Please forgive the delay. I’ve been caught up with a few family matters. Let me put up the missing photographs that I’ve been able to find. I seem not to have those of Margaret De(h)ee or Dea (n) (e) c.1836-1920, per Inconstant to Port Adelaide, my photo of the headstone of Ellen Fox (1833-1896) per Inchinnan to Port Jackson, nor the pic for Bridget Maria Flynn c.1831-1916, from Clonmel, Tipperary, per New Liverpool to Port Phillip. I’ll keep looking.
If you remember from the previous post I had reached as far as Margaret Ward. Here are the pages again, pp.156-9.
and
The first one on p.157 is of Sarah Arbuckle (c. 1834-1908), one of the three Arbuckle sisters from Tyrone, per Derwent to Port Phillip. My thanks to Len Swindley.
Next is Jane (c.1835-96), one of two Bing, or Byng, sisters From Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, per Diadem to Port Phillip. Thanks to Michaela Smart.
Then there’s Catherine Crowley (c. 1834-1909) from Bandon, in County Cork, per John Knox to Port Jackson. Thanks to Patrick St. George.
And the last one on page 157, Catherine Fox (1830-1920) from Armagh, per Earl Grey to Port Jackson. Thanks to Gwen Etherington.
The last photo i have to hand is of Eliza Barrett, nee Greenwood (1830-96) from Moy, County Tyrone, per Earl Grey to Port Jackson. Thanks to Linda Collett.
I’ll keep looking for the other three.
Re Notes, endnotes or footnotes…
There are some brief notes at the very end of the 2021 version of Barefoot (pp.511-12) which tell you where the documents came from, and basically, how some of the “Belfast Girls” were identified. Not all of the young women sent to Maitland and Moreton Bay are identified in the documents. But if you go to the Register list for the Earl Grey you will find many of the others. Beside their name is a notation, “sent to Maitland” or “sent to Moreton Bay”. There are a few anomalies that will pose an interesting problem for some family historians. Eliza McCready from Downpatrick is not mentioned in any of these documents, yet she soon turns up in Moreton Bay. What exactly happened to the Earl Grey women in the first few years? How many on board that ship were sent to Moreton Bay by 1850? I am sure Ray Debnam’s CD , The Feisty Colleens will have some suggestions.
Early in 2017 I made an attempt to add some notes, when i put into my blog a copy of my Preface, and Introduction to the 1991 edition. See for example, https://wp.me/p4SlVj-Zg You will need to scroll down to the end.
One of the problems was that my reference numbers were out of date. Yet such is the magnificent progress made by our archivists, i’ve successfully searched online for the current numbers.
Thus, for example, starting with the references i had regarding Board of Immigration reports for vessel arrivals, e.g. AONSW (Archives Office New South Wales) 4/4699 Microfilm reel 2852, i went to https://mhnsw.au/collections/state-archives-collection/ and was able to find NRS-5255, NRS-5256 and NRS-5257. These are, respectively,
‘Reports by the Immigration Agent on the condition of immigrants and ships on their arrival 1837-1895‘;
‘Reports by Surgeons on the health of immigrants during their passage (Medical Journals) 1838-86‘;
and ‘Reports by the Immigration Board on complaints of immigrants about their passage 1838-87‘.
I assume it is here we would find information about the scandals, mentioned at the bottom of page 19 of the 2021 version of Barefoot..?, regarding the Hyderabad and Fairlie, maybe of the Subraon too. That’s the vessel that arrived in Port Jackson just a few months before the Earl Grey.
Frustratingly, I have a copy of the Report on the Subraon but the precise reference eludes me. Was it in the collection of Reports and other papers at AONSW 9/6298? Although what i have is obviously printed from a negative microfilm.
That’s the one detailing how the young women from a Dublin Foundling Hospital were abused by crew members. Young Dolly Newman was hoisted up the mast, and was later to die from a miscarriage(?).
On page 35 of the 2021 version of Barefoot it is mentioned that prospective employers of the young orphans had to apply formally, and be approved by the Sydney Orphan Committee/Board of Guardians. What i have in my old notes is the reference, AONSW 4/4715-7 “Registers and indexes of applications for orphans 1848-51“. Would a reader like to take up the challenge, and find the current State Records number? Here’s an example to tempt you,
These are the names of individuals applying for an orphan to become their servant. On the example above, at the top of the page, 24 August 1849, John Armstrong, a Surveyor of Macquarie Street, Sydney is applying for an orphan female as a general house servant under an Indenture. And in the last column on the right of the page under result of the application, he is ‘approved for an apprentice’. But there is sometimes much more than this. Further down that page at number 816, there is something about the elusive Mary Littlewood per Earl Grey.
In those early days, one of the most fruitful sources i used at State Archives was the nineteen volumes of Immigration Correspondence (AONSW 4634-52), covering the years 1838-64. For the orphans i concentrated on the years 1847-51. The correspondence coming out of the Immigration Agent’s office, mostly from F.L.S. Merewether, was especially helpful. It is in those volumes, for example, one can trace the story of young Margaret Devlin from Keady, County Armagh. See pages 36-37 of the 2021 Barefoot version.
In effect, from an early date, I was trying to do what every family historian does instinctively, that is, link as many different sources as possible to find information about a particular family member. This “record linkage” will be familiar to many readers. And the great thing is, more and more is discovered all the time.
Using http://mhnsw.au I found that AONSW 4/4635 was now NRS-5247 or rather, Reel 3114. Entering Margaret’s name into the Index search box, I was given the reference to exactly where she appears in reel 3114 and 3115.
Bitten once more by the bug, I delved into the collection of Colonial Secretary papers. I went to the very useful Index to Colonial SecretaryLetters Received 1826-96, created by Joan Reese, Linda Bowman and Aileen Trinder. And there i was alerted to two letters relating to young Margaret Devlin in 1850 and 1851, which i don’t think I’ve seen before. It’s easy to see the attraction for family historians, and others. It is all a very different experience nowadays for researchers. My big hearty congratulations to all our archivists who have made this possible.
That seems to be a good place to stop for now.
May i finish by drawing your attention to this year’s Melbourne Bloomsday celebrations? Exiles by James Joyce looks well worth seeing. It’s on 15th to 25th June. Best check the dates.
One of the advantages of growing older is that the urge to go minimalist grows stronger. The other day I was clearing out some cupboards and examining computer files located in different places, some of them with strange, unrecognisable names. And lo, i came across some orphan stories I think, i hope i forwarded to the new people looking after the irishfaminememorial website in about 2009. Most of the stories had come to me when i was responsible for the first version of the website. One disadvantage is that i don’t always have the names, or know how to get in touch with those who sent them to me. Forgive me then if these stories are not new to you, and if the people to whom they belong are not properly recognised. Maybe they will get in touch again.
My other good news is that Barefoot & Pregnant? volume 1 has been digitised as part of a research project at Melbourne Uni https://untapped.org.au You can find it under the Non Fiction category and the date of publication, 1991. It will be available in some libraries and on other platforms from 6 December, I’m told. How i got into such illustrious company, heaven knows.
The stories below, sent to me by orphan descendants in the noughties, are not in any order.
Here’s the first one. I’ll keep searching for more. If any of the authors wants me to remove any of this, please just ask. And please excuse my rubbishy attempt at formatting.
(1) Eliza Caroline orphan;Mary Ann Minahan from Skibbereenby Kathleen Newman
“Trevor I’m updating the latest information online about the Irish Famine Orphans because an Irish researcher has contacted me through Vol 2 of Barefoot & Pregnant about my great-grandmother, Mary Ann Minihan (Minnahan) p.392. I found your entries on this forum.
After you published Vol 2, I found that Mary Ann died at Yarra Bend Asylum on 10 May 1901 having been taken there from the Melbourne Hospital. After ruling out all other possibilities, I am 99 per cent sure she is the Mary Brown whose Inquest papers are at the Victorian PRO.
She also had 10 children, not just the 8 I had previously found. Through the records of her last child I found my grandfather’s record as a Ward of the State as well. The first of her many convictions appears to coincide with the date of her youngest child being made a State Ward in 1878.
Looking forward to Vol 3?
Kathleen Newman”
Anne Cooney from Antrim per Earl Greysent to me by ???
It is always fascinating to see how others record their research.
(2) <<BELFAST ORPHAN REFERENCE SHEET (BORS)
Name: Anne Cooney
DOB: 1828(?) POB: Antrim, County Antrim
Calling:
Education
Reads: Writes:
Religion: RC
Physical Description
Height: Hair: Eyes: Complexion:
Family
Father:
Mother:
Siblings:
Belfast Poor Law Union Workhouse
When Arrived: Reason for Entry: Age:
Duties:
When Left: May 1848 Reason for Leaving: Emigration Age: 20
Emigration
Ireland Departure Port: Belfast Ship: Athlone Date: May 1848
Arrive England: May 1848
UKDeparture Port: Plymouth Ship: Earl Grey Date: 5 June 1848
Arrive Sydney: 6 Oct 1848 Housed: Aboard Earl Grey
Depart Sydney: 17 Oct 1848 Ship: Ann Mary Arrival Brisbane: 20 Oct 1848
Housed: Brisbane hospital until indentured
Indented To: George S Le Breton, North Brisbane, £14, 3 months (he was a trustee of the Brisbane Hospital)
Close Associates/Friends
Name: Belfast Girl:
Name: Belfast Girl:
Name: Belfast Girl:
Name: Belfast Girl:
Name: Belfast Girl:
Marriage (in Australia)
Annie Cooney
DOM: 1849 (NSW V1849153 96/1849) (QLD 1854/BMA0345) QLD reference is for Annie Cooney and John Ibell
Where: Roman Catholic church, Brisbane
Banns/Licence: Celebrant:
Witnesses:
Sign/Made mark:
Spouse: John Ibell Religion:
Occupation:
Convict: Ex-convict: Believed to be (Portsea 1838) Free Settler:
ToL:45/811 CoF:
Location at Freedom: Moreton Bay
Note: The name Ibell is so unusual that the probability of there being two John Ibells in the Brisbane area in the 1848/49 period is fairly remote and therefore believe that the convict John Ibell is the man who married Anne Cooney.
Residences
Children
No QLD or NSW birth or death records have been found for any children born to Anne Cooney and John Ibell
DOD: Anne seems to have disappeared from the face of the earth. No QLD or NSW death record has been found for Anne Cooney or Anne Ibell.
A John Ibell married a Mary McGill in Ipswich in 1857 (QLD 1859/C000098) (NSW 1849/1857) and had at least two children by her, both born in Drayton.
Sources
Barefoot and Pregnant? Vol 2
NSW and QLD BDM
Libby Connors’ address to the 2006 ABC Christmas broadcast>>
(3)
<<Eliza Icombe per Lady Peelby Roland Webb
My Great Grandmother, Eliza (Elizabeth) Annie Icombe aged 15 at the time, came to Australia on the ship the “Lady Peel” arriving in July 1849. I believe she could read and write although the marriage licence (No 504) (Index V1853738 39C/1853) indicates differently. She married a Thomas Francis Regin from Port Jackson in Sydney on the 22 December, 1853. Witnesses to the wedding were her sister Catherine Icombe of Little George Street who came to Australia on the ship “Kate” in 1851 and James Keem of Port Jackson.
Eliza and Thomas apparently set out for Ballarat, Victoria in 1854 by oxen and dray despite Thomas having a maritime history. They first settled in a tent at Burnt Bridge between Ballarat and Geelong and later at Yendon in a hotel near Buninyong. There first baby Charlotte Regin was born in 1856. Records after this indicate that Thomas Francis Regin became Thomas Francis Webb. I am not sure of the reason for this but when Eliza had her first child she was nursed by a Mrs Regan. The following 8 children were “Webb”s.
Thomas’s father was a sea captain and died at sea. His mother may have been Mrs Regin the person who nursed their first child. Perhaps she was initially Mrs Webb and as a result of her husbands death at sea remarried and became Mrs Regin. Maybe Thomas at first took his mothers remarried name but for legal or other reasons reverted to the name “Webb”. However, at this stage this is all speculation.
Eliza Icombe’s sister Catherine who came to Australia on the Ship “Kate” died at Bathurst in 1876.(NSWbdm Reg No 4956/1876). Eliza had another sister Ethinda Icombe who came to Australia by ship which landed at Geelong, Victoria in 1856/7.
The marriage of Eliza Icombe in Sydney in 1853 and the travelling from one state to another plus the changing of the family name from Regin to Webb would make it a difficult for any Genealogist (especially from overseas) searching the “Icombe” line.
My query in “The Female Irish (Potato Famine) Orphans list is under the heading “Other” where it states Eliza’s Employment by a J Hunt from Balmain, 9 Pounds, 3 yrs Appendix J No 139, 28 Jun 1850 Mr J Hunt Balmain, returned to service promising to behave better. Is this a court record and where could I locate it?
Roland Webb
10 Hillside Drive
Ballarat Vic 3350.
Dear Trevor,
The detective work started in 1972 and was initially commenced by my cousin Glenis Rusca (nee Webb) while I tagged along. Sadly, Glenis passed away after a long illness. Others have since contributed along the way and I believe may be further advanced than I.
I mentioned that one of Eliza’s sisters was Ethinda and this should be corrected to Ethelinda. Ethelinda came to Australia on the ship Persia which landed at Geelong. Documentary proof of this was obtained in 1972 from the original books in the State Library of Victoria. The thermal copy that was taken at the time has deteriorated such that it is difficult to read. “On line” I have had difficulty finding a copy of the original ships passenger list.
Eliza’s parents were Thomas Icombe and Mary Maria Murray and they lived in Ireland. Your book “Barefoot and Pregnant? Vol.1″ shows Eliza was from Bartinglass, Wicklow. Eliza claimed she was from Honiton, Devon and her father was a Major Icombe who had spent some time in Ireland. Eliza claimed, according to one of her grandchildren, “living in County Wicklow was the highest feather in her cap.”???
The National Archives (England) show that a Thomas Icombe born at Spittalfields, London and Middlesex served in the English 15th Foot Regiment from 1814 to 1835 and was discharged at 39 years of age. This Regiment I believe spent most of its time in Canada and Ireland during his period of service. This Thomas is believed to be Eliza’s father. Research by other members of the family concur with this but I have not yet been able to substantiate the links with documentary evidence.
According to the Church of Latter Day Saints, Brisbane records Eliza was christened Ellisa Hicomb on the 27th September, 1837. Eliza died on the 16th May,1911 and was buried on the 18th May, 1911 at the Ballarat New Cemetery 2A No. 01. During her life Eliza had 7 children, and shared a hotel, grocery and butcher business with her husband Thomas. At first they lived at Burnt Bridge (before the Ballarat to Geelong railway) and shortly after they moved to Yendon. The family purchased many blocks of land surrounding Yendon (mostly small) and Eliza lived in the Yendon area all her life.
Trevor, adding a few lines alongside Eliza’s name on your website I hope would be helpful to others. However, I feel you would be more adept than I in formulating the words as I guess you are restricted by how much and what should be written. If any information I have supplied proves to be incorrect I will inform you and hope that it is easily changed. In relation to an address I find the internet convenient and hope that most people have access to the internet and therefore please place my internet email address on your website.
Thank you for the information on Volume 2. I have been to the Ballarat Library to check it out and at some time in the future intend visiting the Mitchell Library in Sydney. I obtained Volume 1 in 1999 from the National Library in Canberra whilst I was working there. I copied the pages relevant to Eliza at the time. While there, I also found on microfiche a copy of Eliza’s Marriage Licence and reference to her sister Catherine in an alphabetical list of “Assisted Passengers” into Sydney or Australia.
Happy hunting
Roland Webb
Ballarat>>
(4)
JOHANNA SMYTH/SMITH per “Elgin” to Adelaide 10 September 1849 by ??? (possibly Heather Sushames?)
Johanna could have come from around Bandon, Cork but I have not found any Workhouse records relating to her. Her traveling box which had been passed down to one of her daughters was always called “The Bandon Box” which her family thought she brought out full of monogrammed linen etc. She told them grand stories of her wealthy background but as she signed her marriage certificate with a cross, she’d obviously had not been educated. No mention was ever made that she had come out as an orphan.
No records have been found as to where Johanna worked after arriving in Adelaide.
She first turned up in a passenger list in the South Australian newspaper as Mrs. Creasey arriving in Adelaide per “Emu” schooner from Port Lincoln on 7 November 1850. A Mr. Creasey was also with her. Perhaps she had been working at Port Lincoln and met George there.
George Creasey and Johanna Smith were married in Kooringa Church of England near Burra, on 15 March 1851. George was probably working in the Burra copper mines. George is thought to have arrived in the Colony as a ships carpenter, but no record can be found. His seaman’s papers at Kew are incomplete and do not show how he signed off from his last voyage, but he probably ‘jumped ship’ and this could be why he altered the spelling of his surname. I haven’t been able to verify any of the stories he told my mother about his English family and feel he, like Johanna, had a vivid imagination.
A George Creasey traveled to Melbourne from Adelaide on the “Fanny” on 12 November 1851 and sometime after that Johanna must have followed as a son George Thomas was baptised at St. James Church, Melbourne on 27 January 1852. Date of birth was shown as 7 January 1852, but doesn’t state where.
George apparently then went to Tasmania – probably working his way over as a crew member of the “City of Melbourne” under George Smith. He returned to Melbourne as George Creasey per “William” on 9 February 1852. The couple may have then gone to Ballarat but on 14 January 1853, the Adelaide Observer lists them as arriving in Adelaide from Melbourne on the “Dreadnought”. It was noted they had a letter from Captain Laurie.
They left for Tasmania sometime in 1854 as the birth of a daughter Maria Jane was registered in Launceston on 12 September 1854 giving a birth date of 7 July 1854, but not stating where. On Maria Jane’s marriage certificate she stated she was born at Ballarat.
The couple settled on a farm in Winkleigh, northern Tasmania and in all had 13 children, all except the eldest who was accidentally killed when he was 11, lived until adulthood.
Johanna died in Launceston Hospital of cancer on 16 May 1896 and was buried in the Catholic Cemetery, Launceston which later became a bowling green. I believe there was a headstone on her grave but they were all destroyed when Patons & Baldwins took over the land many years later. A sad end to a very courageous lady.>>
(5) The following one was originally a PDF file. I haven’t converted it to the standard of Fiona’s original. The footnotes are interleaved with the text, for example. Persist with it. It is a good story well put together.
Mary Jane Magnar (aka Mary McGuire)by Fiona Cole
(Born: c1832 – Died: 1 December 1882)
Mary Jane McGuire (Magnar) was born c.1837 to parents Thomas Magnar and Johanna
Frein, Tipperary, county Tipperary, Ireland. 1
Mary Jane came to Australia on the “Pemberton” as a Female Orphan at the age of 17.
On the register, she is initially listed as Mary McGuire, with the name Magner written
beside the first surname in smaller print. Mary Magnar was received into the Depot on
26 May, 1849 by “A. Cunningham” of “Kinlochewe,” a village just outside of Melbourne
on the old Sydney Road, near Donnybrook in the district of Merriang in the electorate of
Whittlesea. She was licensed out (hired) to the Cunningham’s for a period of six months
on the 31st of May, 1849, at the rate of 10 -0-0. Her usual profession is cited as being a
‘child’s maid.’2
Andrew Cunningham held a freehold in the district of Merriang at the time he enrolled on
the Australian Electoral Roll 1 May, 1849 and on the 1851 roll held a freehold in the
Plenty Ranges in the district of North Bourke. In the Victorian elections of 1856, he is
listed as a freeholder at Merriang, Whittlesea Division. This is believed to the same ‘A.
Cunningham’ who received Mary Jane Magnar from the Port of Melbourne. A
Cunningham is listed in the Banniere’s directory of 1856 as a farmer at Whittelsea3. It is
likely therefore, that Mary Jane was employed as a farm maid and worked on the
property north of Melbourne from 1849 until she left the Cunningham’s employment.
Andrew Cunningham, born around 1811 would have been approximately 38 years of age
when Mary Jane Magnar came to work for him and his wife, Martha (nee McDougall) at
Kinlochewe. Although Andrew and Martha Cunningham had a son (Charles Andrew)
born in 1851 at Merriang (who died in 1860 (aged 10)) it is possible that Mary Jane was
the child’s maid for a period of time, but more likely that she worked on the farm as a
domestic.
In 1861, the Cunningham’s had another child, Martha Eliza, but by this time, Mary Jane
Magnar had well and truly left their employ.
Sometime before 1856 Mary Jane Magnar left the Whittlesea district and moved to
Beechworth, possibly under the influence of friends she had made while on board the
Pemberton. The 1856 marriage register showing Mary Jane’s marriage to Richard Young
Trotter also shows that the next marriage to be performed was for that of her shipmate,
Mary Collins.4
1 Richard Youngtrotter and Mary Jane Magnar Marriage Certificate –
2 Shipping List – Pemberton, 14 May, 1849, pg 13 (PROV- Microfiche)
3 PROV XXXXX
4 Marriages solemnized in the District of Beechworth, 1856, nos 73 & 74
The marriages were performed by Rev John C Symons, an evangelical minister who
spent several years ministering on convict ships and throughout the gold fields, trying to
bring God to the lives of the poor.
Mary Jane and Richard Young Trotter lived at Beechworth and had at one child5, Mary
Jane Youngtrotter (who would go on to become Mary Jane Harrison and then Mary Jane
Gould).
Mary Jane’s husband, Richard worked as a carrier and a teamster during their short
marriage. He died by accidental drowning in the Mitta Mitta River at Morse’s Station on
5 November 1857.6 Surprisingly, there was no inquest into his death, Richard and Mary
Jane Youngtrotter appear to have been living at Yackandandah at this time, but after his
death, Mary Jane appears to have returned to live in Beechworth.
Mary Jane Youngtrotter registered the birth of three children (1858, 1862 and 1865) after
the death of her husband in 1857. None of these children survived more than a few days.
The first of these children, Thomas, was the subject of an inquest and Mary Jane was held
accountable for Manslaughter by Neglect. The charges were dropped and the coroner
found that she had no case to answer. Witnesses were brought before the court both for
and against Mary Jane, for the prosecution, a witness by the name of William Hughes
testifies that Mary Jane was frequently drunk and ‘could not even hold a glass of brandy
without spilling it.’ In her defence, Thomas Conway, apparently the father of the child
and her civil union partner claimed that while Mary Jane was known to drink, she was
not incapable of looking after the child, nor was she drunk the night the child died. He
testified that when he returned home on the night the child died, he found Mary Jane
sitting on a stool, crying. She said to him “Thomas, my child is dying.” at which point,
he left to find the doctor to help the child, but by the time they returned it was too late.7
Mary Jane Youngtrotter appears to have lived a somewhat depraved life after the death of
her third baby, as she was incarcerated from 1865 for larceny (stealing)8 and vagrancy9 (a
term often applied to women of no means, and who often resorted to prostitution). It
appears that Thomas Conway either died or did not stay with her after this point as he
does not feature as a near relative of next of kin on her admittance records to the
Beechworth Asylum.
Mary Jane Youngtrotter’s only surviving daughter (Mary Jane Youngtrotter (Harrison,
Gould) was admitted as of the state to the Industrial School in 1865 and then assigned to
the Browns of Curyo station in 1868.
5 Richard Trotter Death Certificate
6 Ibid
7 Thomas Young Trotter Inquest VPRS30/PO Unit 219 File NCR 2339
8 VPRS 516/P1 Central Register of Female Prisoners, Mary Jane Youngtrotter, Prison Reg. No 573, Vol 1,
pg 573
9 Mary Jane Young Trotter – Industrial School Records VPRS 4527, Vol OS2, pg 147 (No 633)
On 12 August, 1871 Mary Jane Youngtrotter was admitted to the Beechworth Lunatic
Asylum and released a month later on 26 September 1871.10
On Thursday 6 September 1873 Mary Jane Youngtrotter appeared before Judge Bowman
at the Beechworth General Sessions. She was charged with Attempted Suicide. The
prosecutor told the judge that her crime was a misdemeanour and recommended no heavy
penalty. The Judge ordered that she be released to enter into her own recognisance
provided she pay a 20 surety (or as the Wodonga Herald claims, a 90 surety11) and a
50 fine to keep the peace for six months, or in default, one month’s imprisonment.12
It appears that Mary Jane Youngtrotter could not afford the surety or the fine and was
remanded at Beechworth Prison as this is listed on her subsequent admission to the
Beechworth Asylum as her last known place of residence.13
Mary Jane Youngtrotter was admitted to the Beechworth Asylum 2 October, 1873 (a
month after her court appearance before Judge Bowen – the time prescribed by Bowen
that she should serve in default of payment of the surety and fine) and she remained there
until her death 1 December 1882.14
Mary Jane Youngtrotter’s death certificate states that she died aged 45,15 however, her
marriage certificate to Richard Youngtrotter, provides an alternative and more realistic
date of birth, stating her age as 23 in 1856, making her 59 when she died.
Fredrick Western (Medical Superintendant) at Beechworth Asylum noted that Mary Jane
Youngtrotter ‘suffered from delusinal [sic] insanity and delicate bodily health.’ and that
10 months before her death she was ‘somewhat feeble and unable to go about.’16 By the
20 November 1882, Mary Jane Youngtrotter was ‘rather ill and confined to bed on the
23rd she was transferred to the Hospital. She did not improve and got gradually worse and
worse [?] and died and her death was reported to have taken place at 5.30am.’17
There are no case notes for Mary Jane Youngtrotter time incarcerated at Beechworth
Assylum – PROV holds female case books 1878 – 1912.
10 VPRS 7446 P1 Alphabetical Lists of Patients in Asylums (VA 2863)
11 The Wodonga Herald, Saturday 6 September 1873
12 The Ovens and Murray Advertiser, Friday 5 September 1873
13 VPRS 7446 P1 Alphabetical Lists of Patients in Asylums (VA 2863)
14 Ibid
15 Mary Jane Youngtrotter death certificate – Appendix XX
16 Public Records Office Victoria (VPRS 24/P/0000 – Unit 446, 1882/1373).
17 Ibid.
(6) Finally, here is another interesting one, evidently written by a genealogical expert, that came to me originally as a PDF file. There are two lovely photographs at the end i’m still trying to capture. Fingers crossed. The covering letter that accompanied some of these great stories has disappeared into the aether, alas. I wonder who wrote this one.
<<PROFILE of Ellen EAGAN/EGAN per “Lady Kennaway” Arrived to Hobson’s Bay – 6th. December 1848 Ellen EAGAN/EGAN, aged 16 years, from Barney, Louth, Cornwall, departed 11th September 1848 from Plymouth, England on the “Lady Kennaway”, one of the Famine Orphan Girl Ships to Australia, arriving into Hobson’s Bay, Victoria on 6 December 1848. She was admitted to the depot in King Street, Melbourne on the 13th. December 1848. I firmly believe Sarah EAGAN/EGAN aged 19 years, from Ballinasloe, Galway who travelled on the same ship was Ellen’s older sister, because at a later date family relationships were confirmed. A brother, Patrick EGAN was also located at Whitehead’s Creek.. (Note: Extracts about Ellen EAGAN/EGAN & Sarah EAGAN/EGAN compiled initially from article by Trevor McClaughlin, ‘Barefoot and Pregnant’ Female Orphans who emigrated from Irish Workhouses to Australia, 1848- 1850′, in Familia: Ulster Genealogical Review, incorporating Ulster Genealogical & Historical Guild ‘Newsletter’, Vol.2, No.3, 1987, pp.31-36 and updated from shipping lists in New South Wales and South Australia. Shipping List :”Lady Kennaway”- Arrived 6 December 1848: Admitted to depot 13 December SRNSW 4/4816 Reel 2144 (with thanks to Ada Ackerley, Linda Paoloni and to Dr Pauline Rule) We know little or nothing about Ellen’s life in County Galway, other than the names of her parents: James EGAN (occupation:Farmer) & Ellen WHITE (Ellen’s Death Certificate), and what has been recorded about other young women from similar circumstances who survived during the ‘famine’ years. Ellen is recorded as being from Barney, Louth, Cornwall. During those devastating years she may have been employed in County Louth, and in Cornwall, England while awaiting her departure on “Lady Kennaway”. The “Lady Kennaway”, a barque of 585 tons, measuring 38 metres long, 9 metres wide and 5 metres deep, was built of teak timber in Calcutta in 1817. The ship’s Master was – James SANTRY for a voyage of 89 days, with a total of 256 passengers – 191 female orphans, 25 free settlers and 40 crew members. She carried a cargo of -306 casks of Beer; 12 hogsheads of Beer; 55 cases of Wine; 10 hogsheads of Brandy; 12 quarter casks of Brandy; 10 hogsheads of Rum; 9 trunks of Merchandise; 5 cases of Merchandise; 11 cases of Printing Material; 7 hogsheads of Tinware; 1 case of Tinware; 18 crates of Earthenware and 4 cases of Books, and enough water and food for 95 days. There was enough clothing for 256 people. ( Contributed by Laurie Thompson (PPPG Member No. 944) http://home.vicnet.net.au/~pioneers/pppg5bg.htm) The “Lady Kennaway” made three voyages as a convict transport to Hobart in 1835 and 1851 and to Sydney in 1836. She also made voyages with Government assisted emigrants – to Sydney in 1841, and to Port Phillip in 1848, 1850 and 1853. www.findboatpics.com/wpct.html
“Lady Kennaway” a barque of 585 tons. Artist: William Adolphus Knell Date: 1840 Source: http://www.nmm.ac.uk
A Report by The Immigration Board of Inspectors under the chairmanship of Dr John Patterson on the “Lady Kennaway’s” arrival to Hobson’s Bay (Williamstown) reveals that “on board this 1 vessel were 7 families, 191 girls, and one child died on the journey. The people arrived in excellent health and exhibited the appearance of having been on full allowance. Not a single complaint was made”. Ann KELLY, an orphan from Letterkenny wrote to her family: “I have arrived safely at my journey’s end after a very good voyage of 3 months. We were all very well treated on board the ship by every person, the doctor, Captain and Matron being all very kind to us” Apparently girls aged between 14 and 18 years had been selected from several poorhouse unions of Ireland. Generally they were ‘Roman Catholic, were low in stature, of stout make, had been in service previously before leaving their native land’, and were healthy enough to endure the rigors of the harsh sea voyage of three months. ‘Most of them were illiterate, although the authorities issued them with a Prayer Book and a Testament’.¹ An experienced naval surgeon Dr Henry G BROCK and 48 year old English matron, Christine ENSOR were appointed by the British Emigration Commission to supervise the voyage. The girls are described as ‘generally of a stout make, rather low in stature and endowed with strongly marked Irish features’, anxious to please their employers and would keep in the paths of virtue.² (Sources:(1)-Female orphans from Donegal Dispatched to Australia 1848 – 1850 – Part 2 By May McClintock) & (2)-‘Perilous Voyages to the New Land’ by Michael Cannon, page 139-140 On her arrival to Melbourne in December 1848, Ellen EAGAN/EGAN was employed by A. WREIDE, Altona for £14 for 6 months. Sometime, possibly mid 1849, Ellen was engaged by Thomas WADE, a widower, to care for his two sons – William aged 6 years & Henry aged 2 years. Family hearsay said that Ellen accompanied them on a ship to Van Dieman’s Land (Tasmania). Although Thomas had been discharged in Sydney in 1847, as being medically unfit for duties (with the 99th. Regiment of Foot after 22 years of service), he may have been seconded to temporary duties in Tasmania. On return to Melbourne, Ellen married Thomas WADE, at St. Peter’s Church of England, Melbourne – 9 December 1850, and again – at St. Francis’s Catholic Church – 2 February 1853. (Marriage Certificates) There are two possible explanations for their two marriages to each other. Their first marriage was by Banns in St Peter’s Church of England in 1850. Thomas was an Anglican, and because he (aged 42 years), was literate and had more life experiences, one could assume Ellen adopted a subordinate role as an 18 year old inexperienced country girl living in a new land. Their second marriage at St Francis’s Catholic Church, was 15 days prior the death of their first child, 8 months old son- Thomas James WADE who was buried 17 Febuary 1853 (Document: New South Wales Roman Catholic Burials, Parish of St. Francis’s County of Bourke No.45333-1853). The church was opposite their Boot and Shoe Store in Lonsdale Street (part of the back section of Myer Stores). Also at this time Sarah EAGAN/EGAN (Ellen’s sister) married Patrick McCARTY/McCARTHY at St Francis’s Church. It could be said that strong coercive influences from her sister Sarah; and the Catholic Priest. The priest would have claimed that Ellen’s first marriage to Thomas was not in the Catholic church, and she was not really married in the eyes of God. One can only speculate as to their reasons. Between 1850-1854, they were living at 14 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne, Thomas, a Master Bootmaker in the Army, manufactured Wellington boots and shoes. In 1847, Thomas operated a Boot and Shoe Shop in Pitt Street, Sydney to raise £18, the amount he was required to pay for the purchase of his discharge from the Army (Document: 5 years service:Enlisted 25 July 1842-Discharged 31 December 1847). Thomas was granted a Pension for Life as an Out-Pensioner. According to the Melbourne Rate Books -1853, the shop was a three room brick dwelling Lot 13 near to Elizabeth Street. It was during this time that their first son – Thomas James WADE (1851-1853) was born, and she also had the additional care of her two stepsons – William and Henry. 2 In 1853, a crude water colour drawing of their likenesses was done and signed by a T. HARDY. This drawing is now in possession of Michael WADE, the last WADE of Thomas & Ellen’s descendants. It is said to be of Thomas WADE handing Ellen (EGAN) an envelope said to contain the deeds of some property. It may have been a small allocation of land given to those who had given long military service (22 years) in the 99th. Regiment of Foot. They were both dressed in black. Ellen held a red rose, and Thomas wore a cravat and brown floral patterned waistcoat. Judging by her appearance, Ellen was of slight build and diminutive, probably around 5 feet in stature because Thomas’s records state he was 5 feet 11 inches tall. (Pension Document -1868). It could be suggested that during these years, Ellen developed self confidence and a higher level of social standing in the community. She had the security of her husband’s army pension, and accumulated a moderate level of comfort. Some kinfolk who were privy to early family information, said that Ellen was not only able take on the responsibility for the two sons of her husband’s first marriage, and that of her own seven children, but also the care of her elderly husband as his health declined following a severe stroke. All of her other six children – Ellen(1854), Mary(1857) , Sarah(1859), Thomas James (2)(1862), Patrick (1864), & Michael (1868) were born Kilmore to Broadford. On part of the 19 acres at Sugarloaf Creek, Ellen was the Licencee of the Sugarloaf Creek Hotel from 1882. (The hotel was near the three Chain Road – once the main route from Port Phillip to Sydney). She, with the assistance of her three youngest sons, was able to operate any endeavors they undertook on this and two other nearby blocks on the Sugarloaf Creek, raising cattle involving dairying which had developed in the Broadford district. Part of the 19 acres she leased out to Hunt & Ahern for a Cattle Auction Yards. Another part, was let for a good rental to a Saw Mill Proprietor. The whole WADE family became fully integrated into this and nearby communities. Cousins claimed that the WADEs “mixed with the upper class families such as– Turnbulls, Grimwades, Michaelis Hallensteins, in silks and satins at weekends” It was said that the Turnbulls were first cousins to the Wades. After the death of her husband, Ellen continued to operate her enterprises with the assistance of her children. One interesting Report in the Seymour Newspaper is indicative of the strong, fearless and assertive person Ellen had become. “In my thirty years in this colony, this is the first time I have been summoned to the Court by any man”, was the reply to the Magistrate in the Seymour Court where Ellen appeared over a legal battle with a neighbour over accusations of broken fences and straying cattle. The diminutive Ellen was quite indignant about the matter. At another appearance – 3 February 1885 in the Seymour Court; M. J. McCULLA v Ellen WADE in which £5 was claimed for damage of a bull trespassing …… was heard with this one. “Ellen WADE deposed: “Occupy a paddock joining Mr McCULLA. Never asked him to let his bull into paddock.”.. “On 9th. Inst. saw the beast in the yard with some cows. When Mr McCULLA called for cattle, I demanded £5 damage for the bull. Gave Mr Mc CULLA a receipt on account showing balance of £5 due. No cattle but his ever got into my paddock.” A written notice was served on McCULLA to put up a fence but he refused. McCULLA was laughed out of court because a WADE bull about he lodged a complaint had been dead for over five years. Incidentally, other neighbours had court battles with the same man over exactly the same situations. One of Ellen’s grandchildren, Ellen Veronica Wade recalled visiting other EGAN family members at Whitehead’s Creek. She said that an Uncle James EGAN was the one-armed mail coach driver referred to in a history of Seymour by Martindale, “A New Crossing Place”. A Patrick EGAN, a 3 farmer of Seymour was an Executor of the Will of Ellen WADE in 1892. Although Ellen had operated the Sugarloaf Creek Hotel since 1882, the hotel was auctioned on the 1st June, 1892, to pay creditors of her insolvent deceased estate. Ellen had to reestablish herself after the death of her husband in 1885, when the income from his military pension ceased. Because she had initially lived in and was familiar with central Melbourne, she returned there, and relocated to a tenement residence at- 19 Provost Street, North Melbourne, with her daughter Sarah & grand daughter Mary WADE, and her grandson John Michael David MORRISSEY (1880-1945). In 1908, after the death of Ellen’s son Michael aged 40 years, his widow Sarah Maria, with four young dependent daughters resided in a rental dwelling in Little Provost Street which backed onto Provost Street. Ellen died: 19 Provost St. North .Melbourne aged 57yrs-10.2.1892. Cause of Death: Apoplexy (serous) THOMAS James & ELLEN WADE are buried at Dabyminga Cemetery (Tallarook Cemetery) Victoria Photograph of Water Color of Thomas & Ellen (nee EGAN) WADE c1853 signed T. HARDY.
Watercolour c. 1853
4 Photograph -Ellen (nee EAGAN/EGAN) WADE c. 1890. Melbourne.
Ellen Eagan/Wade c. 1890
>> 5
I’m looking forward to seeing Matt Rubinstein’s great work in digitising Barefoot 1. Information about individual orphans has been updated more than once since the book was first published by the Genealogical society of Victoria in 1991. And here in this blog I’ve added some “footnotes” relating to the documents about the Earl Grey scandal. But having a digital version of the original available for everyone is a delight.
It is now available on Amazon.com, Apple Books and Kobo books. If there are any royalties, they should go to the charities i was involved setting up with GIFCC members, Tom Power, Marie Tunks and Perry McIntyre at the end of the noughties . See the Irishfaminememorial.org website
I hope this post will be of some interest; it is my first publication about the Famine orphan ‘girls’ that appeared in 1987 in Familia the Journal of what was then the Ulster Historical Foundation. I gather the Foundation still exists. See http://www.ancestryireland.com
There are another sixteen interesting articles in this particular issue including a review of Patrick O’Farrell’s Irish in Australia, Trevor Parkhill on Ulster emigration to Oz, Richard Reid on Irish chain migration, and Desmond Mullan on Father Willie Devine who among many other things was appointed as chaplain to the Australian forces in 1914 by Archbishop Mannix.
You will notice i had already decided on Barefoot and Pregnant? as a title for my work, a title that not everyone has understood. So let me explain once more. Anyone with a passing knowledge of the “Earl Grey Scheme” will know of Surgeon Douglass’s scathing dismissal of the young women in his charge. They were he said “professed public women and barefooted little country beggars”; some of them had had a child, and many were not orphans at all! See my earlier blogposts 43-47, beginning https://earlgreysfamineorphans.wordpress.com/2017/01/21/earl-greys-irish-famine-orphans-43/
So the first element to my title is a question (note the question mark, Barefoot and Pregnant? How many of you noticed it? How many did not?) I’m simply asking, was Surgeon Douglass right in condemning the Earl Grey workhouse orphans as he did?
Another element, though perhaps not so pertinent for everyone nowadays, stemmed from my being a fan of a number of singers, Bob Marley, Sam Cooke, Nina Simone, and Joan Armatrading, for example. Do you remember Joan Armatrading’s “Barefoot and Pregnant”? It had particular moment for all the women who were fed up being kept ‘barefoot and pregnant’, and ‘in the kitchen’.
The third interpretation of my title then, and i was hoping people would think about how the title was phrased, that they would ask for themselves, did these Famine orphans come from a society where their choices and opportunities were limited? Would there be greater choices and opportunities for them in Australia? Or would social structures, lack of economic opportunities, and the weight of cultural mores limit what they could do in Australia also? Could they become literate? What chances did they have of going to a university? Could they buy land on their own? Could they pursue a career of their own? Could they vote? Could they sit in parliament? Or were they sent into another confinement (pun intended) by the patriarchal nature of Australian society?
Alas i think i failed with that title.
What follows is the short piece i was urged to write by the then Deputy Keeper of the Public Records of Northern Ireland (PRONI), Dr Brian Trainor. I had just spent a short period of study-leave among the archives testing out my theories of how to find the Famine orphans among the workhouse records that have survived. It is thanks to Brian Trainor that so many of the Indoor workhouse registers have survived. Without his understanding and agitation many would have ended up in the tip. Sadly, present day politicians and bureaucrats in Australia are allowing our precious records to perish. 21/6/21 Fingers crossed. There may be some last minute funding on the way.
It is a tentative effort, and concerns only the first vessel, the Earl Grey, that arrived in Port Jackson 6 October 1848 . Nowadays thanks to heaps of people, writers, historians, genealogists, family historians, archivists, holders of the public records torch, much more is known about the Irish Famine orphans. One error that struck me in this piece was my inclusion of the Ramillies to Port Adelaide as part of the ‘Earl Grey scheme’. The error carried over to Volume one of my Barefoot. That shipmay indeed have carried a number of Irish born workhouse women but they were mostly from Marylebone workhouse in London, not from any Irish workhouse. I remain to be corrected on this.
This list should make it easier to navigate the blog. Some of the bits and pieces, photographs, maps, graphs and family reconstitutions et al., are meant to illustrate what I’m saying in other posts.
Clicking on the http:// link should take you directly to that post. At the end of each post, after the ‘Comments’ there is a Search box. Type in what you wish to search for and you will see if I’ve said anything about what you are looking for
Thought I’d post the last of my 1991 Introduction tout suite. May you find it tout sweet. My thanks to the wonderful Pat Loughrey for the uplifting ending. He’ll recognize it from the BBC Northern Ireland Radio programme on the Famine orphans he did with me in 1987. He may even remember that hot day we went to interview a descendant of the Devlin girls, Mrs Merrilyn Minter. My sincere and heartfelt thanks to her for sharing her family history.
As before, I’ll add some notes and references a bit later. Meantime I’ll add a couple of pics and a verse of poetry for your be/a-musement.
Part of the Monument to the Great Irish Famine at Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney (Angela and Hussein Valamanesh)
Is anyone having trouble making the text larger?
From a poem by one of Ireland’s foremost poets writing in Irish, Louis de Paor.
The poem is Dán Grá/Love Poem in a collection called Aimsir Bhreicneach/Freckled weather, Leros Press, Canberra, 1993
Parramatta 1847 courtesy State Library NSW “Sketches of New South Wales, Tasmania and Victoria”, by Lempriere and others, ca. 1830-1869. Call number: DL PXX 39
One quick way of searching if an orphan nominated another family member for passage to Australia is via the Remittance Records and Immigration Deposits Journals held in State Record and Archives New South Wales. I remember Pastkeys produced microfiche of these records in 1988. Maybe your local library in Australia has a copy. Here’s a link to the copy in the National Library, http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/618359
After 1857, SRNSW 4/4579, the Immigration Deposits Journals not only give the name of the depositor but also a full description of the person(s) for whose benefit remittance is being made.
One even finds Remittance certificates among general Immigration Correspondence in the NSW State Archives, for example, SRNSW 9/6197, 4 August 1852, 16 year old Cathy Morgan of Enmore, per John Knox, deposited £8, nominating 39 year old Rose and 12 year old Jane Morgan presently in Kilkeel workhouse, County Down. This orphan was eager to bring her mother and sister to Australia! One would have to check shipping records to see if they actually came to Australia.
It would be good to know if descendants of the orphans had searched these records; it would test the accuracy of my claim that these were exceptional cases.
page 21
For an early map of the orphans’ scattering throughout Eastern Australia see http://wp.me/p4SlVj-Sw
pages 20-23
There is more information about the ‘gems’ a demographic study of the orphans uncovers in my introduction to volume two of Barefoot…? (2001/2). Here’s one extract. “Our ‘typical’ famine orphan, if such a person ever existed, was a teenage servant from Munster who was Roman Catholic and able to read. Both her parents were dead (almost a quarter of those who came to New South Wales had one parent still alive). She married when she was nineteen, within two and a half years of disembarking in the colony (two thirds of those traced, married in less than three years of their arrival) most likely to an Englishman, ten or eleven years her senior, and of different religion from her own…If she was lucky enough to escape the hazardous years of childbirth, her completed family size was nine children. The famine orphans had a higher age-specific marital fertility rate than other Irish-born migrant women. In New South Wales and Victoria our ‘typical’ orphan could expect to live another forty years, and in Queensland another fifty years after she arrived”. pp.3-4.
Some readers may wish to measure their own orphan against this ‘typical’ one. Lots of other questions are worth asking; why did the orphans who went to Queensland live longer? Queensland orphans also appeared to have fared better, in the sense they had the highest proportion of estates valued at more than £1000. How many of the orphans married former convicts or ‘exiles’? Did any of them suffer domestic abuse? How many ended their final days in an institution of one kind or another? I’ve suggested the orphans life experience was as complex as the human condition itself. We need to be careful with the generalizations we make.
Have a look at my final sentence in the introduction to Barefoot vol.1 above.
May I finish by drawing attention to the annual ‘gathering’ of orphan descendants, and others, at Hyde Park Barracks in Sydney on the final Sunday in August? The Melbourne ‘mob’ meet in November in Williamstown, details later.
“A way a lone a last a loved a long the” (James Joyce, Finnegan’s Wake)
Next instalment, this time of pages twelve to seventeen. I’ve used some of this material in my blog, and some has remained untouched for twenty-six or so years. Readers may have noticed I’m getting my jollies by adding missing references and notes. I do have heaps of stuff that could be added–i do love a substantive footnote–but I’ll give myself ‘a restraining order’.
As before, more notes will be added a bit later. I hope you liked the ones in my previous post.
Click on the introduction text a couple of times, or pinch and widen, and the image will be larger.
As mentioned in the notes to the previous post, most of the extant Irish Workhouse Indoor Admission and Discharge Registers are held in the Public Record Office in Northern Ireland. That they survived at all was thanks to the foresight and skill of a former Deputy Director, Dr Brian Trainor. We are all deeply indebted to him.
As far as I’m aware, outside of Northern Irish Poor Law Unions, and apart from North and South Dublin and Rathdrum (?) in County Wicklow, no others have survived for the years we want. Even then, not all of the Northern Ireland ones have survived. But fortunately Armagh Workhouse Registers do.
I explained my method of searching for the orphans in these records, in post 5 http://wp.me/p4SlVj-4X
Have a close look there, if you will.
Anne and Jane Hunter PRONI BG2/G/1 entry numbers 3827 and 3828
The Devlin family entries are numerous. For Margaret PRONI BG2/G/1 entry numbers, 608, 1324, 2396, 3700, 5660. BG2/G/2 1507. All of these references should be on the website at www.irishfaminememorial.org
Catherine Tomnay or Tamoney PRONI BG2/G/1 456,1166, 1475, 3967, 4356.
One of the advantages of these records is that they provide information about other family members, about their age, their religion, their occupation, their place of residence, and their condition when they entered the workhouse, and the date they left.
Thus for example, Sarah Ann Devlin was a 15 year old Roman Catholic single female, thinly clothed and hungry when she entered Armagh workhouse 24 April 1847. She left three months later 29 July 1847. But she reentered 16 November the same year, this time the townland of Rathcarby being noted as her place of residence. Six months later, 24 May 1848, she left the workhouse with her sister Margaret on her way to Belfast to join the other orphans per ship Earl Grey.
page 13 par 2, I hope this clarifies the use of the word orphan as applied to these young women. They were “to use a modern term, wards of the State”. In the vast majority of cases both parents were dead which is the more commonly held view of ‘orphan’.
page 14 For membership of the Sydney, Melbourne and AdelaideOrphan Committees see my blog post 13 http://wp.me/p4SlVj-g4
pages 15-6 Towards the end of that same blog post there is a copy of an apprenticeship agreement for 15 year-old Anne Smith of the Digby which details the obligations of both apprentice and employer, or Master and Servant. There is another example in SRNSW 9/6193 Particulars of Orphans’ monies No.6 , Apprenticeship Agreement between Ann Deely per Thomas Arbuthnot, “now about the age of fifteen years”, and Frederick Hudson of Ipswich/Moreton Bay, dated 24 April 1850.
page 17 Details of young Margaret Devlin‘s seduction by William Small can be found in Immigration Agent F.L.S Merewether’s correspondence. [I am unsure if the numbering system at the Archives is still the same. Their staff will be all too willing to help]. See SRNSW 4/4637, 49/672, 17 Oct. 1849, pp.294-5. And 4/4638, 50/178, 14 Feb. 1850, p.66. And 50/190, 50/469,50/762, 50/764 and 50/901, with corresponding pages, pp.76-8 (re seduction), 182, 289-90 (letter to Thomas Small re his son William), 291-2, 331-2. There is more at 4/4639, 51/6, pp.6-7, and 51/225 ‘Would Mr Small make a lump sum of £50?‘, pp.66-7. For information about Mrs Small’s (sic) child at the Protestant Orphan institution, SRNSW 4/4639, 51/354, 10 September 1851, p.104.
Here is the next installment of the 1991 introduction to my Barefoot & Pregnant? volume 1. It’s pages 6-11 this time.
I’ll use the occasion to ‘dip my lid’ to the brilliant Jaki McCarrick. Her play “Belfast Girls” is soon to have its Canadian premiere in Vancouver in March this year, having had a wonderful run in London and Chicago already. There is a bit about it on the ‘Peninsula Productions’ facebook page, should you want to find out more.
As with the last couple of posts, I’ll try adding endnotes missing from the original a bit later, once i find the correct reference.
You can make the photographic image larger by clicking a couple of times or ‘pinching’.
————————————————-
“…you’ll hear
parakeets and lorikeets
flutter round your head,
ancient tribes of the air
speaking a language your wild
colonial heart cannot comprehend” (Louis de Paor, Didjeridu)
SOME NOTES
Page six
The scandal surrounding the Subraon is not well known. However, if you take the trouble to read the very thorough enquiry of the Sydney Immigration Board you will understand more clearly how they would react to the furore associated with arrival of the first official Orphan vessel, the Earl Grey. Have a look at the extracts below.
The Minutes of the Sydney Immigration Board…re the irregularities aboard the Subraon, printed for the use of the Government only in 1848, comprises sixty pages, 75-80 lines per page, of small print. The Board consisted of Francis L.S. Merewether Esq., Agent for Immigration, A Savage Esq, RN Health Officer, and H.H. Browne Esq, Water Police Magistrate, names many readers of my blog will know. We even meet Thomas MaGrath, an immigrant who was schoolmaster on board the Subraon, (pp.15-17). We meet him again re Earl Grey orphan Mary Littlewood in my blog post 9 http://wp.me/p4SlVj-dQ
Page 2 of the enquiry,
“Charges affecting the First Mate
That a young female named Dorcas Newman, who had been sent out from a Foundling Institution in Dublin, and who died on the third day after her arrival here, (whether of fever or excessive haemorrhage consequently on a miscarriage is doubtful,) was constantly in his cabin, and that, even if positive proof be wanting, there is no moral doubt of her having been seduced by him.”
page 20, 5 June 1848
Statement of Patrick Ferry
“The girls who acted as servants to the officers spent the most of their time in the cabins of the Captain and Mates, from about seven o’clock in the morning to about eight or nine o’clock at night….Emma Smith was servant to the Captain, Dorcas Newman was servant to the Chief Mate, and Alicia Ashbridge to the second and Third Mates. Alicia Ashbridge was more frequently drunk than any of the girls.Dorcas Newman was improperly intimate withe Mate. I saw him on one occasion sitting with her on a chair kissing her, and putting his hand through the opening in the back of her clothes, and feeling her wherever he pleased…“
page 35, 10 June 1848
Statement of Emma Smith,
“I was an Immigrant by the ship Subraon. I was one of the twelve girls who came from the Orphan Institution, in Cork Street, in Dublin.”
page 39 10 June 1848
Mr Acret‘s further statement. (Acret was the Surgeon-Superintendent on the Subraon) .
“From the evidence which I have in the course of this enquiry respecting it, I am satisfied that Dorcas Newman had a miscarriage; had I been aware that such was the fact I should have treated her illness differently from what I have done…”.
Later that year, 26 October, the Subraon was wrecked at the entrance to Wellington Harbour. The Sydney authorities had successfully kept a lid on the scandal surrounding the vessel’s voyage to Port Jackson. Both ship’s officers and the Surgeon were in no position to object. It would be a very different matter when the Earl Grey and Surgeon Douglass arrived early in October 1858.
Page 9 There is a history of one of the “Belfast Girls’, Mary McConnell, at my blog posts 32 and 33. Here’s a link to post 33 which seems underused. http://wp.me/p4SlVj-LL
Notes pages 7 to 9
The major source for the documents surrounding the Earl Grey furore is the Votes and Proceedings of the Legislative Council of New South Wales (hereafter VPLCNSW) 1850, volume 1, pp.394-436. (Incidentally, information on the Subraon follows at pp.437-45).
The material in British Parliamentary Papers (BPP), Irish Universities edition, Colonies Australia, vol 11 Sessions 1849-50, pp.417-20 and pp. 510-40, will also provide the names of the ‘Belfast girls’ Douglass accused of bad behaviour. Pages 417-18 reprints Douglass’s letter of 7 October 1848.
Dr Douglass continued to petition the New South Wales Parliament for restoration of his land. See SMH 7 September and 19 September 1852, page 2 in both instances.
Page 10
Many of the Workhouse Board of Guardian Minute Books have survived for the period we are interested in viz 1847-51. At present, they are held in the local Archives of each county. So, for instance, if one wishes to view Donegal Board of Guardian Minute Books, a trip to the County Archives Office in Lifford is required. It is best always to get in touch beforehand and tell the archivist your particular interest. You have to arrange a prior appointment here. http://www.donegalcoco.ie/services/donegalarchives/maincolumncontent/researchroomservices/
Sadly very few of the Workhouse Indoor Admission and Discharge Registers have done so. Most of them are in the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) which is now housed in the Titanic Centre in Belfast. Unfortunately Belfast Workhouse Indoor Admission and Discharge Registers have not survived. Again, may I suggest getting in touch before you visit. https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/proni
If in doubt about what records have survived, your first call should be the wonderful website of Peter Higginbotham, www.workhouses.org
RE Mary Campbell Belfast Board of Guardian Minute Book B.G.7/A/7, p.159.
The Minute Books help us put the orphans into historical context. In this same volume, for example, page 27, 1 March 1848, we learn of the diet for able-bodied inmates.
“Breakfast 6 oz meal. One third of a quart of buttermilk
Dinner 1 quart soup 9 oz bread
three days in the week
Breakfast 6 oz meal a third of a quart of buttermilk
Dinner 6 oz rice one eighth quart buttermilk
Supper 4 oz meal one fifth qrt buttermilk
two days in the week
B’fast 6 oz meal one third qrt buttermilk
Dinner 8 oz meal one third qrt buttermilk
Supper 4 oz meal one third qrt buttermilk.
Indian and oat meal used in equal proportions.” And this was one of the better off workhouses!
Re Sarah Butler, Magherafelt Board of Guardian Minute Book B. G. XXIII/A/2, page 370, ‘Sarah Butler one of the candidates for emigration to Australia has been rejected by Mr Senior on account of her being affected with itch‘.
Coleraine BG Minute Books B.G.X/A/6, p.165. The Medical Officer, Dr Babington was also asked to provide the emigrants with a medical certificate stating they were healthy. The same page also gives the names of twelve young women from Coleraine workhouse who would travel on the Roman Emperor to South Australia. It is always worth looking at the original sources.
I’m still not convinced that this is the best thing to do. But Barefoot volume one is long out of print and for some people, difficult to find. Putting my introduction into the blog also gives me the opportunity to add some references, ‘virtual’ endnotes, as it were. Please remember the introduction was written some time ago and mainly addressed the documents which preceded the Register of Irish female orphans. Not exclusively so, I might add, although my major concern was to ask readers if they agreed with my suggesting the first boatload of Earl Grey orphans “were wrongly condemned from the outset”? It is still worth debating.
Richard Reid, Cheryl Mongan and Kay Caball, among others, have rightly drawn attention to the more positive side of the orphans’ story. I’ve tried to take their work into account in a number of places in my blog. See for example post 7(c) on The Voyage http://wp.me/p4SlVj-7X
or where i talk about the independent spirit of the orphans, in post 22 on Cancelled Indentures, particularly the section towards the end entitled “Moreton Bay District”. See http://wp.me/p4SlVj-vf
My own favourite ‘success’ story is of Bridget McMahon from Limerick. See http://wp.me/p4SlVj-PV
Given the different backgrounds of the young women, that there were more than 4,000 of them, and that over time, they were scattered the length and breadth of rapidly changing societies in Eastern Australia, we should not be surprised to find their history is a mixed one. It is as complex as the human condition itself.
I’ll insert my 1991 introduction in stages. It will give the reader time to absorb what it says and i hope, respond to my interpretation.
Some may think I’m treating Surgeon Douglass too harshly, for example. Don’t be afraid to say your piece. You may wish to do some research on Surgeon Douglass yourself. He had both an illustrious and not so illustrious career. A google search may be the place to start. Here’s a link to an entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/douglass-henry-grattan-1987
“Keats and Chapman were conversing one day on the street…there passed a certain character who was renowned far and wide for his piety, and was reputed to have already made his own coffin, erected it on trestles, and slept in it every night.
‘Did you see our friend?’ Keats said.
‘Yes’ said Chapman, wondering what was coming,
‘A terrible man for his bier’, the poet said“. (The Best of Myles, Myles na Gopaleen, Picador, 1977, p.187.)
———————————————
That will do to start with. If you double click or pinch the pages above, they should become larger and easier to read. I’ll have a look for some references.
Tóg go bog é
Some references.
Page 0ne,
Dunmore Lang’s “dupes of an artful female Jesuit” appears in his letter to Earl Grey printed in the British Banner, 21 November 1849. The link appears in my post 21 towards the end http://wp.me/p4SlVj-q8
The best printed record of the various reports concerning the Earl Grey scandal is found in Votes and Proceedings of the Legislative Council of New South Wales, 1850, volume 1, pp. 394-436. Included there (pp. 407-28) is the report from Irish Poor Law Commissioner C. G Otway, defending the selection process of the orphans. See also British Parliamentary Papers, 1000 volume Irish University Press edition, Colonies Australia, volume 11, Sessions 1849-50, pp. 510ff. which provides the names of the young women only identified by their initials in the Otway Report. SRNSW (State Records New South Wales) 9/6190 Immigration Correspondence, 12 October 1848, has the minutes of evidence of the Sydney Immigration Board re the Earl Grey. I’m unsure if the same numbering system is still in use.
Page two
R. B. Madgwick, Immigration into Eastern Australia 1788-1851, second impression, Sydney University Press, 1969, Chapter X;
Miriam Dixson, The Real Matilda Women and Identity in Australia 1788 to 1975, Penguin, 1976;
Oliver Mac Donagh, “Emigration during the Famine” in The Great Famine, eds., R.D. Edwards & T. D. Williams, Dublin, 1962, p.357.
Disagreement among practitioners is the ‘stuff’ of history. What I was intimating here is even good historians sometimes get it wrong.
Page Five
British Parliamentary Papers, IUP edition, Colonies Australia, volume 11, Sessions 1849-50, Papers Relative to Emigration, New South Wales, Fitzroy to Earl Grey, 16 May 1848, Enclosure 1, pp.131-3. In May 1848, Merewether reported on the Hyderabad(arrived 19 February) the Surgeon was ‘unequal to the office and should not be again employed in this service’; ‘the immigrants as a body failed to give satisfaction to the public’; ‘the single females…proved to be utterly ignorant of the business undertaken by them’; ‘several…did not go into service..or very shortly left…for the purpose of going upon the streets’ (p.131).
Re the Fairlie (arrived 7 August) ibid., pp.145-7, ‘a third of the female immigrants arrived in an advanced stage of pregnancy’ (p.145); ‘filthy songs‘ (p.147).
Re the Subraon (arrived 12 April), ibid, pp.147-51. I have a copy of the Minutes and Proceedings of the Immigration Board at Sydney respecting certain irregularities which occurred on board the ship “Subraon” Printed for the use of the Government only, 1848. The Board met between May and July 1848. It is a ‘negative’ copy i.e. white text on a dark background which makes me think it was printed from a microfilm. My unreliable memory tells me i got it from what was then the Archives Office of NSW. But for the life of me I cannot find the exact reference. Was it at AONSW 9/6197, pp. 147-61? we’ll need to check.
I was wondering if i should scan my preface and introduction to volume one of Barefoot and Pregnant?
They first appeared in 1991, and again in 1999. The publisher’s interest was to keep costs down. Understandably, that is one reason there are no footnotes. I know I could, or should have provided references at the time. Whether I can do so now is another matter. But if anyone wants a particular reference, I promise to have a go at providing it.
Likewise, I wonder if nowadays I would still hold all the views i gave voice to then. It’s a moot point.
Anyway here’s the preface. Let me know if you think i should scan the intro too.
“Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy” (W.B. Yeats)
T. McClaughlin, “Barefoot & Pregnant?…” Melbourne, 1991, preface
Just click on the image to make it larger.
“Barefoot & Pregnant?”, Melbourne, 1991, preface continued
I thought I’d have a quick look to see if i can find a reference or two which might be considered as endnotes.
On page one, the orphans to South Australia are called ‘filthy and indelicate’. See British Parliamentary Papers Irish Universities 1000 volume edition, Colonies Australia, volume 13, Sessions 1851-52, Despatch from Governor Young to Earl Grey 8 March 1850, Enclosure 1 in Number 10 from M. Moorhouse at the Children’s Apprenticeship Board, p.255.
On the second page, George Hall was questioned at the South Australian parliamentary enquiry into excessive female immigration, 11 February 1856. Report of the Select Committee of the Legislative Council of South Australia into Excessive Female immigration Minutes of Evidence, Adelaide, 1856, p.17, q.267. He was an opponent of the orphan scheme, having made known his views to Stephen Walcott, Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioner, in April 1854, when he visited England.
I’ll see if i can put together some other ‘endnotes’.
I’ve mislaid the exact references to Catherine Duffy‘s appearances in the Adelaide Police Court. She appears often in SRSA (State Records South Australia) GRG 65/1 the Adelaide Court Minute Book, should anyone have easy access. Otherwise a search online via Trove is always possible. See, for example, http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/result?l-state=South+Australia&q=Catherine+Duffy&l-title=41
Susan Stewart per Pemberton is in PROV (Public Record Office of Victoria) VPRS 521 vol.1, 1853-57, Female Prisoners’ Personal Description Registers. Susan appears, for example, 13 November 1855 at entry number 1043 and in early 1856 at number 133. Some of this material may be searched online, I understand. VPRS 516 is the Central Register of Female Prisoners in Melbourne gaol.
Despite what i say in the paragraph above, it would be good to know how many of the orphans made court appearances, and for what reasons. Elsewhere in my blog I’ve mentioned some of the problems associated with this.
Here are a few names extracted from PROV VPRS 521; entry 129, October 1854, Amelia Nott who claimed to have arrived by the New Liverpool in 1849; entry 833, Mary Ann Tyrell per Roman Emperor, 1848; Mary Ann Seville (?) per Eliza Caroline, 1850, 1856, entry number 30. A number of entries in the Register name the ships that carried orphans but not always providing the correct date of arrival. One would have to check the other dates when those ships arrived in Port Phillip.
And in Melbourne gaol records, PROV VPRS 516, we find Jane McGuire per Diadem, Catherine Ellis per Lady Kennaway, Mary McGill per Derwent, Ellen Brennan (Ellen Stewart) per Diadem, Margaret Baker per Eliza Caroline, Elizabeth Dunn per Lady Kennaway. Were these really Earl Grey orphans? What of those who assumed an alias or had taken their husband’s name? It’s not a research subject for the faint-hearted. But what an interesting comparison might be made of orphans in Melbourne gaol and those Julie Poulter has studied in Darlinghurst gaol in Sydney.
It would be interesting to extend this project to include Earl Grey orphans who died in Asylums or other institutions. Here are a few examples; Mary Kelly per Maria who died in Newington Asylum in 1904; Mary A. Weatherall per Lady Peel buried at Dunwich 1914; Margaret Geraghty per Panama died Rockhampton of chronic alcoholism and neglect, 1891; Emma Kelly per Earl Grey died Woogaroo, 1879; Ellen Brodie per Pemberton died Ararat 1883; Eliza Martin per Roman Emperor died Adelaide Destitute Asylum, 1905; Ellen Fitzgerald from Skibbereen per Eliza Caroline died of malnutrition in Waterloo 1881. I know of others but it is sometimes difficult to confirm an inmate’s orphan status in these institutions.
Not that this changes anything I’ve said in my preface.
trevo's Irish famine orphans 
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