Sarah Neale, Convict "Surprize" 1794

From: Flynn, Michael. Settlers and seditionists: the people of the convict ship Surprize 1794. Sydney: Angela Lind, 1994

Sarah Townsend and Sophia Langford were sentenced to death by the Recorder of London on 9 Jan 1793 at the Middlesex Old Bailey sessions for highway robbery. After their arrest on 3 Jan they were held in the New Prison Clerkenwell, whence they were transferred to Newgate Gaol on the 4th ‎(see Langford's record for a full account of the trial)‎. Townsend was described as aged 19, single, born on the Isle of Wight, 5' tall, with dark brown hair, hazel eyes and a fresh complexion. Both were reprieved to transportation for life at the April sessions and remained in Newgate until 10 Feb 1794, when they were diescharged for emabarkation aboard the ship 'Surprize', where she would meet her future husband, William Neale.

By 1796 Sarah Townsend was living with William Neale a soldier and convict. They are recorded living in Sydney district in 1801 and by 1806 were living at Parramatta, with four children ‎(3 male, 1 female, all designated illegitimate by Marsden)‎.

The couple were belatedly married at St Philips Sydney on 19 Mar 1810; he signed his name to the register and she made her X mark. Thomas and Mary Day witnessed the ceremony.

When the NSW Corps returned to England, Neale obtained a discharge from the army in April 1810 in order to remain in the colony. He was ordered an 80 acre land grant in the Airds district in Mar 1811 and was mustered as a landholder there in 1814, living with Sarah Townsend and three children.

In 1816 he was issued with government cattle, to be paid for on credit. By 1822 he is described as a labourer in the same district ‎(and he appears to have owned 50 hogs)‎.

For the 1828 census William Neale was described as a Protestant tenant farmer holding 10 acres ‎(8 of them cultivated)‎ in the Illawarra district aged 64 with his wife Sarah, a Protestant aged 51.