The life, position and influence of women in the early settlement of Van Diemen's Land (1803-1850).

So much of the actual records of female convicts is unpleasant and detrimental both to those in authority and to the women themselves, that it is necessary to remember that there must have been many whose deeds were unrecorded for the simple reason that they came to tho colony, became satisfactory domestic servants or satisfactory wives and mothers,and as such do not figure prominently in records. By these as well as by the settler's' wives~ homes were established and young colonists brought up. Nevertheless, the records of female convicts do not make pleasant reading.