20/08/2025
⚖️👀 Freckles, scars, and a fiery temper - With over twenty charges in just eight years, ‘Eliza Jackson’ was no ordinary Victorian woman.🔒
Born in Driffield, Yorkshire, around 1857, Eliza Jackson was also known by the names Hannah Sims and Hannah Ward. By trade she was a fish cleaner, small in stature at just 4ft 10, with grey eyes and light brown hair.
In January 1884, she was arrested in New Clee, Grimsby, for a violent robbery. Together with several others, she lured fisherman George Whilley into a property know as being house of ill repute, where he was attacked, smothered with bedclothes, and robbed of his purse containing £4 10s. He escaped by smashing a window and went straight to the police to report the crime.
On 26th January 1884, at the Lincoln Assizes, Eliza and an accomplice were tried and found guilty. By then, she was no stranger to the courts, having faced 20 charges in the previous eight years, mostly for drunkenness and theft. This time, however, the sentence was severe: five years’ penal servitude — hard labour in prison. Committed first to Millbank and later Woking prisons, she was put to work knitting and tailoring.
Prison records give us a vivid glimpse of the woman behind the conviction. She bore scars on her face and arm, had pierced ears, and a freckled complexion. Yet her temper often brought her into conflict. She fought with fellow prisoners, sang loudly in her cell, and once complained so fiercely about the food that she was punished with solitary confinement. At the same time, she maintained her family ties, writing faithfully to her sister Mary Barratt in Hull.
On 14th September 1886, Eliza was transferred to Russell House Refuge in Streatham on conditional licence. The following June, she was permitted to leave the refuge, stepping back into freedom.
