The Death of Anne Collins

Annie Collins name can be found on this memorial to pioneers' graves at the Seymour Pioneer Park

Happy 2020 to all Phelans and Atkins out there! Having finished work on the Phelans for the time being, I have decided to switch my research back over to Mum's side of the family. The New Year finds me working on the Collins branch of the tree. Lydia Ann Collins, shown in the wonderful portrait at the end of this post, was Mum's paternal grandmother, the wife of William Atkin. Lydia was one of five children of Joseph Edmund Collins and Anne O'Regan. It hasn't always been easy to find information about this family, and even now some questions remain. One thing that there is no doubt about however is how Anne Collins met her end - the subject of today's post.

Joseph Edmond Collins hailed from Sussex and was a butcher by trade. He came out to Australia in the late 1850s and found his way to Stanley in northeastern Victoria, where he ran a butcher's store (and likely joined in the search for gold which was still thriving in that area). Before too long he met Irish girl Annie O'Regan, a native of Lahinch in County Clare, who was also very new to the colony. The pair were married in Beechworth in 1858, and four children were born in Stanley: James Joseph (known as Joseph, 1859), Thomas Henry (1861), Lydia Ann (1864) and Alfred Charles (1869). As the gold declined so too did Stanley, and the family relocated to Mangalore near Seymour by 1872, the year their last child was born, a daughter named Sarah Jane.

Joseph was also a storekeeper in Mangalore, and in 1882 successfully applied for a license to create the Junction Hotel (at the junction of the railways from Melbourne to Wodonga and Shepparton). It appears though that he was also moving around a bit at this time, and the license was passed to his son Thomas. Soon however Thomas and his older brother Joseph had moved to Warragul and were trading as 'Collins Bros' butchers in that town, so wife Anne was left to run the pub while looking after the two youngest children Alfred and Sarah. Meanwhile middle child Lydia, now 18 years of age, applied for 320 acres of her own land in Mangalore in June 1883, and this was approved in September of that year. But within six months' time, the family's life would be turned upside down.

It was late in the morning on 12 March 1884, and Annie Collins was still in bed. She had been drinking for the previous six days and was 'continually intoxicated during that period'. Her husband Joseph was in Warragul at the time - possibly helping out sons Thomas and Joseph in their butchering business. At about 11.30 am Annie was paid a visit in her room by her young son Alfred* and asked him to make her a cup of tea. He returned with the tea, at about midday, only to find her lying in bed just as he had last seen her - but she was dead. Alfred went to the nearby Railway Hotel to report her death, and the railway stationmaster was notified and he came to view the body. Police were informed and a constable from Avenel attended at about 4pm. Joseph and his sons in Gippsland received telegrams that night with the terrible news.

A doctor from Euroa held a post-mortem the next day. From his assessment of Annie's brain and heart he declared that 'life must have at any time been precarious'. An inquest into the death followed, at which the stationmaster, Thomas Wright, confirmed that Annie was prone to frequent 'fits of intemperancy'. Both Joseph Edmund Collins and Thomas Collins had made their way to Mangalore to be present at the inquest and to see the body of their wife and mother. Joseph had last seen Anne four weeks previously when they spent a couple of days together in Melbourne, and said that she was generally strong and healthy. Thomas had also seen her in Melbourne not long after, and in Mangalore two weeks before that, and had also thought her very well.

The findings of the inquest were that the cause of death was 'extravasation [leakage] of blood on the brain, resulting in rupture of the cerebral artery, caused in intemperance.' Annie was just 44 years of age.

Epilogue
So what happened to the remainder of the family after the death of Anne Collins?

Lydia was soon in trouble with her 320 acres, falling in arrears with the rental payments. The Victorian Government Gazette reports a 'Hearing of Reasons Against the Forfeiture of a License' set down for 10 April 1885. Perhaps she couldn't pay and/or perhaps she now saw no future in Mangalore, and in July 1885 her license to the land was revoked. With other members of the family living and working in Gippsland, Lydia would move to join them, presumably bringing her younger siblings with her.

It appears that by this stage the eldest child Joseph had sold up the butcher's business in Warragul, and I can find no record of what happened to him from that point (though he would be dead by the age of 40)**. Thomas would dispose of the license of the Junction Hotel in Mangalore, and take his butchering trade to Yarragon, where he would meet fellow butcher William Atkin (one of their encounters will be the subject of a future post). And of course through all of this Lydia would also meet, and fall for, William! Sarah would also end up marrying a local, a farmer by the name of Horace Charles Iggulden Nelson from Allambee. Alfred would end up as a butcher in the Collingwood and Richmond areas, with several of his sons continuing the trade in Melbourne's inner suburbs well into the 20th century. I will also be writing about his family soon. And what of Joseph Edmund Collins, Anne's husband? Sometime in the latter half of the 1880s he moved to Sydney, where he spent twelve years (I have found no information about his time up there), before returning to live with his son Alfred in Richmond, where he passed away in 1899 aged about 69.

*At the inquest Alfred claims to be thirteen years old but by his birth date we know that he was at least fourteen.
**Joseph Collins is listed as deceased on his father Joseph's death certificate in 1899.

Lydia Atkin, daughter of Anne and Joseph Collins, and my great-grandmother