One of the problems with being a Victorian female imposter is that you attract a lot of attention from the media. There are a few operating in the 1850s (eg the Alice Gray mentioned below, who I can discount because she is tall and Scottish). “Female imposter” and “lady swindler” are good search terms.
I’m now fairly sure Sarah doesn’t turn up in these earlier reports, but there are a lot of correspondences between her and Mary Chippendale. Compare “She is now 5ft. 2in. in height, slightly built, and has something of a cast with her eye” and “5ft 1in in height, fair complexion, dark brown hair, slight make”, both descriptions of Sarah, with “she is short in stature, slight in figure, with grey eyes, having a cast in the left one, light brown hair, fair complexion” below.
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THE CANTERBURY FEMALE IMPOSTER.
—Mary Eliza Chippendale, the “interesting” young lady with the legion of aliases, now undergoing imprisonment at Canterbury, still preserves her extraordinary pertinacity in endeavouring to deceive those whose official capacity places them in contact with her. The chaplain of the prison has tried with untiring zeal to engender a better spirit. She avoids all direct questions and evades those more indirect. She has a more than ordinary acquaintance with the theory of music, answering questions readily in reference to thorough-bass; her knowledge of the French language is good, and she can repeat the services of the Roman Church as used in the French convents, not only in the vernacular, but in Latin. That she is the illegitimate daughter of a gentleman of fortune there seems every reason to believe; and that an inherent love of deceit, joined to a most unamiable temper, has tended to destroy all feelings of interest in her in those who would otherwise be her protectors, seems also the only explanation of her extraordinary career.
— Leeds Times, Saturday 02 February 1856 source
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ANOTHER FEMALE IMPOSTER.
—CANTERBURY, MONDAY EVENING.
—A notorious female imposter of lady-like appearance has just been apprehended by Superintendent William Walker, of the Kent constabulary, on the charge of obtaining food, lodging, and money under false representations. This female answers the name of Mary Eliza Smith, Matilda Tremaine, or Mary Eliza Chippendale. She is short in stature, slight in figure, with grey eyes, having a cast in the left one, light brown hair, fair complexion, with an occasional flush, projecting under lip, and a hesitating manner in her speech. She appears to be about thirty years of age. She is well versed in the arts of deception, possessing perfect command of her countenance, and rarely betraying the slightest emotion. Her plan is to obtain by some tale of distress a footing in a family for a time, where she secures food and lodging during her stay, and decamps on being detected, but seldom without carrying off some article of easy conveyance. She has been living for the last two or three years in different parts of England. At one time she represents herself as coming from Liverpool, and being the daughter or niece of a large navy agent there; that although not quite convinced, she is leaving the protestant religion, but is desirous of resolving her remaining doubts. At another time she stated her father was a medical man residing in the vicinity of Dover, a member of the Baptist chapel there; that he wanted her to join that denomination, to which she was opposed, as she wished to turn Roman Catholic, and was then in search of a convent, having succeeded in getting out of her father’s house at night, but that unfortunately in doing so she fell into the water butt. In the early part of last year she obtained access to a cottage at Upper Harbledown, about 3 miles from this city, and remained there some time, her first introduction being an appeal to the cottagers for shelter and protection, as a man had rudely assaulted her. She also visited the catholic priest of the district, from whom she likewise obtained aid, and the one upon which the superintendent apprehended her, is of an entirely different character. She is now an heiress in search of her grandmamma. In this character she called on a small shopkeeper, of the name of Epps, residing at Ospringe, near Faversham, on Friday last, and after a little conversation stated that she had left in consequence of having had some words with her; that the coachman took her to Maidstone, but on reaching that town she found that her friends had gone to Brighton; she was therefore under necessity of walking to within three miles of Deal, where her grandmamma whose name was Lane, resided, at Belmont Hall. She also added that in January next she would become entitled to three farms, which would yield her £3,000 a-year, and that if Epps liked, she would place him in one of them. Her manner and statement completely effected their purpose, for the man and his wife instantly made her welcome to the best of their food and accommodation. The next morning the would be “heiress,” with a thorough bred, liver-coloured setter, which she had with her, were conveyed by omnibus to Canterbury, at the expense of Mrs Epps, who accompanied them, by invitation to see the “grandmamma.” Fortunately the keen eye of Superintendent Walker detected his customer, and speedily she was in charge of the police. The magistrates remanded her for a week.
—On being conveyed to the gaol she admitted that she was the person who obtained access into the house of a gentleman near Leeds, and remained there for three months, under the pretence that she was the niece of Dr Hook.—Daily News.
— Kendal Mercury, Saturday 22 December 1855 source
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ALICE GRAY’S COMPETITOR.
—The story of Mary Eliza Tremaine, the Canterbury female impostor, is still more wonderful than that of Alice Gray, and, in conjunction with it, would seem to prove that the only certain recipe for procuring board and lodging gratis is to go about “in search of a new religion.” The revelations of this new impostor were made at Canterbury on Monday.
—From the statement of Superintendent Walker, of the Kent constabulary, and a pile of letters which he had received since the remand of the prisoner, it appears that for the last fifteen years she has run a career of imposition, under various characters—that of a convert to Romanism being a favourite one. Her real name is Tremaine, and she is the natural daughter of a gentleman of the name of Chippendale, who placed her at a boarding-school in the north of England, from which place she ran away when hardly 15 years of age, and immediately commenced a course of life of so gross a nature as to cause her friends to discard her. Her mother was burnt to death. In 1843 she obtained access into the house of Major A. A. Young, of the Coast Guard, at Sherringham, near Cromer, while his family were residing at Whitmore, Staffordshire, where she remained for six weeks, when the imposition was discovered, and she left, and proceeded to Liverpool. In 1846 this impostor was taken to the office of the Mendicity Society, in London, under the name of Mary Hallaway, and represented that she had been a nursery governess, but was in great distress in consequence of having been thrown out of employ. Inquiry was instituted, and it was ascertained that she was one of the greatest adepts at fraud in the metropolis. Two years afterwards, in 1848, she was found apparently in a fit in Liverpool, and placed in a seminary by a lady residing in that town, where she subsequently committed a felony, and was imprisoned for nine months in the Liverpool Borough Jail. Some little time afterwards she made her appearance at Darlington, where she was found in the streets in great distress. Joseph Pease, the Quaker, hearing of her condition, placed her in a good school, where she remained for about nine months, and then ran away. In 1852 she succeeded in imposing upon a Mr. Rogers, at Norwich, and a Mrs. Wiseman, at Tivetshall, near Scoole, Norfolk, and was taken before the magistrates, but discharged, as the offence could not be clearly made out against her. She had then, according to her statement, run away from her father’s house, for the purpose of being married, but had missed her suitor. In October of the same year we find her in custody of the county police at Bedford, on charge of obtaining money under false pretences, in the name of Matilda Jane Callaway Hook, Lyle, Dale, and Chippendale. In July, 1853, she was sentenced to fourteen days in Windsor gaol, having obtained things under false pretences, representing that she had just arrived from Australia, and was in search of her sister, a member of the Baptist denomination of that town. At another period of the same year, the vicar of Trumpington placed her in a private asylum, with the view of effecting her reformation, when she confessed to a great deal of conceit and imposture, and pretended to be desirous of abandoning her then mode of life. This turned out, however, only another of her schemes of imposition. The early part of 1854 found “Mary Eliza” at Dover and Canterbury, running away from her father, a Baptist, who wished her to join that persuasion; but she rather inclined to the Church of Rome, and was then in search of a convent. She then wended her way to Derbyshire, and under the pretence that she was the daughter of Dr. Hook, of Leeds, obtained access to the house of Mr. Smedley, near Matlock, and was treated very kindly for about three months. In the following November, the kindness of Mr. Pease was repaid by the impostor representing herself as his daughter, obliged to leave home because she wished to be married to a gentleman not belonging to the Society of Friends. For that offence she was imprisoned in Northallerton House of Correction for three months. During the past summer her “ladyship” was boarded and lodged in the house of a London City missionary for three months, when she suddenly disappeared, taking with her several articles belonging to her benefactor. After visiting Oxford, the workhouse, the gaol, and several private houses, “Mary Jane” proceeded to Henley-on-Thames, from which place she was sent to Oxford jail for three weeks. It would appear that she then wended her way to Canterbury. In addition to the above facts, it may be stated that she has been placed in a great number of asylums and schools. The magistrates ordered her to be imprisoned with hard labour for two months as a rogue and vagabond.
— Globe, Tuesday 25 December 1855 source
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A VETERAN IMPOSTER.
At the Leeds borough sessions on Saturday, before Mr. Robert Hall, Deputy Recorder, Mary Eliza Tremaine, alias Matilda Terewist, alias Kellaway, alias Field, alias Hook, alias Pease, &c., was charged with stealing £1 10s., a pair of scissors, a purse, and a handkerchief, the property of John Clough, publican, Ferry-hill Durham. She first pleaded “Guilty,” but afterwards withdrew the plea. Her real name is Grace Berwick, and she is respectably connected. She was born in London, and is apparently between 30 and 40 years of age, though she was entered in the calendar as 25. She has a pleasing voice and somewhat earnest manner, combined with an apparent diffidence and hesitancy calculated to excite sympathy. Her career has been one continued series of deceptions, and during the last 18 or 20 years she has appeared in various parts of England and Ireland, and within more recent years has been imprisoned at Liverpool, Derby, Leeds, Northallerton, and Durham. Her mode of action is adapted to the circumstances of the times, but generally she has represented herself as the daughter or ward of some well-known person, escaping from persecution, and suffering “for conscience’ sake,” and her appeals have for a time, in most cases, proved successful.
With reference to the charge for which she took her trial on Saturday it appears that early in December last she, accompanied by a dog, went to the prosecutor’s stating that she had escaped from a convent in France, and was endeavouring to elude the detection of her father, who had offered a reward for her apprehension. She also stated that she possessed property, and would shortly succeed to a large farm in the south of England. The prosecutor and his wife were induced by these representations to allow her to remain, and on her afterwards signing a paper to settle £100 a-year on Mr. Clough, and to make him farm-bailiff, she was allowed the run of the house, occasionally discharging, however, menial duties. About the middle of January, Clough accompanied her to Leeds, on the way to London, to take possession of the farm, and while he was searching for a Mr. Teale, whom she described as her uncle, and for whom he (Clough) had a note, she attempted to elude him, and on his returning to the house where he had left her she had gone. He thereupon gave information to the police and she was taken into custody, and when searched the articles and money (including a marked pennypiece, and a token identified by the prosecutor and his wife as their property) she was now charged with stealing were found in her possession. The jury found her Guilty, and, a previous conviction having been proved, she was sentenced to six years’ penal servitude.
— Weekly Star and Bell’s News, Sunday 15 March 1857 source
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A NOTORIOUS IMPOSTER.
CAUTION.—“MARY ELIZA” AGAIN.
—This notorious impostor, who has lately completed her term of penal servitude, for kidnapping a child at Rochester, and whose exploits in the neighbourhood of Canterbury and the neighbourhood of Norwich, were detailed at length in 1855, has commenced another series of impostures, and is now “wanted” by Mr. Superintendent Walker, of K.C.C., Canterbury, for a felony committed by her at Whitstable, on Sunday night last. Having obtained access to the house of Mrs. Mary Putwain, on the pretext of obtaining lodgings about ten days since, she staid there living at Mrs. Putwain’s expense until Sunday night, when she decamped, taking with her various articles of apparel, &c., some of which she succeeded in pledging at a pawnbroker’s in Canterbury on Monday. This female answers the name of Mary Eliza Smith, Matilda Tremaine, or Mary Eliza Chippendale. She is short in stature, moderate figure, with grey eyes, having a cast in the left one, light brown hair, fair complexion, with an occasional flush, projecting under-lip, and a hesitating manner in her speech. She appears to be about 30 years of age. She is well versed in the arts of deception, possessing perfect command of her countenance, and rarely betraying the slightest emotion. She was dressed when she left Whitstable in a black and blue stripped silk gown, a very long dark brown rough cloak with sleeves, brown straw bonnet with brown ribbon and blue flowers; sometimes wore a black veil and white victorine, carried a black hairy muff. She has a black silk gown with her, and a fancy bag, such as is used by ladies when “shopping,” containing a Bible with an inscription written in it, “presented to Eliza (or Emily) Walker, by a friend,” also a Prayer Book, and white handkerchief with the initials “E. W.” Among the articles taken from Mrs. Putwain’s were a bright scarlet, blue and white plaid scarf shawl, and a black shawl with coloured silk border.
— Kentish Chronicle, Saturday 13 February 1864 source