Misery And Grief Stalk Heady History Of Land

Newcastle Herald

Thursday April 10, 2008

By FRANCES THOMPSON

HELEN Walker's family history sounds exciting pirates captured her great-great-great-grandmother in the Caribbean but she says the reality represents the untold misery of European women who helped to settle Australia.

Female convicts, including her ancestor Susannah Lillamont, had such a tough time, Mrs Walker said yesterday.

"They had so little," she said.

Mrs Walker and her granddaughter have made 30 women's bonnets, representing the convict experience.

The bonnets will be used in a memorial service at St John's Anglican Cathedral, Parramatta, today.

"They [convict women] have never been honoured in any shape or form," Mrs Walker said.

She and her husband, who live near Scone, were related through Susannah Lillamont and are fifth cousins, she said.

Susannah Lillamont arrived in NSW in 1814 after her ship was captured by pirates in the Caribbean and she spent almost a year living there, Mrs Walker said.

Her research said Susannah took the blame for a crime committed by her father, who had had a conviction against him and would face capital punishment.

Susannah and her husband settled in St Albans, on the Great North Road, where they built an inn.

She died after the birth of her eighth child.

© 2008 Newcastle Herald

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