24 girls left Magherafelt Workhouse on the Earl Grey scheme 1848-1850. The descendants of two of these girls have kindly shared their family history covering their lives. We are very grateful to Noeleen Lloyd for her story about Jane Hutchinson and to Peter Hansen for his story about Ann Trainer.
Jane Hutchinson (1833-1908)
It is recorded that thirteen-year-old Jane first entered the Magherafelt Workhouse on 31 October 1846 with her widowed mother Ellen, aged 50 and three siblings William (15), Nancy (11) and John; they had been found begging on the streets. The records state that the family were healthy but had no means of support. This stay was not a long one; they exited less than three months later, on 6 January 1847.
Jane was back in the same workhouse on 9 June 1848, now aged fifteen, but there is no mention of her family. In June 1848, more than 50 people per week were seeking to be admitted to the Workhouse – which by then was bursting through the walls with almost 900 inmates.
Sixteen months later, in October 1849, Jane was chosen for the Earl Grey Famine Scheme.
136 girls, from eleven different counties, left Plymouth on 5 November 1849, bound for Melbourne and a new life. The voyage took 112 days. The entry for Jane in the ships’ log reads
Name: Jane Hutchinson, Calling: House servant, Age: 16, Native Place/County: Co Derry. Religious Denomination Roman Catholic, Read/Write: Spells only, In possession of a bible
The Derwent was one of six ships that arrived in Melbourne, in what was known as the Colony of Port Philip, it would not become known as Victoria until 1851.
When the girls landed on 25 February 1850, they made their way to the Immigration Depot in the city, here they waited for prospective employment.
Mr Michael Madden, of Merri Creek, employed Jane for a period of six months, her total wage was to be 9 pounds.
Jane Hutchinson & Thomas Buckler
Jane most likely met her future husband, ex Pentonvillian convict, Thomas Buckler, when she moved with her employers to a settlement further Northwest of Melbourne on the Campaspe River.
Thomas Buckler was born in Nuneaton Warwickshire, and on 23rd October 1844, along with several accomplices, broke into a Nuneaton Shopkeeper’s premises, stealing 17 pairs of boots and shoes, a quantity of cheese and butter, and one pair of scissors.
Thomas was 17 and received ten years of transportation for his efforts. He was sent to the Pentonville Prison in Middlesex, Pentonville to rehabilitate him. Prisoners spent the first 18 months of their sentence in silent solitary confinement, followed by a period of hard labour in public works. They were then transported to Australia. On arrival, they were given a conditional pardon, provided they didn’t return to England within the term of their original sentence.
Thomas arrived at Port Phillip in 1844 aboard ‘The Maitland; at the time of his and Jane’s marriage, they were both listed as living in Campaspe River.
Thomas was seven years older than his wife. they were married at St James Church of England in Melbourne on 25 October 1852– both made their mark.
They made their way to the Northeast of what was now the Colony of Victoria, just a little further to the southwest of Wangaratta, we know they were there by 1853 when their first child, Sarah Jane, was registered as being born at Taminick. Their second child William was born in 1855.
Thomas worked for Benjamin Warby on the large and prosperous ‘Taminick Run’ before eventually selecting his own land in North Wangaratta, where they would farm and grow a large garden, including a grove of citrus trees. Their third child Abraham was born in North Wangaratta in 1857. Here Thomas and Jane had a large farm and were the first in the district to sow wheat and have a citrus orchard.
Jane and Thomas would have 12 children, and Jane would outlive her husband (died 1898) and see the new Century; she died in 1906, aged 77, and is buried in the Wangaratta Cemetery.
Jane’s children: Sarah Jane (1853-1933), William (1855-1934), Abraham (1857-1922), Thomas (1859-1859), Mary Elizabeth (1861-1932), Louisa (1863-1950), Matilda (1865-1932), Elizabeth Ann (1868-1960), Georgina (1870-1940), Rebecca (1872-1936) and Ellen (1876-1957).
The Northeast had a strong Irish community and living in the Warby Ranges brought the Buckler family into contact with free settler, ex-convict and other Earl Grey Famine Orphans. Another Earl Grey Orphan and her husband also settled at South Wangaratta, near what was to become known as the Warby Ranges. Bridget Hart (nee Young) from Co Galway, arrived aboard the Thomas Arbuthnot into Sydney on 5 February 1850. She was the mother of Stephen Hart, one of Ned Kelly’s gang who died in Glenrowan in June 1880.
Jane Hutchinson’s Great Granddaughter Marie Taylor and Bridget’s Grandson Leo Lloyd, the nephew of Steve Hart, would meet and marry in 1935, bringing together the lines of two strong Irish girls, whose descendants now number in the thousands. Jane and Bridget are buried very close to each other in the Wangaratta Cemetery.
We gather every year to remember them in Melbourne and Sydney.
Noeleen Lloyd 3x Great Granddaughter of Jane Hutchinson and 2x Great Granddaughter of Bridget Young GRETA, Victoria, Australia.
The Story of Ann Trainer, Irish Famine Orphan
A life of Contrasts.
This is the story of my great great grandmother Ann Trainer.
Researched and written by Peter Hansen, Riwaka, New Zealand. February 2023. Updated 9 May 2023 with details of Ann’s father James Trainer.
Born out of wedlock and raised in poverty. In and out of the workhouse before and during the Irish Famine. Shipped to Australia under a British Government scheme to provide domestic servants & wives. Marriage to a sea captain & shipboard family life during the Victorian gold rushes. An early death in a remote, bustling frontier gold rush town on New Zealand’s wild West Coast of the South Island.
Ann was born around 1833, in South Derry, Ireland, the illegitimate daughter of Catherine Cassidy. Her putative father was a James Trainer, schoolmaster.
Her mother, parents unknown, born around 1796, also in South Derry, was a spinner and a mendicant (beggar) by occupations. She was single, a spinster, a Roman Catholic, with two other bastard children. Samuel Cassidy born around 1830, father unknown and Patrick Henry born around 1839 whose father’s surname was Henry.
Catherine Cassidy was around 34 years old when her son Samuel was born. There is a probability that she had birthed other children previously. However they are not recorded.
Magherafelt Workhouse records state that Catherine Cassidy and her three children were from an area a few miles north of Magherafelt, County Derry. The Tobermore townlands of Drumrainey (Magherafelt parish) and Ballinderry. (Kilcronaghan parish). These two townlands are close to Drumsamney in Kilcronaghan parish which has a number of James Trainors & also Henrys who could possibly be the fathers of Ann and her half-brother Patrick.
An Ancestry DNA match does indeed connect the author of this story with a Trainor currently living in Drumsamney/Desertmartin.
An 1836 survey shows that the town was neither a manufacturing nor commercial centre. Its domestic linen trade kept people employed.
There were 1436 people living in Magherafelt in 1831 and a similar number in the 1841 Census. Mostly of English and Scottish descent although there was a sizeable number of Irish Roman Catholics.
Linen was the main export and source of income for Ireland for centuries.
Spinning and weaving of linen flax were cottage industries and the primary source of income for cottiers and farmers of small holdings. Whole families were involved. Spinning was done by females and weaving by men. It brought in a liveable income until spinning became mechanised. By the 1820s women had no paid income and poverty became increasingly common for poorer families to survive.
Some turned to begging.
Ann Trainer’s mother was a spinner who was also a mendicant/beggar.
An 1844 report into vagrancy in Magherafelt said that there were about 80 vagrants in the parish. They had to be registered and wear a beggar’s badge. “Foreign’ beggars came in from elsewhere. There was one day a week when people could beg in the town. They also begged at farms and small holdings in the district. The report, which is not particularly edifying, said that beggars often dispensed with marriage and their children were mostly illegitimate.
Catherine and her children probably lived in a rented one-room mud or sod cottage in any place where she had itinerant employment or received charity.
On 26th March 1842 Catherine Cassidy aged 45, single, spinster, Roman Catholic, clean from the Electoral Division of Tobermore townland of Drumreany was admitted to the newly opened Magherafelt Workhouse with two bastard children. Ann Traynor aged 9 and Patrick Henry aged 3. They were discharged on 5th August 1842. No mention of her son Samuel.
After having been discharged on 5th August 1842 they were readmitted on 23rd August 1842 and discharged on 16 September. Catherine with Ann Traynor and another child (unnamed).
The Workhouse registers’ next record on 16th December 1842 – the entry of Catherine aged 46, single, a spinner, Roman Catholic with 3 bastard children, Samuel Cassidy aged 12, Ann Traynor 9 with the third child not named. They were all discharged on 3rd April 1843.
They were back in the Workhouse 25th September and discharged on 14th October 1843. Catherine Cassidy aged 48, single with children all very wretched. Samuel Cassidy 12, Ann Traynor 10 and Pat Henry 4.
Over a year passed before they were again into the Workhouse 4th February 1845 and discharged 24th March. Catherine Cassidy, single, mendicant, clean of Tobermore with her two children Ann Traynor 10 and Patrick Henry 5.
Back into the Workhouse 12th July 1845 and discharged 28th July . Catherine Cassidy 49, single, mendicant having one child, clean and healthy of Tobermore, Patrick Henry 7.
Samuel Cassidy hadn’t been in the Workhouse since 14th October 1843 and Ann Traynor didn’t appear in that recent July entry. A later entry shows that both Samuel and Ann must have been ‘in service’ somewhere. What their employment was is unknown.
The Autumn of 1845 saw the first failure of the potato crop, the main and practically only source of home-grown food for many.
Begging was a bad option and on 2nd December 1845 Catherine Cassidy, single with 2 (sic) children entered the Workhouse. Clean of Tobermore.
Samuel Cassidy 15 whose occupation was ‘out of service’ and Ann Traynor 12 also ‘out of service’. On 25th January 1846 Samuel escaped over the high walls of the Workhouse. The following day 26th January 1846 Catherine and Ann were discharged. No mention of son Patrick.
On 15th May 1846 Catherine Cassidy, labourer,49 of Tobermore townland of Ballinderry, clean, re-entered the Workhouse with Ann Cassidy (ie Traynor) 12 and Pat Casidy (ie Henry) 8. She was unable to support herself and her children. They were discharged on 24th August 1846.
The Autumn of 1846 saw the second failure of the potato crop. The situation was far more dire than the previous year.
On 26th September 1846 the family was back in the Workhouse.as Catherine Cassidy, single, labourer was unable to support herself and children, clean, from Tobermore. Her son Samuel Cassidy 15, on 2nd October 1846 escaped over the wall for the second time. The family would’ve been split up as usual and he obviously felt confined inside. Sadly nothing more is known as to Samuel’s whereabouts and fate.
The winter of 1846/47 was severe and fever rife. In the early months of 1847 especially in April, fever raged in the Workhouse and numerous mortalities. The Master of the Workhouse and the fever nurse both died of fever.
As did Catherine’s son Patrick Henry aged 8 who died on 21st April 1847 and is likely buried in the Workhouse burial plot. A memorial to the Workhouse dead was erected in May 2002 by the Ballinascreen Historical Society. Patrick would’ve died alone isolated from his mother and sister.
Catherine and her daughter Ann Traynor were discharged on 6th August 1847.
However the two of them were back in the Workhouse on 24th December and remained there until 7th July 1848, Catherine Cassidy 52, single, no means of support, mendicant with one child, healthy. Ann, bastard child, healthy.
After July 1848 there are no more references to Catherine Cassidy. It is unknown whether or not she had died. Perhaps she had died as her daughter Anne Cassidy (ie Traynor) re-entered the Workhouse on her own. Aged 16, single, destitute.
This was Ann’s last sojourn in the Magherafelt Workhouse, entering on 4th January 1849 until her discharge on 30th October 1849 when she began her journey to Port Phillip which was then in New South Wales, Australia.
Ann was one of four girls selected from the Magherafelt Workhouse in 1849 to be sent to Australia under Earl Grey’s Famine Orphan Scheme.
The Earl Grey Famine Orphan Scheme was a British Government plan to reduce numbers, especially children, in Irish workhouses during the Famine and the associated costs for parishes maintaining these workhouses.
There had been a plea from New South Wales, Australia officials for more female migrants. Thus there was an opportunity to reduce the number of young female inmates in workhouses and send them to Australia as domestic servants. (and as future wives for the overwhelmingly male population)
Workhouse Boards of Guardians were asked to propose suitable girls between 14-18 years of age. They had to meet the cost of sending the girls to Plymouth, Devon, England from where they would be sent to Australia. They also had to outfit the girls for their long journey. The girls had to be of good moral character and health and were given a basic education before they departed.
A total of 4114 Irish girls and young women were sent to Australia in 20 ships between 1848-1850.
Shipping records show that Ann could both read and write. However on her marriage she signed her marriage certificate with an ‘X’ revealing that she could not write. As she also did when registering her children’s births.
An earlier group of 24 female orphans aged 14-19 had been selected from the Magherafelt Workhouse in 1848. Their ship sailed from Plymouth to Australia on 17th July 1848. The girls had been taken to Belfast and then shipped to Dublin and then by steamer to Plymouth.
It is presumed that Ann and her fellow emigrants travelled the same route to Plymouth when discharged on 30th October 1849.
On 9th November 1849 Ann Trainer and 135 other female orphans from northern Ireland (a total of four from the Magherafelt Workhouse) departed Plymouth, England in the 365 ton barque ‘Derwent”. Unfortunately there are no surviving accounts of the ship’s voyage to Australia, no ship’s logs or surgeons journals as there often are for voyages.
However one author did seem to have found an account of the Derwent’s voyage.
He mentioned the old problem of easy access from the sick bay to the upper deck. That the Captain David Lindsay and the surgeon Dr Thomas Payne kept most of the girls under control (ie from liaisons with the ship’s crew).The doctor reported that for a few days he was compelled to have recourse to confinement and to deprive such girls of a part of their rations. Classes for reading and writing were held throughout the voyage but unfortunately very few learned to spell even their own names or the most simple words. Two of the girls gave birth on board.
The voyage took 78 days down the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Southern Ocean below the southern coast of Australia to Port Phillip.
Port Phillip District was situated in the southern area of the British Colony of New South Wales.
Melbourne, its main settlement, was founded in 1837 on the banks of the Yarra river near where it enters Port Phillip Bay.
At the time of Ann’s arrival the City of Melbourne’s population was about 20,000 people.
In 1851 it was 23,000 and by 1854 had increased to 80,000 as a result of the gold rushes. In the decade from 1851 the population of Victoria increased from 76,000 to 540,000.
The ‘Derwen’t arrived at Port Phillip Bay on 25th February 1850. Melbourne itself was a few miles inland on the banks of the Yarra river. The weather would have been extremely hot and dry – late summer in the Southern Hemisphere. A total contrast to the cool, green, damp of Ireland’s climate. However winter weather in Melbourne can be cold and miserable.
The girls all disembarked at Williamstown on the west entrance of the Yarra river – at the old docks near the foreshore. In recent times a large rock was placed there as a memorial to Irish orphan emigrant girls. The Famine Rock is where an annual commemoration is held.
They were then taken to the Immigration depot/Orphan Barracks in Collins Street, Melbourne.
The ‘Derwent’s manifesto has a list of the Female Orphan Immigrants from Ireland.including:-
No 121, Trainer, Ann, House Servant, age 16, Native Place and County -Maherfelt, Derry, Roman Catholic, Read and Write -both.
Another document lists Ann’s employment placement:-
No 121, Trainer, Ann, 16, RC, House Servant, Employer – Andrew Doyle, Carpenter, Collins Street Melbourne at 8 British Pounds for 6 months.
Ann left the Immigration Depot on 8th March 1850 for her new job placement.
.On 1st July 1851 Victoria became a separate colony from New South Wales.
Gold was discovered in Victoria a few months later and the start of a gold-rush bringing mostly men from the world-over. Miners from the California gold rush, fortune seekers from Britain and its colonies, Ireland, Europe and China.
Melbourne’s population initially declined as people were caught up with gold fever and deserted it, heading inland for the goldfields. Whole crews literally deserted their ships in this quest for gold and riches. Including William McKechnie from Dundee, Scotland, future son-in-law of Ann Trainer. He was a ship’s first mate and without a crew he then took himself to the diggings.
Melbourne was transformed because of the gold and soon became one of the major cities of the British Empire.
Within a few short years of her arrival Ann had seen Melbourne transformed into a bustling centre of trade and commerce.
There is no further record of Ann until her marriage in 1854. She obviously kept out of trouble with the law and there is no mention of her in local newspapers or police or court reports.
The move to a new country was a make or break experience for the Irish orphan girls. Some did extremely well for themselves in marriage, business and family while others descended into a life of dissipation, prostitution and crime and gave Irish women a bad reputation in Australia with constant sniping from some newspapers.
Ann’s occupation at the time of her marriage is ‘of independent means’! There is no indication of how she earned her living.
In late 1853 Ann met her future husband George Richard Whitford, a master mariner.
He was born around 1831 at sea off the Malabar Coast, India. His father John Whitford was a master mariner and his mother Mary, surname unknown.
British India births and baptism registers and births at sea have been searched without success.
Whitford family stories say that George’s father was captain of the ship ‘Sara’ bringing convicts to Australia from England. However no proof of this has been found.
George Whitford arrived in Melbourne after July 1851 as he does not appear in the Port Phillip Pioneers list of arrivals before 1st July 1851. It’s unknown where he arrived from.
Ann was about two months pregnant at her marriage.
George and Ann were married in St James Anglican Cathedral, Melbourne on 18th January 1854.
His father John was deceased. Ann’s parents were James Trainer, Schoolmaster and Catherine Cassidy.
The bride and groom were both living in Russell Street, Melbourne.
A marriage notice appeared in The Argus newspaper, Melbourne on 20th January 1854.
“Married: Married at St James’ Cathedral on Wednesday, 18th instant by the Rev. Theodore Budd, B.A., George Whitford of Whitford Hall to Miss Ann Trainer daughter of James Trainer, Esq., of Belfast.
Newspaper notices in the colonies were often copied by British and Irish newspapers. Their marriage notice appeared in the “Anglo-Celt” newspaper, Cavan, Co. Cavan, Ireland on 27th April 1854.
However the original details became muddled and George Whitford became George Whitford Hall which has been confusing for researchers.
No trace of a Whitford Hall (dwelling) has been found in Victoria. Quite probably it’s George and Ann mocking pretentiousness, saying that they were living in a Hall and naming James Trainer as an ‘Esquire’ (or perhaps he really was!)
George Whitford was master of the lighter ‘Allegro’ which traded around Port Phillip Bay, especially Melbourne and Geelong.
After her marriage Ann lived on board the ‘Allegro”. Their three children were born on board the brig in Hobson’s Bay at the mouth of the Yarra River between Williamstown and Port Sandridge.
Ann gave birth to a son, George Arthur Whitford on 20th August 1854 who was baptised at St James Cathedral on 18th October by the Rev Theodore Budd.
Their second child, a daughter, was born on the lighter ‘Legro’ 23 May 1856. Ann was the birth informant and her Irish brogue was apparently misunderstood by the registrar of births instead of ‘Allegro’.
Ann registered the girl as Winefred Elizabeth Whitford. No trace of this name exists after this. However a baptism took place in St James’ Cathedral on 16th October 1856 of a Mary Jane Whitford with the same birth date 23rd May 1856, the same parents and their abode is given as Yarra Yarra (Melbourne wharves).
By law baptismal names take precedence over civil-registered names and Mary Jane is certainly the one first registered as Winefred Elizabeth.
George and Ann’s third child James Richard Whitford was born on the ‘Allegro’ on 5th May 1858. Very probably named named after Ann’s father.
About this time George became the master of the paddle steamer ‘Lioness’ for seven years.
It had become possible for larger vessels to go up the Yarra river and be moored at wharves such as Cole’s Wharf close to Melbourne itself.
His employer, a former naval man, Captain George Ward Cole was a Member of Parliament, a friend of the Governor of Victoria and owner of Australia’s largest steam fleet. An influential man. Among its usual tug-towing duties the ‘Lioness’ was used to ferry important dignitaries from their ships and into Melbourne. There are newspaper reports of the visiting English cricket team on the ‘Lioness’ and their rapturous welcome in Melbourne. Also a new Governor of Victoria and his entourage being ferried into Melbourne on the ‘Lioness’ from their ship anchored in Hobson’s Bay.
Around this time the Whitford family moved into a cottage at Port Sandridge by the new railway to Melbourne. They lived there for about seven years before moving to New Zealand.
In 1865 the steam-tug Lioness was sold and left Melbourne for Hokitika, New Zealand where she was met on 14th October by her former master Captain Whitford who had so long and successfully worked her on the Yarra and Hobson’s Bay.
George was taking up duties as a tug-master, towing sailing ships over the dangerous Hokitika river bar. Difficult and challenging sea conditions were the norm with numerous shipwrecks and strandings on the treacherous river bar. Captain Whitford had an enviable reputation for his towing vessels over the bar.
Hokitika and nearby Greymouth were new, raw gold rush towns in the wet, forest-covered strip of land that is the West Coast of Te Wai Pounamu, the South Island. Thousands of men and women rushed to this latest gold discovery, especially from Australia and New Zealand. Soaring snow-covered mountains, raging rivers, sandflies that made life a misery. It was not uncommon for gold prospectors to lose their sanity because their supplies went mouldy, the ground was sodden, sandflies plagued them, loneliness afflicted them.
In the first year of the gold rush it rained nearly everyday. A trying climate.
Hokitika was a typical frontier gold rush town. It was built just above the high tide mark with shops and services springing up almost overnight. The town had well-over 100 hotels and saloons as well as brothels and churches. Gibson’s Quay was where the ps Lioness and other tugs and ships were tied up alongside the Hokitika river, safe mooring just inside the river bar. Larger ships anchored in the Roadstead off Hokitika and passengers were ferried to and fro by tugboats over the dangerous bar into the town.
George Whitford owned a cottage close to Gibson’s Quay
Ann and the three children travelled across the Tasman Sea a few months later.
However ‘The Argus’, Melbourne, 14th October 1865 reported “A woman named Ann Whitford, aged thirty years, made an attempt to commit suicide by drowning herself in the Yarra below the Falls at a little before eight oclock last evening. She was recovered from the river with some difficulty and taken to the hospital”.
Coincidentally this was the same day that her husband George was taking up his duties at Hokitika.
It’s not absolutely certain though that this is his wife though the details fit.
Numerous reports in the West Coast Times and other papers comment positively on Captain Whitford. He was often praised for his seamanship, having the ‘character of a skillful commander and a lucky one’, a member of the Hokitika Freemasons which would give him helpful connections and a well-known and highly respected master of the ‘Lioness’.
He also appears in a number of civil court cases for debt caused by his not paying what he owed.
On one occasion he was made responsible for his shipping company’s debt for meat. He was arrested and put in the northern gaol. “ The detained’s time does not hang so heavily …for numbers of sympathising friends see him daily, and in fact the prisoner for another man’s debt may be said to hold a regular levee day by day. In common with scores of others we hope soon to welcome him back…on the bridge of the old craft in which he has weathered so many stormy bars. (Hokitika Star, August 1866). A popular figure in town.
George Whitford was declared bankrupt on 21st February 1868. However his creditors were unable to be paid as he had previously transferred ownership of his property to his wife Mrs Whitford! She was reported as having made some business decisions on his behalf.
Whitford and McKechnie family tradition says that Capt Whitford was a gambler and alcoholic who eventually deserted his wife and children. This appears to be so.
A handsome man, larger than life, popular, constantly incurring debt, appearing to thrive on risk, latterly changing jobs frequently.
The last official mention of Whitford was in the County of Westland Gazette, Hokitika, 7th May 1869 when he was appointed to be a Pilot for the several Ports in the County of Westland.
He then vanishes from history.
Family tradition says that he returned to Melbourne to reclaim property including land that had been either stolen from him by his lawyer or it was lost through gambling. This land was stated to be the extremely valuable site of the Flinders Street Railway Station (or more likely somewhere along the railway line to Port Sandridge where he owned a cottage) Land records have been searched but there is no record of his ownership anywhere.
His older son George and daughter Mary Jane made a trip to Melbourne in 1872 to look for him. As did his friend William McKechnie. Melbourne was Hokitika’s nearest city, three days steam- ship journey away across the Tasman Sea. A Mrs Whitford arrived at Hokitika from Melbourne on the steamer ‘Tararua’ in November 1873.. Had she been searching for her husband?
Lastly a George Whitford aged 50, born Liverpool, seaman, died in 1879 in a Melbourne infirmary. His personal details were not recorded so it’s unsure if he is Annie’s husband.
It can only be imagined what the effect of his desertion had on Ann and her children. Fortunately they appear to have had an education and become good citizens. George the eldest became a compositor/printer. Mary Jane was a Domestic servant who married and James became a master mariner.
From then on there are reports of Ann’s drunkenness and spiralling downwards into a degraded life. Coincidentally there was a Mrs Whitford living in the next port town of Greymouth in the early 1870s. She was convicted of drunk and disorderly behaviour several times. This may be Ann Trainer or not but it matches Ann’s behaviour in the time prior to her death in Hokitika in 1874.
On 28th March 1874 a man named Archibald McPhail was robbed of British pounds (L) 23 by a prostitute named Annie Haines and her paramour Ben Bushell.
The next day 30th March 1874, in the Hokitika Magistrates Court, Annie Haines, Anne Whitford and Benjamin Bushell were charged with having robbed Archibald McPhail of L23.
On the prisoners being brought up Mr Commissioner James asked for Whitford’s discharge as he had little evidence against her and wished to call her as a witness and she was then discharged.
The case was then heard. McPhail had gone to Haines’ house , a brothel, in a right of way leading out of Revell Street where he saw Whitford. He was drunk and when he woke next morning the two women were sleeping in the room. Haines and Whitford had a barney about the money, the latter telling Haines that she should give the money to McPhail. Haines then struck Whitford.
Haines was committed to a Supreme Court hearing later in the year.
The Supreme Court sitting was held in Hokitika on 7th September.
“In the case of Annie Haines, tried yesterday for larceny, a most material witness, a woman named Whitford, was unable to attend, being ill in the Hospital. Mr South, Crown Prosecutor, however decided on allowing the case to go before the jury without her evidence, and…secured a conviction… and it was plain that the other woman (Whitford) was not the offender.” Haines who had already spent 6 months in gaol was then sentenced to hard labour in the Provincial Gaol for one year.
Ann Trainer Whitford.
She commenced her adult life appearing before the Magherafelt Workhouse Guardians and examined whether she was of good moral character to be sent to Australia.
She concluded her life appearing before the Hokitika Courts on a charge that certainly was not of a good moral character. Nor her drinking or associates.
Ann died on 8th October 1874 in the Hokitika Hospital aged about 41. Of phthsis (tuberculosis). The informant was N R Goodrich, Carpenter, Hokitika.
She was buried in Hokitika Cemetery on 13th October. The burial plot Section 7, Row 7, No 5 in the Roman Catholic portion of the cemetery was purchased by her husband’s friend William McKechnie.
A death notice was published in the Globe newspaper, Christchurch, New Zealand, 9th October 1874, inserted by her son George who was a compositor for the paper.
“Whitford – On October 8th, at Hokitika, Annie, wife of Captain George Whitford and mother of George Arthur Whitford of Christchurch.”
A mother honoured by her son.
Four months later Annie’s daughter Mary Jane Whitford 19 married her father’s friend William McKechnie 42 at the Presbyterian Manse in Greymouth, West Coast, New Zealand.
William, son of a hand-loom weaver in Scotland, was a business man and hotel owner, was involved in local politics, education, health and became a Councillor and Chair of the Grey County Council. A generous man who helped many a gold-miner in need. A friend of the Prime Minister of New Zealand and the Roman Catholic Bishop of Christchurch both of whom were guests at his hotel. His wife as hostess. A far cry from her mother’s wretched life in an Irish Workhouse. The incredible opportunities that were given to those seeking a new life in the colonies.
In 1993 Annie Whitford’s grave was rediscovered by descendants. A number of them have since made visits to pay their respects to Annie who had long been forgotten.
The headstone was near-illegible. Diligent deciphering found inscribed “Annie Whitford…… erected by her daughter Mrs…McKechnie….. Included were words which seemed like a poem or hymn. These words were later found to be the first verse of a Scottish Presbyterian hymn.
“The Saviour died but rose again, triumphant from the grave; and pleads our cause at God’s right hand, omnipotent to save.”
A mother honoured by her daughter, revealing the gracious love of a daughter for her mother, regardless.
And the big question. Was Ann really a Trainer/Traynor?
The evidence does point to that.
She was usually named Traynor/Trainer which seems to show that her natural father really was a (James) Trainer.
Recent Ancestry DNA matches have connected the author with two Trainor descendants, one of whom is living in the area where Ann Trainer and her mother Catherine Cassidy lived.
Her daughter Mary Jane’s children have names connecting them to Catherine Cassidy and James Trainer.
Annie Jane McKechnie was named after Ann Trainer and Jane Taylor, mother of William McKechnie.
Catherine Mary McKechnie appears to be named after Catherine Cassidy and Mary Whitford. (mothers of Ann Trainer and George Whitford)
James Daniel McKechnie was named after his mother’s brother James Richard Whitford and Daniel after William McKechnie’s brother.
Intriguingly Ann Trainer Whitford’s eldest son was named George Arthur. Why Arthur? Is it too much of a stretch to connect this name Arthur to the father of James Trainer,father of Ann Trainer?
Life in New Zealand enabled Ann’s children and descendants to be educated, employed and make a positive contribution to their homeland. Teachers, mayors, a surgeon, locomotive drivers, farmers, sailors, social workers…..
Credit for much of the research of Ann Trainer and her husband George Whitford should also go to :-
Paul Whitford and wife Judy,(NZ) descendant of James Richard Whitford – Ann Trainer’s younger son.
Judith Manchester,(NZ) descendant of Mary Jane McKechnie -Ann Trainer’s daughter.
Susan Pinson, (Australia) descendant of George Arthur Whitford – Ann Trainer’s elder son.
