Mystery Man Edward Townsend Foley

[odysseyov]

NSW Police Gazette 29 May 1872  https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/251601985

Apprehensions
Edward Townsend Foley, charged on warrant, issued by the Townsville (Queensland) Bench, with inflicting grievous bodily hard on one William Kinton Gibbs, has been arrested by Sergeant Fort and Constables Gallagher and McGillion, Tambaroora and Hill End Police,  Remanded to Townsville, Bail refused. 

 (Tambaroora and Hill End were in that era, in a gold rush )

NSW Govt Gazette 12 June 1877  https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/223761263

Tambaroora and Turon Mining District
# 1250
Edward Townsend FOLEY, William Henry KENNEDY,  Thomas BURNS and John PORTER at Hawkins Hill, Hill End, 22 Nov 1876
And # 1252 with KENNEDY, FOLEY and BURNS etc 2 Dec 1876

So there’s some names of some associates…

JM

Yes this is before Mary and husband separated - I know I've put it at 1870 but it should be after 1876 - sorry for misleading everyone.   Last child with her husband born 1876, four of five children in Asylum in 1877 (youngest too young to be accepted);  re-united with her husband (as far as it's possible to tell) 1878, separated 1880 when husband advertised refusing responsibility for her debts- for the second and last time.   No-one ever mentioned Mary from then on.

[odysseyov]

It's amazing.   I can't find a death entry for a Mary Elizabeth Foley (nee Fenby) in BDMS for Vic or NSW.   Am I going cross-eyed or what???   Trove for NSW doesn't show a death notice for Mary Elizabeth either;  I'm trying again with Vic papers and the site has just crashed - oh well, tomorrow is another day ...

[majm]

NSW Archives, Auriferous leaseshttps://www.records.nsw.gov.au/archives/collections-and-research/guides-and-indexes/gold-auriferous-lease-registers

Edward T FOLEY,
(Application no ?)  Ironbarks 77,
Applied for 1 June 1882
Took possession 24 May 1882
J R Blacket
Other names Thomas Isaac Boyd.   
Reel 1544.

There’s also various others noted only in the remarks column, some just as Foley.
E T Foley Hill End 5567 November 1874…
E T Foley Hill End 1287  Oct 1877 (Charles McKay)
E F Foley, Hill End 1118 Aug 1875  (Thomas Allen)
E J Foley, Hill End 1159,  June 1875 (John Haselden)

If, as is likely, the index was prepared by volunteers in the past decade or so, then they would be reading original handwritten documents.  Very easy to read E T as though it was E F or E J in the longhand that was still being taught in NSW Primary schools as recently as the 1950s and until the mid 1960s. 

_{Yes,  I was born NSW in 1947 ! and I refused to change my hand when they changed all our High School teachers hands.  I was already writing long letters to my relatives, including my Grandparents born back in the 1870s and 1880s ... I wanted to be able to always read their letters and umm.... my High School English Master could not find a better reason to allow any of us to keep our 'hand' so he involved our region's School Inspector...  Special visits to our school, interviews, and umm... I learnt the importance of being pedantic.}      

JM

[odysseyov]

NSW Archives, Auriferous leaseshttps://www.records.nsw.gov.au/archives/collections-and-research/guides-and-indexes/gold-auriferous-lease-registers

Edward T FOLEY,
(Application no ?)  Ironbarks 77,
Applied for 1 June 1882
Took possession 24 May 1882
J R Blacket
Other names Thomas Isaac Boyd.   
Reel 1544.

There’s also various others noted only in the remarks column, some just as Foley.
E T Foley Hill End 5567 November 1874…
E T Foley Hill End 1287  Oct 1877 (Charles McKay)
E F Foley, Hill End 1118 Aug 1875  (Thomas Allen)
E J Foley, Hill End 1159,  June 1875 (John Haselden)

If, as is likely, the index was prepared by volunteers in the past decade or so, then they would be reading original handwritten documents.  Very easy to read E T as though it was E F or E J in the longhand that was still being taught in NSW Primary schools as recently as the 1950s and until the mid 1960s. 

_{Yes,  I was born NSW in 1947 ! and I refused to change my hand when they changed all our High School teachers hands.  I was already writing long letters to my relatives, including my Grandparents born back in the 1870s and 1880s ... I wanted to be able to always read their letters and umm.... my High School English Master could not find a better reason to allow any of us to keep our 'hand' so he involved our region's School Inspector...  Special visits to our school, interviews, and umm... I learnt the importance of being pedantic.}      

JM
Re: E.T.Foley gold-mining claim - questions arise - Would he have worked the claim shimself?   If he were with Mary before then, did he desert her to go to the goldfields?   Infant born 5/11/82 registered Sydney.   Since Qld and NSW separated (letters patent) 1859, should we assume Iron Bark is in NSW?   Was it Bathurst area? 
Understand about the handwriting - I missed being censored - older than that - but hated the new cursive writing taught to my children.   My grandchildren have trouble reading my writing - so we send text msgs

[majm]

Ironbarks is definitely in NSW,  it is/was in the county of Wellington,  ie Western Gold fields,  See Grevilles PO directory 1872  Ironbarks... 
Ironbarks, a township in the police, electoral and county of Wellington
Rail to Bathurst, then by coach   

The men with their wives and children lived under canvas    I am sure that Wellington is a cold hole in winter...

So Mary Elizabeth, wife from the 1859 marriage may have quit or may have died anywhere from Vic to Qld - likely you have already followed her children  .

Western NSW trains terminated at Sydney Terminus ... so it is likely those small family groups without a father figure and without any pennies in their purse reached the lower end of Elizabeth street and were sidetracked with offers of accommodation and food for their children in return for red light duties.   There are many hidden aspects in how family groups functioned in those years, not just Sydney but in any urban district ... tent cities were the norm not just on the gold fields ... Prospect Dam built for the Sydney water supply is another example ... transient work force, day wages, paid in grog instead of pennies, wives without access to contraception,  children without access to clean drinking water.  Anyway, I will get off my history hobby horse as that is not helping find your Mary. 

JM

[majm]

2 Windmill Street seems to be the address for your Mary's lawful husband in 1878.  And Windmill St is still where it was back 'then'.... at Millers Point, 

https://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/windmills_of_sydney

Can you please confirm if Mary's baby was recorded on the Dec 1882 d.c. as buried Presbyterian at Rookwood?

JM
 

[majm]

NSW State Archives in partnership with Ancestry have uploaded images for Government Asylums for the Infirm and Destitute, 1880 – 1896. 

Using just one word ‘Mary’ at the search engine there’s 366 lasses … There’s Mary O’Neill and Mary O’Neil.  – which one please?  Both are Roman Catholic and born Ireland.   Or please help me to get back on track.   There was also a Mary Townsend 

ADD, it is entirely possible that the chap, E T FOLEY with the lease of the Outer Domain baths lived there and is not the chap living at 20 Exeter Place...     Drats...

JM

[odysseyov]

2 Windmill Street seems to be the address for your Mary's lawful husband in 1878.  And Windmill St is still where it was back 'then'.... at Millers Point, 

https://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/windmills_of_sydney

Can you please confirm if Mary's baby was recorded on the Dec 1882 d.c. as buried Presbyterian at Rookwood?
Wow!   You have been busy!  And all I've done is herd in my two alpacas to be shorn (so long as they don't try a breakout)
Mary's infant's death cert says burial at the Necropolis.   She was R.C.

JM
 

[odysseyov]

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Using just one word ‘Mary’ at the search engine there’s 366 lasses … There’s Mary O’Neill and Mary O’Neil.  – which one please?  Both are Roman Catholic and born Ireland.   Or please help me to get back on track.   There was also a Mary Townsend 

ADD, it is entirely possible that the chap, E T FOLEY with the lease of the Outer Domain baths lived there and is not the chap living at 20 Exeter Place...     Drats...

Exactly my sentiments JM.   Think I have a screen shot of every E.T. or Edward Foley in Trove newspaper Collection and the only reason I connected ET to Mary was a mention somewhere or a suggestion of mining.   As for Mary O'Neil it's that spelling and I landed on her because she is the right age - but, as I said, there could be other possibilities and without knowing the entire case it's hard to tell, because ages DOB etc is not always stated in the summary info given.   But it's good that you've confirmed husband living in a different place.
BTW "our" Mary is supposed to have been born in Melbourne - still haven't been able to pinpoint a Birth Cert for her.   She was born Murphy.
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