Leggi e ascolta.

Mary WadeMary Wade was born in London in 1777. Her family was very poor and when she was a child she often begged in the streets. One day while Mary was begging she saw her friend Jane Whiting. Jane was begging, too. She was 13 years old, two years older than Mary. The two girls decided to spend the day together. It was a day that changed Mary’s life.

While Mary and Jane were begging, they saw an 8-year-old girl who was filling a bottle at a water fountain. She was wearing expensive clothes. Mary and Jane immediately saw an opportunity to make some easy money. They offered to fill the bottle for the girl. Mary took the bottle from the girl and she broke it. The little girl was very upset, but Mary and Jane had a plan. They told the girl that they had another bottle and they asked her to follow them.

When the three girls were out of sight, Mary and Jane stole the little girl’s clothes. Their plan was to sell the clothes and make some money.

High Five Level 3 . Unit 5, Skills p. 54 © Oxford University Press PHOTOCOPIABLE

High Five Level 3 . Unit 5, Skills p. 54 © Oxford University Press PHOTOCOPIABLE

The police found the little girl’s scarf in Mary’s house and arrested her for theft. She went on trial. She was only 11 years old, but the judge sentenced her to death. At that time, 160 crimes in England had the death penalty. These included crimes that today we don’t think are very serious, for example, stealing a horse or a sheep, cutting down a tree or pickpocketing.

Fortunately for Mary, the authorities changed her sentence from the death penalty to transportation to Australia. She travelled to Australia on board the convict ship, Lady Juliana. She became a servant to an Australian family. She was 13 years old and thousands of miles from her home and family.

Mary finished her sentence and became free again. She met Jonathan Brooker and they made a life together in Australia. Mary had 21 children and she died aged 82. One of her descendants, Kevin Rudd, became Prime Minister of Australia in 2007.

From the end of the 18th century to the mid-19th century, Australia was a British penal colony. British prisons were full, so the authorities sent convicts to the colonies. The journey to Australia took 11 months and conditions on the convict ships were terrible. Many prisoners died before they arrived in Australia and life in penal colonies was very hard. Men built roads and buildings or worked in factories or on farms. Women became servants. At the end of their sentences, they were free to stay in Australia or return to Britain.