The Mon Sing girls – Lost children

Margaret Mon Sing was committed by the Castlemaine Police Court on the 8^th of September 1871 as a neglected child to the Sandhurst Industrial School located at the Bendigo Benevolent Asylum, Sandhurst. She was to be held for two years until she turned 16 years. She was almost 14 years old but had been found in a Chinese brothel at Campbell’s Creek. Her father, a Chinaman had deserted his wife and their three children some five years earlier. Dinah Sophie Ramsay/Jamieson like lots of abandoned women had to resort to prostitution to survive and to provide for her children. As there were no agreements between the colonies Mon Sing fled over the border to New South Wales so that the court could not pursue him for maintenance. The police knew that he had found work as a cook at Hay but nothing else was known about him.

By 1871 the police said that Dinah Sophie Mon Sing now resided at Queenscliffe having left Margaret behind on the goldfields but no record about the mother being a prostitute was made on Margaret’s documentation. But the police had access to the records of a younger neglected sister, Rachael Mon Sing/Sing which showed that in 1866 their mother Dinah was a prostitute at Castlemaine. Possibly the weekend ferry trips that brought hordes of men from Melbourne out for a good time in Queenscliffe provided Mrs Mon Sing with more regular clients and a better income than was possible on the goldfields.

 

The Legislative Act of 1864 for Neglected and Criminal Children would control Margaret’s life and her destiny for almost ten years. She was sent to the closest Children’s home which was located at the Bendigo Benevolent Asylum which since the early 1860’s had been helping destitute women and young children. Her record sheet number 5586 shows that she was born in Ballarat in October 1857. Her state of health when admitted was described as ‘Clean in prison clothes’ but she could not read or write.  

 In 1868 the Government had approved the establishment of an Industrial school in one wing of the Bendigo Benevolent Asylum which the Board sought as a means of improving their general source of revenue. The Board’s successful application argued that local children in need should be looked after locally thus gaining 8 shillings and 6 pence for child maintenance per week without having to take on many extra staff or a Superintendent.

 

When Margaret arrived in Sandhurst there were 136 neglected children under care with 105 being Protestants and the remainder Catholic of which Margaret was one. Three teachers were employed, the head being a Protestant and the two assistant teachers were Catholics. This mixture of denominations caused many complaints from the Catholic bishop and Catholic Board members but wether Margaret herself felt that she missed out on a total  supervision by Catholic staff, teachers and clergy is unknown. At that time she was not the only half-caste child but Elizabeth Ah Poo was ten years younger so they probably did not even know each other.

 

 The Benevolent Asylum records show that she absconded on the 17^th of September after only enduring her new accommodation for 8 days. The Sandhurst Industrial School was one of the best of its kind in Victoria as it was located in a new, airy building, well lit and even possessing a play area but Margaret was obviously not impressed. Now the day she nicked off was a Sunday and she had quickly realised that on Sunday things were a lot slacker with little supervision. The Head teacher’s stated rules were -

‘The mistress of the Industrial School shall take charge of the children from the Matron at 9a.m., properly dressed and cleaned, for school and other duties, and be responsible to the Superintendent and Matron for their general supervision to 7.30p.m. Saturdays and Sundays excepted which shall be 12a.m.,’

The Bendigo Advertiser reported no mention of her misadventure so we are not sure how far she got or where she had tried to go but presumably to her friends in Castlemaine some 35 miles away. Margaret presumably spent a night or two in the police lock-up before being brought before the police court and then sent back to the Bendigo Industrial School on the 25^th.   Within a week she was moved out to what was referred to as ‘boarding out’ which she also did not like so she absconded again during the following year. Her strong character and determination caused her to be moved then to Melbourne and finally on the 17^th of July she was licensed out to Mr. Patrick Coyne a farmer at Campbellfield (a farm well north of Melbourne) for the unexpired portion of her term of commitment.

 

During this period Victoria was experiencing a great shortage of labourers and servants and many girls and boys were not given their freedom when they turned 16 years. Margaret possibly was a handful and the department might have been glad to see the last of her as there is no further information on her register sheet. 

 Margaret’s younger sister Rachael Mon Sing had an earlier, longer and different experience with the Department in charge of neglected children. Rachel was born in Castlemaine in 1859 and her full name was Rachael Sophia Monzing with her father called John Samuel and mother Dinah Sophie Jamieson. I have no knowledge of where the Jamieson name came from.

 

Rachael was committed by the Ballarat Court on the 21^st of July 1866 when just 7 years old for 7 years. She was reported to be in good health and had already been vaccinated against Smallpox. Rachel, neglected child #1860 was  boarded out quickly 4 days later with hopefully a Roman Catholic family where she stayed a year. She was then moved on to another family where she had three children to look after but was allowed sometime to go to school. A year later she was sent back to P. Bridgeport who had had another baby and needed someone to help with the children. Somewhere in this period she was ‘adopted’ by Hugh Ah Coon/Koon the Government Chinese interpreter in Ballarat who had a Caucasian wife and some young children. They would have also have seen her as a useful child servant to help care for their younger children. Unfortunately when the Ah Coon family returned to China in early 1880′s they handed Rachel back to the Department!  So by 1872 she was back being boarded out with another group of strangers. Rachael did receive some more schooling but on the 25^th of February 1873 she was sent to an institution in Melbourne. Her conduct was at all times recorded as good while nothing on Margaret’s records show any schooling, and certainly no report on her conduct.

 Rachel’s court terms should have ended on the 26^th of July 1873 which would have expired on the 26^th of July 1873, but she was licensed out to someone in Fitzroy until 25^th of February 1874 when she would have been almost 16 years old. She was immediately recommitted the following day for another two more years. She must have thought she was never going to be free.

You are visiting Chinese Rural Victoria blog. All Contents by Carol Holsworth Jan 2009.

Whether the two sisters ever meet during their committal period, or if they knew where the other was later in life is not known. There is no evidence that their mother tried to communicate with them once they were taken away from her. How she prevented Margaret being taken from her in 1866 when Rachel was committed is also unknown. Maybe Margaret wasn’t living at home as she was 9 years old. Whether the girls ever met up with their father is also unknown.

It is unlikely that the girls were involved in any Chinese cultural activities, watched a Chinese procession or were ever supported by any Chinese charitable society, but they probably saw Chinese hawkers along the streets. Their father might have paid some attention to his children if they had been sons. They were shunned as half-castes by both racial groups and probably tried to pass themselves off as of Mediterranean descent. As they were illegitimate there was the option of the court calling them Margaret Ramsay and Rachel Ramsay or even Jamieson as occurred with some other illegitimate children of mixed parentage but neither seem to have changed their obvious Chinese surname.

There is a partial happy ending to this family story. Margaret Monsing married William Stollory in Ballarat in 1877 and probably hoped her children would inherited few of her Chinese features. Rachael did not get married, forgot or destroyed her middle name Sophie from her mother and took up a new middle name ‘Lavinia’. As a single mother she gave birth to a son Matthew Boie Brown Monsing at Richmond, near Melbourne in 1885.

I am hopeful that some one will be able to add further to this sad story which was far too common in 19^th century Australia particularly on the goldfields.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tags: Ah Koon, Ballarat, Bendigo Benevolent Asylum, Cambellfield, Campbells Creek, Castlemaine, Chinese brothel, Chinese interpreter, Dinah Jamieson, Dinah Ramsay, Elizabeth Ah Poo, Fitzroy, Hugh Ah Coon, Mon Sing, Monsing, Monzing, Neglected child, P. Bridgeport, Patrick Coyne, Queenscliff, Sandhurst Industrial School, William Stollory