Remember Me - Lesley Pearse [190]
Afterthoughts
It was hard for me to leave Mary on the deck of the Anne and Elizabeth. I had become so attached to her that I would have loved to have written an entirely fictional account of her falling in love with John Trelawney on the voyage home. I would also have loved to have taken you to view the joyful reunion with her parents in Fowey, and later to go on to a romantic wedding for her and John, then the birth of a couple of healthy, bonny babies.
But Mary’s story is a true one, and though I have added my own imagination to her personality, her friends and the many hardships she endured so bravely, I have stayed within the historical facts about her and the other main characters who played major roles. Therefore it would be wrong to misrepresent her life after leaving London.
Sadly, nothing is known of what happened to Mary after returning home to Fowey. We know she did collect her annuity from the Reverend John Baron, and this gentleman also wrote to James Boswell on Mary’s behalf to thank him for his kindness, and recorded that she was behaving herself. But there are no records of marriages, births or even deaths that set her firmly in Fowey.
But I think such an intelligent and daring woman would not have wanted to stay for ever in a place where she was gossiped about. If James Boswell’s account of her family’s legacy was true, and there is no reason to doubt it, I think she would have moved away, maybe even overseas.
I do believe too that a woman who was liked and admired by all the men close to her would have married again. I certainly hope she found a good man, and had other children.
James Martin, Sam Broome (who was also known as Butcher), Bill Allen and Nat Lilly finally got their pardon in November, soon after Mary left London. They went straight from Newgate to see James Boswell to thank him for his kindness.
Sam did join the New South Wales Corps, and went back to Australia. Nothing is known of the other three. But I like to think that James Martin either returned to Ireland, having made enough profit from his memoirs to breed horses, or went off to America.
As for James Boswell, sadly he died on 17 May 1795. His family cancelled the annuity to Mary, and although he recorded in his diary that he wrote four pages about ‘the Girl from Botany Bay’, these pages have never been found. But I am sure James rests happily knowing that The Life of Samuel Johnson did indeed become known as the very best biography of all time.
Watkin Tench went on to become something of a hero. He was captured in France, and supposedly escaped from the prisoner-of-war camp. He reached the rank of Major-General. I smiled when I discovered he married an Anna Maria Sargent. Sargent was my maiden name, and my father was a Royal Marine. Watkin and Anna Maria had no children of their own, but adopted his sister-in-law’s four children when her husband died in the West Indies.
Watkin Tench’s journals survived along with those of many other officers who went out to Australia with the First Fleet, and there is no doubt that he was an intelligent, compassionate and fair-minded man.
Mary never divulged who Charlotte’s father was, for Lieutenant Spencer Graham was my own invention. Some people think Watkin Tench was responsible, but I doubt that very much, for he would surely have recorded his anguish at seeing Charlotte’s burial at sea.
I like to think that the good men on that First Fleet, whether felons, officers or Marines, would be proud and pleased to see what a wonderful country Australia is now.
Who knows, maybe Mary slipped back there under another name and her descendants are still there, as brave and resourceful as she was.
Acknowledgements
To Pam Quick in Sydney, New South Wales, not only for all the information, books and pictures you passed on to me about the First Fleet, but for being there for me too. Without your keen interest, generosity with your time, unflagging help and support I could never have finished this book. When I come back to Sydney I owe you a slap-up dinner at least.