Anthony ROPE, born c 1759 , Rochford, Essex England ( parents unknown at this stage ) occupation labourer, committed for trial on charge of "break and enter" and stealing from Robert Gosling goods to value of 42 shillings and 6 pence, and from Robert Bradley goods and coin to value of 16 shillings. Tried at Chelmsford on 10 March 1785 and found guilty of stealing goods to value of 35 shillings and not guilty of " break and enter ".

Sentence--7 years transportation. He was 26 when incarcerated on the hulk Justica, moored on the Thames. At Portsmouth, Capt Phillip R.N. was assembling a fleet bound for Botany Bay. The largest transport in the fleet was the Alexander to which Anthony was transferred on 6 January 1787.

Elizabeth PULLEY / POOLEY / POWLEY, born c 1761 probably in Norfolk, England, ( parents may have been John Pulley and Ann Massfams who were married 25 Oct 1756, still to be confirmed ).

After being charged three times with stealing, being found guilty twice, and serving 3 weeks at Wymondham, Bridewell and 12 months at Aylsham, Elizabeth was again in trouble--this time serious trouble. On 14 March 1783, she was tried at Thetford Assize, Norfolk for burgling the home/shop of Elizabeth Mimms at midnight on 24 December 1782 and stealing diverse foodstuffs and 2 rolls of worsted. She was found guilty and sentenced to be hung. In November 1783 her sentence was commuted to transportation for 7 years. Elizabeth was held at Norwich Castle from her arrest until 21 October 1786. Fellow inmates included young Henry Cable and Susannah Holmes--among the first couple to be married at Sydney Cove.

Elizabeth, together with Susannah Holmes and Ann Turner, was Transferred to the Dunkirk, a hellish hulk at Plymouth. Susannah Holmes had been forced to leave her baby with the father, Henry Cabell, back in Norwhich Castle. That is another story--a Cabell story.
On 11 March 1787 all three women--Susannah now had her baby--were transferred to the Friendship, one of the ships of the First Fleet assembled at Portsmouth. The fleet departed 12 May 1787. Even before the fleet departed, Elizabeth and three other women were granting the sailors sexual favors, almost certainly in return for something. Elizabeth continued to misbehave on the voyage. At Cape Town, all the women from the Friendship were transferred to other ships to make way for livestock. Elizabeth reached Port Jackson on the Prince of Wales.

Elizabeth was among the convict women landed on 6 February 1788. During an awesome summer storm late that afternoon, in Governor Phillip's words: "The male convicts unleashed frustration's built up in the 12 months they had been chained below decks, broke loose from their temporary goal yard and into the women's camps". Anthony "seduced" Elizabeth. They were married on 19 May 1788 and their first child, Robert, was born 30 October 1788. Their marriage was full of drama, but that and their subsequent lives together is another story--not a story of their crimes.