Sarah Todd

48

Naomi Parsons on 7th March 2025

Sarah, a married hawker (door to door seller) aged 23 was an interesting character and her case at the Lancaster Castle Spring Assizes in 1852 was well recorded in the local newspapers. Acting as a prostitute, she grabbed a man called Joseph Bunton from Bentham on Bridge Lane in Lancaster as he left his sister’s house. Pulling him into a doorway, she roughly shoved her hand into his pants, attempting to solicit business, whilst her other hand pocketed his purse with one crown, nine half crowns inside. Declining Sarah’s services, Joseph ambled away, doing up his trouser buttons before getting as far as the bottom of New Road before realising he’d been robbed. After reporting the theft to the police, despite a change of dress from green to plaid, Sarah was apprehended trying to climb up the steeply terraced slope behind Bridge Lane. Upon her seven year sentence of transportation, Sarah burst into tears, lamenting the distress it would cause her mother (they were very close and can be seen together on the 1851 census visiting a house in Kendal- the town where Sarah had been born). From Lanacaster Castle, Sarah was transferred to Millbank Prison in London, from where on the 16 November that year she boarded the Duchess of Northumberland, the last ever female convict ship. The ship's indent records that she was also known as Sarah Wilson (her maiden name). A five month voyage saw her land at Hobart in Van Diemen's Land where on arrival she was described as born in Westmorland, 5ft 2, brown hair, blue eyes, a long nose, high forehead, oval face, a wide mouth and a fresh complexion. She had a scar on her forehead and another on her right arm. She could read and write and had previously served three months for an assault. She had previously worked as a needlewoman and housemaid and her husband had been transported many years ago and had since died. She was initially assigned to a George Johnson then assigned to publican Thomas Jones at the 'Ocean Child' on Argyle St in Hobart. Sarah's conduct record is a heavy one- with back to back offences such as using profane language, absconding, being out after hours, insolence, drinking, misconduct, indecently exposing her person and being found in bed with a man all which have her varying jail sentences of up to twelve month with hard labour, some added onto her overall sentence. Additionally- contracting marriage without permission. In 1854, Sarah applied to marry free man Samuel Noble but no marriage took place. In 1855, Sarah married (as Sarah Wilson, her maiden name) to Francis Lewis (ship- Sir Charles Forbes) at Hobart Holy Trinity and in 1856 she was given a ticket of leave and recorded as moving to live with her husband. Sarah was free by March 1859, however in 1861 she committed another theft earning another six months inside. She escaped jail after being acquitted of a further pick-pocketing in 1866. By 1870 her husband was sent to Cascades Invalid Depot as a pauper and died in 1884. Sarah died the following year in August 1885 on Argyle Street, Hobart, aged around 58 from bronchitis. She was both the last Lancastrian female convict transported and the last alive.