07/05/2026
BERBIN, Mary: b.1807, possibly Hamburg Germany. 'MIDAS', 1825.
According to her death certificate Berbin was born in Hamburg, Germany, however this seems unlikely. Little is known of her younger years until 1824, when she was caught stealing in a dwelling house. As a result she was sentenced on 6 December at the Essex Special Session of Gaol Delivery, and sentenced to Transportation for Life. On 22 July 1825 she departed England, arriving in Tasmania on 17 December 1825.
On 1 December 1832, in St John’s Church, Launceston she married fellow convict Thomas White. The couple had 2 children, Thomas: b.1827 and Elizabeth: b.1835. She received a Conditional Pardon on 18 July 1839. The family moved to Gippsland in about 1864, settling in the Bairnsdale area, however this new life was not to last. On 15 February 1866, her husband Thomas died, aged 61. He was buried in the Bairnsdale Cemetery, leaving her a widower at the age of 59 years. Eight years later she began to suffer with chronic illness, until on 3 March 1874 she died at Bairnsdale, aged 67 years. She is buried in the Bairnsdale Cemetery with her husband.
