Mary Maren

71

Robin Sharkey on 8th June 2020

On 30 April 1830 at the Old Bailey, Mary MAREN, aged 19, was sentenced together with her friend Martha BAYFORD aged 18. Both got seven years’ transportation and were sent on the “Mellish” to Hobart, Tasmania, arriving in September 1830. They’d been in a drapers’ shop together where they stole ribbon. (Old Bailey trial report 15 April 1830). In Tasmania, Mary Maren did her time hard, being regularly punished several times a year, mostly for being drunk or absent from her convict service, and frequently being returned to Hobart to solitary confinement on bread and water or working hard in the criminal class of the Factory or scrubbing at the wash tubs. But her friend Martha Bayford had an uneventful convict life, marrying just a year after arrival, and living in the Richmond area of Tasmania. Mary Maren applied twice to marry, but did not seem to follow through. __________ LONDON CRIME The two women had gone into the shop of silk mercers & haberdashers named George Drake SEWELL and Thomas CROSS, in Compton Street, Soho, today called “Old Compton Street”. In 1828 this shop was at 40-42 Compton St. ( https://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vols33-4/pp193-201) They asked to look at ribbons. Another customer in the shop warned the “young man” serving them to “take care they don’t rob you”. Then the same watchful customer reported them to a more senior employee who searched them in the premises’s dining room. Martha Bayford was said to have been “very violent, she took up a knife, and threatened to stab the officer, and said she would rip his bl - y guts out; he was forced to use great violence to defend himself – “. Fifteen yards of ribbon were found on them. It was claimed in court another woman had seen Mary Maren drop the ribbon. They were held in Newgate. Only two months after their trial, they departed in June 1830 on the “MELLISH” convict ship and arrived in Tasmania on 22 September 1830. Mary Maren was not recorded in the Surgeon’s Journal for the Mellish as being sick on the journey (British National Arhives, ADM/101/53/2). __________ IN TASMANIA Mary Maren had been sentenced in April 1830 for 7 years, so should have been free in April 1837. But on three separate occasions, extra years were added to her sentence, totalling 5 yrs and 6 months, and extending her period as a convict up to September 1842. However, she did appear to get her Certificate of Freedom eventually (see CON40/1/7). The record of her misdemeanours recorded on her Convict CONDUCT RECORD (CON40/1/7) gives a good overview of Mary’s location and behaviour for her first ten years. The name appearing after the date of each of her infractions is the name of the person she was assigned to, and the initials at the end of each punishment record are the person meting out her punishment – mostly, the Principal Superintendant of Convicts (recorded as “P.S.”), otherwise the magistrates she was taken before. 1831 - Arrival year Mary was assigned to John Christopher Underwood – recorded as JC Underwood on her Conduct Record. He was a prominent Hobart merchant and auctioneer. Seven months after arrival, on being drunk, disorderly and insolent at the end of April 1831, Mary was sent to the Cascades Female Factory in South Hobart, to cool her heels for ten days in a solitary cell on bread and water, after which she was sent back to Mr Underwood’s service, where she got drunk again four months later. This time she was again put on bread and water in solitary, for 14 days, but was not returned to Underwood, instead being placed in the “C” Class, or crime class, of the Factory. In 1831, the solitary cells were in the north west corner of the gloomy Crime Class yard. The C Class women wore a yellow “C” on their petticoats and on both sleeves of their jacket, and slept together in a two-story dormitory. [Cascades Female Factory, South Hobart, Conservation Management Plan, p.22] However, Mary did get assigned out again, to a Mr A. Smith in Hobart Town. Perhaps this was Mr Adam Smith who was a custom house agent in Hobart, (see The Colonist, 11 Feb 1834, p.4) and who was also played the violin in public concerts (see ‘Colonial Times, 5/11/1833 p. 2). • "April 28 1831 JC Underwood/ Drunk Disorderly & insolent this morning Put on B & W [bread & water] 10 days & ret. [returned] to her service. P.S" • "August 25 1831 Underwood/ Being drunk & disorderly last night. Cell on B & W [bread & water] 14 days & placed in C Class. Q.S {means Mary was tried at the Quarter Sessions]." 1832 • “January 13 1832 A.Smith / Having absented herself from her service and persisting in her refusal to go back. Cell on B& W 10 days and placed in Crime Class & on no account to be assigned again in Hobart Town. V.T.” From now, Mary was not to be sent to any master who lived in Hobart, where she could easily get out on the town, cavort with friends and get drunk. By assigning her to country areas, it was thought she would be better behaved. From late January 1832, she was back in the crime class of the Factory. Perhaps she stayed there all year, because she was not hauled up for any more misdemeanours in 1832, for over a year until 1833 while she was assigned to “Dr Richards”. 1833 Dr Richards was probably Dr Thomas Richards, who’d arrived in Tasmania 1832 and set up as a surgeon at Elizabeth Town (New Norfolk). http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/richards-thomas-4472 Dr Richards put up with her antics for a while – on four separate occasions he took her before the New Norfolk magistrates. But in about July 1833 Dr Richards and his family moved to Hobart Town, and on 29 July 1833 Mary was sent back to the Cascades Factory for repeated drunkenness. Her punishment on 29 July 1833 was “Solitary working cell, 14 days”. This would have been one of the four new double solitary cells that were built along the northern wall of the Factory in 1832 “ in which women could work in the front half during the day and be confined in the cell at the back at night.” [Cascades Female Factory, South Hobart, Conservation Management Plan, p.23]. After her 14 days in solitary in Hobart, she was assigned out again to one Mr Hook. Since Mary was not supposed to be assigned in Hobart Town, this may have been Mr John Hook, of Green Ponds (now called Kempton) in the Broadmarsh Parish (from his marriage record, 5 May 1832). Green Ponds was a small farming community 46 km north of Hobart. Hook was an ex-convict (per Caledonia in 1822) and so was his wife. Mary could only have been with the Hooks about one week before she went out absent all night, and was sent back to the Factory to work for a week at the wash huts. Then returned again to Hook, this time it only took a couple of days at most before she played up – back in Hobart, drunk in a Liverpool Street premises known as “The Brunswick Wine Vaults”, actually the Brunswick Hotel but still known by its original illegal grog shop name. (John Hook however also had the licence of the ‘Tasmanian Wine Vaults” in Bathurst Street in 1832.) • "April 9 1833, Dr Richards/ Drunk & Disorderly/ R. Officer [Robert Officer, resided at New Norfolk." • "May 14 1833, Dr Richards/ Drunk & insolent. Reprimanded. J.E. ( J Evans, magistrate at New Norfolk)" • "June 6 1833, Richards/ Drunk. 3 days solitary confinement on B & W. / T. Fairweather [ this was Major T. Fairweather of the 21st Fusilliers, who had only recently been appointed as Police Magistrate at New Norfolk. See for example The Colonist, 14/5/1833, p 2, and Colonial Times, 21/5/1833, p.3]" • "July 29 1833, Richards/ Repeated drunkenness. Solitary working Cell 14 days /P.S." • "Aug 22 1833, Hook / Absent all night. Wash hut one week and to sleep in a cell at night /PS" • "Sep 2 1833, Hook /Found in the Brunswick Wine Vaults drunk. C Class 2 months, one of which in a Solitary working cell. / P.S" 1834 Mary was put into the household of Dr Thomas Coke Brownell in 1834. HDr Brownell had gone to Hobart in April 1833 to take up private medical practice after two years as medical officer and catechist at Port Arthur, and two years before that at Maria Island. Although a strict Wesleyan, he was well used to convicts’ ways. He had a wife and 4 or 5 children, was struggling to establish himself financially, and believed in bringing God to all men, especially convicts. (“Thomas Coke Brownell : a humanitarian colonial” by K C Courtenay, Master’s thesis, UTAS) Mary Maren got assigned to Dr Brownell’s household at least at the beginning of 1834, while he was living in Hobart (even though she was not supposed to be assigned in Hobart). Perhaps the convict authorities thought the Brownells could improve her behaviour. But as usual, Mary got drunk and was sent back to the Factory. Here, her duty was at the washtubs, where all of Hobart’s convict and prison clothing, bedding etc was washed by the convict women. • "Feb 25 1834, Brownell / Out after hours. Reprimanded. / P.S." • "July 11 1834, Brownall / Drunk and about without leave. Wash tub one month. /P.S. Shortly after this, in August 1834 Dr Brownell moved his growing family (then 4 or 5 children) to Brighton, now called Pontville, about 20 miles north of Hobart,, since he had taken employment as a catechist to the nearby Bridgewater and One Tree Hill convict chain gangs (K C Courtenay, Master’s thesis, UTAS p.32) Mary was still assigned in the area north of Hobart, since she was sentenced by the magistrate at Brighton in October 1834. Her then-employer was “Florence” who may have been Silas Florence, a man who drowned at Mount Pleasant in December 1836 (see Tasmanian Inquest, archives, SC195/1/2/Inquest 57. Again, Mary was being sent back to the Factory for drunkenness, where she was then to be assigned out to someone else. • "Oct 1 1834, Florence / Drunk, Returned to the Female House of Correction to be assigned to other service / F. Roper" (Frederick Roper was at Brighton) • "Dec’r 29 1834, Forth / Absenting herself contrary to positive orders and stating that she would not remain in his service. Wash tub one month. Female House of Correction Hobart Town / F Roper." (Frederick Roper was at Brighton) 1835 • "Feb 25 1835, Wood / Absent since Monday evening last and being found in the Hare & Hounds Public House. Wash tub one month / P.S" [The Hare & Hounds was in Liverpool Street, Hobart] • "May 1 1835, Nicholas/ Absent without leave, reported /P.S." • "May 2 1835, Nicholas/ Drunk. Wash tub one month /P.S" • "Aug 24 1835, Dean (?) / Upon her own confession, with having left her master’s premises on Sunday 23rd August contrary to his express orders. Month at the wash tub, House of Correction, H.T (Hobart Town) and to be returned to her service. / F Roper" (Frederick Roper was magistrate at Brighton) • "Oct 21 1835, Dr Brownell / Insolence to her mistress. Returned to the House of Correction, Hobart./. F Roper" Mary was still being assigned in the Upper Derwent/ Brighton region. The assignment to Dean in mid 1835 was probably to John Dean, who lived in the Upper Dromedary area west of Brighton. Mary was sent back to the Brownell family later in 1835 since they were then living on their own small farm at Brighton half a mile from Bridgewater (they’d moved there in November 1834). But she would’nt last long. There was one male convict servant – Lawler – who was old (p.36), and another woman servant named Caroline. Mrs Brownell had written to her mother that most of the female servants were useless, resulting in much more work for the mistress. Isolated farm life, the work required in a household with many small children, and the behavioural expectations of strict Methodists were all too much for Mary. Given her history, being insolent to her mistress would be almost expected. 1836 After her stint in the Hobart’s House of Correction for rudeness to Mrs Brownell, Mary got sent back out to the Brighton area, this time to one Mr Nicholas. Here she soon was found in the public house at Pontville, about 2 miles on the other side of Brighton. The pub was then called the Castle. Twice later that year she was drunk, or out without a pass, and first got 6 days on bread and water and then two whole months in the second Class section at the Cascades Female Factory – September and October 1836. When she was released about 20th October she was assigned to Mr Dean. but before the month was over was already in trouble twice. • "January 14th 1836. Nicholas / Found in The Castle public house after hours with some loose characters. Cell on B&W 6 days./ W Gunn." • "April 29th 1836, Barnes /Drunk and found in a public house. Cell on B&W 6 days./ P.S" • "Aug 20th 1836, Barnes / Being in Hobart with an Improper pass. 2 months 2nd Class./ H Gunn" In October 1836 she had permission to marry convict James Wright per “Malabar” but the marriage didn’t happen. She must have been released from her two months’ in the Factory’s second class about 20th October, and was assigned to Mr Dean. But one month there saw her in trouble twice, and back to the convict wash tubs at the Factory. • "Oct 25th 1836 Dean?/ Staying out when sent on a message. Reprimanded. P.S" • "Nov 24 1836, P Dean? // Absent without leave and returning drunk. Wash tub 1 month / P.S" 1837 In 1837, Mary’s 7 year sentence would expire in April and she would be free. Unbelievably though, she absconded from her assigned service with one Radcliffe, but was found and brought before the Richmond magistrates in February 1837. Here she got another 18 months added to her sentence, meaning now she wouldn’t be free until September 1838: • "February 24 1837, Radcliffe / Absconding. existing sentence of transportation extended 18 months and returned to the Factory. / WHB and A.B. [Magistrate WHB = William Henry BRETON of Richmond in 1838; and AB = Andrew Barclay]" Despite just having got an extended sentence, Mary kept up her usual approach and had three more charges against her during 1837 giving her 3 months in crime class at the Factory, a week in the cells on bread and water, and a month of the hard labour at the Factory’s wash tubs: • "March 10 1837, Burgess / being in a Public House in company with a run-away male prisoner. Crime class 3 months./ P.S" • "August 15 1837, Tapps? / Out after hours. 7 days cell on B&W. /P.S" • "Sept 19th 1837. Watchorn/ Disorderly conduct in her master’s house and making use of violent language. 1 month wash tub, [to be] assigned Out of Town (P.S.)" Watchorn was probably William Watchorn, the proprietor of Watchorn’s store in Liverpool St, Hobart. Mary got to stay in Hobart despite the order made about this back in 1832. But it was noted again after her month at the wash tubs that she wasn’t to be assigned in Hobart. 1838 In 1838 Mary was in the service of Mr Francis Barnes. Barnes was a former soldier and printer, and had been transported (for the theft of bank notes during a play at Drury Lane). He was one of the foundation settlers who came as a convict to Hobart Town on the Calcutta with Lt-Gov. David Collins in 1804. When Mary was assigned to him he was a well-off landholder, with a licenced pub (the Hope & Anchor Tavern on Macquarie St close to Sullivan’s Cove), various land grants at Ralph’s Bay on the south arm (100 a, 200 a, 300 a), and a farm at Muddy Plains, now Sandford on the south arm. https://www.deutscherandhackett.com/auction/lot/portrait-elizabeth-ann-wilson-potter-mrs-francis-barnes-hobart-1825 It’s not stated which of Francis Barnes’ properties she was assigned to, but it should have been to the farm on South Arm since she was not allowed to be in Hobart. In any case, Mary absconded from Francis Barnes’ establishment on 8th June 1838. Again, incredibly, this was only three months before her extended sentence would have expired. She wasn’t located for three months. And now she had a whole additional two years to serve out. This got reported in newspapers, where she was referred to as ‘Mary MANN’. Colonial Times, Hobart, 14 Sept 1838 p 7 “Hobart Police Report “ Mary Mann was charged with absconding from the service of Mr Francis Barnes on the 8th June last, and remaining absent until she was brought to the Police Office last night. Existing term extended two years.” • "Conduct Record: Sept 14th 1838, Absconding. Existing term of transportation extended 2 years, / A.P.M" Now Mary would not be free until September 1840. But only eight months after copping this additional 2 years, she absconded for a third time, getting herself another two years added on once she was discovered, in May 1839. 1839 • "May 7th? 1839, Thompson / Absconding. Existing term of transportation extended 2 years. / indecipherable initials". • "1839, Confessed (?) xxxx 4 months before August xxxx Louth? Gord? Deakin? 18 May 1839?" In July 1839 she had permission to marry convict William Browne per “Yorke.” It doesn’t appear to have happened (no marriage record), And William Browne per “York” got another permission on 5 April 1841 to marry Catherine Hathall, free. However her conduct record after this date seems to refer to her as as “Ux Brxxx”, meaning she is the wife of a person named “Br..[undeciperable]. • "Sept 11 1839 xx Bryson? / Being at Kangaroo Point without a Pass. Rep’d [Reprimanded]. /RCG [Ronald Campbell Gun]" 1840 • "January 6th 1840 Ux Brag? At Kangaroo Oint (?) [or Hardgate’s Bend ?] without a Pass. 1 month at the wash tubs and to be returned to her [indecipherable / RCG. (Magistrate Ronald Campbell Gun}." Annotated across the record in red pencil is “Free Certificate Vid 919”