Convict Guide - published 2006 - Manual / Resource - Page 74
Guide to New South Wales State archives relating to convicts and convict administration
that an average of 200 women vied for sixty positions'. (Salt, Outcast
Women, p.46). The new Female Factory was built on a site chosen at
Parramatta in 1818. It was designed by Francis Greenway and enclosed
by a high wall. The women convicts moved in during February 1821.
Division of female
convicts into classes
Regulations prepared by Governor Darling divided the women into three
classes and treated each according to the seriousness of their offences.
1st Class
'The 1st Class to be considered as the asylum of Women received into
the Factory on their first arrival from England, or subsequently under
circumstances which they could not control, and for which no blame
could be attached to them.
2nd Class Probationary
The 2nd Class to be Probationary, and will be composed of Women who
after they have been assigned are from the impropriety of their conduct,
returned to Government – also of women degraded from the 1st or
advanced from the 3rd Class.
3rd Class Penitentiary
The 3rd or Penitentiary Class is to be strictly Penal, and composed
exclusively of Women sentenced to be confined there, for any offence
against the Laws, or transgression of the Regulations established for the
Government of Female Prisoners'. (NRS 909, M129, [4/990], 16 August
1823; M130 dated 17 August 1826, [4/990])
Functions of the
Female Factory
The Female Factory was also a 'workhouse, and labour bureau, marriage
bureau, and regulator of morality, gaol and hospital and at the same
time, (was) to relieve the financial burden on the administration of
female convicts and their many children'. (NRS 909, M129 and 130,
[4/990]). The Factory hospital was used by free and convict women
lying in. Children with mothers in the Factory were sent to the Orphan
School at 3 or 4 years of age. (NRS 909, M130, [4/990]).
Appointment of
Matron
In 1824 Elizabeth Fullon was appointed the first Matron of the Female
Factory. She was replaced by Anne Gordon in 1827 and Sarah Bell in
1836. (Kass et al, p.98).
Work at the Female
Factory
At the factory women were employed in weaving, spinning, needlework,
making clothes and taking in washing. (Salt, Outcast Women, pp.1059). Those undergoing hard labour as secondary punishment were
'employed in breaking stones to pave the streets of Parramatta'. (Kass
et al, Parramatta, p.98).
Numbers of female
convicts at the
Factory
When Moreton Bay ceased to act as a penal establishment the 300
female convicts were transferred to the Factory in 1837. (Salt, Outcast
Women, p.53). Governor Gipps wrote in January 1843 that after 'the
discontinuance of assignment, the number of women in the factory
increased rapidly from 800 to above 1200 but by the more extended
issue of tickets of leave, which I have been enabled to make since
immigration ceased, the number is now again reduced to 800. Whilst
immigration was at it height, it was not easy for female ticket of leave
holders to find employment'. (HRA vol. 22, p.458).
Closure of the
Female Factory
The position of Matron was abolished in 1848 and the Female Factory
ceased. The building was then used for the convict and lunatic asylum.
6.2
Indexes to the records
Female Factory Parramatta, 1826–48 – Index to inmates. Compiled
by Norma M Tuck and Joan Reese
Index to the Colonial Secretary's Papers, 1788–25 *ARK and is
available on State Records' website
Colonial Secretary's Correspondence: Index to convicts and others,
1826–77 and ongoing. Compiled by Joan Reese
Colonial Secretary's Correspondence: Index to letters sent re
convicts, 1826–May 1855. Compiled by Joan Reese
State Records Authority of New South Wales
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