of the condition that the convicts were delivered to the transports: The situation in which the magistrates sent the women on board the Lady Penrhyn stamps them with infamy – tho' almost naked, and so very filthy, that nothing but clothing them could have prevented them from perishing…there are many venereal complaints, that must be spread in spite of every precaution I may take hereafter… Lady Penrhyn rendezvous with the ten other ships that was to make up the First Fleet at Portsmouth. On 13 May 1787, the Fleet embarked on the eight month voyage, arriving at Botany Bay, 20 January 1788. Governor Phillip decided that this site wasn’t suitable so the fleet moved to Sydney Cove in Port Jackson on 26 January 1788. The female convicts stayed onboard the transports while the land was cleared and the camp was set up, finally getting ashore on 6 February. On 11 August 1789 John Hayes received fifty lashes in a for his "infamous Behaviour" towards Dawson. In November 1791, Dawson travelled on Atlantic to settle at Norfolk Island, also on the ship was William Balmain, the new assistant surgeon of the island, whom Dawson cohabited with. In December 1794 the principal surgeon, John White, returned to England on leave, and in August 1795 Balmain moved to Sydney to act in his place, Dawson and her children travelled with him, when White decided resign, Balmain was appointed principal surgeon in August 1796. Return to England The family left Sydney in August 1801, and arrived in London in March 1802, an absence for Dawson of just under fifteen years. In May 1803 Dawson, now pregnant again with their fourth child, and the children, were sent to Ormskirk, near Liverpool. On 17 November 1803 William Balmain died. In his will, dated four days before his death, he left a yearly sum of £50 to "my dear friend Margaret Dawson, otherwise Henderson ... whose tenderness to me, while in ill health, claims my warmest gratitude and by whom I have had two natural children … and who is now ensient". No doubt due to her convict status, in contrast to Balmain's professional position, he felt unable to marry her. She and her children had taken the surname 'Henderson", which was Balmain's mother's maiden name. Dawson left Ormskirk and gave birth to the fourth child in London. Little is known of this baby, except that it