Escaping Injustice: Sarah Chandler’s Defiant Jailbreak

In 1814, Sarah Chandler, a struggling mother from Wales was convicted of using counterfeit notes to buy shoes for her children. When an overzealous judge sentenced her to death, her family intervened

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Guest Post by Kirsten Ford

Depiction of Sarah Chandler (Image generated via Midjourney)

Background

Although the details of her early life are sketchy, we know that Sarah Bowen was born sometime between 1777 and 1780 in Beguildy, Radnorshire, Wales. She had two brothers, with Sarah being the middle child. Described in an April 1845 edition of Eddowes’s Journal as a “remarkably fine woman.” Sarah married Thomas Chandler at some point in her youth, and by 1814, the couple had seven children under the age of ten.