A Government Order was issued on 7 November 1798 requesting that “every Officer or other Housekeeper in the Colony who may have women servants in their Family” immediately forward the names of such as they employ in their respective Families.
Some convict women, for example, Martha Eaton (arr 1788), would have already served their time by 1798 but are still noted on the report, thus they were still consider convicts. Fourteen of the eighty seven women were recorded as “wife of”, whilst research shows that twenty five were actually married to their employer and nine were in a defacto relationship at the time of the report.
Revision research has commenced of the Governor Hunter’s Assignment Report Women Convicts 1798
