Sophia Grantham aka Kezia Tregilgus

Three months hard labour in an English prison did not diminish 17 year old Sophia Grantham's desire for wealth. Within two years she was again convicted of larceny and sentenced to seven years transportation to Van Diemens Land. As a Ticket of Leave convict in Hobart she married a seaman known as 'Handspike Jack' Tregilgus and soon they were both arrested for stealing Government stores. She changed her name to Kezia and with her husband and two children left Tasmania for New Zealand, but the 1852 gold rush brought them back to Melbourne. The tragic death of her son there caused them to move to Queensland where they were founding settlers in the towns of Taroom and Rolleston. They moved to Rockhampton in 1863 and the certain knowledge that she would soon die spurred her on to try to make her fortune, but events, and her husband, were against her.