The Convict's Daughter

by Kiera Lindsey

  Chapter Four: The Parramatta Romance

  This chapter draws on the Regina v Gill and Regina v Kinchela depositions and extensive newspaper coverage. The dialogue is quoted verbatim, as are the sequence of events and characters therein. Regina v Kinchela suggests Kinchela was drinking on the night of the elopement. Secondary sources were used to recreate Mrs Kelly’s brothel and other establishments. Margaret may have been looking for work for Mary Ann as she posted ads to this effect, but I have imagined tension in their relationship and that they took tea each day. Ellen Hanley’s death in 1819 was well known in Ireland and considered a cautionary tale about love across the classes. I imagined Mary Riley recounting this story to her granddaughter and Mary Ann cutting herself on the drainpipe.

  Chapter Five: Shooting With Intent

  The descriptions of European unrest come from colonial newspapers and secondary sources. The same papers include commentary about the 1848 New South Wales (NSW) elections and local court intelligence, which I have quoted verbatim. My depiction of Sydney’s social and political climate is based on secondary reading. To recreate the trial I quoted directly from the Regina v Gill deposition and newspaper reports. These sources confirm that Martin Gill employed Robert Lowe, who was in the habit of carrying a crop and wearing pinstripe trousers and floral waistcoats. Kinchela disappeared after the shooting and had to be summonsed to court. I imagined that R.G. Nichols went to visit Kinchela and that Gill spat at Kinchela’s boots after his acquittal.

  Chapter Six: The Deposition

  I assumed Margaret Gill managed the hotel during her husband’s absence and also borrowed his bail from her father. I created the scene with Margaret and Mary Ann taking tea and Martin Gill bathing when he returned from gaol. The deposition confirms that Rebecca, the Gill’s family servant, delivered the carpetbag to Kinchela before the elopement but I have imagined her returning its contents to Mary Ann and the admonished woman crying herself to sleep. I do not know what happened at the police station when Mary Ann went to give evidence against Kinchela, but the ink splotches under her signature in Regina v Kinchela encouraged me to imagine she gave evidence under duress. All references to Irish abductors in Ireland and Australia are based on extensive primary research.

  Chapter Seven: To Court

  Newspapers confirm that when Darlinghurst Court House was being built in the 1840s it was used for fairs and events, such as the St Patrick’s Day ball in 1840. There is nothing to confirm that the Gills or the Kinchelas attended this event, but if they had done so it is likely that they would have seen Irish dancing. All information about the Wakefield case (1827) is based on primary research. I used my knowledge of the stagecraft associated with this case to suggest that Lowe and Gill conspired in similar theatrics for Mary Ann’s attire. I have also imagined Lowe’s attitude to Martin Gill and this case.

  Chapter Eight: A Sporting Affair

  Numerous biographies were used to sketch the influential personalities in this chapter, although I did imagine that Holroyd’s experience in Kororareka was traumatic. I drew closely on Regina v Kinchela and newspaper coverage to ensure that the court proceedings are almost entirely verbatim. From such records it is possible to read certain traits into characters, such as Henry Webb’s lack of confidence, Holroyd’s inability to read the local audience and Lowe’s spectacular timing. I do not know who came to watch this trial although the papers indicate that the court was crowded. I imagined Kinchela carrying a cane with a whiskey compartment.

  Chapter Nine: The Gloves Come Off

  The legal depositions and newspapers make it relatively easy to recreate Mary Ann’s testimony. Several newspapers mention that when she first stepped into the witness box she ‘sobbed bitterly’ and was ‘too agitated to speak’. These clues encouraged me to recreate this episode as one in which she felt torn between duty to her family and a desire to save herself and her lover. Most of the questions and responses here are verbatim. I don’t know how Mary Riley and Margaret felt about the outcome of the case and there is no evidence that Nichols ever gave Mary Ann a sweet treat.

  Chapter Ten: The Thoughtless and the Giddy

  Details about the colonial newspapers, the elections and the economic conditions of NSW during this period come from the newspapers and secondary sources. During the 1843 election Gill signed petitions in support of Wentworth but there is nothing to indicate he supported Wentworth in 1848. I used direct quotes from the newspaper articles associated with the ‘abductions’ of Mary Ann Gill and Mary Ann Challenger. I have nothing to indicate how Martin Gill felt towards Mary Ann after the trial or to suggest she was made to read the newspapers to her father. Mary Ann would have been more literate than her parents and Margaret was probably a better reader than Martin. Details of Darlinghurst Gaol and the trial of John Knatchbull are based on secondary sources. Irish tochmarca tales can be traced back to the medieval period. By the early nineteenth century it was still common for such stories to be told by wandering teachers, who regularly adapted them. It is likely that the McCormicks knew such stories. Cormac O’Grady published a version of this particular story in 1873.

  Chapter Eleven: A Story Without a Hero

  Henry Keck was the governor of Darlinghurst Gaol in 1848 and sources confirm that he was both colourful and corrupt. Prison records reveal that Kinchela was incarcerated after the trial but the ambiguous nature of one particular source makes it impossible to confirm where. Conversations with archivists led me to determine it was most likely Darlinghurst Gaol and this allowed me to imagine Kinchela enjoying certain latitudes from a fellow Irishman. This chapter uses the subtitle of Thackeray’s Vanity Fair, first published in serialised chapters of Punch in 1847–48 and, as the exchange between the couple suggests, the leading characters in this story bear some resemblance to James Butler and Mary Ann. I imagined Mary Ann making her intrepid visit to the gaol on election night. If she did she would have witnessed the fire in Hyde Park, angry mobs in the street and Robert Lowe being hauled along George Street in a carriage ‘driven’ by his campaign team. I placed Lowe on the carriage rooftop cracking a stock whip.

  Chapter Twelve: The Manly and the Unmanly

  Kinchela’s appeal was heard before a full bench of the Supreme Court, including Roger Therry, who defended John Kinchela in the Mudie incident. This legal decision was published in The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) and I have quoted it directly, adding only one phrase from an abduction trial Therry presided over in 1851. Although Manning did condemn the defendant for his ‘unmanly defence’ there are no records to indicate how Kinchela responded. He was incarcerated in Parramatta Gaol and the prison book lists his personal appearance. Given Martin Gill’s future financial conditions it is likely he was experiencing financial hardship in 1848. There is nothing to suggest Gill tried to match his daughter with a ‘monied gull’. Nor do I have any information that Alexander Moore was unfortunate in his appearance or that Lewis Samuel was as depicted. However, both Moore and Samuel were well-known colonists who featured prominently in Gills’ 1850 insolvency trial, and their colourful responses inspired me to imagine that their indignation towards Gill may have been due to more than mere money matters.

  Chapter Thirteen: A More Exalted Position

  The story of the Hashemy can be traced through the HRA and secondary sources. Of these, Peter Cochrane’s Colonial Ambition provides the most detailed insight into the campaign mounted by Henry Parkes and his associates. Primary sources confirm that John Kinchela returned to Sydney and became Superintendent of Schools in the Orange district at this time. There is no record of how he responded to James Butler’s incarceration, and his meeting with Governor FitzRoy is my creation, as are all conversations between the two brothers. While I have imagined that John told his brother about the Irish Battle of Ballingarry and the discovery of gold in San Francisco, these events are factual. Thanks to the governor’s prerogative, James Kinchela was granted an early release on 1 January 1849, but there is nothing to confirm John Kinchela n
egotiated this.

  Chapter Fourteen: In the Soup

  The luncheon scene with Alexander Moore is inspired by my reading of the 1850 insolvency trial of Martin Gill, and secondary sources concerned with the pecuniary focus of Irish marriage during this period, particularly when the woman had been involved in a scandal like abduction. On the day of his release Kinchela was arrested for the alleged abduction of Louisa Aarons, whose father was a shopkeeper, but not, as far as I know, a tobacconist on George Street. I quote directly from the newspaper coverage concerned with Kinchela’s arrest in this and the following chapter. These articles suggest Kinchela went to the New Year’s Day races. Many of the horses mentioned ran that day. I have no record about who Kinchela may have met that day and there is no record of his conversation with Captain Innes. There is no record about what actually occurred between Kinchela and Louisa Aarons.

  Chapter Fifteen: A Gross Breach

  The activities of Earl Grey, Governor FitzRoy, Parkes and his committee are based on primary and secondary sources. The Hashemy did lose convicts to cholera before leaving England. I have imagined John Kinchela’s response to his brother’s second abduction charge and how this might have affected Mary Ann. As indicated, the newspapers suggest the second abduction charge was dropped when no witnesses came forward to testify. I imagined Kinchela quitting Sydney after this episode. I also created the incident with Lewis Samuel in the Pitt Street hotel dining room as events preceding Samuel’s pursuit of Gill during later insolvency proceedings and ‘the rupture’ between Margaret and Martin Gill.

  Chapter Sixteen: The Thwarted Plot

  Bell’s newspaper published the articles listed, including the satirical study of Kinchela as a bushman ‘without a hair on lip or chin’. There are no shipping records to confirm Kinchela went to Moreton Bay after the Louisa Aarons incident; however, records confirm Hawkwood was sold to John Walker in 1848–49. Given John Kinchela was working in the Orange district at this time, it is possible James negotiated the sale. I have imagined the exchange of letters between the brothers. While the scene with the Brisbane barfly is imagined, the details of the Blaxland party heading north in 1847 with the widow Pegg and her sons is accurate. Samuel was encouraging other men to also litigate against Gill. I have found no records to reveal what happened to Rebecca, the Gill’s servant. I assumed she was ‘let go’ during the family’s financial difficulties. I don’t know which route the Kinchelas took when they travelled to Hawkwood, but Drayton was a newly surveyed township in 1849 (now known as Toowoomba) and the Bull’s Head Inn was popular. Dr John Dunmore Lang did send several immigrant boats to Moreton Bay in 1849 to address the labour shortage in that region.

  Chapter Seventeen: Defiance

  All descriptions of the Hashemy protests are based on primary and secondary sources and the speeches have been quoted from newspapers. Originally, Lowe was reluctant to participate in the campaign spearheaded by Parkes but he did eventually join the rally at Circular Quay in June 1849. His speech was the most sensational of the day. The omnibus he spoke from was draped with a banner reading ‘Defiance’. Governor FitzRoy was reputed to have trained cannons on the rally and put troops around Government House. I don’t know if Mary Ann and Will witnessed the rally. I have listed the actual names of the men and the properties they owned in the districts around Hawkwood. In June 1849 the two Pegg brothers were murdered by Aboriginal warriors. Fifty settlers participated in the reprisal that followed and hundreds of Aboriginal people were murdered. Other than the Thompsons and their ‘friendly trackers’, I have no evidence that Kinchela or these other men were involved.

  Chapter Eighteen: Lions After Slumber

  I can’t confirm if Edward Hawkins and Thomas Archer knew Kinchela, but these two Upper Burnett settlers went to San Francisco in 1849 and Walker bought Hawkwood from the Kinchelas. Governor FitzRoy’s wife died in a riding accident and her husband was holding the reins of the vehicle. Those at the rally deputised Lowe, Parkes and four other men to present their petition to the governor, who left the large crowd waiting in the rain before issuing orders to return the following day. Official records and newspapers suggest that next day’s meeting occurred as described. Most of this dialogue is verbatim and FitzRoy was reputed to have stationed troops in his pantry and mounted cavalry in his stables. The committee met at the Royal Hotel and recounted FitzRoy’s response to followers. I imagined a committee member evoking the Peterloo Massacre and quoting Shelley’s well-known poem.

  Chapter Nineteen: The Camel’s Back

  The weather was sunny for the second rally at Circular Quay but I have no evidence Mary Ann and Will were among the 5000 or so present. I imagined their encounter with Kinchela after he disembarked the Moreton Bay steamer. The advertisements associated with Gill’s properties are verbatim from the SMH, as is Lowe’s speech invoking Peterloo and the Boston tea party. Kinchela was rooming with Major Pitt D’Arcy at Joseph Walford’s in July 1849. The Major had encountered the Rockites as a younger man and died of gout that night. John Kinchela died in October 1849 and his eulogy was published in the SMH, attributed to a ‘J.L.’ I have imagined this to be a widow named Mrs Lynton with whom Kinchela boarded while visiting the Orange district as Superintendent of Schools. The correspondence between FitzRoy and Earl Grey is in the HRA, while the dispute between Lowe and Bland comes from parliamentary records and newspapers.

  Chapter Twenty: Under the Hammer

  The record is silent about how Martin Gill, James Butler and Mary Ann reconciled their differences. I invented the scene where James Butler visits Gill’s Family Hotel and sees Mary Ann for the first time in several months and negotiates her hand with Martin Gill, by drawing on secondary sources and oral history records concerned with nineteenth-century Irish marital negotiations. The family was evicted from the hotel in early November. They moved into a weatherboard cottage on Kent Street and this was leased by McCormick. The episode at Moore’s auction rooms comes from the 1850 insolvency trial and Gill’s response, ‘You may all go to hell’ is verbatim. The list of goods put to auction includes the washbasin and mirror Margaret Gill retrieved. The only exception is Mary Ann’s dresses, which I imagined.

  Chapter Twenty-One: All That Glitters

  The social and economic conditions of NSW, including the departure of Ben Boyd and other colonists, come from colonial newspapers and shipping records as well as Cameron White’s unpublished article and Charles Bateson’s Gold Fleet for California. These confirm the three vessels departed 5–6 November 1849. Kinchela sailed on the Lady Howden. While I imagined Martin Gill holding out at the McCormick’s farm, the shipping lists confirm ‘Mr and Mrs Gill and son’ were booked first class on the Sabine. I also imagined the reconciliation between Mary Ann and Kinchela before he sailed.

  Chapter Twenty-Two: A Tuppenny Damn

  Martin Gill published a notice against Margaret Gill in the SMH in early November 1849, which I quote verbatim. This and other newspaper quotes concerned with fashion, photography and Lowe’s auction are also direct quotes. Thomas McCormick leased the Saracen’s Head for Margaret Gill under his name. I imagined McCormick’s visit to the out-of-town auction rooms and the confrontation with Martin Gill at the Punchbowl farm. Both the newspapers and shipping records confirm that Mary Ann and Will sailed first class on the Sabine and in the company of their father on 7 December 1849.

  Chapters 23–25

  The final chapters are written in a different style from the rest of the book and do not involve imaginative incursions. The shipwreck of the Sabine and the passengers’ encounter with the pirates from ‘The Pilot’ are gleaned from Bateson’s Gold Fleet and the newspapers. The newspapers provide details of Margaret Gill at the time of the 1850 insolvency trial and her rise as an independent businesswoman who managed the Saracen’s Head and catered for special guests at Fort Macquarie in 1851. The notice of Mary Ann’s marriage to James Butler appeared in the SMH in 1853. To piece together the final portion of Mary Ann’s life, I consulted ex
tensive secondary sources as well as shipping records, colonial and Californian newspapers and archives, census reports, birth, death & marriage records, Police Gazettes, Mary Beatty’s final will and testament and A.A. Piggin’s auction of her personal goods in 1902.

  Bibliography

  PRIMARY SOURCES

  ARCHIVES

  AUSTRALIA

  City of Sydney Assessment Books

  City of Sydney Council, 2005: [CRS 15: 1848], [CRS 17: 1871], [CRS 18: 160/2/7]

  State and Mitchell Library of New South Wales

  Historical Records of Australia, Series 1 to 3.

  Returns of the Colonial Census: [ML/CY/4/281]

  Governors Dispatches to the Secretary of State for the Colonies [1128: 23:134/ML1/1212/R545, 1128-1131]

  State Records (SR) NSW

  SRNSW: NRS 935, Copies of letters sent: Local and overseas, 1809–13 [4/3490B], Reel 6002

  SRNSW: NRS 937, Copies of letters sent within the Colony 1814–27, items [4/3508], Reel 6010 [4/3509], 6011

  SRNSW: NRS 898, Special Bundles 1794–1825, items [4/1718], Reel 6023, [4/1725, 4/1778], Reel 6040

  SRNSW: Colonial Secretary NRS 897, Letters Received 1788–1826, items; Reel 6042, Reel 6061 [4/1804], Reel 6066

  SRNSW: NRS 12210, Certificates of Freedom [4/4295], Reel 983 and No 36/0557 [4/4333], Reel 996

  SRNSW: NRS 907, Colonial Secretary Letters relating to Land 1826–1856 [2/7865], Reel 1131 [2/7899], Reel 1149

  SRNSW: NRS 906, Colonial Secretary’s Special Bundles [2/8015.1], Reel 1247