ELIZABETH
(BRUCE) FLEXMORE
- LADY PENRHYN
- this story is under review by Membership Team
Elizabeth Bruce was baptised at St George's, Stepney,
London, in 1757. She was a hawker selling soap on the streets of Wapping
when she stole three linen tablecloths, value 15 shillings and two aprons,
value five shillings, from a laundry basket. She was tried at the Old
Bailey in January 1787 and sentenced to seven years transportation.
She was 29 years old when put on board
Lady Penrhyn
for the voyage to Botany Bay. Two months after her arrival
she married convict John Anderson, and in October they were sent to
Norfolk Island, where John became a settler and Elizabeth bore him three
children, William, Daniel and John. Around 1796, John Anderson disappeared
from her life.
Elizabeth found a new protector in Francis Flexmore, a
convict who had arrived in the colony on
Neptune.
Two sons, George and Francis, were born to this union. When
the settlement on Norfolk Island was being closed down, Elizabeth, her
husband and the five children were transferred to Van Diemen's Land,
arriving on
City of Edinburgh
on 2 October 1808. The Flexmore family lived at Glenfern, Kempton, for
many years and were successful farmers.
Francis and Elizabeth died in the same year, 1835, and were
buried in St Mary's Church Cemetery at Kempton. Their headstone is lying
horizonal at ground level and is now legible only to a dedicated
archeologist.
In 1988 the Fellowship dedicated a
memorial plaque to Elizabeth, fixed to her headstone.
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