sketcher, was the eldest daughter of William Bligh and Elizabeth, née Betham. In February 1806 she accompanied her father to Sydney on board the Lady Sinclair ; her husband, Lieutenant John Putland, was on board the Porpoise in the same convoy. On arrival on 6 August Bligh took up his duties as governor of New South Wales and Mary deputised for her mother who had remained in England; John Putland acted as aide-de-camp. Mary’s sketches of the settlement were mentioned by Bligh in a letter to Joseph Banks dated 7 November 1807: 'my daughter has sent home some little fancy drawings to her mother’. None have been located.
Lieutenant Putland died of consumption in January 1808. Barely a fortnight later the widowed Mary Putland attempted to bar the entry of Major Johnston and his troops to Government House when they came to arrest her father, and she remained with him in his confinement. Then, to her father’s surprise, she married the new lieutenant-governor, Maurice Charles Philip O’Connell, on 8 May 1810 and so remained in New South Wales when Bligh set sail for England on 12 May. (Robert and Sophia Campbell , went in her place.) Her husband was knighted in 1834. After his death in 1848, Lady O’Connell left Australia. She lived in Paris for some years and died in London.
- Writers:
- Staff Writer
- Date written:
- 1992
- Last updated:
- 2011
