http://rajahsgranddaughter.blogspot.com.au/

While I have been researching into more background for Grace's story, I have made some amazing discoveries. What a wonderful thing the internet is, it's fantastic that there are so many historical records and documents now available on line, many for free. This often means that volunteer transcribers have spent the time recording, scanning, typing or copying, old records from churches, newspapers, archives, and other official documents.


I knew that it said in Grace's convict records that she had one prior conviction for theft of fabric. In the West Briton and Cornwall Advertiser, Friday the 10th of January 1840, it was reported that at the Penzance Quarter sessions of the previous Monday (6th January) Grace STEVENS, 15, pleaded guilty to stealing a piece of cotton print, from the shop of Mr. Tucker, Draper, and was sentenced to three months' imprisonment.

Her second conviction, that earned her the sentence of transportation to Van Diemen's Land, was reported in the Cornwall Gazette on Friday 17th July 1840. This report says her trial had taken place on Tuesday of that week, the 14th of July. This one is not on-line.