Echoes of Home

n the mid-nineteenth century men, women and even children were being transported to other British Colonies for crimes as diverse as stealing a loaf of bread and murder. In 1831, men from the village of Selborne in Hampshire were shipped off to Australia for their part in the Swing riots, and eighteen years later, in 1849, another resident followed. Ellen Heath was sentenced to death for attempting to poison her husband. This was reduced to transportation for life, but how harsh was her life to be, sent away with her baby daughter from family and the only life she knew? This is her story ...