Person:Jane Haughie (1)

According to the High Court records, she seems to have got through life by sometimes working as a staymaker or house maid but more often by pawning her father’s clothing and household goods which eventually made her eligible for early assisted passage of the involuntary kind to Van Diemens Land (later Tasmania). The earliest record so far found is the September 1840 Police Court records. She is in court on 9 and 29 September and on each occasion it is for stealing her father’s belongings amongst which was a tin kettle and various items of clothing. The later of the two indictments also names a Margaret Haughey of the same address. She served 10 days in the police prison and 30 days, at labour, in Edinburgh prison respectively. The “pannell”, aka the accused, admitted guilt on all counts in both indictments and it seems Margaret was also found guilty on 29 September and received the same sentence but no records remain for her. She reappears in Police Court in January 1841 for stealing her father’s clothes. This time the items included a pair of moleskin trousers, a tartan shawl, a black cloth body coat and a striped cotton shirt. She admits taking the black cloth body coat and is sentenced on 27 January to a further 30 days in Edinburgh prison. Jane’s mother, Ann Scott, died in February 1841 while Jane was imprisoned but It seems Jane was released in time to find gainful employment with the Mayne family in 1841 where she is listed on the census as Jane Hough, female servant. Good behaviour wasn’t long lived in Miss Haughie as 12 May 1841 finds her criminal career elevating her to the attention of the Sheriff Court for the theft of a kettle, a tub, other household items and several items of clothing including a hat, a vest, two worsted stockings (her late mother’s?) and two worsted gloves. Her crime is “aggravated by means of opening a lock fast drawer and by her having been previously convicted of theft”. The sheriff finds her not guilty of the first count but guilty on the second and she is escorted to the Prison of Edinburgh for 9 calendar months. If she served the full 9 months from 12 May 1841, she was released around February 1842 and managed a bare 3 months before being tried in May 1842, once again, for theft of household items and clothing from her father’s house. She admits guilt and is sentenced to 18 months in Perth General Prison which brings her to November 1843. By July 1844, she has exhausted the lower courts and is in High Court for, yet again, theft. The indictment states that “ on 26 July 1844 “you did wickedly and feloniously, steal and theftuously away take, from a lockfast chest of drawers, which you, then and there, did wickedly and feloniously, opened by means of a knife, or in some other manner to the prosecutor unknown, A Black Coat, A Black Vest, A Pair of Black Trousers, and A Cotton Shirt, the property, or in lawful possession, of John Haughie [her father]; As also A Black Coat, A Waistcoat, A White Cotton Shirt, and A Striped Cotton Shirt, the property, or in lawful possession, of John Haughie junior She says in her statement that she is 21, a native of Edinburgh and lives with her father at Hopesland, Canongate where, “upon Friday last the twenty sixth current in the forenoon I stole it [a black coat] from an open drawer in my father’s house and at the same time I stole from said drawer another black cloth coat, two cloth vests, a pair of cloth trousers and a striped cotton shirt and I pawned the whole of them the same day in the Equitable Loan Office, Milnes Sq in two or three different lots” On being shown a pawn ticket she agrees it is the one she gave the watchman[when arrested} and is relative to the coat previously shown to her but that she doesn’t know what “came over the other ticket or tickets”. She also declares she did not force open the drawer and when shown a knife that she supposedly used to open the locked she declares “she knows nothing about it”. The sentence is 7 years penal servitude and she is taken from Edinburgh to Portsomuth to wait in prison or a prison hulk in English waters until the next prison ship leaves for Australia. Found guilty in July 1844, it is not until March 1845 that the “ Tory” sets sail for Van Diemens Land, arriving 4 Jul 1845.

The case is reported in the Caledonian Mercury of 7 Nov 1844

Australian records. The convict description list describes her as 5’2”, age 21 and a staymaker. She has a fair complexion, oval head and face and black hair. She had dark hazel eyes with dark brown eyebrows, a small nose and mouth with a long chin and a scar on her forehead. The convict indent states she is single, her religion is Church of Scotland and she has one child (a daughter). In the entry for “relations where last residing” is entered F. (father?), John at E.P. (?), father of my child. B.(brother) John 4 S (sisters?) Katherine, Agnes, Margaret and Mary at E.P (?). There is no indication that her daughter was with her so she must have been left in Edinburgh. The convict muster ledger refer to her being sent to Mr Kennedy in Launceston however she married a “free man”, Andrew Benny, in 1848 therefore her sentence will be considered over in all but name. She would be allowed to live a free person but not allowed to travel outside the area without permission. Records show they had one daughter, Agnes in 1851 in Launceston, Tasmania. Jane died in 1879 in Launceston.