Kerry Girls (11 page)
Authors: Kay Moloney Caball
Minute Book, Killarney Board of Guardians, 29 April 1848. (Kerry Local History Library, Tralee)
The Killarney Board does not appear to have received permission for any more than thirty-five emigrants and there is no mention of the ‘orphans’ again until 28 January 1849 when we learn from the Minutes that the clerk had written to each of the Guardians of the Union to inform them that the Earl of Kenmare and Henry A. Herbert Esq. had offered ‘a loan of money for the purpose of enabling the Board to carry out the provisions of the several Poor Law Acts for the Emigration and the subject will be brought forward for the consideration of the Board on Monday 3 February next.’
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Like a number of other Unions at this time, the Killarney Union was undoubtedly suffering from cash problems and the actual arrangements for emigration of the orphans had become something of a challenge. The offer of a £2,000 loan from Lord Kenmare and Henry A. Herbert was turned down by the Board on the 13 February 1949.
10
We are not told what the reason for this decision was, but they had probably little prospect of repaying what would now equal around €20,000 and could possibly be surcharged personally if all the paperwork was not correct.
Fully one year after the first decision to accede to the request to send the orphans from Killarney, we finally learn from the Minute Book of the 2 May 1849 that the Commissioners in Dublin are complaining to the Board in Killarney:
Adverting to the Commissioner’s letter of 19th ult, relating to the Female Orphans’ proposed as Emigrants to South Australia and stating that the Commissioners have not as yet received the names of the individuals selected but presume that a list of the names has been left at the workhouse by Lieut. Henry to whom any certificate of character required, but which may not already have been forwarded, should be sent and requesting that the Guardians will make the necessary arrangements without delay if not already made.
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The Killarney orphans finally left from Penrose Quay in Cork by a steam vessel for Plymouth on 24 May 1849. Mystery surrounds the ‘list of names’ of individuals selected, as mentioned in the Minutes on 2 May 1849 and previously on 20 May 1848, as neither copy exists in the appropriate Minute Book records. The loss of these records has serious consequences for the identification of the thirty-seven girls who emigrated from Killarney, as we shall see later.
Ellen Powell
Ellen Powell from Scrahane, Killarney was one of the unluckier girls, in that she travelled on the
Elgin
to Adelaide, arriving on 12 September 1849. These girls were not looked after very well by those charged to oversee their welfare, and as a result, some fell foul of the law in the following years.
The South Australian Register listed the full complement of passengers, including Government emigrants – a number of families and their children as well as ‘female orphans’.
12
Unfortunately, while we have a full list of the girls on the
Elgin
, neither their home places nor the workhouses that they originated from, have been recorded. Because of the diligence of two of Ellen’s great-granddaughers – Gayle Dowling and Gabrielle Bartels – we have a record of Ellen’s subsequent life in Australia.
Ellen was born to Catherine Flynn and John Powel (sic) in Scrahan, Killarney. Her parents were not married. Her father was not a Catholic and, unusually, allowed Ellen to have his family name when she was baptised 4 December 1826 in Killarney. He appears to have been an overseer or agent for Lord Kenmare, occupying land at Scrahan beside the Kenmare estate. There is no subsequent record of her mother Catherine Flynn marrying anyone else in the Kerry area, so she may have died before Ellen’s departure for Australia. Her father would have been an influential man with the Killarney Board of Guardians and he may have arranged that she would be part of the group selected to emigrate. He was still alive in Killarney at this time. He is recorded in Griffith’s Valuation of 1852 as occupying the land in question. The wider Powell family were well to-do in Killarney and the Castleisland area.
While we have no record of Ellen’s apprenticeship or her time in South Australia, we know that by 1854 she had moved from South Australia and was established in Melbourne, Victoria, where on 7 January 1854 she married Richard Thomas Burke at St Francis Catholic Church.
Gayle and Gabrielle take up the story:
Ellen Powell’s husband, Richard, was born around 1829 and came from Westmeath Ireland. The marriage certificate is ambiguous. It indicates that both Richard and Ellen had previous relationships resulting in children, by ticking off boxes but Ellen is declared as a spinster and Richard declared ‘–’. Whatever the case, the certificate suggests that the early years after stepping onto McLaren Wharf in Adelaide had not been easy for Ellen.
Richard Burke initially worked as a butcher in Little Bourke Street Melbourne. He and Ellen had one child in Richmond in 1855 before uprooting, moving inland and becoming a gold-mining family. There are children born in Ararat and Moonambel before the family eventually settled in Drummond, Victoria, also a mining area. Together they had nine children, with four dying in infancy.
In 1871 Richard is paying rates for a hut on Crown land in Drummond with seven residents. Ellen and Richard appear to have lived a modest life with their surviving children marrying Malmsbury-based families and twenty-two grandchildren to carry on their name.
Richard died first, on 18 October 1891 aged 62, followed by Ellen on 12 September 1899 aged 73. They are buried in the Malmsbury Cemetery with a headstone to mark their final resting places.
Listowel, while not giving a lot of information on their correspondence with the Poor Law Commissioners, seemed to make their decision without controversy. Having received the letter from the Poor Law Commissioners outlining the Earl Grey Scheme in spring 1848, a decision had been made by the Guardians to adopt the scheme for the Listowel Union, and by September 1849 Lieutenant Henry RN had visited Listowel to choose and personally select suitable emigrants. We should remember that this decision was made in the light of the Guardians battling with crises on all sides on a weekly basis. Listowel Union was continually teetering on the verge of bankruptcy. In March 1849 the Minutes note that the manager of the Provincial Bank ‘having declared under any circumstances to honour cheques on that Establishment beyond the actual amount of Cash to our credit … are unable to meet our liabilities’.
13
The records of the Minute Books provide a vivid picture of the problems and struggles faced by the Union in the months of September and October. There were the usual complaints and problems; food stores being stolen, storekeepers sacked, rent collectors misappropriating the rents, milk and grain suppliers of an ‘inferior’ standard, ‘disorderly paupers’, dissension among the Board, and due to the huge numbers seeking admission, permission had to be sought from the commissioners in Dublin to open auxiliary workhouses. There were also issues with ratepayers complaining about the rates levied on them and their inability to pay.
In the case of Trinity College, who were the landlords of one-third of the area of the Union, it was recorded for the Commissioners in Dublin that ‘destitution of this Union is mainly attributable to the insufficience [
sic
] of this tenure’.
14
While the Union would be taking on the initial costs of outfitting and conveying the orphans to Dublin, an opportunity to rid themselves of the ongoing costs of seventeen inmates would initially be more than welcome and provide much-needed space for the crowds still trying to gain admittance to the workhouse.
While Lieutenant Henry was highly regarded and punctilious in his duties, he selected them by ‘walking through making his choice’
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and while they were medically checked, did he take into account that a number of them could neither read nor write, that they had little or no practical training as housemaids or domestic servants and that at least in one case, one of those selected, had a mental disorder? Or alternatively, did he think that each of the girls selected would be suitable for training into these fields after their placement on arrival? We have no record of his thought process but it is evident that the criteria for selection appears to have been largely ignored and it was one of the major flaws that worked against the success of the scheme as all of these negative issues would affect their settlement in Australia.
And again, did the girls have a real choice – whether to go or stay? There were a number of ‘push’ factors from the girls’ perspective. The ‘poorhouse’ as they called it, was a shameful experience, living conditions were extremely basic, they were ill-fed and ill-clothed. A number of them could neither read nor write, notwithstanding the ‘schools’ run in the workhouses. Indeed, following the inspection of Lieutenant Henry there was a report from the master to the Board at the following Listowel Meeting:
The Master begs to report that the education of the female children appears to be very much neglected at the Workhouse school. On yesterday when the Emigration Officer examined the girls, many of whom have been 2 years or more at this school, very few could even read very imperfectly. Only one or two make any attempt at writing.
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The Listowel girls, hailing from the Baronies of Iriaghticonnor and Clanmaurice, would have experienced friends and relations in the workhouse being taken away for burial to Gale cemetery and later on to mass graves in Teampall Bán, on a daily basis, as a result of hunger, overcrowding and disease, so the prospect of a journey, any journey, out of the workhouse would have been better than remaining where they were.
The Minutes note that ‘Lieutenant Henry (Emigration Officer) this day examined the several orphan girls in the Workhouse and selected the following for emigration to Australia’.
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Mary Brandon | Johanna Hayes | Mary Purcell | Ellen Wilson |
Ellen Casey | Hanna Jones | Margaret Stack | Mary Wilson |
Mary Casey | Eliza Moriarty | Catherine Ryan | Ellen Leary |
Margaret Connor | Johanna Connor | Mary Ryan | Biddy Ryan |
Mary Conway | Winnie Pierce | Margaret Scanlon | |
Daniel Griffin was voted ‘twenty pounds to defray the expenses of the Emigrants to Dublin’.
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The girls were initially taken with their trunks by cart and train to Dublin’s North Wall for boat and train to Plymouth, to board the ship
Thomas Arbuthnot
leaving for Sydney on 28 October 1849.
Each girl was to be provided with a specified list of requirements. All items were to be new and of good quality. Since all the girls were Catholics they were each to be given a Douay Bible. Finally the Guardians were to provide wooden boxes of good material with strong locks into which the girls were to pack their belongings. Each emigrant’s name was to be clearly painted on the front of the box. The list of requirements were as follows:
Minutes of the Listowel Board of Guardians, 11 September 1849.
6 Shifts, 6 prs Stockings, 2 prs of shoes, 2 Gowns 2 Short Wrappers, 2 Night Wrappers, 2 Flannel Petticoats, 2 Cotton Petticoats, 1 Stout Worsted Shawl & a Cloak, 2 Neck and 3 Pocket Handkerchiefs, 2 Linen Collars, 2 Aprons, 1 Pair of Stays, 1 Pair Sheets, 1 Pair of Mitts, 2 Towels, 2lbs Soap, Combs and Brushes, Needles, Thread, Tape and articles (such as a few yards of calico) that the Matron might desire Females to acquire, Books, Bible and Prayer Book, Bible (Douay).