Kew Lunatic Asylum and the Maloney girls

Kew Lunatic Asylum by Charles Nettleton, circa 1885.  Courtesy of the State Library of Victoria Collection.

If any of the readers of this blog post have ever had any relations admitted to Kew Lunatic Asylum, particularly if their maiden name was Maloney, could you please read through to the end of the post?  Everyone else is of course welcome to do so as well.

In change of direction for the time being, I wish to return to the arrival in Melbourne of the Harpley in 1853, which I have already discussed in Single women storm the colonies

Amongst the families aboard the Harpley there was a Hannah Maloney, an Irishwoman aged 50, and her two youngest children, Ellen Maloney, 13 and John Maloney 11.

In the 1841 Census "Ann Malony", 40, was living with her husband Patrick Maloney at Glass House Fields, in the Parish of Stepney, Middlesex.  Patrick Malony, 40 was a ballast getter, both Ann and Patrick identified as having been born in Ireland.    The children in the house hold were:

                             Mary, 16, not born in the County
                             Elizabeth, 12, born in the County
                             Joanna, 11, born in the County
                             Patrick, 6, born in the County
                             Ellen, 10 or 14 months, born in the County

In the 1851 Census Hannah Morloney was living at 16 Wapping Dock St, Wapping.  The household was recorded thus:

                             Hannah MORLONEY, 50, washerwoman, born IRL
                             Mary ENING,              26,  daughter,  wife of mariner, born in Wapping, MDX
                             Ellen,                            11, daughter, scholar, born in Wapping, MDX
                             John,                              9, son, scholar, born in Wapping MDX

My eye fell upon Hannah Maloney and her two youngest children quite by chance while going through the passenger list of the Harpley for possible connections of the Rochester sisters.  They were recorded in this  way:

                            Maloney, Hannah, 50, Irish
                                 "          John,     11
                                 "          Ellen,    13


The connection between the Rochester sisters and the Maloney family occurred when Hannah Maloney's grand-son, William James Eynon, married Susan Griffith's (nee Rochester's) grand-daughter Mary Jane Griffith.  Whether the two families knew of the Harpley connection is anyone's guess.

Mary Ann Miller, who seems to have been Hannah Maloney's daughter by an earlier marriage, married her sailor husband, William Eynon, in the Limehouse Church, Stepney in 1849. On the register she said her father was John Miller, dead.   At the time of the 1851 census Mary Ann was awaiting the birth of twin sons, who arrived 11 days after the census. The census was  held on 30 March 1851, and the twins were born on 11 April 1851.   Her husband was not there on census night, possibly away at sea.

The twins were born at 16 Wapping Dock Street, which is the same address where "Mary Ening" had been living at the time of the 1851 census, showing her to be the daughter of Hannah Maloney.

One of the babes, William Thomas Eynon, died of smallpox on 9 August 1852.  He had not been vaccinated, according to the death certificate.  He was 1 year and 4 months old.

Apparently William Eynon decided to give away the seafaring life, and in 1855 made an arrangement with the Family Colonization Loan Society (a Caroline Chisholm enterprise) to take his wife and surviving twin son, Alfred Christopher Eynon) to the colonies.  They left on the ship Lord Burleigh from Gravesend on 13 May, and arrived in Sydney in 29 August 1855, a voyage of 103 days.

SHIPS' MAILS. (1855, August 30). The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), p. 4. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article12978964

By this time Mary Ann's mother and siblings had been in Melbourne for a couple of years, and it is surprising they didn't join them there, but perhaps William had sailed to Sydney in the past and preferred it to Melbourne.

Having escaped death by smallpox in Wapping and whooping cough aboard the Lord Burleigh, little Alfred drowned in 1856.  Although there was an inquest, the details of the death have not survived.  At the time the family was living at Lane Cove.

Another several children were born in Sydney - Joseph, William James, Mary Ann and Sarah.    Young Sarah was born in the Sydney Benevolent Asylum on 19 August 1862.  The records of the Benevolent Asylum show that Mary Ann had been found in the street in labour by a policeman, and had been admitted to the Asylum along with her three other children. 

Benevolent Asylum, Sydney, 1871 / attributed to Charles Pickering.  Courtesy of the Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales.

The mother and two daughters were discharged on 8 September "to husband", while the two boys remained in the Asylum until 23 March 1863 when they were discharged "to father".  There is a signal there that things were not going so well for Mary Ann.

Timber cutters camp at Kissing Point.  Courtesy of the Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales.

The next year, 1864, a disaster occurred.  William was away on the Brisbane Water, north of Sydney working as a sawyer when his leg was crushed between two logs of wood on 12 October. There being no medical help in the vicinity he was carried to a steamer and sent to Sydney, but gangrene had set in and he died on 16 October 1864 at the Sydney Infirmary.

Sydney Infirmary in the foreground, the rear of Richmond Terrace, visible behind Parliament Houses, at centre left, circa 1865-1875.    Courtesy of the Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales.

Only 8 days before his death, this advertisement appeared in the Sydney Mail:

Advertising (1864, October 8). Sydney Mail (NSW : 1860 - 1871), p. 1. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article166658324

I presume J F Whittingham never heard from William Eynon.

Despite the distance from Sydney to Melbourne, and the lack of literacy in the family, somehow Mary Ann Eynon and her four children got themselves to Melbourne where she could get some support from her family.

To return to the Maloneys and the Harpley, it is unclear how many of her family came with Hannah.  John and Ellen certainly.  Possibly Johanna - there was a  Hanh. Maloney, Irish,  aged 22, with the single females, who most certainly would have run into the Rochester sisters.  In the disposal list she appeared as Hannah Maloney, born in Middlesex, aged 26.  She and her sister Elizabeth may have come as married women, but at least one of them in addition to Ellen came out to Melbourne, as will become apparent.   When Hannah and her two younger children arrived, they left the ship at Melbourne "on own account", meaning they were not employed off the ship as so many immigrants were.

It would seem also that Patrick Maloney came separately.  An advertisement in The Argus appeared  only five months after the Harpley arrival on 17 July 1853.

Advertising (1853, December 31). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), p. 2. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4801328

"If this should meet the eye of Patrick Maloney he will hear from his mother at the Flagstaff west of King-street, Melbourne.  Hannah Maloney."

Another interesting advertisement may or may not have been the same Hannah - it was in the same general vicinity, so it may have been:

NEWS OF THE WEEK. (1861, November 23). The Melbourne Leader (Vic. : 1861), p. 3. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article197521345

She would not have needed a whole cow to supply the wants of her small family, so this possibly represents a business venture.

There is a bit of a blank between the Maloneys arriving in Melbourne and Mary Ann Eynon's arrest in 1866, but as it will require some teasing out,  I will leave that for another time.   How long Mary Ann had been in Melbourne is not clear, but presumably she came here some time between her husband's death in October 1864 (or earlier?) and the problem she had in 1866.  Exactly what happened remains unknown but on 31 January 1866, Mary Ann Eynon was arrested and charged with being a dangerous lunatic, and was remanded to the Melbourne gaol.   She was not there long enough to generate a gaol record - not having actually appeared in court and being convicted -  but a Warrant was produced to remove Mary Ann from the gaol, to be held at the Lunatic Asylum, Melbourne, until she became of sound mind, or was discharged for some other reason.  As frequently occurred, her discharge was due to her death.

Her death occurred in 1875, and an inquest was held on 15 November 1875.  And this is where it gets really interesting.  (I know, it has taken a long time to get to this point - but just bear with me.)  One of the attendants who gave evidence, Ellen Bradfield, stated that Mary Ann took to her bed in September with a bad cough (she died of pulmonary tuberculosis), and in the time before her death she was seen twice a day by Mr McCreevy (the Resident Medical Officer), the Official Visitor saw her, and her brothers-in-law saw her.

Ah, so what brothers-in-law were they?   I spent a considerable amount of time some years ago to determine whether they might be brothers of her husband, William Eynon, but in the end concluded that they were not.   At this stage I had no idea what sisters Mary Ann had, besides Ellen, and didn't pursue it any further at the time.

But, in time I became aware of the fact that Mary Ann's daughter, Sarah, the little girl born at the Benevolent Asylum in Sydney, had been admitted to Kew Lunatic Asylum as a young woman of 20.  She was admitted to Kew on 9 May 1882 and in her Case Book it states "Mother died at Yarra Bend.  She has two aunts now inmates of this asylum."   So were these the wives of the brothers-in-law who visited Mary Ann at Yarra Bend in 1875?

Prior to finding Hannah Maloney in the 1841 census, which was comparatively recently,  I had no idea what Mary Ann's sisters' names were, except for Ellen.  I now know that she had at least two others - Johanna (Hannah/Joanna) and Elizabeth.  It is possible they came to Melbourne as married women, or they may have married in Victoria.  The names are so common it is difficult to be sure.   I have been through the entire Kew Admissions Register trying to figure out who they would be, but without knowing their surnames, it proved to be a lost cause.

So I rely on someone recognising part of this story.  I am looking for sisters who were both admitted to Kew Lunatic Asylum, perhaps in the early 1880s, or earlier.  They may have gone in and out of Kew, they may have spent some time at Yarra Bend.   Sarah Eynon in time moved on to Ararat Asylum.  She went in and out of Kew, supported by one or other of her siblings, either Mary Ann or William Eynon, but eventually she became too difficult to handle when they had small children in the house and she was prone to setting fire to things, including herself.

So these two sisters were probably Maloneys, with an outside chance of being from the Miller marriage.  They were born in Middlesex, around Wapping and Stepney, they were probably Roman Catholic, and they were both married, maybe in Middlesex, or maybe in Victoria. Potentially named Elizabeth, Johanna/Hannah or Ellen. Their mother was Hannah, their father probably Patrick Maloney, and the two brothers Patrick and John were also in the colony.    Does anyone know these women?

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