Person:Mary Meekins (8)

Mary Ann Meekins was born on 7th February 1894 and baptised the following month at St Peter’s Catholic Church in Woolwich, in the south-eastern suburbs of London. She was the daughter of a field hand called Alice Meekins, formerly Keating, and her husband Henry Meekins, a dock labourer and general dealer.

The family was not well off and they frequently spent periods of time in the Woolwich Union Workhouse at Plumstead. On some occasions such visits were precipitated when Mary’s father deserted the family for periods of time. In May 1898 four year old Mary and her mother and siblings spent almost a month in the workhouse after Henry deserted them. Later that year, in November 1898, Mary and her mother and siblings were back in the workhouse, spending much of the winter there, not living until mid-January 1899.

Mary and her mother and siblings were again admitted to the workhouse in mid-October 1899. Mary spent nearly five months there, until in March 1900 the authorities sent her to Hampstead, quite likely to the Convent of Providence school at Hampstead Green, a Catholic girl’s school run for poor children. Mary’s mother Alice had also spent time there as a child. Mary spent two months at Hampstead before being returned to her mother in May 1900.

Eighteen months later the family was back at the workhouse, with Mary and her mother and siblings being admitted on 7th November 1901. Mary was sent to Hampstead again later that month. She spent over six months there before returning in June 1902.

Mary was admitted to the workhouse with her mother and siblings again on 9th October 1903, with a note saying that Henry had deserted them again two days earlier. She was sent to Hampstead a few days later and spent nearly six months there before returning to Woolwich in April 1904. The following month Mary was admitted to the workhouse with her siblings and both parents for a short stay of a couple of days.

Things came to a head in November 1904 when the authorities found ten year old Mary and three of her younger sisters (Catherine, Hannah and Alice) wandering destitute in the streets of Woolwich. The children were taken from their parents and sent to live at St Mary’s Roman Catholic Industrial School for Girls in Croydon.

In June 1909, aged fifteen, Mary left England and emigrated to Canada. She sailed from Liverpool to Quebec on a ship called the Corsican, leaving Liverpool on 17th June 1909 and arriving at Quebec on 23rd June 1909. She was one of many seemingly unrelated young people travelling together, who all continued their journey from Quebec by a special train on the Canadian Pacific Railway to Ottawa. It appears that Mary was sent to Canada as part of the British Home Children movement of ‘orphans’ to Canada.

In Ottawa, Mary worked as a servant.

After eighteen months living in Ottawa, Mary took ill with typhoid. A doctor attended her on several occasions from 19th January 1911, but she died just six days later, on 25th January 1911, at 271 Stewart Street in Ottawa. She died a couple of weeks before what would have been her seventeenth birthday. Back in England, her parents both survived her, whilst her sisters Catherine, Hannah and Alice were all still living at the school in Croydon, appearing there in the 1911 census taken a couple of months after Mary’s death.

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Baptisms register, in Woolwich, London, England. Roman Catholic Parish Registers of St Peter the Apostle, Woolwich (Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Southwark, London).

   Meekins / Die 7 Februarii 1894 nata et die 25 Martii 1894 baptizata est Maria Anna Meekins filia Henrici et Aliciae Meekins (olim Keatinge) conjugum:
   a me Jacobus Groomes
   Patrinus fuit Jacobus Tyte Matrina fuit Maria Anna Tyte
   
   Approximate translation:
   Meekins / Born 7th February 1894 and baptised 25th March 1894 Mary Ann Meekins daughter of Henry & Alice Meekins (formerly Keatinge) his wife:
   By me James Groomes
   Godfather James Tyte, Godmother Mary Ann Tyte

2.   London: Workhouse Admission and Discharge Records (London Metropolitan Archives, London).
   Summary table of information drawn from Admission, Discharge and Creed registers.
   

   Admitted	Discharged	Workhouse	Notes
   30 Apr 1898	26 May 1898	Woolwich Union Workhouse	Admitted with mother, "Husband Henry deserted her 25th", and siblings Edward, George, and Catherine. Discharged to infirmary.
   23 Nov 1898	28 Nov 1898	Woolwich Union Workhouse	Admitted with mother and siblings Edward, George, and Catherine. Discharged with mother and siblings.
   29 Nov 1898	17 Jan 1899	Woolwich Union Workhouse	Admitted with mother and brothers Edward and George. Discharged with mother and brothers.
   19 Oct 1899	15 Mar 1900	Woolwich Union Workhouse	Admitted with mother and siblings Edward, George, Catherine, and Ann [Hannah]. Discharged to Hampstead.
   25 May 1900	26 May 1900	Woolwich Union Workhouse	Admitted from Hampstead. Discharged to mother.
   7 Nov 1901	25 Nov 1901	Woolwich Union Workhouse	Admitted with mother, "Husband Henry deserted", and siblings Edward, George, Kate [Catherine], and Hannah. Discharged "To Hampstead".
   5 Jun 1902	6 Jun 1902	Woolwich Union Workhouse	Admitted "From Hampstead", "Parents in House". Discharged with mother and siblings.
   9 Oct 1903	19 Oct 1903	Woolwich Union Workhouse	Admitted with mother, "Husband Henry left her 7th Oct", and siblings George, Catherine, Hannah, and Alice. Discharged "to Hampstead R.C. Schools".
   15 Apr 1904	16 Apr 1904	Woolwich Union Workhouse	Admitted "from Hampstead". Discharged with mother and siblings.
   4 May 1904	6 May 1904	Woolwich Union Workhouse	Admitted with parents and siblings George, Catherine, Hannah, and Alice. Discharged with parents and siblings.

3. ↑ UK, Outward Passenger Lists.

   Ship: Corsican
   Port of Embarkation: Liverpool
   Date of Departure: 17th June 1909
   Port at which Passengers have contracted to land: Quebec
   Passenger list includes:
   M. Meekins, single female

4. ↑ Canadian Passenger Lists.

   Ship: Corsican
   Arrived: Quebec, 23rd June 1909
   C.P.R. [Canadaian Pacific Railway] passengers left by Special train at 1100 a.m.
   Steerage Passenger list includes:
   Mary Meekins, 15 [1893/4], C.P.R., born England, ultimate destination Ottawa

5. ↑ Deaths register, in Ontario Deaths (Registrar General. Archives of Ontartio, Toronto).

   DEATHS
   County of Carleton / Division of Ottawa
   Name: Meakins, Mary
   Sex: F
   Date of Death: 25 Jan[uar]y 1911
   Age: 17 years
   Place of Death: 271 Stewart St[reet]
   Occupation: Servant
   Single, Widowed, or Divorced: S[ingle]
   Father: Harry Meakins
   Doctor attended: Miss Mary Meakins 19 Jan[uar]y 1911, 25 [sic] Jan[uar]y 1911, 24 Jan[uar]y 1911 and 25 Jan[uar]y 1911
   Cause of Death:
   Primary: Typhoid
   Immediate: Toxaemia
   Physician's name: D.T. Smith, Somerset St[reet], 25 Jan[uar]y 1911

6.   Woolwich Gazette, in United Kingdom. The British Newspaper Archive
   Page 2, 12 Feb 1904.

   AN ABSCONDING PARENT.
   Henry Meekins, 42, labourer, was charged on Monday on a warrant with unlawfully running away and leaving his wife and 5 children chargeable to the Common Fund of the Woolwich Union. – Mr. A.J. Godfrey, relieving officer, prosecuted, and said prisoner’s family had been chargeable since Oct. 9, and were still in the Workhouse. – Warrant-officer Williams said prisoner had been travelling the country and he arrested him that morning at common lodging house. – Two months.

7.   Woolwich Gazette, in United Kingdom. The British Newspaper Archive
   Page 2, 25 Nov 1904.

   In the Police Courts
   WOOLWICH
   A DESTITUTE FAMILY.
   Mary Meekins, 10, Kate, 8, Hannah, 4, and Alice, 2, were charged with wandering without visible means of subsistence, and Alice Meekins, the mother, was charged with being drunk and disorderly and neglecting the children. Henry Meekins, of 4, Warren Lane, was summoned for neglecting the children. All the cases were taken together. – P.C. 283R said at 12.45 on the 14th he saw the four children crying in Powis street. They were cold and said they had nowhere to go. He took the children to the station where they were charged with wandering. About 5 p.m. the same day he saw the mother and asked her if she knew where her children were, and she said she had heard they were at the police station. He asked her why she had left them outside a public house in High street, Woolwich, and she said she did not leave them there, but had sent them to a woman in Powis street, and she supposed they had been turned out. Prisoner said she was frightened to go to the police station after the children, for fear she would be charged. Prisoner also said her husband was out of work; that they had no money, and that the husband was in a lodging house and did not care about his family. Prisoner also said her husband had fetched her up from the country and had then left her as he had done before. Witness saw the father on the 15th, and asked him why his children were in the street. He said, “I can’t help it, I’ve got no money; and it’s a job to get lodgings here with children.” He alleged that his wife got drunk with the money he gave her. – P.C. 26RR said on the night of the 13th he locked the prisoners up for being drunk. – Mr. Bristow, an inspector of the N.S.P.C.C., said he examined the children on the 15th. They were well nourished, but their clothing and boots were dirty, ragged and worn. Defendant told him that he had not had a home for seven years, and that his wife sold up the other and spent the money in drink. Prisoner told him that he earned on the average 25s. a week, and that he had sent his wife £3 during the last two months. Defendant’s employer said he was a good worker and a sober man. – Mr. Mark Bristow, relieving officer, said he had known prisoner’s family for seven years. The woman had been constantly in and out of the workhouse. – Mrs. Meeking denied that she sold the home up or drank the money. – Mr. Baggallay sentenced the woman to a month’s hard labour and discharged the man. – The children were sent to St. Mary’s School, Croydon, the man to pay 4s. a week towards their maintenance.