Date of Conviction: 20/03/1813

Age at Conviction: 25

Crime Convicted of: Uttering Forged Notes

Court Convicted at: Lancaster Assizes (held at Lancaster Castle)

Sentence Length: Life

Ship Transported on: Wanstead

Where Arrived: Port Jackson, New South Wales

Departure Date: 01/08/1813

Arrival Date: 09/01/1814

Biography: Elizabeth, a baker, had had a death sentence commuted to transported for life transportation as she was charged with having put off to James Platt, at Manchester, five forged notes along with Martha Hughes. She had a previous acquittal for the same crime just the year before at Lancaster Assizes and another past sentence at Leeds. Her husband Robert had been executed that same year for same crime. She had two young children.

This is Elizabeth’s last minute petition to the Bank of England whilst waiting on the ship to depart…

Elizabeth Dewhurst, Wanstead transport ship, Deptford, 8 July 1813

“Worthey Sir this is to inform you that I am now on board of the Ship a going to Botoney and I have not troubled you before so I hope your Goodness would be kind enough to think of me now as I have two small Children to Leave Behind me and very much distress for Cloaths and not a friend to assist me in anything I was taken in Leeds in Yorkshire and not any found on me I was tried at Lancaster in March Last so I hope your Goodness will not forget me I am Sir your Most Humble Servant Elizth Duert”

Petition, failed, Elizabeth sailed and in New South Wales married James Ratcliffe, a Luddite rioter and hat maker from Manchester. She remarried his friend Thomas Etchell after his death in 1825. Together, Elizabeth and Thomas ran the hat making business and over time, she received a conditional pardon. After Thomas’ suicide she married Samuel Power. In 1836 her description was- Native of Yorkshire, 5ft 4in tall, complexion ruddy and pock pitted, Hair: sandy; eyes: grey.” She was also recorded then as missing all her upper front teeth. Elizabeth died in 1860.