Ann MANLEY
Name Variations Annie, Ann, MANLY, MANDLEY
Father John aka James MANLEY b.c. 1829 m. 18491 d. 18562
Step-father James TUOMEY b. m. 1857 d.
Step-father Richard HADDAWAY b. m. none d. 18673
Step-father unknown GUDGEON b. m. none d.
Mother Eleanor Elizabeth aka Ellen aka Helen aka Helena FINCH b. 18284 m. (1) 1849 (2) 1857 (3) none (4) none d. 18795
Sister Catherine MANLEY alias HADDAWAY b. 18496 m. 18737 John ALLENBY d. 18788
Inmate Ann MANLEY b. 18539 m. none - d. 187310
Half-brother James TOOMEY b. 185811 m. d.
Half-sister Sarah C. HADAWAY b. 186212 m. none - d. 186213
Half-brother John Richard MANLEY b. 186414 m. none - d. 188115
Half-sister16 Mary Phoebe unknown b.c. 1868 m. d. unknown
Description
Relationship Name Age Height Hair Eyes Complexion Build Distinguishing features
Sister Catherine17 19 4' 11¼" light grey fair medium Protestant; reads only

Ann MANLEY was fourteen when she was arrested by constable SMITH between The Glebe and The Junction in the area of Burwood, Newcastle.18 She was charged with associating with bad characters and prostitutes.19 The prostitutes were her mother, Ellen, her sister, Catherine aka Kate and 'Black Alice', the mother of Alice GREY.20 For nearly a week before her arrest Ann had been living in the brothel called Bellingers with her mother. The brothel was operated by the mother of Louisa BELLINGHAM. At her trial Ann stated that her mother was to be married and would take care of her but other witnesses gave evidence that 'men were in the habit of breaking down her mother’s door' and then Ann would be sent away. Ann was sent to the nearby industrial school where she was admitted on 26 February 1868. She was recorded in the Entrance Book as a Protestant whose educational level was reading first book and writing on slate.21 Ann was also identified as a Protestant on SELWYN's list compiled in June 1868.22 A month after her arrival Ann temporarily left the school in order to be a witness at the trial of Thomas DENT and his wife for running the disorderly house where her mother had been working. Ann stated in her evidence that she had paid Mrs DENT rent on behalf of her mother, who was referred to in the article as Ellen HADDAWAY.23

On Friday, 27 February 1869 – the same day as Margaret POOLE, and although she had been baptised in the Catholic Church as an infant, Ann was again baptised as Ann MANDLEY at Christ Church, Newcastle, the Anglican church close to the industrial school. Ann and Margaret must have been trusted students to have received permission to attend the church to be baptised and they were the only two baptisms of any of the industrial school girls that occurred during the time the school operated in Newcastle. At this time Ann gave her abode as Maitland and stated that her parents were Richard HARROWAY [sic] and Ellen Elizabeth MANDLEY.

After spending two-and-a-half years at the school, the Entrance Book recorded that Ann was apprenticed to Mr William TODHUNTER of Mount Harris, Macquarie Weir, on 11 May 1870. She was to receive a starting wage of three shillings a week and this was to increase by a shilling a week for each year of her three year apprenticeship.24 Ann's death was recorded on the NSW BDM Index as 18-year-old Annie MANLY in Dubbo the following year. Her death registration has not been cited but no indication of any cause of death has been located in the newspapers or the coroner's list of inquests. It is thought that she may have died from a complication of childbirth.

Family

The Entrance Book, did not name Ann's mother, but recorded that both her father and step-father had died. Ann's court appearances identified that her mother was Ellen and this name was confirmed on her 1869 baptism. Ann had been born on 4 April 1853, and was baptised on 8 May 1853, at St Mary’s Catholic Church, Newcastle.25 Her parents were recorded on her Catholic baptism as John MANLEY and Ellen FINCH. Annie's older sister, Catherine, had been born to this couple in 1849 and on Catherine's September baptism Ellen was recorded as Helen MANLEY, who lived in Miller’s Forest near Raymond Terrace.26 Ann's second baptism in the Church of England in 1869 recorded that her father was Richard HARROWAY but because Ann had been three when her actual father died it is believed that she had erroneously recorded the surname and spelling of her step-father in the Christ Church records. Annie's parents, John MANLY and Eleanor FINCH had been married by Christopher DOWLING of the Roman Catholic Church, Newcastle, on 21 January 1849. John was recorded on this record as James MANLEY27 and it is thought that this name was a deliberate falsehood. Both participants were recorded as Catholics and both were residents of the Hunter’s River. The witnesses were Thomas MALONY and Joanna FINCH, also of the Hunter’s River.

John MANLEY’s baptism hasn't been found but he was almost certainly the illegitimate son of Catherine MANLEY. Catherine MANLY had married John LAW at the Field of Mars in 1831.28

His parents of John MANLEY had attempted to prevent his marriage to Ellen. An advertisement placed in the Maitland Mercury in January 1849,29 about a week before the marriage occurred, gives an insight into John’s background and explains why there is a difference between the names in the church record and those of the parties involved and why the ages on the record are likely to be incorrect. On 10 January John LAW from Miller’s Forest, published the following warning:

WHEREAS, my Son, JOHN LAW, alias JOHN MANLY, a minor, has been induced to leave his home for the purpose of being married, contrary to my wishes: I hereby caution all clergymen not to officiate in the ceremony, and all parties not to harbour him.30

The burial of John and Catherine's daughter, Eliza, in 1841 at Christ Church, Newcastle,31 documented that John had been a private in H.M. 80th Regiment. John had a property named Eskdale on the William River.32 Another son, Dennis LAW left home in November 1848 and his father placed an advertisement regarding this in the newspaper.33 Another son, James, received a serious hang injury in October 1855 resulting in an amputation.34 It seems very likely that Catherine MANLEY had been transported aboard the Almorah (3). She had received her Certificate of Freedom the previous year. No confirmation of the death of Catherine LAW has been located. although he may not have been a child of John LAW. Annie's father John MANLY, died at Raymond Terrace in 1856 at the age of twenty-seven and his mother was confirmed as Catherine on his death registration.

Before Ellen's marriage to John FINCH, it is almost entirely certain that she was the Ellen FINCH named in an earlier permission to marry to Michael HORNE which was approved by Rev. E. MAHONY on 16 May 1845, in East Maitland. This request identified that Ellen had been born in the colony and was eighteen years old, therefore matching her known details. Michael was twenty-eight with a Ticket of Leave and had been transported for fifteen years aboard the John Barry. There is no record of this marriage yet located but it is almost certainly an earlier liaison for Ann’s mother. It may be that in 1857, prior to this relationship and as Ellen MANLY, Ellen married James TUOMEY and this marriage has been tentatively attributed to her.

Sometime after the death of John MANLEY and perhaps after the relationship with James TUOMEY, Ellen began a relationship with Richard HADDAWAY35 aka HARROWAY, who almost certainly had arrived with his wife, Mary Ann, as a settler in 1848 on the Thomas Arbuthnot. No marriage has been found for Ellen and Richard but they were probably the parents of the two illegitimate children registered as Sarah HADAWAY and John R. MANLEY. Richard died in the collapse of a brick kiln at Burwood on 11 May 1867, about eight months before Ann's admission to the school.36 Ellen was the Ellen MANLEY otherwise GADGEN,37 who died of alcoholic poisoning on 24 March 1879, at Greta, at the age of fifty-one.38 She was buried at Branxton.

Ellen's death record named her two surviving children – fourteen-year-old John and his ten-year-old sister. The newspaper reported that Ellen's daughter, whose father had died about five years earlier and was about eleven years old, had been left an orphan. She was unnamed in the paper. Ellen's death registration indicated that this child was named Mary Phoebe39 but neither her birth nor her surname at birth have been located. It is possible that the birth of Mary HART registered at Raymond Terrace in 1869 was that of this child but this possibility is yet to be investigated.40 Newspaper reports suggested that Ellen had spent time in gaol but no appropriate admissions have been located in either the gaol entrance books or in the Police Gazettes so it may be that admissions appear under another name.

At the time of Ann's arrest in the brothel run by her mother in Burwood, her older sister, named as Kate HADDAWAY, was working with her mother as a prostitute. Catherine had worked for years as a prostitute.41 In 1873, as Catherine MANLEY, Ann's sister, married John ALLENBY. The year before Ellen's death, Catherine ALLENBY, died in suspicious circumstances in New Lambton.42 Inquests indicate that she had been wilfully murdered43 but her husband, John, the chief suspect, was ultimately found not guilty.

The witness at Ellen's marriage, Joanna FINCH was Ellen's older half-sister. Research by Joanna's descendants44 identified that she had arrived with her mother, Honora LEARY, aboard the Mariner in 1825. Joanna was recorded as the 18-month-old Joanna CUNNINGHAM at the time of her admission to and her removal from the Female Orphan School.45 She had been admitted to the Orphan School in August 1825 shortly after her mother's arrival in NSW. About 20 September 1832, after Joanna had spent nearly six years in the school, after one likely attempt in gaining her release in 1829, her mother, recorded as Honora, petitioned for her daughter's release citing that she was now married to John FINCH, a 'free man'. The investigation by the authorities disclosed that John also had a 14-year sentence but was now free so Joanna was released to her mother. Honorah aka Nancy LEARY and John FINCH had applied twice – in 1826 and 1830 – for permission to marry. Both applications were refused as Honora already had a husband in Ireland. No marriage has been located in the NSW BDM Index so Ellen, Annie's mother, was illegitimate. Both were convicts and John FINCH had been transported aboard the Eliza in 1819.46 No baptism in the name of Ellen or Eleanor FINCH has been found but it is considered almost certain that the 1828 baptism of Helena FINCH, the daughter of John and Honora FINCH, referred to this girl.47 Honora FINCH died at the age of 63 in Newcastle in 1855.48 John FINCH died at the age of 'about 70' near Minmi after a period of ill health on 29 August 1868.49 An inquest, held in the house of Charles THOMAS, concluded that he had died of disease of the liver and kidneys. Joanna married Daniel BURGESS in 1841 as Johannah CUNNINGHAM.50

Note: Another Kate HADDAWAY often appears in Maitland gaol records. She was reported to have arrived aboard the //Mofatt and had been born in about 1828. She may be connected in some way to Richard HADDAWAY.//51

Updated January 2017

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