Suffering in sunshine and fresh air.

One immigrant family’s struggle.

Life in colonial Queensland could be harsh – a cruel reality not suggested to the hundreds of thousands of immigrants who uprooted their old lives and took long sea journeys to the new world. The idea that thrift and industry in Queensland could take one away from the generational poverty and social inequality of the old country must have been intoxicating.

For many, the only change of fortune brought by immigration was the opportunity to suffer in fresh air and sunshine. One family that illustrates this vividly is the Lenehan family. They might have had a fair chance at succeeding if not for unsteady employment and alcohol. There were no unemployment or sickness benefits. There was no free public health system. No treatment for alcoholism existed. Education was for people who didn’t need their children to work. Unfortunately, they made the worst of their chances.

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The Lenehans arrived in Brisbane from County Wicklow in January 1851, aboard the Duchess of Northumberland. James was 36, Margaret (nee Redmond) was 26, and they had two children – John, aged six, and a babe in arms named Mary.

The family settled in Fortitude Valley, an outlying part of Brisbane Town that had hosted Lang’s immigrants from the Fortitude several years earlier. New immigrants lived in huts and cottages, if they were lucky, tents and humpies if they were not.

As the reality of their new situation dawned upon the immigrants, living cheek by jowl with one another gave rise to squabbling. And drinking.

It only took four months for the Lenehan family to get into disputes with their neighbours. Margaret summoned one Allan McFarlane for assault (raising his hand to her), and Allan McFarlane summoned James Lenehan for assault (uttering threatening words whilst armed with a spade). The Bench dismissed both cases, with costs against the complainants. James’ employer, James Maskell[1], charged him with disobedience of orders and neglect of work, and was fined one quarter of his wages.

The family gradually settled down and enjoyed a few years of comparative peace. Their second son, William, was born in December 1851, and James laboured in the employ of town fathers James and Andrew Petrie. They stayed out of the police courts. Another baby came in 1856, a little girl they named Elizabeth. Tragically, Elizabeth died aged 18 months on January 21, 1858, and all hell broke loose.

On 27 January 1858, grief and alcohol combined with a few suspicions as to the intentions of a neighbour, and James lashed out violently at a pregnant Margaret. He threatened to “cut her bloody head off and drink her bloody blood, and then to be satisfied to be hung for it in the morning.” Thomas Swinburne, the neighbour whose intentions James had doubted, intervened and prevented any physical harm. James was ordered by the magistrates to keep the peace and provide and find sureties in sums he would never be able to afford or be imprisoned. James replied sullenly that he would not look for the sureties. Unusually for the time, the Police Magistrate ordered the Medical Officer to check James for mental illness. Normally, any self-respecting PM of the era would just order the wretch into the cells and be done with it.

Two days after James’ court case, Margaret detected a man loitering about the yard at night, then heard footsteps in the house. She cried out “Robbery!” repeatedly, and the man left. She identified the man as Thomas Swinburne and swore out a complaint to the police. The case came to court in early March, and by that time, James was out, and had reconciled with Margaret.

The Lenehans and Swinburnes had known each other since the couples had emigrated on the Countess of Northumberland. They were no longer close because James, when in liquor, believed that Swinburne paid too much attention to Margaret. Swinburne was convicted of trespass and given seven days. A week after the court case, Margaret gave birth to Patrick, and the couple enjoyed some peace for a couple of years.

In February 1861, Margaret gave birth to their last child, James (junior). In April, Margaret was accused of larceny. It was a dispute between Margaret and a couple named Johnston over a small sum of money, and the matter was dismissed. In August of that same year, James and young Mary were charged – Mary with obtaining goods by false pretences, and James with receiving them.

Mary was described as “a little girl of eight years of age” when brought before the Court. She had been an infant when the family arrived in Queensland ten years before, and was probably around ten at the time. Nevertheless, she had already been out working to help her parents out – as a servant to the Kyles. (James had just finished a month in Brisbane Gaol, and Margaret was again on her own.)

Mary purchased goods from a shop on the Kyles’ account without authorisation, telling the shopkeeper that she was living with the Kyles. The things she stole were basic foodstuffs, which she brought home to her family. James, as head of the family, was the person responsible for her – he was imprisoned for two weeks, his daughter was given three weeks. It would not be the last time that Mary and one of her parents were in the same prison. Father and daughter were reported to be “orderly” prisoners.

He had frequently seen the children rush from the house, crying “Murder!”

Sergeant Moloney.

In 1862, James was arrested several times, and finally imprisoned, for drunkenness. Margaret was charged with obscene language that October. The report of the court hearing gives an insight into the chaotic home life of the Lenehans.

Margaret Lenehan was brought up on a charge of using profane and indecent language. From the evidence of Sergeant Moloney, it appears that prisoner, who lives in Fortitude Valley, was a source of considerable annoyance to the neighbours; fights took place in her house almost nightly, and she was in the habit of assaulting her husband by throwing teacups, knives, &c., at his head. He had frequently seen the children rush from the house, crying “Murder!” and he had no hesitation in saying that defendant gave the police more trouble than all the other inhabitants put together. The defendant, who managed to squeeze out a few crocodile tears, acknowledged having made use of some “vulgar” words, and expressed a hope that the bench would deal “leniently” with her. A fine of 20s. was however inflicted; but not being in a position to pay same, Mrs. Lenehan elected to retire for seven days to the gloomy seclusion of Brisbane Gaol.

The Brisbane Courier.

The Family Breaks Up.

By 1863, James and Margaret Lenehan were constantly drinking and fighting. It seems that James left Margaret early that year because he was summoned to pay maintenance. The whole family was never reunited. Shortly afterwards, baby James died, and Margaret began to be arrested for public drunkenness.

At times, Mary lived with her father – variously at Ipswich, on the Barcoo diggings and in Rockhampton. She married a Chinese boarding-house manager named Sam Lee, or Jim Sam Lee, at Springsure in 1866, aged 16. Margaret and Mary became prostitutes, and were constantly before the Courts for vagrancy, drunkenness, and obscene language.

“Several respectable residents, in and around the locality, stated that the girl was a reputed prostitute, and the male prisoner was an abettor of her infamy.”

Rockhampton Bulletin, reporting on Mary and her father.

Mary lived in Rockhampton and went by both Mary Lenehan and Mary Lee. Her husband was still in evidence in 1867 and 1868, usually referred to as “a Chinaman on the premises.” He disappears from the public records of her activities after that.

Mary Lee. — This unfortunate girl cannot keep from throwing brandy down her throat, und then afterwards spitting forth the most foul and obscene language. She has continually been before the court and received the customary punishment, but on Monday, upon her making her appearance in the dock, His Worship, after commenting strongly upon her conduct, sent her to gaol for three months hard labour. Upon receiving her sentence, the incorrigible girl said- “If I was to keep in a bandbox the police would have me, no matter how quiet I was. I can do this little bit as I’ve done the rest.” The poor creature, for we cannot help pitying her, is not more than two or three and twenty, and is far from ill-looking.

Northern Argus

Patrick Lenehan was briefly placed in the Diamantina orphanage in 1866, because James was in the Dunwich Benevolent Asylum, while Margaret was in prison. He was collected by his father after three months. James died in Ipswich in 1870, killed by a falling tree.

After James’ death, Mary returned to Brisbane, where she worked in a brothel owned by a couple named Herd. She was badly injured by a client in September of 1871, and one month later, attacked her mother with a knife (according to a witness) or a teacup (according to Mary). Mary was imprisoned for six months for the assault.

By 1875, Margaret would have been 49 years old. She had been in prison at least 17 times, with terms ranging from between one to six months. Mary would have been 25 years old and had a record of at least eight different terms of imprisonment. At times Margaret and Mary served terms at Toowoomba Gaol at the same time. I don’t know whether either party would have found the presence of the other comforting in such circumstances.

Margaret and Mary Lenehan or Lee [2] seem to have left Brisbane around 1875. I can’t find any reports of them after this date, although there are several women about the colony with the same or similar names. Perhaps they retired to a quiet private life, perhaps they left the colony. Their criminal histories and problems with alcohol would have made a life of quiet reflection in a sedate setting somewhat unlikely.

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[1] The same James Maskell who was suspected of taking bricks from the Old Windmill.

[2] Mary may have returned to Rockhampton and kept a brothel there in the latter part of the 1870s, but it’s hard to confirm due to the commonness of the name Mary Lee. There was definitely a rather riotous lady named Mary Lee in Rockhampton in the 1880s and 1890s, but she appears to have been married to a man named George Lee.

YEAR	MONTH	EVENT
1864	January	Margaret charged twice for drunkenness.
	February	Margaret imprisoned for drunkenness.
	March	Margaret imprisoned for drunkenness.
	June	Margaret imprisoned for drunkenness.
	October	Margaret imprisoned for drunkenness.
1865	January	Margaret and Mary imprisoned for vagrancy.
	May	Margaret imprisoned for drunkenness.
	December	James and Mary fined for drunkenness at Ipswich.
1866	February	Mary fined for obscene language at Rockhampton.
	February	Margaret imprisoned for vagrancy.
	March	James admitted to Dunwich Benevolent Asylum.
	June	Margaret imprisoned for vagrancy. Patrick placed in the Orphanage.
	July	James discharged from Dunwich Benevolent Asylum. Takes Patrick.
	August	James provides evidence in Toowoomba court case.
	September	Margaret fined for drunkenness.
	October	Margaret fined for drunkenness.
	October	Mary marries Sam Lee at Springsure
1867	March	Margaret imprisoned for drunkenness.
	April	Mary and James fined at Rockhampton for obscene language.
	August	Mary assaulted at Rockhampton.
	December	Mary fined for drunkenness at Rockhampton.
	December	James fined for drunkenness.
	December	Margaret committed to trial for stealing.
1868	January	Mary fined for obscene language at Rockhampton
	February	Margaret imprisoned for larceny.
	April	Mary charged with various offences at Rockhampton.
	June	Mary imprisoned at Rockhampton.
	October	Mary fined for obscene language at Rockhampton.
1869	January	Mary imprisoned at Rockhampton.
	July	Margaret imprisoned for vagrancy.
1870	January	Margaret imprisoned for vagrancy.
	April	Margaret imprisoned for public indecency.
	November	James killed by falling tree at Ipswich.
	December	Mary charged with drunkenness at Brisbane.
1871	April	Mary gaoled for drunkenness.
	September	Mary beaten and stabbed in a brothel.
	November	Mary imprisoned for stabbing her mother.
1872	August	Mary ordered to keep the peace.
	October	Margaret imprisoned for vagrancy.
1873	April	Margaret cautioned for vagrancy.
	July	Mary imprisoned for drunkenness.
	October	Margaret imprisoned for vagrancy and drunkenness.
	December	Mary imprisoned for riotous conduct.
1874	April	Margaret imprisoned for public indecency.
	October	Mary fined for obscene language.