Oliver WARREN (1847-1913)
Family Stories > 5th GENERATION > John Warren's Family
5. Oliver Warren (1847 - 1913)
Spouse : Elizabeth Hales (1847-1890)
1. Nola Irene Warren
2. .... George Ernest Edward Warren & Iris Ella Ford
3. .... .... Leonard Leslie Warren & Burdett Launder
4. .... .... .... Charles James Warren & Agnes McNay
5. .... .... .... .... John Warren and Mary Manning
.... Children - 1. Elizabeth Warren & Richard Appleton
2. George Warren3. Charlotte Warren & Francis Appleton4. Emma Warren & William Chase5. Oliver Warren & Elizabeth Hales6. Montefiore Warren
7. Charles James Warren8. Sarah Jane Warren
OLIVER WARREN Birth 1846, October 24 at Langham, Suffolk, UK Emigration 1851 on board sailing ship “Reliance” to Adelaide, SA Marriage 1869, July 21 at Bible Christian Chapel, Happy Valley, SA Spouse Elizabeth Hales Occupations Agricultural labourer. Farmer. Miner Death 1913, April 20 in Stansbury, South Australia Age at Death 67 years of age Burial Stansbury Cemetery, Stansbury, SA |
ELIZABETH HALES BIRTH About 1852 in Happy Valley, South Australia FATHER Thomas Hales MOTHER Rebecca Hankin SIBLINGS 1. Mary Ann Hales (1845 - ) 2. Jeremiah William Hales (1849 – 1913) 3. Charles Morris Hales (1851 – 1900) 4. Martha Hales (1853 - ) 5. James Hales (1855 - ) 6. Rebecca Hales (1858 - ) 7. Thomas Hales (1859 – 1928) DEATH 1891 in Kaniva, Victoria, Australia AGE AT DEATH 43 YEARS BURIAL Kaniva Cemetery, Kaniva, Victoria, Australia |
Oliver Warren – His Early Years
If I followed the usual configuration of family history reports, I would have written this about Oliver Warren –
Oliver Warren was born on October 24, 1846 in Walsham Le Willows, Suffolk, District of Stow.
He married Elizabeth Hales, daughter of Thomas Hales and Rebecca Hankin on July 21, 1869 in South Australia.
Oliver and Elizabeth had 10 children. He died on April 20, 1913 in Stansbury, South Australia, aged 67 years.
But, what of the story behind the basic BDM (Births, Deaths, Marriages) facts? This I have tried to unravel, warts and all, from a distance of 150 years or so using the usual BDM records, but also old newspapers, police reports, biological indexes, and much more. So, here goes …..
1846 – Birth – Oliver Warren
Oliver Warren, the son of John Warren and Mary Warren, nee Manning, was my great-uncle. His story starts sedately enough with his birth at Walsham Le Willows, Stow in the County of Suffolk on October 24, 1846.
1846 Birth Certificate, Oliver Warren, Walsham Le Willows, Stow, Suffolk
1851 – Census – Warren Family
He next appears in the Census taken in 1851 at Langham in Suffolk as a 4-year-old boy, living with his parents, John and Mary Warren, aged 42 and 32 and his sisters, Elizabeth 16, Charlotte 8 years, Emma 6 years and his new-born brother Montefiore, just 10 months old.
1851 Census, Langham, Suffolk - Warren Family
His older brother, George was staying with his maternal grand-parents, James and Elizabeth Manning, on the night of the census. According to the Census, all members of his family were born in Suffolk.
1851 – Emigration to Australia
By 1851, his parents, John and Mary, decided a new start for the family was needed, so Oliver made the voyage to Australia with his parents and siblings when he was just 4 years old – Australia, where he was to begin his new life. The sailing ship “Reliance” arrived into the port of Adelaide on September 13, 1851. During the voyage, his little brother,18-month-old Montefiore, died of inflammation of the lungs and was buried at sea. Little Oliver arrived into Adelaide just in time to celebrate his fifth birthday.
The family’s early life in Happy Valley was one of Spartan existence, living in a hut with a dirt floor but this didn’t stop celebrations at the various wedding that were to happen in the Warren house-hold over the next few years. In 1854, Oliver’s big sister, Elizabeth married Richard Appleton in his father’s house in Happy Valley. No doubt there was a wonderful party that included 8-year-old Oliver.
Richard Appleton became the head teacher in the Happy Valley School, so young Oliver’s schooling was probably taken care of with his brother-in-law’s help. From various pieces of documentation, we have samples of Oliver’s signature.
Oliver Warren’s Signature
More marriages followed – in 1861, Oliver’s other sister, Charlotte, married Francis Appleton (brother to Richard Appleton) and Emma Warren married William Chase in 1862. Emma’s wedding was also celebrated in the house of John Warren.
But tragedy was to strike the Warren family. Oliver’s father, John, died suddenly in 1867 when Oliver was 20 years old. Oliver continued to live in his family home in Happy Valley with his mother and his two younger siblings, Charles James Warren, and Sarah Jane Warren. Oliver took on the mantle of “head of the household” in his father’s absence until his mother Mary’s remarriage two years later in 1869 to Thomas Hales, a close neighbour. Oliver’s new stepfather, Thomas Hales, was the man from whom his father, John Warren, had purchased the Warren land back in 1860.
Elizabeth Hales – Her Early Years
1847 – Birth of Elizabeth
In 1847, on board the sailing ship “Belle Alliance” headed for South Australia, were Thomas Hales, his wife, Rebecca and their two baby daughters, Mary Ann, and Elizabeth. Mary Ann was born about 1845 and Elizabeth was born about 1847 on board ship. Also headed for South Australia were Thomas’ brothers, William Hales, James W. Hales, John Hales and Mathew Hales.
Thomas Hales was the son of Thomas Hales and Adelaide Pack.
Thomas and his wife, Rebecca, nee Hankins, were both in their late twenties, having been born about 1818 in England. Once arrived in Adelaide, Thomas and his family settled in Happy Valley and more children arrived –
- 1849 Jeremiah William Hales - married Elizabeth Wood in 1875, died in 1913 in Perth
- 1851 Charles Morris Hales - married Sarah Ann Norris, died in 1900 in SA
- 1853 Martha Hales - married Unknown Craythorn
- 1855 James Hales - married Elizabeth Barrett in 1880
- 1858 Rebecca Hales - married unknown Wilkinson
- 1859 Thomas Hales - married Mary Ann Wilkinson in 1888, died in 1928 in SA
1861 – Re-marriage of Thomas Hales
Following the death of his wife, Rebecca in 1860 in Happy Valley, Thomas wasted no time in remarrying a widow, Mrs. Mary Rankin, nee Rushton, aged 32 years. Two more sons followed this marriage –
- 1862 Robert Hales - married Hannah Pauline Goddard in 1885, died in 1906 in Vic
- 1864 William Hales - died in 1927
1866 – Death of Thomas Hales 2nd Wife
Thomas’ second wife, Mary, died in 1866, leaving Thomas free to marry our Mary Warren, nee Manning, Oliver’s mother, which he did in 1869.
In the meantime, Thomas’ daughter by his first wife, Elizabeth Hales, grew up in Happy Valley not far from the Warren land where she met Oliver Warren.
Oliver Warren and Elizabeth Hales – Their Life Together
1869 - Marriage
A few months after the second marriage of his mother, Mary Manning following the death of his father John Warren in 1867, when Oliver was 22 years old, he married Elizabeth Hales – the daughter of Thomas Hales, his new stepfather. They married on July 21, 1869 at the Bible Christian Chapel in Happy Valley.
Name: Oliver WarrenFather's name: John WarrenSpouse Name: Elizabeth HalesSpouse's Father's Name: Thomas HalesMarriage Date: 21 Jul 1869Marriage Place: Bc Chapel Happy ValleyRegistration Place: Willunga, South AustraliaPage Number: 655Volume Number: 80Source: Australia, Marriage Index, 1788-1950 www.ancestry.com
Oliver and Elizabeth settled down to married life in the Warren family home while his mother moved to her new husband’s home, still in Happy Valley.
1871 – Birth – George Albert Warren
On May 25,1871, Oliver and Elizabeth’s first child was born. They named him George Albert Warren, but the joy of the birth was short-lived. Their baby died 18 months old on November 23, 1872.
The funeral ceremony was performed by Oliver’s brother-in-law, Francis Appleton and the little baby was buried in the Happy Valley cemetery, next to his grand-father, John Warren.
Name: George Albert WarrenBirth Date: 25 May 1871Birth Place: Happy ValleyRegistration Place: Adelaide, South Australia, AustraliaFather: Oliver WarrenMother: Elizabeth HalesPage Number: 302Volume Number: 95Source: Australia, Birth Index, 1788-1922 www.ancestry.com
1872 – Death – George Albert Warren
Name: George Albert WarrenBirth Year: abt 1870Age: 1Death Date: 23 Nov 1872Death Place: Happy ValleyResidence Place: Happy ValleyFather's name: Oliver WarrenRegistration Place: Adelaide, South AustraliaPage Number: 542Volume Number: 49Source InformationAncestry.com. Australia, Death Index, 1787-1985
Whilst I was researching for these stories, I held high hopes that Oliver Warren would become one of the strong heroes of our history. After all, he had remained at his mother’s side after the death of his father, John Warren. Sure, he was given the land that his father had worked so hard to purchase back in 1860, but there was an outstanding loan on it. At that time, the law did not permit women to own land in South Australia which is probably the reason his mother, Mary transferred responsibility for the land and the loan to Oliver.
1882 - Newspaper Article, "The Horsham Times", December 15, 1882
The process of selection and farming under Grant’s Land Act of 1878 was fraught with difficulty for settlers and realistically, the odds were stacked against them from the start.
Grant’s Land Act of 1878 was passed on May 1869 and came into force on February 1, 1870. The act provided for selection of up to 320 acres at a yearly payment of two shillings per acre for ten years or power to purchase the land after three years’ occupancy for an additional fourteen shillings.
By 1878, the Act was amended to reduce the charge to one shilling per acre per annum and extended the total period to twenty years. From 1878, selectors flocked to the area like diggers to a gold rush.
Oliver had to select his land from that which was available, make application to a government land officer and if and, when approved, pay the first half-yearly instalment. Bear in mind that the selection process in Kaniva had been going on since 1878, so the land from which Oliver could choose his allotment in 1883 was most likely land that had proved unworthy to previous selectors and had been relinquished.
The land in the Kaniva area had previously been taken up by squatters and when selectors arrived to peg out their claim under the Land Act and consequently push the squatters out, there was naturally much disquiet. Squatters would pull out pegs marking selections, drive their cattle and sheep onto land of new selectors to eat them out before they could become established or drive selectors’ sheep and cattle into the scrub.
As well as all this, selectors had to clear land, grub stumps, erect fences, hoe ground, and spread seed – not to mention provide shelter for themselves, their families, and any workers they employed. And then there were the kangaroos and rabbits which attacked the green shoots of their first crops, diseases, droughts, and fires. Only the very hardy and tenacious could hang on.
Oliver was determined to succeed and joined the throng seeking land by selection.
Perhaps the selection taken up by Oliver was not a good one and he chose to forfeit? In any event, Oliver was not giving up so easily - he took up more land and had his licence approved in February in 1883 for a 320-acre block in Kaniva as advertised in “The Gazette” on February 16, 1883. The payment required for this block, including survey charge and licence fee was £14/ 2/6d.
Licence Number 11907Name of Licensee Oliver WarrenAcres 320Parish KanivaDate of Licence 1.2.83Payment £8. 0. 0Survey Charge £5. 17. 6 (to be paid into Trust Fund)Fee for Licence £0. 5. 0Total Amt of 1st Payment £14. 2. 6Payable at NhillAn extract from “Applications for Licenses Approved” of February 9, 1883
1883 –Birth - Rose Elizabeth Warren
I am not certain when Oliver’s wife, Elizabeth and their five children, made the journey by horse and dray to Kaniva in Victoria. They would have had to travel through Portland to avoid the impenetrable barrier of the Hundred Mile Desert to reach their destination. They arrived in Kaniva sometime between the birth of their last child in 1881 and the birth of their next child, Rose Elizabeth Warren in 1883.
Name: Rse Elizabeth WarrenBirth Date: Abt 1883Birth Place: Kaniva, VictoriaRegistration Year: 1883Registration Place: Victoria, AustraliaFather: Oliver WarrenMother: Elizabeth HalesRegistration Number: 24313Source Information: Ancestry.com. Australia, Birth Index, 1788-1922
At first, Oliver did well and extended himself to take up several more leases over more land, but ultimately life became so difficult with droughts and poor crops that he struggled with bank loan payments and lease payments. Several times, Oliver had to forfeit his land selections.
Oliver took up land at several locations including Nhill, Warrnambool, Horsham as well as Kaniva. It looks like the first lease he took out was too small to support a viable farming venture, and rather than being able to consolidate his lease position and extend outwards from his holding, he was forced to take up other separate leases far and wide, reducing his ability to keep all producing profitably. Nevertheless, he kept trying and his family kept growing. But he seemed to be getting no-where fast.
Further evidence that Oliver was splitting his life between Happy Valley and Kaniva is seen in the House of Assembly Electoral Rolls for Happy Valley, dated December 1884. It lists Oliver as a farmer in Hurtle Vale, SA.
Oliver had further leases approved, but as reported in the “Victorian Government Gazette” of August 21, 1885, his lease payments were in arrears.
An entry in the Biographical Index of South Australia 1836 – 1885 showed Oliver’s religion as Methodist, his occupations as orchardist, labourer and miner and his residences as Happy Valley and Stansbury – no mention of Kaniva.
1885 – Birth - Beatrice Warren
Another daughter to add to his family arrived – Beatrice Warren was born in Kaniva in 1885
Name: Beatrice WarrenBirth Date: Abt 1885Birth Place: Cani, VictoriaRegistration Year: 1885Registration Place: Victoria, AustraliaFather: Oliver WarrenMother: Elizabeth HalesRegistration Number: 26403Source InformationAncestry.com. Australia, Birth Index, 1788-1922 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.
1887 – Birth – Francis Oliver Warren
And another son, Francis Oliver Warren (Frank) was born Kaniva in 1887.
Name: Oliver Francis WarrenBirth Date: Abt 1887Birth Place: Kaniva, VictoriaRegistration Year: 1887Registration Place: Victoria, AustraliaFather: Oliver WarrenMother: Elizabeth HalesRegistration Number: 29385Source InformationAncestry.com. Australia, Birth Index, 1788-1922 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.
More leases were taken up, but within six months, Oliver had had to surrender them. In November 1887, he surrendered his 86-acre block in Kaniva.
An early map showing some of the early settlers in the Kaniva District shows the holding of “O. Warren.”. Oliver’s holding is marked with the blue arrow. As it is a small holding and in “town”, this may have been where they lived, rather than where they farmed. Some members of Elizabeth’s family also took up holdings in Kaniva – see “J. Hales” on the map . Thomas Hales and William Hales, Elizabeth’s brothers have also left their print on the Kaniva history. The map shows the Kaniva Railway Station which wasn’t erected until 1887. The map has been taken from the publication “Kanivia Story, 1845 – 1961” by T.M. Landt.
1873 – Birth – Gertrude Warren
Oliver and Elizabeth’s second child – a daughter they called Gertrude Warren - was born on September 14, 1873 at Happy Valley.
Name: Gertrude WarrenBirth Date: 14 Sep 1873Birth Place: Happy ValleyRegistration Place: Adelaide, South Australia, AustraliaFather: Oliver WarrenMother: Elizabeth HalesPage Number: 267Volume Number: 126Source Information Ancestry.com. Australia, Birth Index, 1788-1922
The economic times were tough and by 1875, Oliver Warren had defaulted in repayment of the Bill of Exchange over the Happy Valley land and John Richardson enacted his right to sell the land. However, he contracted with Oliver to sell the land to Oliver for the sum of £25.
1875 – Birth - Bertha Warren
But even amongst the turmoil of defaulting loan repayments, purchase of land, farming and putting food on the table for his growing family, Oliver and Elizabeth still managed to produce second daughter, Bertha. She was born on October 7, 1875 at Happy Valley.
Name: Bertha WarrenBirth Date: 7 Oct 1875Birth Place: Happy ValleyRegistration Place: Adelaide, South Australia, AustraliaFather: Oliver WarrenMother: Elizabeth HalesPage Number: 395Volume Number: 156Source InformationAncestry.com. Australia, Birth Index, 1788-1922
Oliver did not hold the Happy Valley land for long – the land his father John Warren had worked so hard to purchase for his family. In September of 1876, Oliver sold the land to Tabez Tilbrook. Perhaps he thought he could get a good profit from the sale and use the money to better his fortune, or perhaps he fell on difficult times and needed the money to support his family. (More details and copies of documents associated with the land and transactions can be found in the web page for John Warren
Whatever the reasons, it appears that by 1877, Oliver and his family either moved in with or close by to where his mother, Mary, was living with her third husband, James Henry Smith in Brighton. (Mary’s second husband, Thomas Hales had died and she had re-married in 1876 to James Smith.)
1877 – Birth – Charlotte Warren
It looks like Oliver had given up trying to make a decent living for his family by working the land and had become a miner during this time. It was in Brighton that his third daughter, Charlotte, was born on September 23, 1877.
Name: Charlotte WarrenBirth Date: 23 Sep 1877Birth Place: BrightonRegistration Place: Adelaide, South Australia, AustraliaFather: Oliver WarrenMother: Elizabeth HalesPage Number: 437Volume Number: 189Ancestry.com. Australia, Birth Index, 1788-1922
1879 – Birth – John Warren
By 1879, Oliver had moved back to Happy Valley. He may have leased some land on which he farmed or worked for wages as an agricultural labourer. He was in Happy Valley on August 9, 1879 when his son, John Warren, was born.
Name: John WarrenBirth Date: 9 Aug 1879Birth Place: Happy ValleyRegistration Place: Adelaide, South Australia, AustraliaFather: Oliver WarrenMother: Elizabeth HalesPage Number: 408 Volume Number: 225Source Information: Ancestry.com. Australia, Birth Index, 1788-1922
1881 – Birth – William Henry Warren
Also, whilst in Happy Valley, his son William Henry Warren was born on May 19, 1881.
Name: William Henry WarrenBirth Date: 19 May 1881Birth Place: Happy ValleyRegistration Place: Adelaide, South Australia, AustraliaFather: Oliver WarrenMother: Elizabeth HalesPage Number: 44Volume Number: 262Source Information: Ancestry.com. Australia, Birth Index, 1788-1922
Move from Happy Valley to Kaniva, Victoria
Tough economic times dogged Oliver’s every effort to make good. Perhaps a move to Kaniva in Victoria to lease and farmland there would be better. Late in 1881, either itchy feet, an enterprising streak or sheer desperation sent Oliver off to Kaniva ahead of his family to select land for farming. But a notice in the Horsham paper indicates that Oliver had already forfeited his selection at Kaniva as early as 1882.
1890 – Birth – Olive Warren
Could life get much more difficult for Oliver and Elizabeth? They had eight children under 17 years old when their newly born daughter, Olive Warren, who was born in 1890 in Kaniva, died soon after birth. The baby was buried in the Kaniva Cemetery, not far from Oliver’s lease holding.
Name: Olive WarrenBirth Registration Date: 1890Birth Registration Place: Victoria, AustraliaFather: Oliver WarrenMother Maiden Name: HalesReference Number: 47981890 - Birth Registration, Olive Warren, Kaniva, Victoria - Australia, Birth Records
Name: Olive WarrenDeath Place: Kaniva, VictoriaFather's name: OliverMother's name: Elizth HalesRegistration Year: 1890Registration Place: VictoriaRegistration Number: 26711890 - Death Registration, Olive Warren, Kaniva, Victoria - Australia, Death Index
1890 – Death – Elizabeth Hales
But, yes – life was set to get very much more difficult for Oliver. His wife, Elizabeth, died in Kaniva shortly after the birth and death of her last child. Elizabeth was 43 years old. She was buried in the Kaniva Cemetery with her baby daughter, Olive Warren, in unmarked graves.
Name: Elizth WarrenBirth Year: abt 1852Age: 39Death Place: Kaniva, VictoriaFather's name: Males ThosMother's name: RebeccaRegistration Year: 1891Registration Place: VictoriaRegistration Number: 2253Source InformationAncestry.com. Australia, Death Index, 1787-1985
After the death of his last-born daughter followed closely by the death of his wife, Elizabeth, Oliver returned to Happy Valley in South Australia. He had tried so hard to make “a go of it” but had been beaten every way he turned.
Leases taken out had been surrendered or forfeited because of arrears. So, he packed up his few belongings and together with his eight surviving children, returned to Happy Valley with less than he started out with just eight years earlier.
He had little money so was unable to purchase any land once back in South Australia. He would have worked as a labourer on other properties and rented a cheap house for his family.
1893 – Back in Happy Valley
Oliver next appears in history on July 12, 1893 when the South Australian Police Gazette lists him as having had his horse stolen from Happy Valley at the beginning of June. It was a chestnut mare of 15 hands with a small blaze down its face. It had an old scar on its near hoof, was saddle-marked and shod on its front feet only. There is no record to show whether Oliver ever recovered his stolen horse. Just another blow for Oliver.
But soon, a stolen horse was the least of his problems.
1895 – Oliver is Charged with Incest
In 1895, Oliver Warren was apprehended and charged with incest with his daughter Bertha, at Happy Valley. Newspapers screamed out the headline - Horrible Old Man Charged. Reports stated that Oliver Warren, an old man, was charged with assaulting his daughter Bertha at Happy Valley. The court was cleared during the hearing of this case. The evidence tendered by the girl, whose mother is dead, was most revolting. A child was born, but only lived a few weeks. Oliver was committed for trial.
1895 - Newspaper Article, "The South Australian Chronicle”, April 20, 1895
Further information ascertained from the Adelaide Police Court stated that Oliver’s daughter, Bertha Warren was nineteen years of age and that the criminal offence occurred on or about January 1, 1894. Detective Sergeant Hampton provided evidence, which was heard in camera (closed court) and he told of a “deplorable state of affairs among the family.”
Most of the Adelaide newspapers carried the story, as did several interstate newspapers.
At a sitting of the Supreme Court – Criminal Sittings on Monday, June 3, 1895, Oliver Warren pleaded guilty to a charge of incest at Happy Valley. When asked if he had anything to say, Oliver asked his life-long friend and brother-in-law, Mr, Appleton, to speak on his behalf.
Mr. Appleton said he had known Oliver Warren since infancy and latterly had doubts about the state of Warren’s intellect and sanity. He said that some years ago Oliver had proceeded to Victoria where he took up a selection near Kaniva. For a time, he did well, and he added to his land, but then got involved with the Bank. Things went against him and he became financially embarrassed.
Then losing his wife, his mind became unhinged with trouble and he came back to the colony of South Australia. Appleton considered Warren the last man to commit any crime. He was very fond of his family.
He had lately been living in a weatherboard house on two acres of land. He had always regarded the defendant, Oliver Warren, as a God-fearing man who loved his family.
The Supreme Court judge said he would not pass sentence until Wednesday, June 5 and in the meantime, he asked that Dr Cleland see the prisoner.
Accordingly, Oliver Warren was examined by Dr. Cleland, the Assistant Colonial Surgeon, who reported back to the Supreme Court Jude on Wednesday, June 6, 1895. He reported –
I have examined the accused and found his general mental processes slow. His mental processes were below normal, and there was weakened perception of right and wrong.At the same time, he was not irresponsible, but less responsible than a healthy man. The progress would probably be towards paralytic dementia.
Oliver then addressed the judge and asked His honour to be lenient with him on account of his dear children.
His Honour said Warren had been convicted on his own confession of the most shocking offence in the criminal calendar, and which excited the indignation of every right-feeling man. The account given by Dr. Cleland of his condition, coupled with the statement by Mr Appleton, had justified his view of the prisoner’s weak mental condition, but that did not relieve him from the consequences of his crime. However, there were extenuating circumstances which were taken into consideration.
Oliver was then sentenced to twelve months imprisonment in the Adelaide Gaol, where he would be under the observation of a specialist. So, Oliver Warren was taken away to serve his sentence.
No information survives of Oliver’s time in the Adelaide Gaol, where he was first taken to be “entered into the system”. As he had been sentenced to hard labour, he was then probably transferred to Yatala Prison to serve his time.
I have not been able to establish the date of his release from prison, but it would have been about June 1896 or earlier if he had been permitted early release on good behaviour.
1896 – Charlotte Warren in Trouble?
Oliver’s troubles appear to be far from over. On March 18, 1896, a notice appeared in the South Australian Police Gazette – a woman named Charlotte Warren was charged with being idle and disorderly. Was this Oliver’s daughter? – I suspect so.
In Adelaide at that time, young people who were seen loitering were immediately suspected of being up to mischief. Young women were particularly targeted and labelled prostitutes even when they were not.
Later in 1896, the year after her father was sent to gaol, Charlotte Warren was charged with using indecent language and was sentenced to two months gaol at 19 years of age. It is not possible to be certain that this young woman was in fact Oliver’s daughter, but given the circumstances in the family at the time, the name and the age of the girl, it appears fairly likely.
1896 – Neglected Children
Trouble did not stay too far away from Oliver and his family. He was no sooner released from prison than he was again up before the Police Courts in Adelaide. On September 24, 1896, he was ordered to pay 12 shillings per week towards the support of his three children, Rose Elizabeth, then 13 years of age, Beatrice who was 11 and Frank Oliver Warren who was just 9 years old. Just how he was going to pay this is anyone’s guess!
POLICE COURTS, ADELAIDE: Thursday, September 24STATE CHILDREN’S COUNCIL CASESOliver Warren was ordered to pay 12s. per week towards the support of his three children, Elizabeth, Beatrice and Frank Oliver Warren.Transcript of Newspaper Report, "South Australian Register (Adelaide)", September 25, 1896
1900 – Children to Industrial School
By 1866, the only home for neglected or destitute children was the Destitute Asylum, where they mingled with old men and women in a dreary abode. This plan was not a success. When old enough, the children attended school, but they were not taught even the simplest tasks. Happily, a new era was at hand under both government and church auspices.
Act No. 12 of 1866-1867 gave power to the government to establish reformatory and industrial schools for neglected, destitute or criminal children. All neglected or destitute children when committed were sent to the industrial school at Edwardstown, where they were kept isolated for a fortnight to ensure that they were free from disease.
The Roman Catholic Church was not slow to invoke the provisions of the Act. In August 1866, it opened an industrial school at Walkerville, which proved to be of great service to the government. The Church established the Grace Darling Home at Brighton. This school consisted of a number of cottages standing in a large playground with a garden attached. One cottage was a hospital, one a school and another, an isolation ward.
On June 4, 1900, Oliver’s daughter, Rose Elizabeth Warren, was admitted to the Industrial School, Magill & Edwardstown, aged 15 years and 8 months.
GRG 27/9 REGISTER OF ADMISSIONS TO THE INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL, MAGILL & EDWARDSTOWN, 1898 – 1905Name Age Admission DateWarren, Frank Oliver 12 yrs 10 mths 12/2/1901Warren, Frank Oliver 15 yrs 8 mths 12/12/1903Warren, Rose Elizabeth 15 yrs 11 mths 4/6/1900Transcript of Register of Admissions to the Industrial School, 1898-1905 (www.sa.gov.au)
Another of Oliver’s children, Frank Oliver Warren, was admitted to the Industrial School, Magil & Edwardstown, aged 12 years and 10 months on February 2 in 1901, and again on December 12, 1903.
1902 – Hospital & Destitute Asylum - Oliver Warren
By 1902, Oliver Warren had been admitted to the Adelaide Hospital from where he was transferred to the Adelaide Destitute Asylum at age 54 years. His occupation at that time was ‘miner’.
Not long afterwards in 1903, Oliver was again shunted between the Adelaide Hospital and the Destitute Asylum – at age 55 he found himself an inmate of the Destitute Asylum once again. More information about the Destitute Asylum can be found in the web page for Mary Manning, Oliver's mother. Mary was also destined to end her days in the Asylum.
1913 – Death – Oliver Warren
No further trace can be found of the hapless Oliver until his death. Oliver died at Stansbury, aged 66 on April 23, 1913. He is buried in the Stansbury Cemetery alongside infant “Warren” who died in 1917.
1913 - Gravestone for Oliver Warren and Unknown Warren Infant, Stansbury, SA
It is not for us to stand in judgement of any of our ancestors – we cannot know what pressures and motivations caused the tragedies in their lives. They are our ancestors whatever they may or may not have done.
Footnote: I read recently that when a person is suffering from dementia and/or Alzheimer’s disease, they can become confused as to relationships and their sexual drive can increase. This coupled with decreased mental faculties and corresponding lack of awareness of appropriate social behaviour may have contributed to the terrible crime committed by Oliver on his daughter, Bertha. Perhaps Oliver’s behaviour can be thus explained?