THE CONVICT BED
Jun 22, 2018
3 minutes
By Dr Mike Epworth
Elizabeth Pulley had been rowed ashore after nine months aboard the convict flotilla the First Fleet. She disembarked to stumble into a clearing where her soon-to-be husband, Anthony Rope, had been toiling in the January heat of Sydney Cove. Rope possessed handskills, a rare commodity among the passengers of the First Fleet. Shortly after their first meeting, the pair conceived a child and built a hut with a place to cook. They also possessed a bed.
Pulley and Rope’s crime is revealed in documents, including the testimony of afound near the brickworks. In taking this meat, the convicts were charged with stealing food, a capital offence.
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