Born: 29 May, 1801 (Bristol, England)
 Father: Robert Smith Mother: Mercy Erskine

 Died: 18 July, 1902 (Clyde, Otago, New Zealand)

Married: Christian Asquith 8 September, 1828 (Hobart, Tasmania)

Children: John Henry SMITH-ASQUITH, Caroline ASQUITH, MaryAnn ASQUITH , Margaret ASQUITH, Ann ASQUITH, William ASQUITH, Susannah ASQUITH, Christian ASQUITH, George ASQUITH, Sarah Jane ASQUITH, Jonathon ASQUITH, Robert Henry ASQUITH, Elizabeth ASQUITH, Harriet ASQUITH.

Record of Conviction

Police No.72

Convicted at Somerset Quarter Sessions 14 July 1823
Sentence: Transported for 7 years for stealing a watch
Gaol Report: Not known good in gaol
Ships Surgeons Report: Loose
Literacy: Cannot Write (Age 21 in 1823)
27 November 1824 - Hobart Supreme Court. Tried as Susan Mercy Smith, single, for aiding and abetting the rape of Mary Ann Herbert by James Matthews. Found Not Guilty.
28 December 1827 - Intoxication and absent at night. Placed in the Factory
14 July 1830 - Free by servitude. Free certificate 1831
(Taken from Notorious Strumpets and Dangerous Girls: Convict Women in Van Daimens Land 1803 - 1829 by Phillip Tardiff)

Susan's extraordinary journey from Bristol, England to Clyde, New Zealand via Hobart and Melbourne was marked by a great deal of hardship and is testament to her resilience. She had 14 children that we know of and of these she buried seven. Described by one grandchild as a "severe and autocratic little lady", she gives lie to the Victorian myth of women as pure and obedient.

Her obituary neatly elides her past, turning her passage to Australia into an adventurous, voluntary journey.