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In 2011, I began work on a project to identify all the Earl Grey Irish famine orphans who had been gaoled in Sydney post their arrival in NSW. In this week’s Sunday Storytelling, I examine the life of one of my ‘lost’ orphans, Mary Ann Lankenau. By ‘lost’ I mean one of the girls that left no living descendants (as far as I can tell). In the course of my work on this project, I have come across quite a few of the girls who either never had children, or whose children died, leaving them lost to family historians. Mary Ann is one of my favourites amongst these girls, a lass whose story has incredible twists and turns and whose ending is, as yet, undiscovered. The last years of Mary Ann’s life were spent wandering Belmore Gardens, now called Belmore Park, across from Central Station. This is a place I know well, for my first job in Sydney was in a building across the road from the park. I have often felt the ghosts of souls past as I made my way from Central to Chinatown and vice versa. For me, Sydney is not just a bustling modern city but something of a ghost town, where I can walk a street and know the stories of those who lived there over 150 years ago.
Mary Ann Lankenau first came to my attention when I started researching the other gaoled girls from the ship Digby, which arrived in NSW in 1849. My ancestor Jane Kelly also arrived on this ship and she and her friend Bridget Higney spent time in Darlinghurst gaol in the 1860s, as did Mary Ann. Indeed, she may have been friends with Jane or Bridget and she certainly lived a parallel life to theirs. Understanding Mary Ann’s circumstances in turn lead me to understand more of Jane’s life. Mary Ann lead me on a bit of a chase to discover her true identity because there was no official record of a marriage for her and the surname she adopted of her partner was spelt a number of different ways in the records. Her children’s birth certificates confirmed she was Mary Ann Hanbury from Roscommon, Ireland. She had sailed to Sydney with her two sisters, Bridget and Catherine. It is because she spent so much time in gaol and in Sydney’s Benevolent Asylum that we know as much as we do about Mary Ann. These records are full of clues to the life she was living and the difficulties she faced. Matching each of these events with the newspaper report (if it exists) has enabled me to bring Mary Ann’s story to life.
After arriving in Sydney, Mary Ann promptly disappeared from the records for about ten years. This is not uncommon amongst some of the girls who were gaoled in Sydney. Many did not begin to struggle in life until a decade or more into their Sydney residency, after they had married and had children. We first come to know what has happened to Mary Ann when she recorded the birth of her first son, Henry, in 1859. Two further children followed, Charlotte in 1862 and William Henry in 1864. Charlotte’s birth certificate confirmed that Mary Ann was living in a defacto relationship with a German immigrant named Johannes (John) Lankenau. John made his living as a house painter. Between the births of these two children, Mary Ann’s first son Henry died in 1863, aged 4 years old. The first sign of trouble came when John was taken ill in 1866 and Mary Ann sought help at the Benevolent Asylum. Her two surviving children, Charlotte and William Henry, were admitted there in November 1866, with the officials recording that Mary Ann was unable to support them. This asylum was a refuge of last resort for vulnerable women and their children and was located near present-day Central Station.
It is from here that Mary Ann’s life took a turn for the worse. Ten days after leaving the asylum, Mary Ann was assaulted and beaten by another woman and although it is not known how badly she was affected, the woman who beat her was gaoled for a month. Mary Ann turned to drink and spent time in gaol drying out in the months that followed. Having given up her children and with a husband too ill the support his family, it is not clear how Mary Ann was surviving. An intriguing record from her sister Bridget Ridge’s file gives us a clue though. In 1856, some ten years prior to Mary Ann’s first sign of trouble and seven years after she and her two sisters had arrived in NSW, Bridget’s two children were sent to the Randwick Asylum for Destitute Children. In the notes it records that Bridget was a prostitute, living in the Haymarket area. With her older sister involved in the sex industry, Mary Ann may or may not have been involved as well, soon after arriving in Sydney, although no records can be found to confirm this.
Left to her own devices, it wasn’t long before Mary Ann was involved in a scrap with another woman, who was also charged with assault and fined. By the following year, 1867, Mary Ann was well and truly on a trajectory of despair. In April, her son William Henry, died in the asylum. A month later Mary Ann and two men were caught robbing and assaulting another man. The case was reported on in the Sydney newspapers and gives us a glimpse into the lengths Mary Ann was going to, in order to survive. The two men who were her accomplices were described as ‘celebrated Cockatoo Island expirees’, Benjamin Jones and Thomas Collins. Benjamin, a 26-year-old butcher, had spent three years doing hard labour for a burglary and had only been out for a year or so when he committed this crime. Thomas Collins, a seaman, was 40 years old. Mary Ann was 34 years old. The Sydney Mail and the Empire newspapers gave conflicting stories of the area where the crime took place, with one stating Sussex St (where Jane had lived) and the other Clarence St. Either way, both areas were notorious hot beds of crime. The victim, a traveller named Daniel Kelly, was be-friended by the three assailants and plied with liquor, before he was punched in the face and robbed of his fare to Newcastle. The court found all three guilty, with Jones given seven years hard labour, Collins three years in gaol and Mary Ann sent to gaol for 12 months. The newspaper also stated that Mary Ann was a ‘common woman about town’, a euphemism for a prostitute.
In a cruel twist, Mary Ann had only just entered the prison when her 5-year-old daughter Charlotte died in the asylum, perhaps as a result of pining for her mother. Life for Mary Ann in Darlinghurst gaol would not have been easy, especially as she was newly pregnant when she entered. Her baby boy, also called William, was born a few months into her prison sentence. Back with John after her release in 1868, it seems their life fell into a new pattern, with John being gaoled on a regular basis, mostly for drunkenness. He may have been still unable to work and support his family. Their son, still just a baby, was probably living in horrendous conditions with two parents who were prone to drinking too much. In October 1868 tragedy struck again when baby William died from convulsions, aged nine months. The couple had now lost all four of their children within nine years. Baby William’s death appears to be the likely catalyst for the breakdown of John and Mary Ann’s relationship.
By August 1869, Mary Ann was cohabiting with another man, a Joseph Kellet. Their volatile relationship saw Joseph assault Mary Ann, beating her about the head and kicking her whilst she lay on the ground after she tried to rob him of four pounds. He was fined two pounds for the offence. It is not known if their relationship ended at this point, however Mary Ann continued to be picked up by the police for drunkenness over the next couple of years. It was not until 1871 however that Mary Ann was again labelled ‘a common prostitute’. She was found wandering in Hay Street (Haymarket area of Sydney, near Central Station), behaving in an indecent manner. Records for John show that he was also being picked up regularly and sent to gaol for assault and drunkenness during this time, up until early 1872 when he was sent to Liverpool asylum, where I believe he died in 1875.
Mary Ann continued working the streets, spending months upon months during 1871 and 1872 in and out of gaol. She frequented the Haymarket area and Belmore Gardens, picking up customers outdoors, which was more common among the older prostitutes of Sydney. Many younger girls worked from brothels. It is unfortunate that, unlike many other women, no description of Mary Ann was recorded in the gaol records. It would have been nice to have a physical description of her; was she short or tall, what colour were her eyes and hair? We do know that she could read and write however. By 1872 Mary Ann was 39 years old and had lived a hard life, filled with violence, alcoholism and child loss. The last known record for her was a gaol sentence of a fortnight’s duration, ending in early October 1872. From here Mary Ann completely disappears from the historical record and despite extensive searches, it cannot be determined what happened to her. It is a frustrating end to an incredibly sad story and one that I will continue to pursue until I have the answers.
Out of the 4,000 young women sent to Australia under the Earl Grey scheme, probably less than 10% found themselves on the wrong side of the law, however it is from these women that we can learn so much about how tough women’s lives could be in the 19th century, particularly for those who faced supporting themselves and their children after their husband died, took ill or was gaoled. In some cases, we can hear from them directly through court and newspaper records. With so many women in history relegated to the bare minimum of marital and childbirth dates, these women represent an opportunity to learn so much more about the lives of the women who frequented the inner cities. This small cohort of women may not have led exemplary lives or been successful in their endeavours, but I believe their stories deserve to be told, just as much as those who had fortune smile upon them. In coming months, I will share many other extraordinary stories from my research on the Earl Grey Irish famine orphans; stay tuned.
A more detailed, referenced version of Mary Ann’s story is available for those wishing to use my research. For this and further information regarding the approximately 50 gaoled NSW Earl Grey Irish famine orphans I have researched so far, please get in touch with me via stories@quirkycharacters.com.au