Jemima Rhoda Bell was born on 25 March 1852 to Ellen Marr, convict per Rajah, and Thomas Bell, convict per Royal Sovereign.[1] Her parents were married on 7 October 1850 at St George's Church of England, Battery Point.[2] On 23 January 1860, Jemima was admitted to the Female OS, aged 8 years 9 months; her mother was in the Colonial Hospital.[3] Jemima was discharged in 1863, when she was apprenticed to Jessie White. (Jemima may have been admitted to the Female OS as Emma Bell on 23 November 1857 and discharged to her father on 27 February 1858.[4])

In February 1870, Jemima Rhoda Bell, aged 18, was charged at Hobart Police Office with prostitution and sentenced to one month’s imprisonment at the Cascades Gaol.[5] In October 1870, she was charged with the same offence and was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment, again at the Cascades Gaol.[6] In February 1871, she was imprisoned for another three months, this time for larceny. [7] In October 1872, she was charged with larceny (£2 in silver, 2 pocket knives valued at 2 shillings and other articles) and again sentenced to three months ‘ hard labour, Cascades Gaol. [8] In June 1873, Jemima was charged with ‘being an idle and disorderly person in being a common prostitute wandering the streets in Hobart [and] behaving in a riotous and indecent manner’. She pleaded guilty and was sent to Cascades Gaol for three months. [9] The following year, in St John’s Church of England, New Town, Jemima married labourer John Ward, aged 37; her age was recorded as 23.[10] In September 1875, Jemima gave birth to a son, John Ward, at Longford. [11] In April 1877, a second son, Eric James Ward, was born at Campbell Town.[12]