The next few posts will be a bit
sketchy. I apologise in advance. There are lots of documents I still
need to get for the O'Toole family - Christmas and birthdays are my
times for getting birth, death and marriage certificates, and I am
researching more than just the O'Toole line so those are a bit sparse
at the moment (Christmas will fix that) and I need to make time to go
to State Records - made so much harder now that our incredibly
short-sighted NSW Government has closed the Reading Room in The
Rocks. Mind you, they don't value our future, so why do we expect
them to value our past?
So what I have on the sons of
Laurence and Ann will be what I have gleaned from family, newspapers
and some research at Wyong Family History Group. But it will get the
basic facts out and hopefully clear up some of the confusion between
this family and the Tobias O'Toole family (they are the other O'Toole
family in Sydney in the C19th - see Which O'Toole is Which).
I will deal with Matthew Joseph
Anthony when I have done his half-brothers, simply because I have so
very, very little on him. He seems to have led a quiet life.
Isabella's short little life was dealt with in Vale Isabella O'Toole.
I hope her two years were happy ones. Which brings us to the next
child born to Laurence and Ann - William.
William was born in 1858 in 102 Kent
Street, the house from which his sister ran and was crushed by the
dray.
The family moved from The Rocks to
Balmain in 1880 and William started O'Toole Brothers, Tobacconists
and Hairdressers sometime between 1880 and 1884. The shop was
situated at 273 Darling Street, between MacDonald and Mort Street. It
is now occupied by Blooms the Chemist.
 |
| Blooms the Chemist, Darling Street, Balmain, originally O'Toole Bros. Tobacconists and Hairdressers. Photo from personal collection of Megan Hitchens. |
On 14 April 1884, William came
to open the shop and found that it had been burgled.
Goods to the value of £3
were taken. I don't know if they were recovered.
On
a happier note, 1884 was also the year that William married. He had
met a young woman named Emily Butler. She lived in Cove-street,
Balmain, with her mother, Frances ni Rainy, and stepfather, George
Henry. Her brother and William's father, Laurence, were both members
of the Naval Brigade (forerunner of the Naval Reserve). Whether
William and Emily met through proximity or through the Naval Brigade
I don't know, but meet they did.
Emily
was the daughter of Lawrence Ormond Butler and Frances Rainy, and the
granddaughter of Irish exile, Lawrence Ormond Butler. For an
excellent history of the Butler family go to Barbara Butler's series
of blogs - http://butlerfamilyhistoryaus1.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/lawrence-butler-jnr-introduction.html . The link
will take you to Emily's father's story, but if you work your way
around you will also find the posts on her grandfather and his wives
and children. Barbara's blog shows us how family genealogy blogs
should be done. Outstanding research, impeccable source citations,
clear and engaging writing. Seriously, go and have a look.
Just
to demonstrate the confusion with the O'Toole families of Sydney,
William O'Toole, son of Laurence O'Toole, married Emily Butler in
1884 in Balmain,
while William O'Toole, son of Tobias O'Toole, married Emily Pulbrook
in 1884 in Pyrmont.
And to further complicate matters, my William O'Toole's brother,
Thomas, married Emily Donohue in Balmain in 1892. So there were three
Emily O'Tooles running around (or should that be Emilies O'Toole? Take your pick).
As
far as I can tell, William and Emily had only one child – Elsie May
O'Toole, born 14 January 1893, above the shop in Darling Street,
Balmain.
Until two nights ago I thought there were four children, but I have since
applied my brain and realised that three of those four were born to
Pyrmont William and Emily ni Pulbrook.
My William's
next brother down, Archer, ran the Balmain Leader, a weekly newspaper
for the Balmain area. Their younger brother, John, also worked as a
journalist for the Leader. In January of 1888 a small piece appeared
in the Balmain Leader, ribbing William. There is no way to tell who wrote it,
Archer or John, but I am sure it was the work of one of the brothers.
It has a joke at William's expense but also reveals something of his
character:
Burglaries
in Balmain
BY
OUR OWN DETECTIVE
During
the week, another of a series of petty larcenies which have lately
occurred in the borough has been reported to the local police. A
worthy citizen whose good wife is all anxiety for her spouse's
cleanliness and comfort industriously soused a pair of William's
pantaloons and placing them conspicuously beneath Sol's drying
influence felt satisfied of having achieved a master-piece of
tidiness in the way of spotless breeches for her good man's
acceptance on the following morning. But the Fates willed otherwise.
During the night, it is supposed the gang of predatory individuals
who invest our sea-girt suburb swooped down on the quiet home of Wm.
O---- and marched off with his nether garments. But this writer would
point out that a fierce gale passed over the village on that night –
and it chanced to be----
----Their washing
day
And all the things
were drying;
The storm went
roaring thro' the lines,
And set them all a
flying;
Until both shirts
and petticoats
Went riding off like
witches;
Bill lost – and
now is left to mourn -
His well washed
working breeches.
And instead of being
stolen as supposed, were he about he might have seen them:-
----Straddling thro'
the air,
Of course too late
to win them;
They were his
darlings and his pride
His manhood's help
to riches,
Mentally he
“farewell” cried,
“My breeches.”
“Oh my breeches.”
Could he now see
them e'en in dreams,
How changed from
what he knew them!
The dews have
steeped their faded threads,
The winds have
whistled thro' them.
He could see wide
and ghastly rents
Where demon claws
had torn them;
With large holes in
their amplest part,
As if an imp had
worn them.
The Sydney Morning
Herald reported on a spate of thefts in the Balmain area leading up
to the loss of the trousers. People had had shoes, trousers, pipes
and shirts stolen, so William was not so unreasonable in his
assumption. Clearly, however, his brothers thought he had taken
things a little too far.
Then,
on 16 July 1888, William and Emily's house was broken into and some
of Emily' jewellery stolen. From the description of the items in the
Police Gazette, William and Emily were doing quite well. The items
stolen were “Lady's gold hunting keyless watch; hair guard, mounted
with gold; pair gold ear-rings; pair gold ear-rings, set with a
sapphire and four or five white stones; gold ear-ring, oval shape;
gold ear-ring, set with a diamond”.
Again I don't know if anything was recovered.
But the thieves weren't finished
with Mr. O'Toole. On 3 February 1891, Robert Johnson, a hairdresser
employed by William, arrived to open the shop for the day. He found
that the shop had been burgled and that a rear window had been
forced. A tobacconist and hairdresser from Woolloomooloo, John
Latimer, was later seen hanging around.
Stolen were “a case and a half of tobacco, 19 boxes of cigars, 10
boxes of cigarettes, 10 razors, 8 meerschaum pipes, 3 dozen
meerschaum cigarette-holders, 3 block pipes, a box of tobacco, and 3s
in copper money, the whole being valued at about £51”.
In other terms that 1700 cigars, 5200 cigarettes and a bit over 48kg
of tobacco.
 |
| A meerschaum cigarette holder in case, image from Wikipedia Commons. Meerschaum is a soft mineral which hardens when warmed. It has long been a prized material for pipes. |
Two
days later William accompanied Detectives Roach and Goulder to John
Latimer's shop, where William positively identified his tobacco (he
had put his name on the bottom of the blocks) and other items.
Latimer claimed first that William couldn't identify tobacco (the
name was pointed out), then that he had bought everything from some
reputable dealers, then that he had been sold it all by a couple of
men he had met “in the stir”. Lastly, he took the search warrant
from Detective Roach, tore it up and threw the pieces away (Roach
collected them).
Latimer was arrested and charged with “burglariously breaking and
entering...and stealing”. The case went on for several weeks with a
number of adjournments, with William required to give evidence. On 12
March, Latimer was found guilty of receiving and on 20 March 1891 he
was sentenced to three years hard labour at Darlinghurst Goal.
It
was stated in a number of the newspaper reports on the burglary that William O'Toole
did not live on his shop premises. However, by the time his daughter
was born in January of 1893, he and Emily were living there. Clearly
William had felt the need to safeguard the place.
The
shop was called O'Toole Brothers and while William seems to have been
the main proprietor his brothers had a financial interest in the
business and some of them worked there. John certainly did work there
are one point, and Benjamin was employed as a hairdresser. Thomas had
had an interest until his finances went awry. I don't know about
Archer, Laurence and James, although I suspect so. Another thing to
add to a long list of records to check at NSW State Archives.
On
6 October 1894 William placed an advertisement in the Sydney Morning
Herald for a hairdresser “at once, good hand, no other need
apply”.
His young brother, Benjamin, was in the late stages of a terminal
illness (he died less than a month later). It seems William had
finally accepted that Benjamin could not come back and so was looking
for a replacement.
Then
there was another notice in the paper:
TO
HAIRDRESSERS, TOBACCONISTS, and PARTIES on the LOOK-OUT for a
FIRST-CLASS BUSINESS.
THE
CHANCE OF A LIFETIME.
THIS
DAY, THURSDAY, October 10, at 11 o'clock. UNDER INSTRUCTIONS FROM W.
O'TOOLE, HAIRDRESSER and TOBACCONIST, THE STRAND, DARLING-STREET,
BALMAIN. CLEARANCE SALE by PUBLIC AUCTION, ON THE ABOVE DATE.
The
whole of the very extensive Stock of a TOBACCONIST and HAIRDRESSER,
consisting of SHOP AND COUNTER FITTINGS, SPLENDID NICKEL-PLATED
COUNTER SHOW-CASE, large Stock of PIPES, TOBACCO, and CIGARETTES,
BARBER'S CHAIRS, MIRRORS, &c., &c.
JAMES
COWAN (266 Pitt-street) has been favoured with instructions to
conduct the above highly important sale.
The
Auctioneer specially invites purchasers to attend this important
sale, as this is a splendid opportunity to secure one of the best
businesses in this rising suburb.
The
present proprietor has been established 15 years, and is only giving
up business owing to ill-health.
The
whole of the STOCK and FIXTURES will be offered in one line, and if
not disposed of will then be sold in lots to suit buyers.
TERMS,
CASH, NO RESERVE
Sydney
Morning Herald, 10 October 1895, page 3
Initially
I thought this meant that William was physically ill and therefore
could not continue to work. However, earlier this year I started
searching the Police Gazettes for entries regarding William's
burglaries and discovered the real nature of his illness.
Sometime
around the time of the Auction, William was admitted to Callan Park
Mental Hospital. State Records has the admission records and medical
casebooks, so yet another thing to look for (I swear, I am going to
need a week
in that place). Until then I don't know why he was in there. Suddenly
his stress over the loss of his trousers doesn't seem quite so
amusing, although in defense of his brothers I have grown up with a
family member with mental health issues and as a sibling you take
your laughs where you can get them.
William's
sale of the business and his admission to the Hospital must have been
a big change for Emily and Elsie. They seem to have been quite
comfortable up to that point. Hopefully they got enough from the sale
to see them through the times ahead. But worse was to come.
In
the 9 December 1896 edition of the Police Gazette, on page 431
appeared the small notice:
 |
| The Police Gazette, 9 December 1896, p431, collection of State Records Authority of New South Wales |
At
the time of the inquest the matter was widely reported in the
newspapers in Sydney and beyond. William remained in Callan Park,
pending trial until 1917. On 28 March the Gazette reported that the
matter had finally been settled,
although probably to the satisfaction of few:
 |
| The Police Gazette, 28 March 1917 p143, collection of State Records Authority of New South Wales |
William O'Toole died in Pattamatta
Mental Hospital in June of 1919. He is buried in Rookwood Cemetery,
section 4 of the Anglican area, grave no. 4375, next to his mother. There is no surviving
headstone. Emily survived another 10 years, dying on 5 October, 1929.
She is buried in Section 10 of the Anglican area of Rookwood, in grave no. 3039. Again there is no
surviving headstone. The woman in the Anglican office in Rookwood
told me that where Emily was buried was considered to be a poor part
of the cemetery, although not destitute. I don't know why they weren't buried together.
There is nothing I can say of this
couple's end that won't sound trite, so I will comment no further.
