Making their Mark(R) is a trail of individual bonnet tributes to convict women permanently installed in places that hold a relevance to each specific woman. A bonnet for Mary Eagen will be permanently installed at the historic Gaol in Oatlands. For the next month the bonnet will be on display at the Supreme Court Museum in Oatlands. In December a Making their Mark(R) bonnet for Eliza Lacking will be installed at the Callington Mill and a bonnet for Serena Turner will be installed at the Supreme Court Museum.

Eventually their will be Making their Mark(B) bonnets in places such as the Wicklow Gaol, County Cork Gaol and Cobh Heritage Centre and Grangegorman in Ireland and other specific places in Scotland, England and Wales and in numerous heritage sites in Australia that relate to the female convict story.

Suzanne Palmer has shared her research on convict woman Mary Eagan whose life ended in Oatlands almost two years after her arrival in Van Diemen’s Land.

Having been in the colony for only a short time, Mary’s death may well have slipped under the radar without notice except for for the unusual circumstances surrounding her premature death.

Mary was an Irish peasant girl trying to survive during the famine years.

Records show she was one of four siblings, single, of Roman Catholic religion, illiterate, her trade was that of nursemaid and she resided in County Kildare.

On March 21, 1850, six months after the second offence, Mary was convicted of stealing a cow in Kildare.  At the trial, Mary’s words were “I stole Mr. Reed’s cow”.  This is the only recording of Mary speaking. For this conviction Mary received a sentence of ten years transportation to Van Diemen’s Land.

Mary was one of 219 women and 32 children who departed Kingston, Co. Kildare on the 580-ton Duke of Cornwall on July 8, 1850.  The ship’s Master was John Whitehead, Surgeon Superintendent was Charles Smith and the Matrons were Misses Hooper and Downing.

The Surgeon recorded that at the time of departure all on board were healthy. Most of the convict women were between the ages of twenty and thirty years old and they had lived in Dublin or surrounding areas.

There were two deaths during the voyage. Mary’s name was noted in the Surgeons Report referring to her being on the sick list from September 5, 1850 until September 24, 1850 with a condition of ‘catarrhus’ (inflammation of mucus membranes).  The Ships Log showed that she resumed duty after September 24. 

On October 27, 1850, the Duke of Cornwall arrived in Hobart Town. Mary was described as being seventeen years old, five foot one and a half inches tall, with a fresh complexion, dark brown hair, blue eyes, medium nose with a burn mark on the bridge, wide mouth, short chin and slightly freckled face.

There were newspaper reports of the ship’s arrival on page two in the Colonial Times, October 29, 1850 and also in the Hobart Town Courier, October 30, 1850.  Both articles gave details of the officers on board and stated that 198 women had arrived. This number is at odds with the 219 listed women taken from the record book detailed on the Tasmanian Archives Site – convict section. The Courier also noted that the total mail carried on board comprised of seven letters. Reference was also made to the fact that a baby boy had been born enroute.

It is most probable that Mary was included amongst fellow convicts who were sent to the New Town Farm Depot. This building was opened in 1850 as a temporary station for the reception of female convicts arriving in the colony. In fact on December 12, 1850 the Hobart Town Gazette reported that ninety-four female convicts had recently arrived aboard the Duke of Cornwall and were waiting hiring at the New Town Farm Depot.

On November 4, 1850 Mary’s services as an assigned servant were advertised and a Mr. Bonny hired her. On April 3, 1851 the Conduct Records show that Mary refused to work for Mr. Bonny and she was sentenced to one month’s hard labour at the Cascades Female Factory. Further notation shows that on April 11, 1851 Mary was charged with ‘neglect of duty’.  No punishment was recorded against this charge.

Mary doesn’t appear again until records show that she was detained in the Ross Female Factory on December 30, 1851 where she was listed as a third class pass-holder.

On March 19, 1852 Mary was hired by Mr. Lakland, an overseer, at the Ross Depot.  A few months later, on August 16, 1852, Mary was returned to the Ross Female Factory. Records from August 31, 1852 indicate that Mary was charged with being asleep when she should have been working and this infringement incurred a punishment of seven days in the cells.

On September 9, 1852 Captain Peter Pegus, keeper of the Oatlands Gaol, hired Mary as a nursemaid to look after his four weeks old daughter Constance, born on August 13, 1852. At the time of being assigned to Captain Pegus Mary was suffering from what appeared to be a very bad cold and she could only speak in a whisper.

The following day Mary went to bed unwell. She locked her door. The next morning on September 11, 1852 Mary failed to report for work. Members of the Pegus family were unable to raise her and so they called in one of the javelin men (convict warder) to remove a pane of glass and a child was passed through the space and was able to open the door. Mary was found dead in her bed.  It was noted that her hand was resting beneath her head and the bedclothes lay undisturbed suggesting that she had died peacefully.

An inquest into Mary Egan’s death was held immediately at the Oatlands Court House before the District Coroner and a jury of seven people. It was recorded that Mary Eagan’s death had occurred on the night of the 10^th or morning 11^th, and that she had been afflicted with a certain fleshy growth in the orifice of the windpipe which had closed over occasioning suffocation and eventually death. The jury reached the conclusion that Mary ‘died of natural causes’.

Most Van Diemen’s Land newspapers as well as a Melbourne newspaper reported Mary’s death.  In particular an article on page three of the Hobart Town Courier, September 15, 1852, gave an extensive account of the circumstances surrounding her death under the heading of ‘Singular and sudden death’. The following was included in the article. ‘From the evidence of Dr. Doughty, it appeared that a substance, somewhat similar to a bunch of grapes, had been sometime forming in her [Mary’s} throat, and that the said substance had dropped down while she was sleeping, and had stopped her breath’. The article ended saying Mary was quite a young women and must have died tranquilly.’

The Conduct Records show that Mary died on September 11 and a letter to that effect was documented as being received on the September 13, 1852.

Mary’s death must have been upsetting to Captain Pegus and members of his family. One can only hope there was genuine feeling for their nursemaid’s unexpected demise not merely an inconvenience to be sorted. There doesn’t appear to be any burial records that implies Mary was probably laid to rest in a corner of the general cemetery at Oatlands.

Information about the convict woman being remembered will accompany the bonnet tribute. A list of other places where more Making their Mark(R) bonnets can be viewed will also be included.

At the moment bonnets can be seen at Woolmers World Heritage Site at Longford and Oatlands - Tasmania. 

A bonnet for Mary Eagen will also be included in the Roses from the Heart(R) Memorial collection. The bonnets in Making their Mark(R) are additional tributes and have a special connecting feature. Jill Cartwright has made the bonnet for Mary Eagen that belongs to the Making their Mark(R) bonnet trail.