Catherine Barnes (nee Glynn)

Catherine Barnes of Ipswich was found guilty of a violent crime after assaulting her neighbour who she said was 'decoying her fowls away for the eggs'. Barnes attacked Sophia Kelly with a basin and two tin quart pots until she 'lay upon the ground' with many wounds including a 'large cut to the forehead' which was 'dangerous, and might have ended fatally, without medical aid'.

When Catherine was admitted to the Brisbane Gaol to await her trial, she stated that she arrived in Australia on the ship Sir Charles Forbes. There were at least ten women named Catherine transported to New South Wales on the Sir Charles Forbes, none of whom were named Barnes. Civil records show, however, that Catherine Glynn married John Barnes in Sydney in 1845 and Catherine Barnes, nee Glynn, died in Queensland on 5 December 1889.

Catherine Glynn, per Sir Charles Forbes, was a twenty-one year old dairymaid from Country Galway who was found guilty of stealing money at the Galway Spring Assizes of 1837. After being found guilty of the 1853 assault of Sophia Kelly, Barnes was transferred from Brisbane Gaol to Parramatta Gaol to serve a two-year sentence with hard labour. Barnes then returned to Queensland where she died in 1889.

Catherine was buried in the Ipswich General Cemetery in the Roman Catholic section.