Date of Conviction: 24/08/1805

Age at Conviction: 21

Crime Convicted of: Theft

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

Sentence Length: 7 Years

Ship Transported on: Remained in England

Where Arrived: N/A

Departure Date: N/A

Arrival Date: N/A

Biography: Sarah had broken into Robert Heath’s house at Salford, stealing a quantity of women’s clothing. She was acquitted of burglary but convicted of larceny.

After 18 months in jail a petition was submitted by Sarah stating that she was now 22, had an honest industrious husband and a two year old child in Salford. She had been orphaned when both her parents (described as persons of credit) died when she was an infant. She stated she wanted to return to her duties of being a mother, nurse and wife.The petition was signed and agreed by Robert Heath, whose house she had stolen from (and possibly whose occupants she was nursing). It was further signed by friends in the local community, including several teachers, stating she was an unoffending, chaste and industrious woman. Finally, a recommendation from Lancaster Castle’s jailor, Mr John Higgin was added in which he said Sarah had been orderly and industrious the entire time she had been under his care.

This petition was then submitted to the judge who had convicted her, Sir Alan Chambre who goes on to add in his application to the King on her behalf that she was not a hardened offender and had made a full confession at the time of her apprehension and with Mr Higgin’s seal of approval, he also recommended her for mercy. The response from MP E.Wilbraham Bootle said that the Judge’s decision should always be complied with, and Sarah was freed by Royal assent on the 3rd November 1806.