Although taking multiple husbands is quite rare, a case of polyandry was heard at the Old Bailey in 1829. The Court found the woman’s manner to be ‘most audacious’ before sentencing her to transportation.
“At Bow-street last week, Hannah Andrews, alias Goodman, alias Eagles, alias Reynolds, a good-looking, stout Welsh woman, about 28 years of age, was charged with poligamy, having, it is said, no fewer than six husbands ! Two of the men attended to prove the case against the lady. The first was Henry Goodman, a tall, handsome man, about 30 years of age, who has respectable connections at Worcester and Birmingham. He was attending Wolverhampton market in May last, when the lady introduced herself to him, and by dint of insinuating manners soon wooed herself into his good graces : they touched upon marriage, and having apprised him that she had property at Cheltenham worth 1400l., besides a tolerable sum in ready cash, she said she was a widow, and of all men she had seen he was most to her fancy. Mr Goodman soon became equally pleased with her, and her attractions had so blinded him, that she actually took him to the Wolverhampton bank, and contrived by a bold manoeuvre to persuade him that she had 395l. lodged there !–Within a month they were married, and soon after the happy pair proceeded to Worcester, to visit Mr. G.’s brother, a professional man ; whence they were to proceed to Cheltenham, to view the property there, but at Worcester the fair dame feigned illness, and to Cheltenham Mr. G. proceeded alone, and soon found (to use his own words) that all her estate was in the ‘Isle of Sky !’ It was true that she had hired some premises, which she had never occupied, and during her visit to Cheltenham, she had contrived, by some well-managed tears, to dupe a lawyer of 20l. Upon his return to Worcester, the husband found that his frail rib had left that place within an hour after his departure for Cheltenham, and had proceeded to Birmingham, where she had obtained property of tradesmen, in his name, to a considerable extent, had carried off from his house all the portable property he possessed, and had then decamped. He had afterwards the satisfaction of finding that she had three other husbands.–A similar ‘tale of woe’ was told by a Mr. Eagles, another husband, whom she plundered to a much greater extent. The woman conducted herself in the most audacious manner during the examination, laughing loudly, and ogling first one man and then another.– She was convicted on two indictments at the Old Bailey sessions, and sentenced to seven years’ transportation for each offence.”
Stamford Mercury, 30th January, 1829.