User:Euryalus/Handland

Dorothy Handland (c. 1705 - 1789), also known as Dorothy Henley was an English clothing dealer found guilty of perjury in 1786 and sent to Australia as a convict aboard the First Fleet. At 82 years of age she was the oldest convict aboard the Fleet. Handland hanged herself in 1789.

Life in England
There are no records of Handland's early life other than her own statements to the court in 1786. According to her testimony she had married twice - first to a man named Gray and then to John Henley. She had at elast one child, a daughter whose existence was obliquely referred to by a witness in Handland's trial. By 1786 she had appeared at least once before the courts, but there is no record of the alleged offence or verdict.

Transportation and death
Shortly after her conviction, Handland was marked for transportation aboard the 333-ton convict vessel Lady Penrhyn. On embarkation in Portsmouth in 1787 she was examined by naval surgeon Arthur Bowes Smyth who determined that she was 82 years old. This made Handland the oldest member of the Fleet. Her advanced age made her a minor celebrity, and before the Fleet sailed both she and the next oldest female convict, 70 year old Elizabeth Beckwith, were forced to endure sightseeing visits from marines and sailors.

Lady Penrhyn departed on 13 May 1787 and reaching Botany Bay on 20 January 1788. n company with the rest of the Fleet, on

Handland hanged herself from a gum tree in Sydney Cove in 1789.