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Orphan Number: 189
Orphan: Mary Ann BALL
Mother:McGEHAN/McGARAHAN, Lucy
Father:BALL, Thomas
Mother's ship:East London
Father's ship:Egyptian
Age when admitted:4yrs 5mths
Date admitted:10 Aug 1857
Date discharged:20 Aug 1862
Institution(s):Queens Orphan School
Discharged to: W H Doyle
Remarks:
References: SWD6, 28


This orphan has been claimed by: Vivienne Lintott

Mary Ann Ball was one of six children born to Thomas Ball and Lucy nee Magaughran. 

There is a birth registration for "Mary Ann" in 1851, but the ages recorded for the children at Orphan school suggest that this is the birth registration for her sister Elizabeth and Mary Ann is the unnamed female child of Thomas and Lucy Ball registered as born 20 Feb 1853.

Lucy Magaughran was born around 1820 in County Cavan, Ireland and was sentenced to seven years transport for house breaking and stealing bread. She was transported on the East London with her two young children, James Breslin (3 years) and Mary Ann Breslin (1 year) and arrived in Hobart, Tasmania on 21 September 1843.

Thomas Ball was born around 1811 in Hatton, Warwickshire, England. He was sentenced to 7 years transportation for uttering a forged £10 note, and arrived in Hobart Tasmania on the Egyptian on 23 August, 1839.

Thomas and Lucy married in 1846 after a marriage consent was registered. They were both still convicts at the time. Thomas’s free certificate was dated 1848 and Lucy’s dated 1850.

Lucy was tried again on 30 July 1857 for wilful and corrupt perjury and was sentenced to four years penal servitude.

Following this, on 10 August 1857, Mary Anne (4½) was admitted to the Infants School with her younger brother George (2).  Three of her older siblingss were admitted to the Orphans school, Elizabeth (6½) on 10 August 1857 and brothers Thomas (9) and William (8) on 9 Sept 1857.  There is no record for Lucy the oldest sibling who would have been 10 at that time.

Mary Ann was discharged from the Infant School to the female school on 20 Jan 1859 when she was 5 years, 11 months old.

Thomas Ball, father of the children died in March 1859, before Lucy's sentance was completed on 6 October 1860.

On 20 March 1862, Mary Ann, Elizabeth and William were discharged to their mother. 

Mary Ann's first child, Joseph Francis Pulley, son of George Pulley, was born 2 June 1872.  This means that Mary Ann was close to George when his children with another partner were still very young, the youngest just 6 months old around the time Joseph would have been conceived.

Mary Ann and George had two more children before they married on 14 Mar 1878 in Hobart, Tasman and Cecil.  George Phipps Pulley was from a wealthy English family and had travelled to Australia on the Marlborough as a paying cabin passenger, arriving 4 November 1852. George’s brother was Sir Joseph Pulley (Baronet), a member of the London Stock Exchange and MP for Hereford. His grandfather was Master of the Wax Chandlers Company.  George 

George already had 4 living children with another partner, Rosetta.  He and Mary Ann had at least ten children born in Tasmania.

In 1886 Mary Ann and 6 children traveled Salon class with another 4 older children travelling in Steerage to arrive in Lyttleton, New Zealand, on 12 July 1886. Some of her older boys were enrolled in school in New Zealand the same month.  George appears to have travelled separately between Australia and New Zealand, and more than once, sometimes with livestock.  All of George's older children also travelled to New Zealand to live. Four more children were born to George and Mary Anne in New Zealand, but one, a twin, died at one day of age.

Mary Ann died of cancer on 5 August 1899 in Loburn, Canterbury, New Zealand and was buried three days later in Rangiora Cemetery. Her husband George died in 1903, after marrying the mother of his first children, Rosetta, on 6 September 1900.



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 Site last updated June 2021