General News
25 May, 2026
The Enduring Friendship of the Governor’s Wife and his Mistress
Ann Inett and Anna Josepha King forged a most unlikely friendship born from their shared responsibility for sons, Norfolk and Sydney.
Ann Robinson and Anna Josepha King developed a friendship out of adversity, a friendship that lasted until they died.
When Ann returned to England in 1820 she was sixty-five years old and naturally determined to catch up with her children, now all of adult age.
When she met Norfolk and Sydney dressed in their naval uniforms she would no doubt have felt enormous pride and a realisation that the sacrifice of allowing them to be educated in England was worthwhile.
Ann and Anna Josepha had shared parentage to the boys Norfolk and Sydney and in what must have been an emotional occasion they both attended the wedding of Norfolk to his bride Philadelphia Montague in London.
Anne Inett Robinson died in England in 1827 aged seventy-three and was buried close to her son Norfolk King’s home in Stepney, East London.
She proved to be one of the most successful of convicts from the First Fleet.
While in England she attempted to track down her two older children, Thomas and Constance.
Unfortunately Thomas Inett had died two years before her return, aged in his early forties.
Constance Inett had six children with her husband William Guy but historians are unsure if Ann ever made contact.
Norfolk King became a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy and married but had no children.
He died in 1839 aged fifty.
Sydney Inett King also served in the Royal Navy and married Mary Butler in 1825 and they had seven children.
He died aged fifty-one in 1841.
Anna Josepha King interestingly returned to the New South Wales colony in 1832.
Her daughter Anna Maria married the nephew of John Macarthur, Hannibal Macarthur and her youngest daughter, Mary also married and lived in the colony.
Only daughter Elizabeth stayed in England.
Anna Josepha died in Parramatta in 1844 aged seventy-nine .
In 1988 the great-great-great grandson of Gidley King had his gravestone moved from England to be placed next to his wife, Anna Josepha’s grave at St. Mary’s Churchyard near Penrith.
Rear Admiral Phillip Parker King
The son of Anna Josepha and Gidley King was born on Norfolk Island in 1791.
After his education in England he joined the Royal Navy in 1807.
Between 1817 and 1822 he made four important voyages of exploration of the Australian coastline.
He mapped uncharted sections of the coasts of northern and western Australia and Tasmania that earned him considerable commendation.
King was recognised as one of Britain’s leading hydrographers and in 1824 was made a Fellow of the Royal Society.
In 1855 he was promoted to Rear Admiral on the retired list.
In 1856 King collapsed at the gate of his home in North Sydney and did not recover.
He was survived by his wife and eight children.
Conclusion
The convict mistress Ann Inett had more than enough tragedies in her life including being separated from her children and betrayed by her lover.
She displayed remarkable resilience to eventually triumph as she attained respectability and some degree of wealth in the colony of New South Wales.
Her marriage to convict Richard Robinson proved to be a successful one and she returned triumphantly to England to meet up with her sons Norfolk and Sydney.
Ann Inett’s story highlights what a vulnerable position convict women held in the early days of the colony.
Anna Josepha King put the betrayal of her husband behind her, becoming a loving and loyal wife to Phillip Gidley King.
In a triumph over jealousy she worked to form a strong friendship with her husband’s mistress, Ann Inett, when many women would not have.
The friendship of these women did much to promote a loving family environment for their children who all eventually led successful lives.
Anna Inett and Anna Josepha King were two remarkable women who left an enduring mark on the pages of our nation’s history
Next weeks’ Clifton Courier will look at the life of another convict woman transported to Australia.
