Kerry Girls Read Free Page A

Church.
    Gayle and Gabrielle take up the story:

    Ellen Powell’s husband, Richard, was born around 1829 and came from Westmeath Ireland. The marriage certificate is ambiguous. It indicates that both Richard and Ellen had previous relationships resulting in children, by ticking off boxes but Ellen is declared as a spinster and Richard declared ‘–’. Whatever the case, the certificate suggests that the early years after stepping onto McLaren Wharf in Adelaide had not been easy for Ellen.
    Richard Burke initially worked as a butcher in Little Bourke Street Melbourne. He and Ellen had one child in Richmond in 1855 before uprooting, moving inland and becoming a gold-mining family. There are children born in Ararat and Moonambel before the family eventually settled in Drummond, Victoria, also a mining area. Together they had nine children, with four dying in infancy.
    In 1871 Richard is paying rates for a hut on Crown land in Drummond with seven residents. Ellen and Richard appear to have lived a modest life with their surviving children marrying Malmsbury-based families and twenty-two grandchildren to carry on their name.
    Richard died first, on 18 October 1891 aged 62, followed by Ellen on 12 September 1899 aged 73. They are buried in the Malmsbury Cemetery with a headstone to mark their final resting places.
Listowel
    Listowel, while not giving a lot of information on their correspondence with the Poor Law Commissioners, seemed to make their decision without controversy. Having received the letter from the Poor Law Commissioners outlining the Earl Grey Scheme in spring 1848, a decision had been made by the Guardians to adopt the scheme for the Listowel Union, and by September 1849 Lieutenant Henry RN had visited Listowel to choose and personally select suitable emigrants. We should remember that this decision was made in the light of the Guardians battling with crises on all sides on a weekly basis. Listowel Union was continually teetering on the verge of bankruptcy. In March 1849 the Minutes note that the manager of the Provincial Bank ‘having declared under any circumstances to honour cheques on that Establishment beyond the actual amount of Cash to our credit … are unable to meet our liabilities’. 13 The records of the Minute Books provide a vivid picture of the problems and struggles faced by the Union in the months of September and October. There were the usual complaints and problems; food stores being stolen, storekeepers sacked, rent collectors misappropriating the rents, milk and grain suppliers of an ‘inferior’ standard, ‘disorderly paupers’, dissension among the Board, and due to the huge numbers seeking admission, permission had to be sought from the commissioners in Dublin to open auxiliary workhouses. There were also issues with ratepayers complaining about the rates levied on them and their inability to pay.
    In the case of Trinity College, who were the landlords of one-third of the area of the Union, it was recorded for the Commissioners in Dublin that ‘destitution of this Union is mainly attributable to the insufficience [ sic ] of this tenure’. 14 While the Union would be taking on the initial costs of outfitting and conveying the orphans to Dublin, an opportunity to rid themselves of the ongoing costs of seventeen inmates would initially be more than welcome and provide much-needed space for the crowds still trying to gain admittance to the workhouse.
    While Lieutenant Henry was highly regarded and punctilious in his duties, he selected them by ‘walking through making his choice’ 15 and while they were medically checked, did he take into account that a number of them could neither read nor write, that they had little or no practical training as housemaids or domestic servants and that at least in one case, one of those selected, had a mental disorder? Or alternatively, did he think that each of the girls selected would be suitable for training into these fields after their placement