Esther Abrahams – convict, farmer, drinker and an all-round admirable woman

In July 1786 a teenage girl with dark hair and a long, attractive face, stepped into a shop, took two cards of black lace to the counter and asked the price. “Twenty-five shillings,” she was told. Young Esther Abrahams, for that was her name, tartly replied that she would pay no more than a guinea…