Some more orphans in Court
Let me pick up where I left off last time with more from Julie Poulter’s “Earl Grey Orphans in the streets of Sydney”. My sincere thanks to Julie for sharing her work with us. I hope I haven’t done it an injustice.
Later I’ll have a quick look at Melbourne Women’s prison. There are always doubts about whether we have the right person but nowadays with so much available online, we have more opportunities to correct our errors…however laborious that may be. I’ll alert readers to some of the pitfalls when chasing Victorian orphans in prison.
Let me begin with Julie’s research. The next five cases who went to Darlinghurst Gaol in Sydney are Anne Wallis née Walsh, Mary Ann Pightling née Egan, Bridget Higney, Margaret Driver née Higgins and Ellen Farrell née Maguire.
New South Wales (cont.)
Ann Walsh from Kilcolman, Co. Offaly per Tippoo Saib
It was seventeen years after her arrival that Ann Walsh committed her first crime. In 1859, she married a violent mariner, John Henry Wallis who made her life hell. 6 April 1864, page 2, column 4, Water Police Court, the Empire reported the domestic violence Anne lived with. Her drunken husband chased Ann “to the lane, beat, kicked her and tore the dress from her back”. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/5692787
Later, in 1872, John Wallis was charged again and found guilty of assaulting his wife. She in effect stayed with her violent husband for thirteen years, Julie tells us. But in the meantime, she too was arrested three times and put in Darlinghurst gaol for drunkenness, obscene language and once for assault. Her children were put in the Randwick Asylum, and in 1873 Louisa the youngest stated her father was dead and her mother was in Darlinghurst gaol. What happened to her mother is unknown.
Mary Ann Egan from Templeoran, Co. Westmeath per Tippoo Saib
Here’s Mary’s entry on the database.
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- Surname : Egan
- First Name : Mary Ann
- Age on arrival : 17
- Native Place : Templetown? [Templeoran], Westmeath
- Parents : William & Catherine (both dead)
- Religion : Roman Catholic
- Ship name : Tippoo Saib (Sydney Jul 1850)
- Workhouse : Westmeath, Mullingar
- Other : Shipping: house servant, reads, no relatives in colony; entered in ‘Barefoot & Pregnant’ as ‘Eagan’; married Norwich-born George Pightling 22 Aug 1853, St James CofE, Sydney; 7 children born Sydney 1854-1867; died 6 Sep 1902 St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney pneumonia following injuries from a tram accident on Oxford Street & was noted as an old-age pensioner from Paddington
Mary’s first conviction for drunkenness was in 1890, forty years after she arrived on the Tippoo Saib. Fifteen more convictions for drunkenness would follow in the next eleven years, seven them in 1894. Julie suggests her ‘downfall’ was related to her troubles with her children, Mary’s son Henry Pightling having more than one run in with the law. See the Evening News, 23 June 1891, p.6, col.3 under “Invited Home”. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/113883268/12052102 He and his sister Maria Gage were committed for trial at the Quarter Sessions. Mary Pightling was literally ‘drowning her sorrows’.
Bridget Higney from Boyle, Co. Roscommon per Digby
Julie has researched Bridget carefully. Her first conviction was sixteen years after her arrival on the Digby. Bridget Higney, like her shipmate Jane Kelly, was forced to live in Sydney’s backslums near Darling Harbour. They were sex workers (?) and drinking companions who sought refuge in the Sydney Benevolent Asylum. Bridget was refused admission to the Asylum in 1863 even though her baby girl, Ada, was born there. She had turned up drunk. In desperation Bridget abandoned her daughter on the doorstep of Dr Renwick in Pitt Street. Ada later died in the Asylum. She had secondary syphillis.
Both of Bridget’s de facto relationships the first with George Jarman, the second with Michael Barry, ended badly for her. In 1866-7 she was convicted seven times for damaging property, assault, using threatening language, larceny, and riotous behaviour. Probably suffering from mental problems associated with sexually transmitted disease, Bridget died in Darlinghurst Gaol in 1866, just thirty three years old. Here is her entry in the database.
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- Surname : Higney
- First Name : Bridget
- Age on arrival : 16
- Native Place : Boyle, Roscommmon
- Parents : Michael and Ellen (both dead)
- Religion : Roman Catholic
- Ship name : Digby (Sydney 4 Apr 1849)
- Workhouse : Roscommon, Boyle
- Other : Shipping: house servant, reads only, no relatives in colony. Appendix J No.99, 16 Mar 1850 indentures with Mr WT Boyce, pilot, cancelled WPO; Register 2 No.631, 16 May 1850 satisfactory conduct; her daughter, Mary Ellen Jarman(e) entered the Randwick Asylum for Destitute Children in 1863, aged 4, noted as RC and the illegitimate child of Bridget Higney. In 1865 Bridget was convicted of assault with intent to rob and was sentenced to two months in Darlinghurst Gaol. In 1866 Bridget died in Darlinghurst Gaol, an inquest indicating it was due to an epileptic fit. Her daughter, Ellen, left Randwick Asylum in Jun 1872, aged 13, apprenticed to Mr George Coombe, Pitt Street, Redfern.
Margaret Higgins from Athlone, Co. Westmeath per Tippoo Saib
Margaret married William Driver two years after she arrived when she was only 16 years of age. She was dead by the time she was 37. She and William lived in desperately poor, cramped, unhealthy areas of The Rocks, a neighbourhood that encouraged conflict. Her first conviction occurred six years after she arrived. In 1856 she was fined for assaulting Catherine Molloy. See the Sydney Morning Herald 11 April 1856, p.5, column 1.https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/12980412/1499635 Over the next seventeen years she was convicted eleven times for insulting language, riotous behaviour, thrice for assault and six times for drunkenness. In 1862 she spent a month in gaol for stabbing a lodger who owed her money. She had abused her lodger, thrown a basin at him, stabbed him with a sheath knife and even gave him a pound not to appear in court. See Sydney Morning Herald 25 January 1862, p.5, col.4. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/13223796
In 1873 upon release from Darlinghurst Margaret staggered drunk into the street and was killed by a horse drawn van.
Here is her database entry.
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- Surname : Higgins
- First Name : Margaret
- Age on arrival : 14
- Native Place : Athlone, Westmeath
- Parents : Timothy & Margaret (both dead)
- Religion : Roman Catholic
- Ship name : Tippoo Saib (Sydney Jul 1850)
- Workhouse : Westmeath, Athlone
- Other : Shipping: nursemaid, reads, no relatives in colony, sister Mary [Maria] also on Tippoo Saib. Register 3 No.309, 26 Mar 1851 in employ of John Rayner, Emu Plains, Penrith; married William Driver 21 Aug 1852 St Andrews Presbyterian church witnessed by her sister Maria Higgins; by 1862 Margaret and William were living in Jarvisfield, same area as Maria and her husband John Mathews. Margaret & William were both known to the Police & bought before Court numerous times for assault or bad language; back in Sydney by 1870 Margaret before court numerous times; died 26 Nov 1873 after being struck by a cab, buried Rookwood CofE. Anne Mathews: pamat47[at]hotmail.com
Ellen Maguire/McGuire from Loughlinnan, Co. Cavan per Digby
Ellen Farrell had a short criminal career. She married James Farrell in 1853 and in 1857 was working as a barmaid in Pitt Street when she stole from a patron and sent to gaol for six months. Her first crime committed eight years after arriving. In 1858 once again and perhaps for the last time she was sent to gaol for twenty four hours for drunkenness. See the Sydney Morning Herald, 24 November 1858, p. 3, column 2 Water Police Court https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/28630107/1491920
Thereafter she no longer appears in the criminal records. Her database entry reads
- Surname : Maguire (McGuire)
- First Name : Ellen
- Age on arrival : 15
- Native Place : Lough Loughlin [Loughlinnan], Cavan
- Parents : Charles & Jane (both dead)
- Religion : Roman Catholic
- Ship name : Digby (Sydney 4 Apr 1849)
- Workhouse : Cavan, Cavan
- Other : shipping: housemaid, reads & writes, relative in colony: an uncle Pat McGuire supposed to living in Sydney, complaint on board: her hair was cut for taking another girl’s part. Also an annotation against Catherine Horrigan [who]: ‘complains that the Master struck her and beat her head against the bed and then blackened the eye of Ellen McGuire who came to take her part’.
Some Victorian examples
The Public Record Office of Victoria is to be congratulated for making so much material available to the public, lots of it online. Time will fly by as you become enmeshed in what they have made available. For Victorian women prisoners, for example,
https://prov.vic.gov.au/search_journey/select?keywords=Prisoners%20personal%20description%20register
https://prov.vic.gov.au/node/1445
or for assisted passenger lists. This one below I used to check for dates of ship arrivals in Port Phillip.
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