Date of Conviction: 27/06/1842

Age at Conviction: 25

Crime Convicted of: Fraudulently Obtaining Goods

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

Sentence Length: 7 Years

Ship Transported on: Remained in England (rejected from the Margaret)

Where Arrived: N/A

Departure Date: N/A

Arrival Date: N/A

Biography: Jane was born and baptised at Halton, near Lancaster in 1819. As a child she attended the Ladies Charity School in Lancaster for six years before taking up employment as a housemaid; first at the house of Rev William Fenton in Bleasdale until his death. Then at John Bowers’ in Bare for two years before moving to John Thompson’s house in Lancaster before ill health forced her to leave. She then appears to move to Preston and this is where she commits the first of two crimes leading her to short term prison sentences in Preston’s House of Correction. Acting as a servant she pretends her ‘mistress’ has ordered a bonnet to be sent to an address to be collected; in other words obtaining goods through deception. It’s around this time, in 1841 she appears on the first census in Back Willow Street (one of the areas with the direst living conditions in Preston). She was living with three other young women aged between 20 and 25 all of ‘independent means’, mostly likely a euphemism for prostitution.

The following year in May, back in Lancaster, Jane ‘unlawfully obtained from Robert Allwood, two bonnets, his property value £1 1s’. Allwood was a linen draper at 5 Penny Street. Once again she had used the same strategy of pretending that she was collecting the order for her employer who would settle the bill. She was arrested and sent to Lancaster Castle where she went on trial at the 1842 Midsummer Quarter Sessions. Found guilty and with a track record of two similar crimes and a gaol report saying she was a ‘bad character’, Jane was sentenced to be transported for seven years.

While in jail at Lancaster, she wrote and signed her own petition, pleading for a reduction in sentence and to stay at Lancaster. In it she sets out her childhood and nine years previous work experience for respectable families before being forced out by ill health. Governor Higgin denies this petition going forward. Before leaving the jail for Woolwich and the transport ships, surgeon James Stockdale Harrison certifies she was free of all diseases and notifiable conditions and on 28 November she was sent south. Before being boarded on the convict ship Margaret, surgeon Benjamin McAvoy rejected Jane as not suitable to travel due to having a recently opened fistula. She was sent back to Lancaster. The magistrates back at Lancaster were far from happy about Jane being sent back with no paperwork and having been deemed fit to travel when she left. The Lancaster surgeon stated that she had previously been operated on at Liverpool and whilst her previous ailment had healed, the journey must have reopened it. She was operated on again and once healed would be fit to send back to Woolwich for transportation.

Still in jail in January 1843, Jane again writes a petition, pleading that she not be transported and be kept either at Millbank Penitentiary in London or at Lancaster, also asking that the eight months she had so far served be counted towards her sentence. Her request appears to have been granted with the governor saying make preparations for her transfer to the penitentiary. However, the surgeon doubts the medical officer will accept this due to her recent health issues. It is not then clear whether she was transferred or remained at Lancaster but what is known is that by August 1849 she was free and was getting married to a widowed 62 year old leather currier Henry Almond at the Priory church; they appeared to be living together, both listing their address as Penny Street. Her unique signature on the wedding register and her jail petition match. The couple then move through to Preston where they live out their lives, having, and losing a number of children. By 1871 Jane was widowed and working as a confectioner, herself passing away in 1881.