There is only one single instance of the name Harrenden being mentioned in the early historical record of Western Australia.

That was a time in early 1843 when some unidentified party believed a woman named Fanny Harrenden resided in the locality of the Swan River Colony, for they sent a letter to her there that ended up in the post office in Perth, awaiting collection.

And there it would lie for two months, from the end of June 1843, until it was either collected by the intended recipient, OR (and far more likely) consigned to the metaphorical as well as literal dustbin of history.

Now, the name Harrenden (assuming the post office clerk transcribed it correctly, or the compositor at the Perth Gazette had laid down the correct blocks of type) does vaguely resemble that of one other Fanny known to be in both the town and colony since the previous year. Fanny Hoffington married former convict labourer James Dyson in Perth on 25 October 1842. That is the earliest record of her name occurring in the colony’s history. She was also illiterate and its not impossible that Harrenden and Hoffington might be confused by one or more harried clerks.

That this historically-attested-to Mrs Fanny Dyson was sent a letter addressed to her maiden name seems highly improbable. Not impossible though. Am I clutching at straws… In a burning house, perhaps?

I write this in response to the glorious demolition of my longtime theory that Van Diemen’s Land Convict and one-eyed working girl Fanny Dewhirst also ran with the alias of Fanny Hoffingham.

The actual Mrs Frances Johnston (sic) has now been conclusively located in the Colony of Victoria from at least the year 1857 and she died over there in the Sunbury Lunatic Asylum on 8 June 1892. In many respects, her fate played out chillingly familliar to that of her partial namesake in Western Australia.

You don’t have take my word for it. (safer not to!) The discoverer has made an entire documentary about her life.

Natalie Lonsdale, Convict Lives & Australian Genealogy Stories “The One-Eyed Rebel: From Tasmania’s Female Factories to Sunbury Asylum Convict Fanny ‘Fan’ Dewhirst.” YouTube video, 51:19. Posted 10 Dec 2025, https://youtu.be/Ja1DvC1PkCU?si=8TA0g-YXyf5dhDdD.

Profound thanks to Natalie Lonsdale, of the Convict Lives & Australian Genealogy Stories Youtube channel who reached out to me a few days ago to share the results of her work.

The truth is infinitely more satisfying than speculation.