Date of Conviction: 21/07/1785

Age at Conviction: 24

Crime Convicted of: Theft

Court Convicted at: Lancaster Quarter Sessions (held at unknown location, Manchester)

Sentence Length: 7 Years

Ship Transported on: Friendship & Lady Penrhyn

Where Arrived: N/A

Departure Date: 13/05/1787

Arrival Date: N/A

Biography: Jane had stolen seven yards of fustian fabric from a shop and from a croft at Tonge, Bolton belonging to John Horridge. She was listed as a milliner and had used the aliases Jane Partington and Ann Marsden and had previously lived in Altrincham, Manchester. As the first of the Lancastrian women to be sentenced to transportation to Australia, Australia had not yet been officially confirmed as the new penal colony and Jane was held at Lancaster for over a year and a half. She was one of only four Lancastrian women sent to a Hulk (the Dunkirk- the only hulk that held female prisoners prior to sailing) in October 1786 along with Elizabeth Thackery, Sarah McCormick and Isabella Oldfield before sailing. Despite only meaning to be on the hulk at Plymouth for a week or two, they were there over four months.They were put aboard ship on March 11th. Jane travelled with her nine month old son Edward; Jane had said she would kill herself unless he went with her.

Jane was transferred onto Lady Penrhyn at the Cape of Good Hope but around six days out of port, on the 15th November 1787, she died onboard from tuberculosis- ‘she had coughed and coughed before fading away- in the last stages of consumption’. Her son Edward became a ward of the state and was transferred to Norfolk Island then eventually, while making his way back to England age 14, fell overboard at Rio de Janeiro and died.