Researchers who have claimed this convict
There is currently one researcher who has claimed Susan Fletcher
Biographies
Susan Fletcher's name appears in the Spinning House committal books, the Refuge minute
books and the criminal registers at Kew. Born in 1828, Susan was one of four children. Her
father, who 'was not totally fit, having suffered from rheumatic fever', was in service as a
whitesmith; her mother was a straw bonnet maker.
64
After frequent changes of address in
London, the family had moved to Cambridge, probably in 1841. Susan was pressed by her
mother to apply for a place in the Refuge. Her mother complained to the Refuge Ladies'
Committee that her daughter had kept bad company in London:
I am sure she has been living as a prostitute. She would come home intoxicated. If I sent her out
for anything she would run away. I have put her in the Union, but directly she came home she
returned to evil courses. She will not be ruled by her father or by me.
65
Mrs Fletcher explained that, although Susan 'had attended Mrs Marlow's school for not
quite a year' and had been at Great St Andrew's Sunday School, she could only read a
little.
66
Susan had spent a winter with her aunt in Bury St Edmunds, but, back in Cambridge,
on her own admission she kept the company of 'bad girls' in a house in Wellington Row.
She went with them to Midsummer Fair and had her first sexual experience there at the age
of fourteen. Susan described the occasion to the committee: 'It was last Midsummer Fair
that I had first connection with a man. I am sure of this - I met a man in a booth who gave
64
CRO, R 60/27/2, 4 July 1842. 65
CRO, R 60/27/2, 4 July 1842. 66
CRO, R 60/27/2, 4 July 1842.
254
me beer and had his way with me received no money. '
67
Initially Susan told the committee
that it was her 'wish to be put in a place of confinement', but in a later interview she recanted
and said that her mother had 'urged it on her'. Susan did not enter the Refuge: the doctor
found that 'the child was decidedly diseased'. Mrs Fletcher was told to take her daughter to
the Union to be cured. 68
Later that year Susan and her brother Samuel were in trouble with the police: both received
gaol sentences of three months for larceny. Later in January 1843, Samuel was convicted of
stealing a duck and was sentenced to transportation for seven years.
69
Susan had been
employed in making cloth caps in London, but in Cambridge she went into service. Just two
months after her brother's conviction, while she was working as a servant in Maids'
Causeway, she was indicted for stealing 'a piece of print' worth five shillings from a
draper's shop. She told her mistress that her mother had had it a year and her mother that
her mistress had given it to her. She received a nine-month gaol sentence. A year later, at the
age of 16, Susan was admitted to the Spinning House for the first time. The proctors
arrested her 14 times in the next four years. She was only ever charged with 'streetwalking'
and there is no record in the committal books of her having venereal disease or being treated
for it at the House. Meanwhile, her older sister Charlotte was also spending time in the
Spinning House, sometimes after the sisters had been walking the streets together. Susan
Fletcher was just 20 when she disappeared from the Spinning House records.
Ref: https://oro.open.ac.uk/65602/7/65602_Redacted.pdf from p258
Submitted by Researcher (14348) on 25 May 2025
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Disclaimer: The information has not been verified by Claim a Convict. As this information is contributed, it is the responsibility of those who use the data to verify its accuracy. Research notes
There are currently no research notes attached to this convict. Sources
- The National Archives (TNA) : HO 11/16, p.45
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