Rosson, Isabella (1753-?), was an English convict who became a teacher in Australia. A convict is someone who has been found guilty of a crime. From 1787 to 1868, Britain (now the United Kingdom) transported more than 162,000 convicts to prison colonies in Australia. Rosson was one of the first Europeans to serve as a teacher in Australia.
Rosson was born in 1753 in England. Little is known about her childhood. Before 1787, she worked as a laundress (woman who cleans clothes). On Jan. 10, 1787, Rosson was convicted of stealing from her employer and sentenced to seven years in Australia.
Rosson was deported on the convict ship Lady Penrhyn, which sailed as part of the First Fleet. The First Fleet was the first group of ships to carry convicts to Australia. It arrived at Botany Bay, on the southeast coast of Australia, in January 1788. The fleet’s commander, Arthur Phillip, soon founded Sydney, to the north, as a prison colony. It became the first permanent European settlement in Australia. While on board the ship, Rosson gave birth to a daughter, but the baby did not survive the journey. In Australia, Rosson was registered as Isabella Lawson in the colonial records.
Although there were many children on the First Fleet, the British government did not send a schoolteacher along with them. In 1789, Rosson established the first dame school in Australia. A dame school was a private school usually run by an unmarried woman teacher out of her home. Also in 1789, Rosson married fellow convict William Richardson and became known as Isabella Richardson. William also became a teacher at the dame school. The couple left Australia in 1810 and returned to England, but little is known of Isabella’s later years.
