Hannah Rigby was a poor Liverpool seamstress and a serial thief. 

Transported to New South Wales as a convict from in 1822, Hannah was oppressed by poverty and rigid social mores, and used and discarded by a series of men. She was an “exemplary” servant who was fond of a lark – and a single mother determined to keep her family together. 

One Free Woman tells the true, compelling story of the only female convict to stay in Moreton Bay when the penal settlement closed – a woman who notoriously served three separate sentences of transportation, including two to one of the harshest establishments in the country. 

It presents her story in its historical context, using research into social attitudes, laws and practices of the time to construct a fleshed-out picture of what life was like for a convict woman. One Free Woman is a meticulously researched, heartbreaking and sensitively told story of a life that was typical of many women of the time struggling against poverty and gender inequality – women whose voices throughout history have seldom been heard. 

It reveals new information and celebrates a remarkable woman who, despite a lifetime of immeasurable suffering and loss, could somehow still summon the joy to dance until she dropped. 

Author Jane Smith researched and wrote One Free Woman with the support of a 2024 Visiting Fellowship from the Harry Gentle Resource Centre (Griffith University).