The end of Mary's story Chapter 12: A Woman's Work.....

"What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments but what is woven into the lives of others." —Pericles

In 1861, Mary/Rachel Neeves could vote in the States Legislative Assembly as a property woman. Second, only to New Zealand, the vote for woman campaign eventually dispensed with the formal ownership requirement. In many ways, South Australia was a leader in the changing role of women in society. Catherine Helen Spence, an immigrant from Scotland, campaigned for female suffrage, workers rights and education. We can not underestimate her influence on the social and political growth of South Australia.

A journalist and novelist repute her fictional characters drew on the South Australian culture.

Her first novel was Clara Morison, about the plight of South Australians at a time when many men deserted the colony for the Victorian goldfields. Throughout her career in fiction she championed the causes of those disadvantaged by bigotry. She wrote about woman's dependent status, the plight of illegitimate children and their right to legal recognition, and the inadequacy of divorce laws.

She advanced the practice of fostering neglected children rather than placing them in asylums. Her ideas are still current.

South Australia developed into a progressive and innovative state. Even though this was economically a time of "Boom or Bust", the State furthered women's rights to attend university and public school.

For Rachel Hatfield and her family, these reforms came too late. There is no indication she ever valued education. Yet, schools were in the vicinity, probably too expensive or irrelevant to their needs. So the family continued to take on labouring work in the far north of the State, or they followed opportunities in the mines. The generations that followed would take hold of the promises of the future.

In 1913 American Suffragette Jessie Ackerman wrote "Australia From a Woman's Point of View". It was the first book published by a woman and concentrated on woman's suffrage, the right to vote, and equal pay with men. The book describes the different areas that changed for women, including political settings, religious, industrial, social and home settings.

AUSTRALIA is attracting the attention of the world at the present time.....because of the process of social evolution through which it is passing, and the fact that it has called women into the councils of men in the capacity of citizens, to aid in the establishment of "New World conditions for the people."

As in other countries, the women of Australia, generally speaking, are alarmingly ignorant of the laws under which they live. ...Women would be horrified if one boldly declared that no mother in the Commonwealth really owned her children. The only child whose ownership is vested in the mother is the one born out of wedlock. When it comes to a matter of disgrace, the mother and innocent child must forever bear the brand. The law says the child is hers: hers to have, hold, possess, and own. Furthermore, its registration as an illegitimate child must be in the mother's name. A child born in wedlock may not carry its mother's name omitting the father's, except by special Act of Parliament., If the mother of an illegitimate child is able to produce proof positive as to the father.

One of the critical changes for women that would have affected our Mary is that children in a marriage would remain with the mother. Before this marriage gave custody to the father, this might explain the abandonment of the Cowburn. It may also explain the late marriage to Joseph; until then, illegitimate children remained with the mother.

Mary Rachel Hatfield died on 15 May 1895. She was with her daughter Mary Ann living in Sutherland Street Glanville, a suburb near Port Adelaide.

The police report gave more information about the circumstances of her death.

Copied from Liddy Family research.

Mary has lived a long and hard life. But, the police report mentions the death was not suspicious. "The old lady has been infirm for some time and could only get about with the aid of crutches. They are strangers here and appear to be in poor circumstances."

There is some comfort knowing she died with family around her: her daughter Mary Ann, son and his wife, Elizabeth. The report provides the last words she spoke.

"The deceased went to bed at 9.30 pm. She appeared to be well and cheerful at that time. Her daughter and Grand daughter-in-law went to bed in the same room about a quarter of an hour later, deceased was then asleep.

At 11 pm they were woken up by the deceased calling out "Annie I am dying", and asking for a drink. She was sitting up in the bed. They gave her a drink of warm tea. She complained that she could not lie down and could not get her breath. About 11.30 pm, she laid down and died off very quietly."

In her last years of poor health, possible arthritis and heart problems may have plagued her. Cause of death "Old Age" masked her ailments. "She had been an outdoor patient under Dr Clendinning for

some time past, and he told her friends some months back that she might die suddenly at any moment."

It was a quiet end for our Mary Davis. She led a varied and exciting life as an eighteen-year-old from Bethnal Green, drunk and disorderly. The prisoner at the bar at the Old Bailey, the thief, the naughty child and wild woman of Tasmania. The victim of social engineering sent to the ends of the earth. She outlived her brothers and sisters, at least those she would remember, John, Susan, William and Charles, born before her transportation. Her younger brothers, George, Henry, and Joseph, would have been strangers to her.

Her life as a convict and pioneer was tough. She worked hard to keep her family clothed, fed and alive as a woman. She outlived all three husbands. Losing children to disease and accident, her strength of character stands out.

She must have carried her grief and psychological damage wrought by the journey on the convict ship and her brutal life as a recalcitrant convict in the prison system. Her marriage to the thug Cowburn and her escape with Joseph, leaving her two children behind.

She must have enjoyed a solid relationship with Joseph Hatfield, which lasted over twenty years.

As I appreciate this small, illiterate, tough woman, I am thankful she made that foolish mistake and became the stranger in a strange world. I am grateful she made a life for herself. Her daughter Jane Balhannah married a blacksmith, William Finn, in Hookina. Their son Nathaniel married Lucy Evans and produced seven daughters. Edith, the second youngest, was my grandmother.

From small things, big things grow.