ANN SANDLIN - LADY PENRHYN

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In the Transcript of the proceedings of the ‘Old Bailey’ ref: t17861213-136 Ann is listed as Ann Sandlands, alias Lynes, Pattens

As ‘the wife of Hugh Sandlin’ she was living with him in the parish of St John, Clerkenwell, when charged at the ‘Old Bailey’ on 13 December 1786. On that day she was indicted, for  ‘she, on the 24 November 1786, did take away, with intent to steal, embezzle, and purloin, one copper saucepan, value 3s; a tea kettle, value 1s; a flat iron, value 6d; all the property of John Brett’.

John Brett sworn:  I know the prisoner; I let the lodging to Hugh Sandlin, and he brought this woman as his wife; they stayed about five or six weeks before the robbery was committed; on Friday, the 24^th of November, I lost a great number of articles of linen, out of the yard, and on Saturday morning when the things were missed, I immediately suspected the prisoner; I sent to Justice Blackborow for a warrant to take her up on suspicion; she had stripped the room of the things mentioned in the indictment; my wife missed a blanket, and she (the prisoner) owned she had pawned that two doors off, and said if I would go with her, she would get it out; I went with her in hopes of finding the other things; I then missed nothing else out of the room; she was committed for further examination, and on the Sunday my wife went up-stairs, and missed the things mentioned in the indictment; I went to Lucy the constable.

William Jones sworn:  I live in St John’s Street, Clerkenwell; I am a pawnbroker; I have lived there about eight years; here is a saucepan, a kettle, and a flat iron, which I received of the prisoner at different times in November.

 You are sure they were pledged by her?-Yes.

Whose did she say they were?- She said they were her own property.

Court to Prosecutor. Did Mr Sandlin leave the woman?- No, not till she was committed; I found nothing against the man; he is very honest hard working man; I heard her say before Justice Blackborow, that her name was Ann Lynes.

Prisoner. I did lodge in that gentleman’s house.

The verdict was swift: GUILTY, and the sentence was TRANSPORTATION FOR SEVEN YEARS

Tried by the second Middlesex Jury before Mr Recorder.

Ann was 30 years of age and so born about 1754; occupation:- needle work. She was delivered to the ‘Lady Penrhyn’ on 9^th January 1787, her child Hugh accompanying her. The child died while the fleet lay at Portsmouth. Chaplain Marsden’s records have the child 2 years of age at death.

Further research suggests that Ann may have been the daughter of Robert and Elizabeth Lyne who had their daughter baptised at St Botolph’s Bishopgate, London, on 17 April 1754. No record of a marriage to Hugh Sandlin has yet been found, but their son Hugh was baptised on 12^th December 1785 at St Sepulchre’s, London.

As with all the others who arrived at Sydney Cove on 26^th January 1788 and the joyous release of the female convicts on 15th February, the son attributed to Richard Floan as father was born on 17^th September 1788 at Port Jackson. The child Richard Hugh died two days later and may have been the result of a liaison on that day. However an earlier encounter with Floan on board the Lady Penhryn is more likely.

At Port Jackson Ann gave birth to a daughter Elizabeth by another sailor, John Winter from Sirius. Elizabeth was baptised on 15 August 1790. Ann worked as a cook at the Sydney Orphanage and received 8 Pound 8 Shillings wages for the year ended 3 August 1802 (as Sandilon). She married a William Baker on 26 August 1795. I have not found any reference to children of this marriage to date. Nor have I traced Baker’s arrival to the colony. As Ann Sandland, she was buried at Sydney on 2 January 1809, having drowned in Sydney Cove.

It is of some interest that her daughter Elizabeth was described as an orphan having attended the orphan school, and at the latter’s marriage to Thomas Boulton on 10 August 1806 Henry and Diana Kable were the witnesses and not her mother Ann. As Elizabeth was under 18 at the date of her marriage permission to marry was given by His Excellency Philip Gidley King, and the ceremony was performed by Rev. Samuel Marsden.