I know about findin' one 'undred watches what's been nicked?'
'And how do you suppose these watches came into your possession then, madam?' the magistrate asked sternly.
Hannah pointed to Bob Marley, manacled and seated between two constables in the court. '
'Im! I asks 'im to purchase on be'arf o' me 'usband one 'undred watches what's kosher, what's not nicked, but what's bran' new. 'E said 'e done it, but 'e didn't, did 'e? 'E gorn and got 'em on the cross!' Hannah suddenly clasped her hands together in front of her breasts and burst into tears. 'Oh, what shall become o' me children?' she wailed.
'You may stand down, Mrs Solomon.' The magistrate was not in the least affected by Hannah's tears. 'I shall presently call you to stand before me again.' He nodded at the clerk of the court, who rose from his seat and proclaimed.
'Robert Matthew Marley will take the stand!'
Hannah listened with increasing bemusement as Marley proved conclusively that the watches he'd obtained for her were unencumbered and purchased legitimately. To further support his case the respectable Haymarket jeweller, Isaac Isaacson, appeared as a witness for Marley, showing the number and names of the watches purchased by the accused as matching exactly the wholesaler's invoice. Bob Marley then produced in evidence Isaac Isaacson's own receipt to him. Furthermore, the Crown now admitted that none of the watches matched the serial numbers of those taken in the notorious Cheapside robbery.
The charges against Marley were summarily dismissed and the magistrate called for Hannah to appear before him again, whereupon he commenced to remonstrate severely with her for accusing the said Robert Matthew Marley, a man who had never been before the courts and whose reputation she had needlessly and maliciously impugned.
Hannah protested vehemently. 'Yer worship it were the police! They said them watches was stolen! I 'mediately supposed they was! I supposed that Mr Marley'd gorn an' nicked 'em, 'oping to profit from chargin' me the full price while 'avin' got 'em at a thief's rate!'
'And you did not think to ask Mr Marley for a receipt as proof that he'd made a legitimate purchase as you requested?'
'Yer worship, I were most pleased what Mr Marley 'ad done, knowin' as 'ow I 'ad served me 'usband's request wif promptness and exactitude. I am not accustomed to the ways o' doin' business, bein' a poor woman what knows nuffink about such things as bills and receipts and the general goin's on o' commerce!'
The magistrate snorted loudly. Hannah's reputation as a businesswoman was well known to the court.
Hannah, though appearing distraught, was delighted with the altogether surprising outcome. She had considered herself already bound for Botany Bay, but now Bob Marley's innocence conclusively proved her own. She waited impatiently for the miserable beak to conclude his tirade and to dismiss the case.
Finally the magistrate picked up a document and began to read.
'Hannah Margaret Solomon and Robert Matthew Marley you have been jointly charged with having obtained and, or, being found in possession of, a consignment of one hundred watches thought to have been stolen from an establishment in Cheapside. This has subsequently been proved to be incorrect and you, Mr Marley, have been cleared by this court of any charges relating to that robbery.' He looked up at Hannah, who smiled back at him. 'You too, madam, are free of this charge.'
'Thank you, yer worship,' Hannah said primly, preparing to step down from the dock.
But the magistrate held up his hand to stay her. 'If you please…' He picked up another document and began to read again. 'Hannah Margaret Solomon, you are further charged with being in possession of a sterling silver watch known to be the property of Joseph Ridley, the said watch being discovered concealed in a biscuit tin in the pantry of your home.' The magistrate looked up sternly. 'How plead you to this charge, guilty or not guilty?'
Hannah's mouth opened in astonishment and she glanced quickly to where Bob Marley sat, but all she could later remember seeing was the dark gap between his two shining gold teeth as he grinned at her.
'Not guilty, yer worship,' she said, then added in a whisper, 'Oh, me Gawd!'
Chapter Twenty-two
The first of the autumn leaves were starting to turn in Hyde Park and the geese on the Serpentine, plump with summer feeding, were increasingly feeling the primal urge to migrate to a warmer clime. On the 13th of September 1827, Hannah, a bird of a quite different feather, was sentenced to a less voluntary migration, though also to a warmer climate.
If her sentence at the Old Bailey to fourteen years' transportation appears rather too harsh, for a crime so small, it may be supposed that much frustration had gone before it in the many unsuccessful attempts to trap both Hannah and Ikey. The law has a duty to be both parent and teacher and sometimes, in order to wipe the slate clean, a recalcitrant child must be dealt with more harshly than a particular crime seems to merit, in order to compensate for successful crimes which have gone unpunished. Hannah's conviction may well have rendered an opportunity to balance the scales of justice.
Ikey's escape to New York, as proved by the evidence of his letter to his wife, was reported in The Times and was blown up to exaggerated proportions in the penny dailies, where it created much merriment in the rookeries and even some grudging admiration among the lower classes. The law is blind only when it does not wish to see and the embarrassment to the City police and directors of the Bank of England caused by Ikey's gaolbreak may well have condemned Hannah to a harsher sentence.
To Hannah's fourteen years' transportation was added the condition that she never be permitted to return to her native land.
On hearing her sentence Hannah brought her hands up to her face and wailed, 'Oh! Oh! What shall become o' me precious mites?'
Whereupon the judge, to prove that the severity of the law may be tempered by compassion, gave permission for her children to accompany her to Australia so as to be under her fostering care.
The Mermaid, carrying Hannah and her four children together with ninety other female convicts, some also with children, sailed from Woolwich on the 10th of February 1828.
The voyage proved no better or worse than most. There was the usual sea sickness, bouts of catarrh and rheumatism brought about by the dampness between decks on the voyage to Tenerife. These ailments soon yielded with the coming of the sun, though an obstinate form of constipation remained. This was thought to be due to the fact that the Irish women on board, as was the custom in Irish prisons, received only gruel and milk. Now the introduction of salt and beef and pork to their shipboard diet proved most deleterious to their unaccustomed stomachs.
As is always the case, bickering, fights, bad behaviour and thieving among the women prisoners were much in evidence. In the matter of whoring, though, which was known to plague even the most watchful of voyages, Hannah was to play a part so skilful that the surgeon-superintendent would state in his report that the prisoners had co-operated well and had shown little pernicious disruption and almost none of the moral turpitude so commonly experienced on a convict ship carrying female prisoners.
This 'co-operation' had come about when Hannah, soon determining the nature of the voyage, grew fearful for the health of her children and concluded that the only advantage to them could be brought about by the chief steward.
Other than in matters of punishment, there are only two other aspects of life on board a convict ship which it is in the power of someone to improve, these being the daily tasks allocated to the prisoners and the nature of the food. Hannah soon ascertained that by greatly increasing the 'comfort' of the officers and certain members of the crew, and by enriching the chief steward in the process, both these rewards could be enjoyed by herself and her children.
It was a relatively easy matter for her to be appointed a monitor in charge of the more profligate and wayward of the female prisoners. The next step was one to which she was most accustomed as a whore mistress and governess of a brothel. She quickly organised a discreet service in which the chief steward acted as go- between and which both the co-operating prisoners and crew soon found to be greatly advantageous. The officers
