Date of Conviction: 10/03/1824

Age at Conviction: 16

Crime Convicted of: Theft

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

Sentence Length: 7 Years

Ship Transported on: Grenada (1)

Where Arrived: Sydney Cove, New South Wales

Departure Date: 25/09/1824

Arrival Date: 23/01/1825

Biography: Ellen, born at Ribchester in December 1806, had got off to an early start. Already at the age of 14 she was serving six months in Lancaster Castle for a theft at Haslingden. She was described as a weaver, with short brown hair, slender build, grey eyes and a burn scar on her left thumb.

After a few years she found herself at Tunstall in the Lune Valley, whether as a servant or working nearby it’s uncertain but from the vicarage of Reverend William Carus Wilson and family in early March 1824, she stole: a cloth pelisse (front closing coat/gown), a straw bonnet, a pair of stays (corset), a silk gown, five pairs of cotton stockings, one pair of gloves, one pair of boots, one silk handkerchief, one stuff gown (one made from a coarsely woven cloth) , one pair of pattens (overshoes for outdoors), one sovereign five shillings, a watch chain, two work bags, a red leather Morocco case and variety of small trinkets.

Reverend Carus Wilson has earned himself a place in history- he founded the Clergymen’s Daughters School at nearby Cowan Bridge, now famed for educating the four older Brontë sisters (Maria, Elizabeth, Charlotte and Emily) also in 1824-5. The sisters were all removed after the illness and then later deaths of Maria and Elizabeth from TB. Charlotte went on to blame the poor living conditions and health provisions at the school for causing her sister’s deaths and would base her headteacher character of Mr Brocklehurst in Jane Eyre on the evangelical Rev Carus Wilson.

The Lent Assizes at Lancaster Castle followed just a couple of weeks after Ellen’s arrest and she was found guilty of larceny, sentenced to seven years transportation. After a six month wait in the Castle’s cells Ellen was put aboard the Grenada with a group of eight other Lancastrian women, arriving at Sydney in January 1825.

A year after arriving, Ellen married Charles Breaker (ship- Mangles), a convict from Southampton. In April 1827 she ran away from her assigned work and after a short trial received three additional years on her sentence, going into the Parramatta Female Factory. However, she gave birth to a child, James, in the factory in June 1828 and he was baptised at nearby St Johns in August that year. He died in August the following year. Charles through all of this was imprisoned on the Phoenix hulk. She was recommended for a factory exemption and finally left with a ticket of leave in June of 1829 where she was described as 5ft 2, a florid complexion, brown hair and blue eyes.