Victorian Convicts by Helen Johnston

Author:Helen Johnston
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / Modern / 19th Century
ISBN: 9781473881075
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2016-03-31T04:00:00+00:00

Martha was a married woman with three children, and a working husband, when she was first convicted at Lambeth Police Court. She was twice gaoled for stealing clothes in 1863. A further twelve months’ custody followed the next year. In 1867 she received her first bout of penal servitude when she was convicted of stealing trousers in Lambeth. She started her five-year sentence when she was pregnant, and miscarried soon after entering prison. In 1869 she petitioned the Governor to change her religion, on the grounds that it had been her father’s last wish on his death bed that she remain a Catholic. However, having previously told the prison authorities that she was a Protestant, the Governor refused her petition. The following year she was released on licence via Battery House Refuge.

She was re-convicted the following year for stealing bread and for gaining goods by false pretences, and she entered another five-year sentence. This time, Martha told the prison authorities that she was a Roman Catholic. However, she then petitioned the Governor to be allowed to change her religion. She said that she registered herself Catholic to please herself and she now wishes to be registered a Protestant to please herself. She, however, at the same time also stated that she never cared for any religion and never did. With that declaration, her petition was refused. The next time she made a similar request it was because her parents ‘are Protestant and she wishes to follow the same faith’. The authorities asked her husband which religion Martha had been brought up in; he replied, ‘Sir, my wife was brought up as a Cartherlic’ [sic].’ She then petitioned the authorities to reduce her sentence because she had committed it through destitution. Indeed, her frequent petitions throw considerable light upon the reasons why she fell into prison so frequently.

In 1873 she petitioned for early release on the grounds that her present sentence was inflicted for falsely claiming poor relief on the grounds that her husband had left her and the children (when he was merely unemployed). The request was refused. The following year a similar request fell on deaf ears: ‘Was not aware of the gravity of her offence. Her children are in want and her husband only in partial work. Husband willing to receive her. No Grounds.’ When she was released on licence she was soon re-convicted for theft, and also made a number of petitions during that ten-year sentence. These petitions alleged that alcohol addiction had caused her to steal, and that she was prepared to live a life of sobriety. All of her requests were refused until she was released after serving seven years in convict prisons (in 1886). Her husband was living in Newington Workhouse, and she died in 1891, in St Olave’s Workhouse.

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