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Although I like to read and keep uptodate with the forum this is my first posting on it. I’m particularly interested in Welsh women’s history and some of the research for my MA dissertation focused on working-class women in Butetown (aka Tiger Bay) in Cardiff during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. I find Mary Kelly particularly interesting because of her alleged earlier years in Wales and possible links to Cardiff and thought the following might be of interest to Kelly researchers…
As many of you are probably aware (so I hope I’m not being patronising!), Cardiff experienced a “boom” period following the development of the docks from the mid-19th century onwards and it gained a somewhat notorious reputation due to the “sailortown” nature of Charlotte Street and Whitmore Lane and, later, Bute Street. The number of prostitutes in the town prompted the great and the good to attempt to “rescue” some of these fallen women. In 1863, the “First Annual Report of the House of Mercy for South Wales and Monmouthshire” was published. The house was based in Llandaff and was allied to the Anglican church having the Bishop of Llandaff as a visitor. The overall aim was to rehabilitate the “penitents” with the aim of placing them in respectable employment on leaving the house. In the 1881 census 22 penitents are listed including one Mary Davies, Single, 24, born 1857, Aberdare, Glamorganshire. (Census reference: RG11 / 5288 / 66 / 47)
Another institution which I think might be connected to the House of Mercy was at 1 & 2 North Church Street (near the docks) which I think was more of an educational establishment rather than a rescue house and was run by Sisters of Charity. Interestingly, a Margaret Kelly, aged 22, born 1859 is shown working there as a servant in the 1881 census. (Census reference: RG11 / 5280 / 90 / 26)
A second institution in Cardiff was a Roman Catholic House for Fallen Women in Roath. (The official name was the Convent & Asylum of the Good Shepherd). I assume that this house operated along the same lines as the Anglican one by attempting to “re-train” inmates for more respectable employment. In the 1881 census 99 inmates are listed including a Mary Kelly, Single, 28, born 1853, Brighton, Sussex. Her “occupation” is given as a Laundress, along with a number of the other inmates. Hopefully the regime here was kinder than that in the Magdalene Laundries in Ireland. Interestingly, there are four women whose birthplace is given as France! A number of birthplaces are given on the transcription as Newport, Essex when it should clearly be Newport, Monmouthshire. (Census reference: RG11 / 5284 / 52 / 51)
Perhaps not surprisingly, these types of institutions were not entirely successful in reforming women. One of their strategies was to place the women in employment away from the areas where they had been working as prostitutes so a woman from Cardiff could easily end up working in domestic service in London. But the sheer drudgery and poor pay for being a servant was unappealing to some of these women and they returned to their former ‘professions’ in the areas they had been placed.
As far as women who might have had illegitimate children in these institutions, I haven’t been able to ascertain what happened to the children. There was another Roman Catholic institution in Cardiff called the Blackweir Charitable Institution which looked after a number of orphans as well as elderly people. (Census reference: RG11 / 5276 / 28 / 11)
A quick look at the 1881 census for the Cardiff Workhouse shows the following:
Margaret Davies, Inmate, Single, F, 23, born 1858, Domestic Servant, born Aberdare, Glamorgan
Mary Ann Davies, Inmate, Single, F, 19, born 1862, Domestic Servant, born Cardiff, Glamorgan
and shown separately
Eliza Davis(!), Inmate, Single, F, 3, born 1878, Scholar, born Cardiff, Glamorgan
Can’t help wondering if little Eliza might be connected to Mary Ann Davies. (Census reference: RG11 / 5290 / 52 / 1)
Finally, as a keen amateur genealogist, I’ve spent quite a lot of time doing research around various ancestors who migrated from rural Wales and Somerset to the industrialised Welsh valleys. A common trend was for family members to send word back to relatives of where they had settled so other relatives could follow them. This might be an explanation for MJK supposedly having family in Cardiff. South Wales as a whole had large numbers of Irish migrants who gravitated towards places such as Llanelli, Swansea and Merthyr as well as Cardiff. Cardiff docks were virtually built by Irish labourers and there was a large and thriving Irish community called Newtown next to Butetown which has sadly been all but demolished. For what its worth, I would hazard a guess that MJK’s father worked in South Wales rather than North and that he probably followed some of his relatives in the search for work which was plentiful in South Wales in the mid to late 19th century.
Although I like to read and keep uptodate with the forum this is my first posting on it. I’m particularly interested in Welsh women’s history and some of the research for my MA dissertation focused on working-class women in Butetown (aka Tiger Bay) in Cardiff during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. I find Mary Kelly particularly interesting because of her alleged earlier years in Wales and possible links to Cardiff and thought the following might be of interest to Kelly researchers…
As many of you are probably aware (so I hope I’m not being patronising!), Cardiff experienced a “boom” period following the development of the docks from the mid-19th century onwards and it gained a somewhat notorious reputation due to the “sailortown” nature of Charlotte Street and Whitmore Lane and, later, Bute Street. The number of prostitutes in the town prompted the great and the good to attempt to “rescue” some of these fallen women. In 1863, the “First Annual Report of the House of Mercy for South Wales and Monmouthshire” was published. The house was based in Llandaff and was allied to the Anglican church having the Bishop of Llandaff as a visitor. The overall aim was to rehabilitate the “penitents” with the aim of placing them in respectable employment on leaving the house. In the 1881 census 22 penitents are listed including one Mary Davies, Single, 24, born 1857, Aberdare, Glamorganshire. (Census reference: RG11 / 5288 / 66 / 47)
Another institution which I think might be connected to the House of Mercy was at 1 & 2 North Church Street (near the docks) which I think was more of an educational establishment rather than a rescue house and was run by Sisters of Charity. Interestingly, a Margaret Kelly, aged 22, born 1859 is shown working there as a servant in the 1881 census. (Census reference: RG11 / 5280 / 90 / 26)
A second institution in Cardiff was a Roman Catholic House for Fallen Women in Roath. (The official name was the Convent & Asylum of the Good Shepherd). I assume that this house operated along the same lines as the Anglican one by attempting to “re-train” inmates for more respectable employment. In the 1881 census 99 inmates are listed including a Mary Kelly, Single, 28, born 1853, Brighton, Sussex. Her “occupation” is given as a Laundress, along with a number of the other inmates. Hopefully the regime here was kinder than that in the Magdalene Laundries in Ireland. Interestingly, there are four women whose birthplace is given as France! A number of birthplaces are given on the transcription as Newport, Essex when it should clearly be Newport, Monmouthshire. (Census reference: RG11 / 5284 / 52 / 51)
Perhaps not surprisingly, these types of institutions were not entirely successful in reforming women. One of their strategies was to place the women in employment away from the areas where they had been working as prostitutes so a woman from Cardiff could easily end up working in domestic service in London. But the sheer drudgery and poor pay for being a servant was unappealing to some of these women and they returned to their former ‘professions’ in the areas they had been placed.
As far as women who might have had illegitimate children in these institutions, I haven’t been able to ascertain what happened to the children. There was another Roman Catholic institution in Cardiff called the Blackweir Charitable Institution which looked after a number of orphans as well as elderly people. (Census reference: RG11 / 5276 / 28 / 11)
A quick look at the 1881 census for the Cardiff Workhouse shows the following:
Margaret Davies, Inmate, Single, F, 23, born 1858, Domestic Servant, born Aberdare, Glamorgan
Mary Ann Davies, Inmate, Single, F, 19, born 1862, Domestic Servant, born Cardiff, Glamorgan
and shown separately
Eliza Davis(!), Inmate, Single, F, 3, born 1878, Scholar, born Cardiff, Glamorgan
Can’t help wondering if little Eliza might be connected to Mary Ann Davies. (Census reference: RG11 / 5290 / 52 / 1)
Finally, as a keen amateur genealogist, I’ve spent quite a lot of time doing research around various ancestors who migrated from rural Wales and Somerset to the industrialised Welsh valleys. A common trend was for family members to send word back to relatives of where they had settled so other relatives could follow them. This might be an explanation for MJK supposedly having family in Cardiff. South Wales as a whole had large numbers of Irish migrants who gravitated towards places such as Llanelli, Swansea and Merthyr as well as Cardiff. Cardiff docks were virtually built by Irish labourers and there was a large and thriving Irish community called Newtown next to Butetown which has sadly been all but demolished. For what its worth, I would hazard a guess that MJK’s father worked in South Wales rather than North and that he probably followed some of his relatives in the search for work which was plentiful in South Wales in the mid to late 19th century.
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