Mary Bryant

Convict

Arrived on: Charlotte
Sentence and crime: Seven years transportation for assault and robbery
Escaped colony on 28 March 1791

Mary Bryant was the first convict to successfully escape the colony of New South Wales and return to Britain.

David Collins wrote of the brazen getaway in March 1791:

In the course of the night of the 28th, a convict of the name of Bryant…eluded the watch that was kept upon him, and made his escape, together with his wife and two children (one an infant at the breast), and seven other convicts, in a fishing boat. Their flight was not discovered until they had been several hours without the heads.

Against the odds, the party navigated their way to Timor in 69 days, where they posed as shipwreck survivors. After questioning by the Captain of another ship, however, the group finally admitted their story of escape and were arrested. Following the death of her husband, William, and young son, Mary and her daughter were sent to the Cape of Good Hope where they were picked up by the Gorgon on its return voyage to Britain from NSW. The escaped convict’s tale aroused great public interest in England, and Mary was eventually pardoned, in May 1793. 

Source: David Collins, An account of the English colony in New South Wales, T Cadell Jun and W Davies, London, 1798.

Photograph of a wooden model depicting a First Fleet ship.
First Fleet Ships

Charlotte

Ship size length: 32 metres (105 feet); width: 8.5 metres (28 feet); weight: 343 tonnes (338 tons)

Published on 

First Fleet people

Browse all
Portrait of man in uniform with black hat, standing on beach with ship and small boat in background.
First Fleet Ships

Ambition and adventure: the early life of Arthur Phillip

We looked back at the early life of Phillip, who had enjoyed an extraordinary career before he even set foot on a boat bound for Botany Bay

Colour illustration of group of boys.
First Fleet Ships

John Hudson

Described as ‘sometimes a chimney sweeper’, John Hudson was the youngest known convict to sail with the First Fleet

First Fleet Ships

John ‘Black Caesar’

Convict John ‘Black’ Caesar became Australia’s first bushranger when he fled the settlement in December 1795 and led a gang of fellow escapees in the bush surrounding Port Jackson

Adult convict, cropped from larger painted artwork.
First Fleet Ships

James Ruse

Ex-convict James Ruse became the first person in NSW to receive a land grant when Governor Phillip gave him 30 acres at Parramatta in April 1791