SARAH STANLEY Convicted of petty larceny, and released in 1796
From Knapp and Baldwin’s Newgate Calendar
Like Mary Read and Anne Bonny (see ‘Pirates’), Sarah Stanley seems to have found more freedom living as a man. She was discharged honourably from the army, avoiding the unpleasantness and accusations that might have arisen from this situation, a testament to her ability to interact well with men as a man. As with the case of Ann Flynn, the court looked mercifully upon Stanley’s predicament; women, considered the weaker sex, were treated gently more often than men. (The entry is given in full.)
SARAH PENELOPE STANLEY,
(The Female Trooper,)
CONVICTED AT THE OLD BAILEY, IN OCTOBER SESSIONS, 1796, OFPETTY LARCENY
This female warrior was born at Mercival-hall, in Warwickshire, the seat of Mr Stratford, to whom her father was steward, whose name was Brindley. She was put apprentice to a milliner at Lichfield, and married to a shoe-maker. Her husband being an idle dissolute fellow, they were reduced to very indigent circumstances. She left him to come to London. Having had a good education, and writing an excellent hand, she put on men’s apparel, and for some time wrote for gentlemen in the Commons; but meeting with a recruiting serjeant at Westminster, she engaged to serve in a regiment of light horse, then raising, called the Ayrshire Fencible Cavalry. She served upwards of a year with great credit to herself, and was promoted to the rank of corporal; rode extremely well, and had the care of two horses; but was discovered at Carlisle to be a woman, when she was honourably discharged, after many marks of friendship shewn her, not only by Major Horsley, in whose troop she rode, but by the other officers, and many of the inhabitants of Carlisle. She came to town, was much reduced, and through mere necessity, stole the cloak for which she was tried and convicted. – She acknowledged her crime, said it was the first offence of the kind she had committed, and meant to make satisfaction. The court passed a slight sentence upon her, and she was discharged from Newgate. The two under-sheriffs, and the keeper, gave her some money to provide her a few necessaries, and she left the court, promising henceforward to seek an honest livelihood, in the proper habit of her sex. She was a masculine looking woman of about 30 years of age.