Date of Conviction: 14/07/1806

Age at Conviction: 19

Crime Convicted of: Theft

Court Convicted at: Lancaster Quarter Sessions (held at Lancaster Castle)

Sentence Length: 7 Years

Ship Transported on: Speke

Where Arrived: Port Jackson, New South Wales

Departure Date: 18/05/1808

Arrival Date: 15/11/1808

Biography: In May 1804 mother and daughter Eve Hodgson (age 37) and Jane Hodgson (then age 17) were convicted of breaking into and stealing from the home of Daniel Walling in Silverdale, Lancashire- 3 hams, a part of a flitch of bacon, a hogs cheek and 12 shillings.

The Reverend Robert Housman who would go on to build St Anne’s Chapel on Moor Lane in Lancaster and was a justice of the peace as well as brother in law to the Governor of Lancaster Castle, had them committed there to await trial at the August Assizes.

They were found guilty. Jane was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment with hard labour in Preston’s House of Correction. Eve bearing responsibility was sentenced to 7 years transportation to New South Wales.

As Eve arrived in Australia in 1806, back in Silverdale, Jane once again stole some money and in the July Quarter Sessions at the castle was finally sentenced to the same fate as her mother. Jane was transported onboard the Speke arriving in Nov 1808. Mother and daughter were reunited as both can be seen together on 1811 and 1820 muster rolls. As you had to turn up to these rolls at a given day and time and queue up to give your name, the fact that Eve and Jane appear together in an otherwise unassorted list of thousands of settlers tells us they not only reunited but stayed together for many years. The latest record for now, is an 1822 muster which shows only Jane, still unmarried and now free by servitude, living at Windsor on the outskirts of Sydney.