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Acknowledgments As an Australian with an interest in the history of my own country as well as that of the United states, i have long been curious about the british penal policy of transportation. i learned early that the War of independence curtailed the shipment of convicts to the American colonies and provided the catalyst for the british government’s decision to establish a penal colony in new south Wales, but i wanted to know more. My questioning eventually led to my researching the topic of the convicted british women who were transported to Maryland in the eighteenth century. during my research i have had reason to be grateful to many people and organizations , particularly to associate professor Jennifer clark of the University of new England who supported this project and my ongoing historical interests and investigations. My research has been aided by the assistance of many marvelous librarians, museum curators, and archivists. i would like to thank the staffs of the Enoch Pratt Free library of baltimore, the london Metropolitan Archives, the Maryland historical society, the Maryland state Archives, the Public record office at Kew in the United Kingdom, the state library of new south Wales, the state library of victoria, the surrey history centre at Woking in the United Kingdom, the UniversityofnewEngland ’sdixsonlibrary,theUniversityof sydney’sFisherlibrary, the library of the University of new south Wales, and the virginia state library. i am also grateful for the advice and assistance i have received from the employees of numerous image repositories: the baltimore Museum of Art (rachel sanchez), the birmingham Assay office in England (sally hoban), the colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Marianne Martin), the lewis Walpole library at yale University (susan Walker), the national Portrait gallery in london (Alexandra Ault), the Maryland historical society (James singewald), and the oxford Museum , Maryland (Ellen Anderson). A number of individuals have made a special and highly valued contribution to my research, investigating overseas archives when i was not able to do so myself. in July 2012 libby and Alex Jones took time out from a vacation in the United xii / Acknowledgments Kingdom to undertake research on my behalf in various (and widely flung) record offices in london. dr. Allender sybert, president of the Maryland genealogical society, provided me with data regarding eighteenth-century convictions of british women in charles and Kent counties in Maryland. rebecca crago, research center coordinator of the historical society of Frederick county, Maryland, conducted an extensive search of that county’s archives and turned up information and details that i would never have been able to find or include without her help. i also benefited greatly from the hugely generous assistance of robert barnes. bob has an encyclopedic knowledge of Maryland’s colonial history and its archival records, and he has written several books on Maryland’s early settlers. he not only located family and court records for me in the Maryland state Archives but also affordedmehisadviceoncourtprocessesandpersonnel . icannotthankhimenough forhisinterestinandenthusiasmformyresearch.ourassociationhasbeenaprivilege for me. donna cox baker of the University of Alabama Press has been the very best kind of editor. Thanks to her initial enthusiasm for my project and her tireless support, the process of turning my manuscript into a book has been stimulating, thought provoking, and very enjoyable. in addition i am most grateful to dan Waterman, the editor in chief and humanities editor of the University of Alabama Press, and to all members and associates of the press involved in the many stages of the book’s production. Thanks are also due to members of my extended family and to those many friends who were intrigued by the subject, encouraged my research, and suggested i write this book to reach a wider audience. ...

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