A Grave Recalls Australia’s History

The discovery of a woman convict’s grave in the bowels of Sydney’s Town Hall, in the bustling heart of the city, has provided a fascinating insight into Australia’s convict beginnings.

Early in May, workers digging trenches for the Town Hall’s restoration unearthed a vaulted brick grave, with a headstone on top of it, clearly from the very early days of the colony when the site was its first cemetery.

Inside were the remains of a brass-studded coffin and the skull and bones of a woman.

At first the headstone was believed to be bare, but careful inspection by archeologists revealed it was inscribed: “In Memory of Elizh Steel, died 1797.”

This was just nine years after Sydney was founded, on Jan. 28, 1788, making it one of the oldest finds of white Australian history.

Michael Flynn, whose master of arts thesis for Sydney University covered all 1,200 convicts of the second convict fleet of 1790, tracked down Elizabeth Steel’s pathetic personal history from English and Australian records.

On Jan. 22, 1787, Elizabeth, then age 21, was involved in an incident in a London East End inn that led to her transportation to Australia as a convict.

According to Flynn, Elizabeth, or Elizh as she was called on her headstone, and another woman took two drinking shoemakers to a “room upstairs”--apparently a brothel.

When the other woman went off to fetch some gin, Elizabeth became embroiled in a noisy dispute with one of the men who ran down with a bloodied mouth crying: “Blast me, she has my watch.”

Flynn said it was likely the dispute was over payment for her services as a prostitute.

The man, George Childs, said in court that “Betty” had declared as she seized his watch: “Damm my eyes, I’ll have it.”

When she came to trial at London’s Old Bailey in October, 1787, she was found guilty of stealing a watch, valued at 30 shillings, and sentenced to transportation for seven years.

Almost immediately after her arrival in Sydney aboard the Lady Juliana in 1790, she was further transported to Norfolk Island, where she lived with an Irish weaver and First Fleet convict, James Mackey (or Mackie), but in July, 1794, she returned to Sydney, apparently alone.

In November, 1794, Mackey, whose sentence had expired, followed her to Sydney, though whether their relationship resumed is unclear.

The cause of her death, at age 31, is unknown.

“Gravestones were not totally uncommon for convicts,” said Flynn. “The mystery is who put the headstone there. My guess is that it was James Mackey.”

“Sydney was beginning to prosper and it was not too costly to have a piece of sandstone cut out and carved.”

Town Hall officials said Elizabeth’s grave will not be further disturbed and will be covered over again as restoration progresses. But her headstone and other relics will be part of a permanent exhibition so that Elizabeth and her tragic life will never be forgotten.