Mary Hyde was born (or baptised) on the 19 February 1779, at Halesowen, Worcestershire, England. Halesowen has now been swallowed up by the city of Birmingham, but would have been a small country town at that time. Her parents were Edward Hyde and Sarah Blunn, both born at Halesowen. Mary was tried on the 21 March 1796, and convicted of theft at Warwick Assizes. Despite an appeal lodged with petitions confirming her good character, Mary was sentenced to 7 years transportation. She left Portsmouth in January 1798, on Britannia II, a vessel of 301 tons. The ship arrived in Sydney on the 18 July 1798. There were 96 female convicts on board the ship, and two died on the voyage. The master was Robert Turnbull. Mary had already been in custody for 2 years. Mary was transported under the name Sarah Blunn, which is her mother’s maiden name. It seems it was common in those days for convicts to use an alias to protect their families at home.

Jean Marginson wrote an article called An Ancestress, in 1974. In it she describes her search for Mary Hyde’s forbears. The details following are from this article.

In 1835, a letter to Sarah Ramsay (Louisa’s sister, married to David Ramsay) revealed that Louisa Lord, who had married Alexander Dick, went to Birmingham to visit her grandmother. A search of the 1841 census found Sarah Hide, born Halesowen age 85, of “independent means”, and living in Halesowen with her daughter Ann and son in law, John Hall who was a nail forger. A search of Parish records found Sarah Hide’s birth, and her marriage to Edward Hide on the 4 September 1778, by licence. Sarah had been born Sarah Blunn, daughter of James Blunn and Eliza, his wife. The same register shows Mary Hide’s baptism as 19^th February 1779.

Edward Hide and Sarah Blunn both signed their allegations for licence by mark, and both stated they were 22 years old. Sarah was baptised on 7 October 1755, and died in August 1841 in Halesowen. James Blunn was buried at Halesowen on 8 December 1780, but Jean found no record of Eliza’s death. Edward and Sarah Hide had a son John baptised in 1781, and a daughter Ann, born about 1800. Within this large gap could have been the birth of Captain William Hyde, who travelled to Australia as master of the “Wave”, arriving on 2 December 1828. (IGI records show his birth as 1783).  He wrote to the Colonial Secretary asking for a grant of land on 26 February 1828. The Wave left Sydney for Hobart, arriving on the 17 January 1828, with Captain Hyde, his wife, Mary Weston, as passengers. The cargo was assigned to Captain Hyde.

William and Mary Hyde’s son Augustus married Melanie Sarah Lord, the daughter of Simeon and Mary’s son Robert Charles Lord. Their daughter Lucy married Edward Lord, Simeon and Mary Lord’s son.

Soon after her arrival in the colony, Mary Hyde came to be living with John Black. The circumstances are not known, but it must have been straight off the ship, as she had a child to him, John Henry Black, in May 1799. On 6 October 1801 she had a second child, Mary Ann. In 1802 John Black was presumed lost at sea when his ship “Fly” did not return from a voyage from Calcutta to Sydney. Mary then came under the protection of Simeon Lord, by then a free man and a successful merchant trader. On 27 October 1814 Mary Hyde and Simeon Lord were married.

In the 1828 Census, there are several anomalies. Mary’s age is given as 40 yrs, free by servitude, came on Britannia 1801, sentenced for 7yrs, Protestant, Macquarie Place, children age 16, 14, 10, 8. Mary would have been 49, and arrived 3 years earlier in 1798. Francis, Edward, George and Robert would have been the children living at home. Sarah and Louisa were married, and Simeon (junior) was living in Tasmania. Thomas would have been 12, but is not recorded.

Mary Hyde died at Banks House Botany on 1 Dec.1864. An exhaustive search for her grave by Shirley O’Donovan and Nancy Patterson has failed to find it.