Mary McCABE and Mary Jane TURNER

Baretto Junior, 1850

By Helen Ménard

Introduction

Mary McCabe was born in 1810 in Dalton le Dale, County Durham, England the second child of Edward and Hannah McCabe. Her father Edward was born around 1786 in Ireland^[1] and, having emigrated at some point, married Hannah (Anna) Williamson (1787-) in Dalton le Dale, County Durham on 2 December 1805.^[2] Their other children Elizabeth (1809-); Edward (1811-); Abraham (1814-) and Hannah Caroline (1821-) were all born in Dalton le Dale, County Durham.^[3]

Mary McCabe married Robert Todner in 1832 in County Durham^[4] and, until he went to sea in 1840, their life appeared somewhat uneventful. Purportedly, Mary was a schoolmistress in England^[5] but, when the family moved to Greenock, Scotland around 1843, she took on the role of a laundress.^[6] However, Robert was away at sea for long periods of time and, as the family’s life unravelled, petty crime became an integral part of their life. It was alleged that, despite considerable financial assistance from her husband, Mary was a neglectful mother of the ‘worst kind’^[7] who induced her children into crime as a ‘means of gratifying her depraved appetite’.^[8] Was this too harsh an assessment of a woman trying to survive in a new country, without a partner and under difficult personal and social circumstances?

Ultimately, Mary and two of her children fell afoul of the law and she and her daughter were transported to Van Diemen’s Land (VDL), all while her husband was away at sea.

Mary and Robert

Robert Todner, a joiner and carpenter by trade, was born on 22 June 1812, the second son of Ralph Todner and Margaret Hodgson both of Auckland, Durham.^[9] In 1829, it appears Robert was convicted before the court in Durham of breaking into a warehouse and stealing and was sentenced to one months’ imprisonment.^[10]

Many 17 years olds were transported for far less!

Mary and Robert had a family of at least six children – Elizabeth (1832-); John (1834-1835); Margaret (Mary) Jane (1835-); John (1838-) and Mary Hannah (1840-) all born in County Durham;^[11] and Robina (1844-?1848) and Ann born in Renfrewshire, Scotland.^[12]

In 1840, quite possibly due to poor employment opportunities, Robert left the family and went to sea as a carpenter. He was issued with his Register Ticket at Greenock, Scotland in April 1845^[13] and in 1849 was on board an Irish vessel the Cornet.^[14]

In English census in June 1841 Mary Todner, 30 and a schoolmistress, was registered as living at Easington Lane, Hetton-le-Hole, County Durham with her daughters Elizabeth (9), Margaret (6) and Mary (1) and son John (4).^[15] Also living with her were her parents Edward McCabe (55, agricultural labourer) and Hannah McCabe (50). Clearly, Robert was away at sea at this time.^[16]

In her precognition (pre-trial witness statement) in September 1849, Mary, then residing at Ann Street, Greenock, stated she had not seen Robert for four years as he had been at sea and, since being in Scotland, she had been known as Turner not Todner.^[17] In another statement sometime between 1849 and 1850,^[18] Mary said she had been married for seventeen years and only had

… four children alive to him. The boy [John] and girl [Margaret Jane] who are in the case with me, one girl older [Elizabeth] and one girl younger [Mary Hannah]. The age of the Girl who is Transported with me is 13 years and the Boy is 10 years of age. 

About 10 years ago, my Husband went to sea. [1840] I was then living in England, he left me his half pay to draw monthly from the owners £2. The ship went to America and in consequence of the men leaving her I only got one months’ pay viz. £2.^[19]

After this Mary said she was forced to put her family ‘on the town’^[20] and received 5 shillings a week.^[21] Over the next couple of years Robert sent the family various amounts of money and was away for months at a time returning to Greenock around 1843 for ten weeks. During this layover Mary left the family in England and travelled to Greenock to join him and, shortly thereafter, Robert paid for the family to relocate to Greenock, Scotland. Presumably, this was about the time Robina was born. Even though Robert’s trips away varied from two to twelve months or longer, he regularly provided funds to support the family – by way of lump sums and monthly note payments - and even furnished a house for the family in Greenock.

However, at some point things went awry. For some reason, Mary pawned all the house furniture and, when Robert discovered this on his return, ‘for the first time he did not leave me any money on his return this voyage. I suppose he was angry at his things being away.’^[22] Quite possibly! From then on, Robert arranged for monthly payments to be made through an agent (Mr McAusland) in Greenock – about 7 shillings a week for provisions in addition to clothing and rent and leaving £22 in trust for the children.^[23]

Mary and Robert’s children

While Elizabeth Todner was living with the family in Durham in 1841,^[24] by March 1851, unmarried, 18 and a servant, she was living at Main Street, Calton, Glasgow.^[25] On 11 January 1855, sponsored by her newly remarried mother, Mary Harworth, Elizabeth departed Liverpool aboard the Ocean Chief arriving in Hobart on 26 March.^[26] Her one way fare cost £22 - today’s equivalent of £2,633.^[27]  There are no relevant marriages for an Elizabeth Todner or Turner in Tasmania or any records of her life after arriving in Hobart.^[28]

John Todner born in October 1834 died, age 3 months, and was buried on the 10th February 1835 in the parish of Houghton-le-Spring, County of Durham.^[29]

Margaret (Mary) Jane Todner lived with her mother and siblings in Durham and moved with the family to Greenock around 1843.^[30] After being convicted of theft with her mother and brother (John) in 1850, and only 15, she was transported, with her mother, to VDL under a 7 year sentence.^[31] With her older and younger sister in domestic service, why wasn’t Margaret Jane similarly employed?

John Todner also moved around with the family and, in 1850, before the Glasgow Court of Justiciary, was convicted of theft and sentenced to 7 years’ transportation along with his mother and sister (Margaret Jane). Aged only 11, he was transferred from Paisley Gaol to Millbank Prison on 25 February 1850.^[32] As a result of a petition filed on his behalf while in Paisley Gaol, John was granted a conditional pardon and was transferred to the Reform School and Farm for Juvenile Criminals, Red Hill, Reigate, Surrey on 5 April 1850.^[33] Despite appearing on the school register in the March 1851 census as 13,^[34] it seems John aged ’12 nearly - emigrated to New York on the Devonshire’^[35] but the school register contains no other details.^[36] As his only surviving son, and with his mother in VDL, maybe his father sponsored John to join him in America.

Mary Hannah Turner (Todner) was listed as a witness in her family’s indictment in late 1849 and as living with Grace and William Parker (seaman) near Low Vennel, Greenock.^[37] As her mother and siblings eventually pleaded guilty, no witnesses were called to give evidence so there is no indication whether or not Mary would have testified against her family. Why wasn’t Mary living with the family? Was she already working as a servant? Growing up in an industrialised city such as Glasgow during the industrial revolution, on average children started working at 10; however, in industrial areas many started at the age of 8 and a half, if not younger.^[38] Mainly girls were employed as household servants, as there was a servant tax on male domestics. Families with an annual income of £150 would take on a girl of about 13 or 14 as a general maid.^[39] In the 1851 census, a year after her mother had been transported, Mary Hannah Todner, 11 years old, was recorded as living with Mrs Mary Fielding at Crawford’s Land, Bay Street, Port Glasgow, Renfrewshire.^[40]

Robina Todner was born on 7 October 1844 in Greenock^[41] and, presumably, died in infancy as her mother’s statement in September 1849 only referred to ‘four children alive’.^[42]

The only record of Ann Todner’s existence is a reference in Margaret Jane’s transportation records to sisters ‘Mary, Elizabeth, Ann in Scotland’.^[43] If Mary’s version of events is accurate in that by 1849 she and Robert had been separated for four years and she only had ‘four children alive to him’ at this time, it is quite probable Ann was born of another father during this period – and had another name. This would be consistent with Mary’s transportation records as having five children – four (alive) to Robert and Ann.^[44] So, whose care was Ann left in when her mother was transported? There are no records indicating Mary applied to have a child accompany her to VDL or that she arrived in VDL with an infant.^[45]

Falling off the rails in Greenock

Greenock is a sea-port in the old county of Renfrewshire, situated 23 miles (37 km) west of Glasgow. It now forms the largest settlement in Inverclyde, but retains the accolade as the wettest town in Scotland. Greenock began as a fishing village but by the 17th Century had developed into a port for the herring trade; in the 18th and 19th centuries it became a major centre for shipbuilding and a departure point for emigrants. In the 19th century the town was noted for its poverty and unsanitary conditions along with a high death rate; improvements came in the 1860s with a better water supply and housing. Although the Loch Thom reservoir supplied water to the town via the Greenock Cut, this was used primarily for industry until the Town Council bought the water company in 1864.^[46]

For whatever reason, life in Greenock eventually took a bit of a tumble as Mary and at least two of her children became enveloped in a life of petty crime. Towards the end of 1849 Mary, her son John and daughter Margaret (Mary) Jane were indicted on thirteen charges of theft and reset of theft (receiving). The children ultimately pleaded guilty to most charges but Mary only pled to reset. On 12 January 1850, before the Glasgow Court of Justiciary, they were all convicted and sentenced to 7 years’ transportation.^[47]

The alleged offences occurred over a period of time from December 1848 to September 1849 and involved the theft of shirts, shawls, sheets, trousers, frocks, petticoats and various other items of clothing from properties, washing houses and bleaching greens^[48] in and around where they were living.^[49] It was further alleged that the stolen items were taken to the home in Ann Street, Greenock after which some were washed and dried and most pawned.^[50]

John maintained in his precognition that an Isabella Lang had instructed him to steal a merino shawl and, when he gave it to her, she had taken it away.^[51] He denied any participation in the remainder of the alleged offences. Furthermore, he denied ever seeing any of the alleged stolen items at his mother’s house.^[52] With a previous conviction for petty theft in September 1848,^[53] his credibility as a witness must have been wanting!

Margaret Jane’s recollection of events was somewhat different! She admitted involvement in all but four of the alleged offences stating that her brother John was her accomplice on at least seven occasions! The five alleged offences on 21 September 1849 were perpetrated by her and an accomplice Isabella Lang.^[54] She also admitted to pawning many of the items and sharing the money with her brother and Isabella. Sometimes they gave some of the proceeds to their mother.^[55] Margaret Jane also asserted that, even though one of the pilfered frocks had been given to her sister Elizabeth, who was in service, Elizabeth did not know it was stolen.^[56]  In addition, Margaret Jane also maintained that the merino shawl was brought to the house by her brother John and her younger sister Mary Hannah.^[57]

Mary, on the other hand, only admitted to one count of theft stating that she was in possession of pawn tickets for those items which had been given to her by one of her lodgers in lieu of rent. She denied any involvement in the remainder of the theft offences but admitted to pawning some items brought to the house by her daughter and Isabella Lang – who, it appears, was lodging with Mary at the time.^[58] She knew Margaret and Isabella had taken goods to Glasgow to pawn and confessed to receiving money from her daughter ‘three or four times’ yet admitted that ‘I flogged my own girl twice for bringing things to the house and I turned both her and Lang out of the house for doing so.’^[59]

Mary was held in Greenock Prison from the end of 1849 until her trial in January 1850,^[60] after which she was transferred to Paisley Gaol. From there she was transferred to Millbank Prison on 23 March 1850 and relocated to the Baretto Junior on 5 April 1850 awaiting transportation.^[61]

After sentencing, Margaret Jane and John were also held in Paisley Gaol whereupon they were discovered by the ‘Ladies in Paisley’ being

a Committee of Ladies who for some time past, have been visiting the Prisoners at Paisley and using their humble efforts to reclaim the depraved and criminal female inmates, by communicating religious instruction and in the case of penitent prisoners by endeavouring to provide for them the means & opportunity of recovering their position in Society.^[62]

The Petitions

After being sentenced to transportation, convicts could petition the Government for a reprieve. The Ladies in Paisley were ‘painfully attracted’ to the case of John and Jane Turner (Todner) and, on 23 February 1850, filed a petition for commutation of their sentences having been

… satisfied from their intercourse with the girl & and from what they know on good authority of the boy, that these poor neglected Children, although very ignorant, are not hardened Criminals –

On the contrary your Memorialists have been much affected with the mildness & simplicity of their character, and it is clear beyond question that they have been induced to the commission of crimes by the instructions, if not by the command of the Mother, to afford her the means of gratifying her depraved appetite.

… their conduct during their confinement has been such as warrants a belief that under proper training and education they may be reclaimed to habits of industry and made useful members of Society. 

… considering the extreme youth of these poor Children the unfortunate circumstances in which they have been placed & the favourable prospects of reclaiming them which their conduct in Prison holds out, would most respectfully, but earnestly implore your Excellency to commute their sentence to imprisonment in one of the Penitentiaries in this Country…

… the father who is a seafaring man has both the means and inclination to provide for the support of his family and that he is likely on the termination of their imprisonment to discharge the duty of a Parent toward them.^[63]

The petition contained supporting statements from the Governor of Paisley Prison, Robert Bird; the Matron, Helen Young; and the Chaplain, William Smith.^[64]

When investigating the petition Governor Bird stated:

On making enquiries at Greenock about the family of the Turners, I learnt that sometime since, the Mother and an elder daughter was in the Prison, on being liberated Mr McKay, the Chaplain, took the Mother to his house, but in a day or two after he missed so many things that he put her away.

It appears that the Mother and another woman and a girl lived in a house that the two women staid at home while the children were sent out to steal from the Washing Greens, the Mother and the woman keeping a good fire on to dry the things brought in, which some of them took the next day to Glasgow or elsewhere and sold…

The children say they were often hungry and I have reason to believe it is true…

 It has been my lot to make enquiries into many cases but I must confess this appears on the part of the mother to be about the worst. In proof that the Father is willing [to] do what is right I may state that he is now at sea and he has left behind for the use of his children (They were not tried when he went away) £22.

I believe that the mother has been the sole cause of the children being placed as they are, both the Boy and Girl appear naturally of a good disposition, and altho’ very ignorant are apt to learn and if they could be got off for a short imprisonment, and placed under proper management might become useful members of society.^[65]

While John was ultimately granted a conditional pardon on 5 April 1850,^[66] in what can best be described as a bureaucratic bungle, Margaret Jane was headed for the high seas before a decision on her case was made. With her mother Mary, she was transferred to from Paisley Prison to Millbank Prison on 23 March 1850 and relocated to the Baretto Junior on 5 April 1850 awaiting transportation.^[67]

Following receipt of the petition by the Secretary of State, Sir George Grey, on 1 March 1850, he requested a report from trial Justice Ivory on 10 March and received a reply on 15 March.^[68] Some two weeks later, on 28 March, a communication was sent from the Secretary of State to the Refuge for the Destitute, Manor House, Darlston seeking a placement and, in the Chaplain’s (P. Cutler Hooley) reply of 8 April, he advised that

at the moment every bed is occupied – by cases received from the Metropolitan and provisional Prisons – and it would be if this girl were kept back for a short time until a vacancy shall occur of which information shall be immediately forwarded to Secretary Sir George Grey: - but should it be desired that she should be received immediately – some provision shall be made for her accommodation.^[69]

However, by this time, Margaret Jane was already aboard the Baretto Junior and, a week later, on the 15 April, when the Chaplain advised the Secretary of State that Margaret could be ‘received immediately’, her ship had already sailed.^[70] Two days later on 17 April 1850 a conditional pardon was issued for Margaret Turner on the proviso that she enter the Refuge for the Destitute at Darlston.^[71]

Once the authorities realised their quarry was en route to VDL, the Sheriff of the County of Renfrew requested the government to ‘direct that the Girl should be sent back to this Country by the first opportunity and placed in the Middlesex House of Refuge in terms of the Pardon…’.^[72] When this proposition was put to Margaret Jane several months after her arrival in VDL, the Governor lodged a further petition on her behalf stating:

That Petitioner cannot but ever feel grateful that such an Act of Royal Clemency should be extended to her.
That Petitioner having undergone a Primary Stage of Probation, Subsequently endured the hardships of a long and perilous voyage, and having an affectionate Mother near her in this Colony, and being moreover in a good situation Humbly prays Your Excellency will be pleased to recommend that Her Majesty’s Pardon may be extended to her without the condition annexed thereto of her returning to England.^[73]

Margaret Jane’s request was ultimately accepted and she received her conditional pardon in November 1851.^[74]

Mother and daughter in the colony

The Baretto Junior departed England on 13 April 1850 arriving in Hobart on 25 July 1850 after encountering a severe hurricane off the Cape of Good Hope. The ship’s log reported, in part, as follows:

At 10 p.m., blowing a very heavy hurricane, the night so exceedingly dark that it was impossible to distinguish anything two yards away; snow and hail falling heavily, and freezing hard. At this time the situation of the ship was one of great danger … At midnight the hurricane was at its height … and the wind and sea such as the oldest sailors had not experienced before … The scene below, as described by the Surgeon Superintendent, was very sad; several seas having forced themselves down between decks, many of the poor women thought their last hour was come; the least frightened among them, under the direction of the surgeon, baling and swabbing the water up with great industry, although they were thrown and bruised about by the heavy rolling of the ship.^[75]

Mary and Mary (Margaret) Jane arrived in VDL during the probation period and Mary’s first assignment in November 1850 was with Joseph Facey in Collins St, Hobart at a rate of £7 for twelve months.^[76] On 25 November 1851 Mary McCabe (Baretto Junior) was given permission to marry William Milward (Anson) but there is no evidence that the marriage proceeded.^[77] She received a ticket of leave in March 1853 and was recommended for a conditional pardon in July 1853.^[78] However, in September the same year, Mary was charged with being absent without leave and sentenced to 3 months’ hard labour in the Cascades Female Factory and was also required to serve an additional 3 months’ probation.^[79] In January 1854 Mary’s ticket of leave was revoked and in February she was in the service of a J. Lucas at Brown’s River.^[80] Her ticket of leave was reinstated in August 1854 and her conditional pardon approved in February 1855.^[81]

On the other hand, still only 15, Mary Jane’s first assignment in November 1850 was with Samuel Dickenson of Arglye St, Hobart, also at a rate of £7 for twelve months.^[82] In September the following year, while still in Dickenson’s employ, she absconded and was charged with being absent without leave and returned to the government.^[83] What happened during this service that caused her to abscond? De Vries asserts that:

Most female convicts were given a hard time when they were assigned to work as domestics in households. The harshness of the penal system did not encourage convict women to be virtuous: an assigned female convict who rejected the sexual advances of her master could, on his word alone, be returned to the Female Factory as being of ‘bad character’.^[84]

Nonetheless, two months later in November 1851, Mary Jane received her conditional pardon.^[85]

Mary and John

Mary McCabe (Baretto Junior) was granted permission to marry John Harworth (free) on 9 March 1853^[86] and Mary McCabe (40, widow) married John Howarth (26, labourer) on 9 April 1853 in St George’s Church of England, Hobart .^[87] Had Mary’s first husband Robert really died or did she invoke the 7 year rule?^[88]

John Howorth (aka Howarth) arrived in VDL in September 1845 aboard the Marion aged 19, single and a collier from Blackburn, Lancashire, England.^[89] He was convicted in the Lancaster Preston General Sessions on 21 February 1845 of stealing 35 sovereigns and other monies from a Mr Addison at Preston and sentenced to 7 years’ transportation.^[90] He served 12 months’ probation on the on the Coal Mines Gang and in January 1847 was assigned to J. Lucas at Brown’s River, the same place Mary found herself several years later. He was granted a ticket of leave in May 1849. In March 1850, while working in Richmond, John was charged with absconding from his service and sentenced to one month imprisonment with hard labour. He was then assigned to Thomas Brassscome at O’Brien’s Bridge and afterwards James Murdoch at Kangaroo Point. His ticket of leave was revoked on sentencing and reissued in June 1851. John was granted his certificate of freedom on 18 March 1852.^[91]

From here on the trail for Mary and John goes cold. It seems that, if they remained in VDL, they did not have a public profile.

What happened to Mary Jane?

A Mary Jane Turner (spinster, full age) married David Marshall (full age, bachelor) at New Norfolk on 11 July 1871.^[92] At this stage, Mary Jane would have been 36 years old and, as this couple had nine children over the next twenty years,^[93] it is highly unlikely she would still have been bearing children at 56.

So, Mary Jane’s existence in the colony remains as much a mystery as that of her mother and her sister Elizabeth.

The final chapter

Disappointingly, there is no final chapter to this story. After Mary married and sponsored her daughter Elizabeth to join her in 1855, there is no record of their life or death in Tasmania. Nor is there any further record of Mary Jane. Did Mary’s marriage to a much younger man survive? Did the family leave the colony? If so, where did they go? Did they return to England or go to America to join their only son and brother John? What happened to Mary Hannah – did she remain in Scotland? What happened to Ann? Did any of the family ever see Robert again?

Mary and Mary Jane’s colonial conduct records suggest that they might have turned their lives around and no longer relied on petty crime to survive. Sadly, as is so often the case, there are many more questions than answers surrounding the final days of Mary and her family.

NOTE: Brenda Pollock and Keith Searson have generously provided an enormous amount of detailed research in relation to Mary and her family and without whom this story would not have been possible. Thank you so much both of you.