ann Clark, ex Inchinnan
Ann Clark, age 16, was from Ballina. Her parents, James and Maria, were both dead.
Ann was sent to the Immigration Depot in Maitland, a town north-west of Sydney, after her arrival on the Inchinnan on 13 February 1849 (see Irish Famine Memorial Database). She was one of ten girls from the Inchinnan sent via steamer, up the Hunter River, arriving on 3 March (Maitland Mercury, 7 March 1849). Ann was hired at £8pa by Mr and Mrs Swan, who owned a shop in Morpeth, near Maitland. Within a few months, in June 1849, Ann took the Swans to court over two incidents, following “a dispute about the wages coming to her at the close of her first quarter”, charging Mrs Swan with assault and locking her in a room, and Robert Swan with refusing to pay her wages. The dispute arose because of Swan’s shop, from which Ann had “purchased many articles”, with the payment to be taken from her wages, and the disagreement over the balance owing to Ann. Given that Ann had brought the case, it did not bode well for her when it was realised during the case that she had been offered 7s as the balance from her £2 wages, but after she admitted to further purchases, it was revealed that she was only owed 3s 10d. The bench advised Robert Swan to pay the newly calculated balance due, as well as not to enable her to buy any more goods on credit. They also dismissed the assault charge, but refused to cancel the indentures, as had been requested by both Ann Clark and the Swans (Maitland Mercury, 13 June 1849). No marriage record could be found for Ann Clark, although there are obvious issues with her common name. Searching the newspapers for an individual girl for whom no marriage record can be found may result in multiple newspaper records of a girl with the same name, for court appearances relating public drunkenness or vagrancy, for example. However, as there is no direct reference to her being an ‘Irish orphan girl’, it cannot be confirmed that these records actually refer to the Mayo orphan girl in question. Two newspaper records of later dates were found for an Ann Clarke of Morpeth, both in which she had charged another woman with assault on her. The first case alleged that Ann “was quite drunk”, and it was dismissed (Maitland Mercury, 25 October 1866). In the second case, Ann and the defendant, Lavinia Smith, were living in the same house; as the case centred on a bucket of dirty water, they may have been in service together. Lavinia Smith was convicted, and fined 5s, with 5s 5d costs (Maitland Mercury, 15 February 1872). Whilst, it cannot be said conclusively if in either of these cases that it is the same Ann Clark, they provide an example of the kinds of stories reported in the newspapers which may refer to the Irish orphan girls, but for which further evidence is needed to be satisfied definitively. |
© Barbara Barclay (2015)