Mary Nye The Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth, So Help me ...
By Joyce Purtscher
Mary Nye
For decades people have queued at the Louvre in Paris to view Mona Lisa's fascinating smile. There are no queues at Launceston's Community History Branch of the Queen Victoria Museum where I succumbed to the fascination of Mary Nye's smile. [1] The more I looked at her photo, the more I wished that her picture would come to life so that she could tell me her stories.
The information with the photo, obviously a studio portrait, does not indicate where the information came from, but my guess is that she told most of it to the photographer and then someone added more details.
Mary Nye was the wife of an English farm labourer who was transported to Van Diemen's Land for seven years for stealing an egg. Nye coming home from his day's work noticed a hen's egg lying by the roadside near the farm ... On his way home he showed the egg to his neighbour who later reported the matter to the police who then waited upon Nye and ... took him into custody on the charge of 'having an egg in his possession for which he was unable to satisfactorily account.' His wife Mary upon being left alone after his sentencing, committed a trifling offence, which ended in seven years' transportation to Van Diemen's Land. On her arrival she was placed on board the prison hulk 'Anson' which was used as a women's hiring depot, lying in the New Town Bay near Hobart Town. In due course she was hired out to a mistress in the country near Green Ponds. She made inquiries about her husband receiving help from the Convict Department but was not successful in discovering him, and during a long residence in Van Diemen's Land she never saw him again. Mary Nye was the sister of Owen Swift, who was frequently in demand as a pugilistic tutor to the Royalty.
There was also a handwritten note on the reverse of the mounted photograph.
Mary Nye was frequently before the Police Court, Launceston for various offences in the years 1857, 1858, 1859, 1860 and about the same time at Oatlands and at Green Ponds where she died aged over 100 years. Her brother was a prize fighter and taught King George 3.
As there was no one transported under the name Mary Nye, I looked up the Lower Court Records for Launceston to find her convicted as Mary Nye or Wilson Elizabeth & Henry.[2] This transport made two voyages with female convicts. The first voyage in 1847 had two Mary Wilsons on board, one known also as Mary Berry. [3] The second voyage of the Elizabeth & Henry arrived here in 1848 and had a Mary Wilson, also known as Mary Fleming on board. [4]
This was the first break-through. Mary Fleming married Charles Nye at Longford 10 October 1854, less than a month after she had received her Certificate of Freedom. The Convict Indent stated she was thirty-three when transported for stealing a coat, a widow with four children, John, Thomas, Ellen and Mary Ann who were left behind in London. It stated her father's name was Timothy, mother Mary, brothers Cornelius and John, and sisters Rosanna and Margaret. [5]
She had a long list of convictions after her arrival including the interesting one of 'being in her master's stable on a bed with the groom'. After hearing the sentence of six months, she threatened the judge with the words, 'You will have no better luck and you will have a widow's curse', to which he rewarded her with an extra three months. Her convictions of indecent language, drunkenness, larceny, absence without leave and assault stretched out until 1884.
The Examiner newspaper of 27 July 1869 described the brutal assault by Mary Nye and James Stone on George Matthews on 24 July 1869 at Stone's hotel at Kings Meadows.
Stone's housekeeper, a woman named Mary Nye, was brought up at the Police Court, charged with stealing 37 one-pound notes from Stone's house; but the charge was not proved, and the woman was acquitted, and was taken back by Stone to his employ. Matthews was also servant to Stone, and Mary Nye informed the latter that he (Matthews) had stolen the money, and had told her to meet him in town on t' Saturday evening, when he would give her some of it. On Saturday, Stone sent the man into town, and gave information to the police, and three constables laid in wait for him; but somehow or other they missed him and he got back to Stone's. As soon as Matthews got inside the house, Stone shut the door, took up a brass-loaded whip, and said, 'Now you devil, I'll murder you'. He then commenced beating the poor fellow, inflicting no less than five scalp wounds, each two or three inches long; a deep and very severe wound on the left wrist; a black eye; and various bruises about the body. The woman Nye also assisted in the assault.
Mary Nye and James Stone were remanded to appear in the Supreme Court on 29 September 1869. TheExaminerreported:
Stone struck him more than once on the head, with what he believed to be a whip-handle: and whilst this was going on the prisoner Nye came, and commenced to beat him on the head with several pieces of crockeryware, which were broken. ... Prisoner Nye, in her defence, said she had not struck Matthews at all, but tried to separate him and Stone; that the latter had tried to put all the blame on her, saying she would only get a month or two for it; Stone had also threatened her, and told her he would shoot Matthews outside the door, and put a bag of money in his hand as a proof of his right to shoot him.
Both prisoners were found guilty and sentenced to eighteen months.
It was obvious after reading the three Mary Wilson convict records that I was not the only person to be confused. These three women were in the same districts and committed similar offences. The clerk at the Convict Department put some of Mary Nye's offences on another Mary Wilson's record and Mary Nye had the death of a child Jane, belonging to Mary Wilson/Berry put on her record. None of these women had a brother by the name of Owen Swift, unless this was a name assumed for the boxing ring. Bill Phelps, also known as 'Brighton Bill' died after a fight with Owen Swift in 1838. Swift went to Paris to escape scandal and is believed to have continued his boxing career.
Well, what about the husband who found the egg? Charles Nye's record didn't mention the injustice of being transported for stealing an egg, hard-boiled or raw, but it did say he was sentenced and transported per Argyle for life in 1831 for stealing a shirt and gown and had a prior conviction for stealing money in Sussex. [6] He was a twenty-year-old shoemaker like his father John and brother George. His colonial record wasn't all that good either. He had sentences for idleness, insolence, smoking, assault and one for failing to assist Police Constable Tottam who was in danger of drowning.
His first marriage was to Mary Adams, in 1844. I cannot find what happened to her, but in 1854, as a constable at Longford, he married Mary Fleming/Wilson, the lady with the Mona Lisa smile.
The Police Gazette in 1884 [7] stated that Charles Nye was admitted to the Invalid Depot, New Town on 30 January 1884 and discharged two months later on 31 March 1884. Mary Nye was also admitted to the Invalid Depot on 22 January 1884 and discharged on 25 February 1884. Whilst the institution was called the New Town Charitable Institution, government charity didn't stretch to allowing married couples to share accommodation, but no doubt Charles and Mary would have met and hopefully shared memories.
Charles Nye died in Launceston in 1886 and Mary Nye was again admitted to the New Town Charitable Institution where she died in 1891 and was buried in the pauper section of Cornelian Bay Cemetery. Her given age was eighty-three and place of birth was Ireland.
How did she come to have her photograph taken and why? When was it taken and how old was she?
Mary Nye's smile now looks at me with the message, 'You'll never find the true story!' Her research has indeed proved to be elusive and full of questions still unanswered. I think she had a way of leading nosey people like me a merry dance.
After all, what is a lie?
'Tis but the truth in masquerade. [8]
Previously published in Tasmanian Ancestry, Volume 19 No.3, December 1998.
[1] QVM, 1986, P:1239.
[2] AOT, LC 343.
[3] AOT, CON 41/11.
[4] AOT, CON 41/17.
[5] AOT, CON 15/4.
[6] AOT, CON 31/33.
[7] AOT, POL 709/1884.
[8] From Byron's Don Juan.
This story was originally published in 2004 by the Writers Group of the Hobart Branch of the TFHS Inc. in the publication PROS and Cons of Transportation A collection of convict stories.
Not only does this publication celebrate the cessation of transportation of convicts to Van Diemens Land, it also celebrates the work of the Family History Writers Group. This group was formed in 2003 to assist members who wanted to write their family histories. The monthly meetings stimulated great interest and enthusiasm.
The original introduction may be found here.