Welsh Journals

ELEANOR JAMES CARDIGANSHIRE'S ONLY FEMALE TRANSPORTEE TO AUSTRALIA During the course of research into Welsh female criminals trans- ported in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, to New South Wales and Tasmania,1 I came across a solitary Cardiganshire woman. This is not to say that she was the only woman sentenced to transport- ation by a Cardiganshire court, but she certainly appears to have been the only Cardiganshire woman ever to have actually sailed as a trans- portee. Cardiganshire and other Welsh rural counties sent remark- ably few women to Australia during the transportation era. Cardigan- shire with one female transportee, Flintshire with four and Merioneth- shire with six, stand in great contrast to the more populous and industrialized counties of South Wales such as Glamorgan and Mon- mouth, with over seventy and sixty female transportees respectively.2 Cardiganshire's only female transportee was Eleanor James. She appeared before Thomas Lewis Lloyd, Sheriff, at the Court of Great Sessions held at Cardigan on 2 September 1822.3 According to the Calendar of Prisoners, Eleanor James (age 24) was charged with feloniously stealing from the house of a certain Anne Thomas in Tre- main. She allegedly removed one gown, one silk shawl and one handkerchief, the property of one Mary Phillips, and one cloak, petti- coat, silk handkerchief and flannel apron, the property of Anne Thomas. David George (age 59) was charged with removing a similar array of clothing from the same house. In the absence of detailed evidence, it is not possible to reconstruct the crime, but it would seem that David George was found in possession of the stolen goods. He was apprehended in early May, whilst Eleanor James was not brought in and charged until July. Her crime, the theft of clothing, was one of the two most common offences committed by women sentenced to transportation. The Great Sessions records reveal no further information about Eleanor James but Home Office and Tasmanian sources are more forthcoming.' From Tasmanian evidence it becomes clear that this was not her first offence and the gaol report describes her as a thief from infancy'. She admitted the offence for which she was committed and one other felony, for which she had previously received a four month sentence. The fact that she was sent to Tasmania (Van Die- men's Land) in the early 1820's may suggest a refractory character'. Until the mid 1820's all female convicts were sent to New South Wales and after 1840 they were all sent to Van Diemen's Land. In the intervening years it would appear a form of selection operated and