This is a very old thread, I don't know if the protagonists are still on RC.
Anyhow the following are from the Notts Evening Post (available online through the British Newspaper Archive)
24 Jan 1884; Ellen Stanley, a domestic servant, was charged with stealing £4 in silver and a gold dress ring from Mrs Eleanor Sollery, her mistress. The prisoner did not deny the charge, and she was remanded so that a communication might be sent to a clergyman in Burton on Trent, who would be able to give some information respecting the girl.
31 Jan 1884: sentenced to 3 months imprisonment for the above crime (a few more details -- amount stolen now stated to be £7 and the ring: she worked as a domestic servant and her boss, Ellen Sollery, was of the Kirke white public house, Cheapside)
16 Oct 1886: "Alleged impudent robberies from children; Ellen Stanley, a respectably dressed young woman, was charged with stealing a dress, value 10s, from a little boy named William Clarke, the property of Eliza Stanley, residing in Benitinck St, Sneinton." (Subsequent reports stated that the info re Eliza Stanley was incorrect). Basically, William had picked up the dress from the pawnbrokers, was tricked into handing it over to Ellen who then pawned it elsewhere. The article then mentions other thefts of small amounts of money from children. Ellen had a previous conviction for similar and had been jailed in 1885 for 6 months for this. This time Ellen pleaded guilty to both charges and received 8 mth hard labour and year's police supervision.
(maybe the 1885 period of imprisonment covered William's birth? If she was inside for 6 months there's an even chance of it doing so!)
13 Sept 1887 -- slightly different name but same modus operandi, and a Burton link: Ada Ellen Stanley, age 24, a factory hand residing in Walker St, Nottingham, was charged at Burton on Trent with 3 thefts of money from children using the same tactics as the 1886 case.
I don't know how many Ellen Stanleys there were in Nottingham in the 1880s but I'm sensing a theme here!!
