AustLit

‘Margaret Catchpole, you have been found guilty of the crime of horse stealing. You will be taken from this place, back to the prison whence you came, and there to a place of execution, and there to be hanged by the neck until you are dead, and may God have mercy on your soul.’ For love of a sailor, turned smuggler, Margaret Catchpole, a law abiding, religious young woman, found herself condemned to death. Yet, she would live to be transported, for life, to the colony of New South Wales where she became servant, shopkeeper, midwife, heroine and a household name. This is the story of an illiterate Suffolk maid who became a legend and has left us with one of the few convict accounts of life in the penal colony of New South Wales on the other side of the world.' (Synopsis)