Johanna (Fenaghty) MANNIX 1838-1900

 

Famine Memorial Dublin

Johanna was born to Margaret (Sullivan) and Patrick Fenaghty about 1838 in County Kerry Ireland. She was very lucky to survive to adult hood as she grew up during the Great Famine (1845 to 1852) when about a million Irish people died from starvation. Survive she did and when she was 19 years old she married Jacobus (James) Mannix and they started a family straight away. Their first daughter Maria (1858) died as an infant in Ireland. Two more children were born in Ireland - Maurice (1860) and Margarita (1862).

Lured by stories of riches from the great southern land James, Johanna and the two wee ones Maurice and Margaret set sail from Liverpool aboard the ‘Bates Family’ merchant sailing ship. They left on 7 March 1863 and after 96 days at sea arrived at Port Phillip Heads, Melbourne. More than 600 passengers were on board all travelling to an unknown life that promised them much.

The Mannix family headed straight to the gold fields at Nuggetty Reef, near Maldon. This had been a rich deposit and undoubtedly James was hoping to strike gold. Johanna struggled as she carried a very sick child in one arm while holding the hand of the toddler with the other. Margaret had become unwell on the voyage, she had a runny nose, a fever, coughed all day and night and she struggled to breathe. After being very ill for 3 months Margaret finally succumbed to whooping cough and she was buried the following day in Maldon Cemetery.

The family had only been in Victoria five weeks but there was no time to grieve, and Johanna had three more children - Ellen Jane (1864), Michael (1866) and Annie (1867). Michael died at two months and then Annie died at nine months of age. Johanna was not yet 30 - she had survived a famine, left her homeland, given birth to six children, buried three of them and life was not getting any easier.

When Johanna was still breastfeeding Annie the court heard that she had been violently assaulted by her husband. The court was shown some marks of great violence having been used. The defendant did not deny having struck her under great provocation. Prosecutrix asked that her husband might be bound over to keep the peace. The bench ordered him to find two sureties of £10 each, being £20 to keep the peace. This was a huge sum of money especially for a poor family and James responded by placing a notice in the paper that he was not responsible for any debts contracted by his wife. Johanna had no option than to stay with her husband – there was no social welfare in the late 1800s.

After the assault a further nine children were born - James (1868), Patrick (1869), Bridget (1871), Thomas (1873), Catherine (1875), Sarah (1877), Julia (1879), John (1881) and Denis (1883). Johanna gave birth to 15 children during a 25 year period. She also raised her eldest daughter’s illegitimate son William (1883) as her own son.

It would be surprising if this was the only time that Johanna was assaulted and having so many children she would have literally been too tired to enjoy sex with her husband. I can’t help but think he probably forced himself onto her and if she tried to push him away he became violent. Of course I don’t know if that’s what happened but there’s a good chance it might have.

Evidently James never struck it rich and they moved frequently in search of work and gold. Each move meant that Johanna had to pack up the meagre belongings and the children and travel to the next place, either by walking or if they were lucky maybe a horse and cart. With so many children Johanna would have been either breastfeeding an infant or pregnant with the next one. The cooking and washing would have been endless. Food and shelter were scarce or rudimentary at best.

Johanna’s health deteriorated. Two years before she died she complained of a pain in her side and Dr Murphy said she was suffering from a heart disease. Johanna was now 62 years of age and still working as hard as ever cooking, washing and cleaning and looking after the household for her husband and the three youngest boys. On the morning of Tuesday 2 October 1900 Johanna was stoking the fire under the copper in readiness to start the washing. She felt a sharp pain in her side and took a moment to sit on the stool at the back of the house. When her son Dennis returned from work for his lunch he found his mother sitting motionlessly on the stool with her head slumped on her shoulder. The coroner found that death was due to a rupture of a blood vessel of the heart. Two days later she was buried at the Bendigo Cemetery.