Have you seen this?
The Times, Thursday, Jun 09, 1864; pg. 13; Issue 24894; col D
"Middlesex Sessions, June 8."
"Matilda Taw, 48, and Matilda Taw, 14, mother and daughter, were charged with stealing a frock and a pair of boots from the person of Ellen Aubrey, aged four years, and a jacket, from the person of an infant.
For some time past a great number of robberies of children have been reported in the neighbourhood of Poplar, and the police have been informed that they were committed by a young girl. In many instances the children whose clothes have been taken from them in the streets have been too young to identify the thief ; but in this case Ellen Aubrey, an intelligent little girl, pointed out the younger prisoner as the person who had taken the articles charged in the indictment from herself and infant brother, when they were on their way to school on the morning of the 18th of May. It was proved that the younger sold the boots and frock to a Mrs. Segar, and said her mother had them from a captain's lady, who owed her some money. They were worn by Mrs. Segar's child, and Mr. Aubrey recognized them as the chothes of which his little girl had been deprived. The older prisoner told the police a different story - viz. that an actress at the Effingham Saloon and a singer at the Borough Music-hall, whose name was Fenton, had given them to her ; but inquiries had failed to discover any such person as Mrs. Fenton.
The jury found a verdict of Guilty.
The elder prisoner was sentenced to be imprisoned for 12 months, and the younger prisoner was sentenced to be imprisoned for two months and then to be kept for three years in a reformatory.
It was stated that since the apprehension of the prisoners no more of such robberies have been reported."
So...Matilda senior was still alive in June 1864 when she was sent to prison.
