Julia MILLS was only seventeen when she arrived in Van Diemens Land (VDL) as a convict on 16 May 1826.
Although there are still some large gaps in Mills’s life history – which, hopefully, further research will be able to fill – her story is surely one of the most intriguing of those of the 13,500 (approx.) females who were transported to the colony between 1812 and 1853.
Mills was born in Ireland about 1809 – but it was at the Lancaster Assizes, Lancashire, England, on 15 May 1825, that she was convicted. Why had she left Ireland to go to England? That is still one of the unanswered questions. The crime of which she was found guilty at Lancaster was ‘stealing from a dwelling house’. A sentence of death was recorded against her but, as was the general custom at that time, it was later commuted to transportation for life.
Read more: Julia Mills (Providence 1826)
