Ann was born in 1780 at Haslingden but it is thought that she lived nearby in Rakefoot which is near Crawshawbooth. Ann was baptised around the age of 10 at St James in Haslingden in 1790. Ann was one of six children, the daughter of John Hayhurst & Alice Fenton.
ANN LORD was the 1st CONVICT in our family.
John, Ann & family were living in a terrace of cottages called Sunnyside, only 200 yards from the bleaching grounds on the opposite side of the valley. During a year of national economic crisis, & between the 7th & 14th March, 1812, 4 pieces of calico went missing from the bleaching field used by Butterworth's Sunnyside Print Works where John Lord worked. The Court heard that Ann had taken some lenghts of calico to be dyed & the marks matched exactly with the missing pieces. Ann then aged 32yrs, was tried in the Manchester Assisies & sentenced to 14yrs transportation. She had her baby Ruth, about that time, the baby wasn't Christened until they were at St.John's CofE Parramatta NSW, on 20/5/1820. She probably lived at Parramatta Womans Factory, where she had 3 more children, twins Richard & Charles Lord born 1815, a day apart, and Elizabeth born 1819. She married Edward Jones on 28/5/1821 at St John's Parramatta. Goodness only knows what happened to him. Ann received her Certificate of Freedom in 1826, one of the few remaining from the convicts of the Bloxbornebury. Ann & her family were still living in Parramatta, where she was working for Mr. William Morris as a spinner. Ann then married John Knight on 24/10/1832 at St Philip's CofE Sydney. Elizabeth Jones married Thomas Sewell in 1835 and Charles Jones married Elizabeth Nightingale in 1839, both marriages took place at Sutton's Forest CofE. Ann Knight died on 14/12/1861, at the home of her daughter, Elizabeth, her death was recorded in the local paper as "being an old lady" and her dress caught alight! she would have been 81yrs old! I have visited Sutton's Forest Cemetry but couldn't find a headstone for her. There were quite a lot of headstones for the Sewell & Nightingale families. After visiting the Cemetery, we went to Mittagong Historical Society & looked at the Church records for Sutton's Forest Church & Cemetery.
