1823
Late in the day on the 20th May, an intoxicated Hannah Hutchins meets a friend, Maria Williams, and they go shopping for a gown. They slip into Miles Metcalf’s shop and spend about 10 minutes looking at a “great many” prints. Either Hannah or Maria pays the 1shilling deposit for one of the cotton prints, then they head for the door, only to be accused by Charles Wilson of having “something which did not belong to them.”
Miraculously 32 yards of poplin had manifested itself beneath Hannah’s petticoat, something she persistently claimed any knowledge of !
(In the three weeks between her arrest and trial, the magic poplin grows by another yard).
3 weeks later on the 15th June Hannah is tried in the Old Bailey(4). The trial records make no mention of Hannah’s defence and Justice Burrough sentences her to Death(5 6 7 8) for attempting to steal 33 yards of poplin, value forty shillings. Hannah is taken to Newgate Prison to await her fate.
Unfortunately for Hannah, Forty shillings seems to have been the watershed between life and death. In general, Gaol conditions at the time were harsh, prisoners occasionally being “ironed”(9) for long periods at a time. Being a prisoner on death row, It’s entirely possible Hannah was ironed.
One month later at a regular Royal Court, the sentences of sixteen condemned prisoners from Newgate, due to be executed the following Monday, were reviewed by the King. Thirteen prisoners “were respited during his Majesty’s pleasure”(10), their sentences commuted to Transportation to the colonies for Life. An uncomfortably close call for all future Samuels!
Three months later, on the 23rd October(11), some of the female prisoners arrive on board the ship Brothers(12) chained together in irons or handcuffed. Thanks to the incredible efforts of Elizabeth Fry, the women on board (and presumably imprisoned below deck) have their restraints removed until the Brothers finally departs from The Downs for Hobart Town and Port Jackson on the 6th December, with 89 (91) female prisoners(13) destined for Port Arthur and Port Jackson, the only boatload in 1824.
On the13th December, 7days into a journey that was to last 153 days, James Hall, the ships Surgeon, claimed 6 of the female prisoners tried to murder him “and form a mutiny of an alarming nature”. Hannah was not one of the six but was clearly on the periphery.