** Annie Maddron

Annie was born in Lelant, Cornwall, in 1872. She arrived in Sydney from Plymouth on the Jerusalem on the 15 April 1875 with her mother, Mary Maddern. Mary Davey had married Edward Maddern in 1872, into a family of tin miners. Perhaps they had intended following Mary's brother to New South Wales, but in any event, when Edward died in 1874, Mary and Annie joined Mary's sister, Elizabeth, on the voyage to the other side of the world.

Mary was listed with a group of widows with families as an assisted migrant. She was a 27yo widow from Cornwall, a Weslyen who could read but not write. Annie is listed as 2yo.

Mary was accompanied by her sister, Elizabeth Ann Dunstan (1842-1898), who traveled with her husband, Edward Samuel Dunstan (1852-1931, also born in Lelant), their son, Nicholas John Dunstan (1872-1952), and daughter, Margaret Ann Dunstan (1875-1931) who was apparently born during the voyage.

Both of them were sponsored by their brother, Willam Davey (1845-?) who was already in NSW. (Their parents were John Davey (1813-?) and Mary Lutey (1820-?)).

Within 7 months of arrival, Mary married Dominick Cullen (1839-1915) in Hillgrove "at the residence of Mr William Davey". She then went on to have five more children - Mary Selina (1876-1952), Francis Sarsfield(1877-1957), William Patrick (1879-1891), Margaret Ann (1881-1955) and Thomas John (1884-?). The family lived in Emmaville, near Glen Innes, which was a major tin mining area and attracted many miners from Cornwall.

When she married Thomas McMillan in NSW in 1890, Annie had recently born a child, Mary Maddron. The father's name is not listed on the birth certificate. (Until the 1990's, if a father was entered into the register, the baby would retain the father's surname. Naturally, many mothers would not have wanted that, if the relationship was discontinued, so entered "Father unknown"). Because she was under 21, the consent of her father, mother or guardian was required for the marriage to Thomas McMillan. Instead, she had the consent of the local Guardian of Minors. Why was this so?

I don't know for sure but I have some clues. Firstly, when Annie's stepsister, Mary Selina, became pregnant out of wedlock in 1895, her father threw her out of the house for shaming the family (story passed on by her descendants). Secondly, when Dominick died in Emmaville in 1915, his wife, Mary, was estranged and living in Sydney.

From this I deduce that the family circumstances were not a particularly happy one and that Annie, too, had been banished from the family home when she became pregnant.

And why the name difference, Maddern vs Maddron? The name Maddern, Madden, Maddon and Maddron seem to be mixed up regularly. There is a village called Madron, near Penzance, not far from Lelant. Wikipedia notes that "the parish church, Madron Parish Church, is in the churchtown and is dedicated to Madron...in local dialect Maddern". Perhaps the name was used interchangeably. Perhaps it was miss-pelt. Perhaps it was the accent!

In any case, her surname is variously spelled "Maddron" and "Maddern" on the birth certificates of her children.

I do know that in 1914 Annie and her youngest son, Arch (my grandfather), visited the eastern states, arriving in Sydney on Warilda on 15 April. This would have been quite expensive, so presumably she was visiting family. Arch had a paper round and saved his money for the fare. The transcontinental railway wasn't completed until 1917 so they would have taken a ship to Melbourne. According to the Western Australian passenger lists, Mrs McMillan and Master McMillan arrived back in Fremantle on the 18 June 1914 on the Wandilla. (Note that they came back alone. It was also the month of Thomas' involvement with the IWW and the Port Pirie Free Speech fight in South Australia).

Both SS Warilda and SS Wandilla were steamships built in 1911/12 for the Adelaide Steamship Company. They operated on the Fremantle to Sydney run until 1915, when they were acquired for military service and redesignated HMAT Warilda and HMAT Wandilla. Warilda was converted into a hospital ship in 1916. She was torpedoed and sunk in the English Channel by a German submarine in 1918 despite clearly displaying a red cross.

Presumably Annie visited her mother (already estranged and living in Sydney?) and perhaps her step-sisters.

My grandfather remembered (to my father) seeing Melbourne's Collins Street and a photo was taken of him while he was in Sydney.

Archibald Tasman McMillan, about 1912, in Sydney.

"New South Wales", my grandfather recalled, "was either drought or flood. It was a terrible place". It still is!

During World War 2, my uncle Steve recalls that Annie asked a neighbour's son, who was in the army, to visit her sister(s) in Sydney. He didn't do it and she was very upset. (Two of her sisters seem to have been living in the Sydney area at the time: Mary Selina Cullen (1876-1952) and Margaret Ann Stanford (1881-1955)).

Family lore has it that Annie ran a boarding house for miners in Marvel Loch and presumably this is how she managed her husband's absence. But I found this reference in the Southern Cross Times, March 1906:

Mr Tom McMillan has applied for an eating house license at Kennyvale.

Kennyvale was a small hamlet 8 miles south of Southern Cross to house workers of the nearby Leviathan mine. It folded after a few years.

And in June 1906, the Southern Cross Times reported:

A low cur sneaked away from Kennyvale boarding house owing money to the proprietress, who is trying hard to rear a family by catering for men employed on the mine. When the lady found the contemptible was spending his wages on drink, she came to town and caught the reptile and gave him a beautiful pair of black eyes. A lot of unprincipled scoundrels actually boast about shirking their tucker bills. The law should give the same protection to boarding house keepers as they do wage earners.

The family did move to Marvel Loch eventually, which is another 10 miles or so further south from Southern Cross.

The Southern Cross Times, Wed 14 Dec 1910

She seems to have lost her license a year later:

Southern Cross Times, Saturday 16 December 1911

By 1925 Annie was living at Tenterden with her son, Tim (Edwin Thomas), who had left Marvel Loch in the early to mid 1920s when he purchased an orchard near the railway station at Tenterden. She was still there in 1927 when her husband, Tom, died in Ingham, Qld. This, then, was how the McMillan and Oborne families were joined. It was only a matter of time before my grandparents, Arch and Gert, met.

In 1939, Arch and Gert moved to a 10 acre plot on Tenth Street, Harvey. About 1941, Annie sent Arch a letter with 60 pounds and instructed/asked him to build her a house as she was coming to live there. My uncle Robin recalls that Arch dutifully set about building his mother a home:

Arch did all the work (no doubt with Steve helping and Laurie and myself "attending"). The final price of the house amounted to LSD120 (pounds). The single room house had a verandah and a rain tank with a tap in the verandah, her bathing was a personal matter, which is unknown. The single ‘dunny’ was used by all of us. There was a wood stove for hot water and cooking, so when Mr Len Taylor brought a load of wood, all hands (us boys) went on the truck to throw it on the heap, being careful not to get splinters. Generally, Gran chopped her own wood, with an occasional request for help, to which usually Steve would attend. One afternoon, she called me over, finding that while chopping wood, the axe had cut into her left shoe and big toe, with bleeding. As requested, I informed dad, who attended to her needs. It was a while before the toe healed, since Annie was about 70 years of age, so we did our bit for her.

Robin, Laurie and Annie, circa 1941.

(After extensions, this one-room house later became the lounge room of the house in which I grew up.)

In the quiet of the afternoon, should any of us be available, she would enjoy a walk to Korijekup Avenue, where in season, grew a large mass of nasturtium flowers, as usual with their wonderful array of colours. It was on one of these walks that I first took note of these lovely, colourful blooms and they remain one of my favourite flowers. Lesmurdie always has a nice display off our back lawn, a pleasant reminder of those nasturtiums many years ago. During the years Annie lived with us, we boys would sometimes chop her wood, chat with her, take shopping orders, buy the items when in town, usually after school and carry them home on our bikes. Being a constant reader, her requests would include a change of books at the local library, which was just around the corner from the school. Even though she had lived a life of hard work, she was still alert and reasonably active, but her closing years saw these activities reduced, doing little or no walking at all.

Annie McMillan (nee Maddron)

Annie was fascinated by Ned Kelly, and particularly the events surrounding his sister Kate. When the "girls", according to my father, discussed the stories, young boys were ushered out of the room.

Annie lived there until about 1949-50 when she moved to live with her daughter, Agnes Oliver, at 93 McMaster Street, Victoria Park, in Perth. She died on the 13th December, 1952, aged 80, and was buried at Karrakatta Cemetery.

McMILLAN: On Dec. 13. 1952. at Perth. Annie, dearly loved wife of the late Thomas McMillan. loved mother of Mary (Mrs. Dunn), William, Annie (Mrs. A. Hatt), Edwin. Agnes (Mrs. A. Oliver) and Archie, grand mother of 17 grandchildren and great-grandma of 27 great grandchildren: aged 80 years.

McMILLAN (Annie): On Dec. 13, loving mother of Tom and mother-in-law of Peggsy. Asleep in the calm of His presence.

The West Australian, Monday 15 December 1952

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McMILLAN (Annie): On Dec. 13, loving mother of Bill and mother-in-law of Florrie (Big Bell). At rest.

The West Australian, Monday 22 December 1952

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MCMILLAN (Annie): Loved mother of Agnes. mother-in law of Perc. and grandma of Terry, Mary and Jennifer. At rest.

McMILLAN (Annie): On Dec. 13. loving gran of Steve and Helen, great-gran of Loralie.

The West Australian Tuesday 16 December 1952.

The ten acre block at Tenth Street, Harvey, 1958, House at the bottom is Annie's after being extended when my Mum and Dad moved in after their marriage. Above that is my grandparents, Archie and Gert's house. At the top is the shed for Archie's plumbing business.