worth £20,000 in 1817. This is equivalent to $3,500,000 today.
In 1820, along with two of her daughters, Celia and Elizabeth, she triumphantly returned to England. She kept a journal of this visit which included visiting her home town of Bury in Lancashire, having her portrait painted and visiting various places in England and Scotland. She returned to Sydney in 1821 and resumed her business activities which continued to prosper.
Legally, Mary Reibey was an emancipist, a convict who had served their sentence. This slightly disreputable status did not prevent her becoming a respectable member of colonial Sydney society. However, there is some evidence that she was a little uneasy about her convict origins. In the 1828 census, she ensured that she was recorded as having arrived “free” in Australia. She died in 1855 at the age of 78.
Mary Reibey had twenty five grandchildren. There are several streets and other landmarks in Sydney named after her. Her eldest son, Thomas Haydock Reibey migrated to Tasmania and was Premier of the state for a short time.
