Date of Conviction: 31/08/1814

Age at Conviction: 40

Crime Convicted of: Uttering Forged Notes

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

Sentence Length: 14 Years

Ship Transported on: Northampton

Where Arrived: Port Jackson, New South Wales

Departure Date: 01/01/1815

Arrival Date: 18/06/1815

Biography: Rachael had uttering three £2 forged bank notes to Thomas Dixon at Bury. She had a fellow prisoner write a petition to the Bank of England, written as transcribed below.

‘Rachel Sladen, Northampton transport ship, Deptford, 17 November 1814

Honnored Sir I take the Liberty of Riting to you too Enform you of My Destressed Situation being Confined this 7 Months In the Castell of Lancaster and Leaving 4 poor Desolate Children Behind mee and taking One with Mee boath mee and It Is In the Utmost of Destress having No One to Send to Mee Either money Or cloathes Mee and My Child Is In Great Destress and Being Confined for the Bank Business I hope that your Honnour Sir will Consither My destressed Situation And Send me Some Relief as I am Lying On bord of the Northamton Going to the Bay I Remaine your Umbel Servant Rechal Sladen

Annotated in margin: Rachael Sladen, Mr Kaye to pay her £5, with identification and dates of notes to be paid, and her mark on Sunday 26 Nov. 1814.‘

Rachael left four children behind, and took 18 month old Robert with her. There may have been a name/date error with her child though as all future records only refer to a George, born 1814 (in the colony) which wouldn’t be possible as his mother didn’t arrive until 1815. Like all women arriving with children, Rachael and her son went into the female factory.

George/ Robert(?) stayed with Rachael but she may have been struggling to work with having a young child. By 1820, she had applied to put him into the orphanage and this is where George was between 1821 and 1825. With Rachael working as a servant for a Frederick Drennan then Judge Wylde and finally Thomas Clayton between this time. George was eventually put into an indentured apprenticeship.

In September 1824, Rachael, now aged 50, married Thomas Clayton (ship- Ocean) at St Johns Parramatta. Clearly, things didn’t run smoothly though as the next month, Thomas reported to the newspapers that Rachael had run away and he would not be responsible for any debts she might incur. However, by the 1828 census they were recorded together with Rachael (now free) as housekeeper to Thomas at Parramatta and this year the couple experienced a serious break-in with the perpetrator breaking through the wall of their house to steal a container of money hidden in the ground. Further drama took place that year with Thomas again announcing he would not be responsible for Rachael with her placing a counter advert stating that she and all respectable citizens knew he had a wife back home in England at which she was ignorant of at the time of their marriage and she no longer considered him her lawful husband and publicly refused to live with him. In 1831, the drama continued when Thomas who had been employed as a watchman at the dockyard absconded and was believed to have escaped New South Wales, perhaps returning to the wife mentioned.

By 1833, Rachael (now aged 59) applied for permission to marry the twenty year younger Richard Roper (ship- Larkins) which as granted but not seen out. Three years later and time elapsed, the couple again applied. The application was refused as the permission was put through as Clayton (and names had to match those on the original ship’s manifest). The couple after this time remained a common law one and Rachael passed away at Botany (as Roper) aged 79 on the 8th July 1852 and was buried in Camperdown Cemetery.