The bigamy of Fanny Glover

In Wellington gaol in 1867 an unprecedented event took place. Prisoner Fanny Glover became the first woman to give birth in prison.
It prompted a petition for her release even though she had pleaded guilty to her crime.
Bigamy.
Fanny had married William Glover in June 1861 in Christchurch. He was a farm labourer in good financial condition. She had three children to him in only a handful of years. Only one survived.
Fanny, who had been Fanny Craythorne, complained many times of “ill-use,” a polite term used in courts for several different kinds of abuse.
Her sister Mary Ann Manning heard these complaints often but never saw any signs of it. She had been at Fanny’s wedding ceremony.
But by 1867, Fanny was living in the Wairarapa with Robert Gibbs as his housekeeper and calling herself Fanny Gordon.
Gibbs, a publican in Greytown, knew about Fanny’s other husband but on May 15, 1867, they both went into the registrar of births, deaths and marriage office and were married.
Fanny signed the register with the surname Gordon and said she was a widow.
By the time all the evidence was produced to the Supreme Court in Wellington, she changed her plea to guilty but by then the jury was considering the case. They quickly returned a guilty verdict.
At the time Fanny was more than seven months pregnant.
The judge sentenced her to nine months hard labour on September 1897.
In December newspapers reported she had delivered a healthy daughter in prison.
In January a petition was forwarded to the Colonial Secretary’s office asking for clemency but a report from the surgeon who looked after prisoners said there was nothing in her surroundings that posed a danger to her or her child.
Fanny served her time and was released.
Fanny had been born Frances Craythorne in Leicestershire, England in 1843 to William and Mary Craythorne. The whole family came to New Zealand in 1857.
After her release from jail, Fanny remained with Robert and had four children by him, three daughters and a son.
She died aged 90 in Upper Hutt and on March 25, 1934 and is buried at Karori Cemetery.
Picture by Micheile Henderson.​