Evidence Type: Newspaper Report
30 December 1843
PARRAMATTA POLICE COURT
MARY HENESSY, a smoke-dried old feminine, with a remarkably doleful expression of countenance, and melancholy voice, was placed at the bar, charged with absconding from her assigned service at Mr. WOOD’s, the watchmaker, and having in her possession a pair of trowsers [sic] and a waistcoat, the property of one of Mr. PEISLEY’s servants, without being able satisfactorily to account for them. On being called on for her defence, the prisoner said that her mistress, who was a very good kind of a woman, gave her leave to go out on Christmas morning. She went into a public house and had one glass of brandy, and when she came out, a ragged-looking old woman, with a child in her arms, accosted her, wishing her a merry Christmas and a happy new year, at the same time begging of her, for God’s sake, to put the articles produced into her apron for her, while she went a little way on. The constable then came up to her, and she threw away the trousers and vest, not knowing what to do with them.
The bench, having listened patiently to this extraordinary tale, sentenced her to the third class in the Factory for six months; when the prisoner exclaimed, “God Almighty bless you, sir. I’m glad of that.”
CITATION
Female Factory Online, (femalefactoryonline.org), “Law Report of MARY HENNESSY,” https://femalefactoryonline.org/law-reports/p18431230/, accessed [insert current date].
RELATED CONTENT
See Original
© Copyright Michaela Ann Cameron 2017
The Female Factory Online 