Ann BELLAMY’s memorial stands out among the others due to her recorded age at death of 100 years. 

Ann Fay (also recorded as Foy and Faye), arrived in Sydney, a convict on Marquis Cornwallis in 1796, aged 42 years (determined through various records).

As recorded in the Freeman’s Journal, Saturday 30 May 1795, p.2:

"AT an adjournment of the quarter sessions for the county of Dublin, held last Tuesday [26 May] at Kilmainham, Ann Fay and Catherine Byrne, found guilty of felony in a dwelling house to the value of 4s9d were ordered to be transported for a term of seven years."

Also from Saunders’s News Letter, 14 May 1795, p.2:

"On Tuesday last some of Mr. Justice Graham's bailiffs apprehended in Roche's-lane, Marlborough-street, Catherine Byrne and Ann Foy, charged with having committed a burglary and felony same morning in the house of Mrs. McManus of St. Dolough's; a vast quantity of linen and other articles were found in their custody, part of the booty of the day."

One year after her arrival in NSW, Ann Fay gave birth to a child who she recorded as the son of Stephen Lellis. He was born on 18 February 1797, and baptised at St John's Church, Parramatta by Rev Samuel Marsden. The child was named WIlliam, and appears as William Fay and also William Lellis. (Possibly Stephen Lellis was in the Marine Corps, as he does not appear as a convict).

Before her own marriage , she was the witness (with John Sullivan) to the marriage of Bridget O'Donnell and Thomas McCabe at Parramatta on 15 May 1797. The bride, Bridget O'Donnell, had also been tried at Dublin, just a few months after Ann, in July 1795. Both had sailed together as convicts on Marquis Cornwallis. Both were probably sent up to Parramatta on arrival.

On 10 July 1798, Ann married William Zadoc Bellamy, also a convict. 

Of note is that her husband was only 25 years old at the time!

The marriage was recorded in St Johns Church Parramatta which was not unusual for Catholics.  Reverend Samuel Marsden was the Chief Cleric of the colony which was a Church of England establishment.  He decreed that anyone marrying in the Catholic Church was not really married but a concubine.  To make their union legal in the eyes of local authority, many Catholics married in the Church of England Church.  Searching the records shows that many Catholic couples then went to the Catholic priest and married according to the rights of their own church – so were married twice. 

By July 1801 the couple were living on 100 acres, with 19 cleared and under cultivation of maize. In 1802, 24 acres were cleared, with 20 acres for wheat and four acres of maize planned. They had 16 hogs.

In August 1804 this land was officially granted to William, in the district of Dundas. In August 1806 he was renting a further five acres, at the Field of Mars and employing convict John Penrow ("Rolla"). Of his total 130 acres farmed, he had sown 11 acres of wheat, 10 of maize and four of barley as well as potatoes and a one acre orchard and garden. There were nine sheep in total and 12 hogs in total. His wife and four children were recorded as “off stores” indicating that Ann's son - William Lellis, aged nine was alive and living with the family.

During this time, Ann had served her sentence without incident and earned her Certificate of Freedom, granted on 9 February 1811.

The 1814 Census recorded William Bellamy as a landholder; mustered at Parramatta, and Ann now Free, as his wife with two children off the stores. This implies that Ann's son William (17), together with James (16) and Sarah (14) were living elsewhere.

In the 1822 muster Ann and William were still living on their 100 acre grant, with 30 acres under wheat, plus maize, oats and potatoes growing and their orchard. Ann's family did well in NSW. Their son James Bellamy was given his own land grant in 1816, and again in 1824. James married quite young in 1818 to Hannah Singleton (she died in 1869, registered Parramatta). They had many children: Charlotte in 1819, Susannah in 1821, William in 1822, James jnr in 1823 (died Parramatta "aged 25" in 1852), Mary in 1825, Caroline in 1827, Ann in 1831, Sarah in 1832, Elizabeth in 1834, James in 1826 and Joseph in 1840.

The 1828 New South Wales Census, district of Castle Hill, records Ann (74) and William (56) settler, both free, with four servants. The Australian record also shows that by this time, they held 200 acres. Bellamy Road, West Pennant Hills, is named after the family.