Mary Ann DENNETT
Name Variations DENNITT, DENNET, DERMETH, DERMETT, DUNNETT1
Father Charles DENNETT b.c. 18072 m. 18473 d. 18624
Mother Alice CRAIG b.c. 18145 m. 1847 d. 18906
Brother Charles George DENNET b. 18487 m. 18808 Catherine DOYLE d. 19259
Brother John DENNET10 b. 184811 m. none - d. 185012
Brother William DENNET13 b. 185214 m. 187415 Susan PERCIVAL or PERCIVELLE d. 192016
Inmate Mary Ann DERMETH b. 185317 m. 1873 (see below) d. 188318
Husband Charles TROGG b. m. 187319 d. 188220
Daughter Alice Mary TROGG b. 187421 m. none - d. 191322
Son Edwin William TROGG b. 187623 m. d.
Son Theophilus Charles TROGG b. 187824 m. d.
Daughter Florence Lydia TROGG b. 188025 m. 190126 Thomas MINAMI d. 195527
Son Ambrose TROGG b. 188128 m. d.
Description
Relationship Name Age Height Hair Eyes Complexion Build Distinguishing features
Father Charles29 23 5’ 7¾” light brown light grey ruddy freckles stout30 mermaid, flag and Price of Wales feathers on right arm; woman, anchor, C A heart and darts on left arm

Mary Ann was admitted to Newcastle from Goulburn on 25 September 1868. She and Susan SHAW had appeared in the Goulburn Police Court on 5 September,31 on warrant, charged with vagrancy and with associating with bad characters but of the two, only Mary Ann was sent to Newcastle. The newspaper described her as nearly sixteen and when she arrived she was recorded in the Entrance Book as a Catholic who was fifteen years of age. Mary Ann was reading the third book and writing in copybook32 – one of only two girls with this level of education. The Entrance Book recorded that her father was dead but named her mother, stating that she was destitute. Mary Ann was named in CLARKE’s list of girls eligible for apprenticeship on 15 December 1869,33 where she was recorded as having been in the school for a year and three months and was currently aged sixteen and a half. On the evening of Sunday, 15 May 1870, Mary Ann, in company with Hannah McGILL escaped from the school. CLARKE reported their escape to the Colonial Secretary by telegram and then in detail in a report written on 20 May. The girls were recaptured about ten o'clock on the Monday morning and were returned to the school and placed in solitary confinement. He wrote:

I visited those girls in company with the matron when Dennett had no excuse what-ever for her conduct. … On Tuesday evening when those girls had been about forty hours in solitary confinement, Dennett who is not a strong constitutional girl, complained of illness and having in view the length of time that those girls had been conducting themselves well and as they both expressed their regret for their conduct I allowed them to return to their dormitories.34

While Hannah continued to misbehave after this release, Mary Ann was not reported to have been involved in any further incident. Mary Ann was discharged as an apprentice for one year at six shillings a week to Mr. K. P. STACEY, Esq., manager of the Joint Sock Bank,35 Singleton, on 12 September 1870.36 Mary Ann Josephine DENNETT married Charles TROGG, the Scone storekeeper, on 29 November 1873, in the Catholic Church at Scone by Patrick O’KEEFE. The witnesses were Daniel NOLAN and Emily A. BRYAN. No further information is available on the marriage registration but Charles stated that he was from Amoy, China, when he was naturalized on 3 March 1873.37 Mary TROGG submitted an apology to Mrs Frederick COX on 20 February 1874, concerning 'certain libellous statements relative to' her character which were 'utterly false.'38 The published statements made by Mary haven't yet been found. Charles was made insolvent39 in 187940 and his business was sold. Charles died in 1882 and Mary Ann had died by April the following year. Three of their children, Theophilus, William and Lydia, were admitted to the Randwick Asylum on 27 April 1883.41 They were there until 1885 and were transferred to the boarding out officer. Lydia married and moved to Queensland and Alice died in Sydney but no trace of Mary Ann's sons has yet been located.

Family

Mary Ann was the daughter of Charles DENNETT and Alice CRAIG who were married on 21 April 1847, by J. P. ROCHE at St Mary's Catholic Church, Sydney. Charles came from Chalsborough, near Goulburn. Alice and the two witnesses, Thomas (X) McEllicott and Phillipi (X) EARBISS, came from Sydney.42 Permission for the couple to marry had been granted by J. McENCROE on 24 April 1847.43 Mary Ann’s baptism was registered as Mary A. DERMETH. The record was quite poorly written but as it was a Catholic record and the full names of both parents were recorded. Mary had been born on 22 October 1852, and was baptized on 2 March 1853. Charles was recorded as a labourer and the family resided at Ryanna [sic].44 Rhyana, where Charles worked as a farm labourer, was the abode of the family when their son, William, was baptised on 27 March 1852, by William SOWERBY.45

Charles was recorded as forty years old. He had been transported for life arriving in 1830 aboard the Burrell. Charles could read and write, was a Protestant from Dorchester, Dorsetshire, and was recorded on the Burrell indent as single. He was first indented to 'PHILLIPS' on the Hunter River.46 In 1833, before his marriage, Charles had spent time in Sydney Gaol. Children were baptised at St. Saviour, County Argyle, by William SOWERBY. At the time of the baptism of the couple's son, Charles George, on 20 March 1848, Charles was recorded as a labourer of Chatsbury.47 Charles was a labourer of Banaby when John, who was born on 27 May 1848, was baptised on 19 June 1849.48 Charles DENNITT's death was registered in Goulburn in 1862. His father was identified as William on the NSW BDM Index.49

Alice had arrived free aboard the Gilbert Henderson. She was thirty at the time the permission to marry Charles was made. The Gilbert Henderson indent of 1841 shows that Alice was a Catholic who could neither read nor write. She was the daughter of Andrew CRAIG and Annie BRACELAND – who were both dead – and had been born in Church Hill, County Fermanagh, Ireland. Alice was a dairymaid but would go into service once she arrived in NSW.50 Alice died in Goulburn in January 1890.51 Neither of her parents were identified on the NSW BDM Index.

Updated October 2015

Footnotes
Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License