Abandoned Woman by Lucy Frost

In the early nineteenth century, crafters and villagers streamed into the cities of Scotland. Orphan girls, single mothers, and women on their own all struggled to feed and clothe themselves. For some, petty theft became a part of life. Any woman deemed ‘habits and repute a thief’ might find herself before the High Court of Justiciary and sentenced to transportation ‘beyond seas’. 

Lucy Frost paints the portrait of a boatload of women and their children who arrived in Hobart in 1838.