Date of Conviction: 24/03/1821

Age at Conviction: 25

Crime Convicted of: Uttering Forged Notes

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

Sentence Length: 14 Years

Ship Transported on: Mary Anne (3)

Where Arrived: Hobart, Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania)

Departure Date: 25/12/1821

Arrival Date: 02/05/1822

Biography: Hannah had uttered a £1 forged note to a James Houghton at Liverpool. She was recorded as saying she was born at Bishop Monkton, Yorkshire and was 25 years of age. She had a fair complexion, grey eyes, broad face, sandy hair, was stout made, had a scar on her wrist and a blue mark on the 3rd joint little finger right hand. She was a dressmaker.

Hannah was transported to London in November 1821, boarding on the 21st of that month. Reformer Mrs. Pryor, close associate of Elizabeth Fry complained that “the prisoners from Lancaster Castle arrived, not merely handcuffed, but with heavy irons on their legs, which had occasioned considerable swelling, and in one instance, serious inflammation”.

Onboard, ship surgeon James Hall wrote she was, “A woman of plausible manners, a pretender of Religion, and was employed as schoolmistress; has been found to be a vile dissembler, prostitute, and connected in the infamy of Rachael Chamberlain and Sarah Fletcher; fond of writing letters for bad purposes”.

Within weeks of arrival, Hannah was jailed in solitary confinement for a week on bread and water for absconding from her master, Mr Ogilvie’s premises. Hannah married David Lane (arrived as a sailor onboard Indefatigable) on the 21st May 1823.

In March 1829, Hannah received a telling off for being drunk and disorderly in the Jolly Sailor pub. In the September of that same year she was jailed for 4 weeks with hard labour for again being found drunk and disorderly in a ‘house of ill-fame’ belonging to William Fraser before being returned to her husband.

Their home at Pitt Water was attacked and looted by a local group of Aboriginal people with Hannah hiding in the attic with a scythe in 1830.

David, her husband, was convicted of receiving stolen cattle in 1833, taken by his employees and given his own 14 year sentence. Hannah was implicated but there seems not enough evidence to have charged her too. The cattle had been hurriedly butchered and salted with the hides tanned and in payment of a debt the Lane’s owed. David was given a ticket of leave in 1840 and a conditional pardon in 1843. Hannah received a conditional pardon on the 1st May 1833 and her certificate of freedom 21st March 1835.

Hannah died from dropsy (heart failure) aged around 55 on the 20th February 1848 at Hobart.