Date of Conviction: 16/10/1799
Age at Conviction: 19
Crime Convicted of: Theft
Court Convicted at: Lancaster Quarter Sessions (held at the New Bailey, Salford)
Sentence Length: 7 Years
Ship Transported on: Earl Cornwallis
Where Arrived: Port Jackson, New South Wales
Departure Date: 18/11/1800
Arrival Date: 12/06/1801
Biography: Sarah had stolen clothing. Whilst awaiting transportation in jail at Lancaster Castle, the order from government came in October 1800 that her and twelve other female convicts were to be be clothed and sent to Gravesend to board the ship.
Sarah met officer William Lawson of the NSW Corps on Norfolk Island. They had a number of children before marrying at Parramatta in March 1812 and then in the years that followed, extended their family further, having around eleven children. Sarah was frequently left to manage the family’s farm alone as William’s role involved him moving to other penal colonies and even back to England for a time, before his final return and their marriage in 1812. In 1828, the family were living in Prospect, still with seven of their (mostly adult) children. The family home, Veteran Hall, was very large and on a vast acreage.
Sarah passed away at Veteran Hall after a long illness in July 1830 aged around 50 and was buried on a hill on their land with an English olive tree planted over her. In the 1930s, her grave was discovered by workers (still with nameplate attached) and she was re-interred in a family memorial in St Bartholemew’s Anglican Church.
Sarah was probably the most prosperous of all the Lancastrian female convicts and the only one to date with a known portrait. The miniature of Sarah contains a lock of brown/auburn hair.
From the collections of New South Wales State Library
Lancastrian Research 