Date of Conviction: 12/10/1808

Age at Conviction: 19

Crime Convicted of: Theft From The Person

Court Convicted at: Lancaster Quarter Sessions (held at the New Bailey, Salford)

Sentence Length: 7 Years

Ship Transported on: Canada

Where Arrived: Port Jackson, New South Wales

Departure Date: 23/03/1810

Arrival Date: 08/09/1810

Biography: Sarah had pick pocketed James Taylor at Manchester. She had been acquitted of a similar crime in January of that year but wouldn’t be so lucky again.

Sarah married fellow Lancastrian, James Haslam (ship- Royal Admiral) at Sydney very soon after arrival in 1810 but he died ‘from a visitation from god’ in 1819. She received her certificate of freedom in 1819 but in 1822 lost it due to being a ‘rogue and a vagabond’ and she twice ended up in the female factory for three months. In 1822, she remarried John (sometimes written as Samuel) Wainwright (ship- Perseus), 20 years her senior, at Windsor. She managed to receive a replacement and regained freedom in 1824. At this time, she was described as a cotton spinner, 5ft 1 with a ruddy and slightly pock marked complexion, stout, dark brown hair and hazel eyes. She was a Catholic.

In 1825 she was living with her husband John at Richmond. However from this time, Sarah was continually in trouble with the law and she was repeatedly in court. In 1827, she was sent to the female factory 3rd class for three months for prostitution and absenting herself from her husband. The newspaper recorded it thus… ‘Sarah Wainwright, free, was brought forward at the suit of her husband for absconding from him, carrying off his property, running him into debt, going into fuddling houses [presumably a disorderly/brothel house], skipping, dancing and getting her living by prostitution. So that this Adam and Eve must have lived a queer cat and dog life’. in 1829, she was fined instead of choosing the stocks for drunkenness and on a separate charge for prostitution was sent to the female factory. As a ‘drunken prostitute’ back she went in 1830. 1831- drunk and fined, 1832, ‘a drunk a disorderly woman who is so good-natured she gives all her money to befriend the society of licensed victuallers’- fined. Only a month later drunk, again- placed in the market place stocks. The constable accusing Sarah of being ‘as drunk as a pig’ argued back… ‘an’t please your worship, isn’t that a pretty comparison to liken a lady to. Why I was as sober as a judge!’ 1834- Found drunk at 2am against a lamppost singing. She paid the fine but tried to argue she wasn’t drunk much! To which the constables countered this was 3 or 4 times a month! In this year, getting further annoyed, the courts starting locking Sarah up for a month at a time. This carried on in 1835 and 36. In 1838, Sarah appeared at the bar with a black eye and was described by the newspapers as dishevelled and unwashed. She had been dancing drunk in Market Street whilst onlookers laughed at her. She received three months hard labour at the factory. 1839, she received three short solitary confinement sentences.

All records for Sarah abruptly end at this point though no death records, to date have been found.