Burke Manuscript

Burke Manuscript: Page 201

Transcript

So great at one time was the pressure upon gaol accommodation that Mr C.C. Bowen, Resident Magistrate, got the Government to build a female gaol for the poor dear things. Accordingly some acres were bought from Harman & Stevens (Sewell) at Addington, and the ornamental concrete pile was put in hand – the miserable white elephant. Mr Bowen could not have been thoroughly satisfied with his experiment, for one of his first experiences was that one of the penitents, who had been in for a twelvemonth, brought into the world a dear little “gaol infant”. Mr Bowen was thoroughly indignant.

The old woman [sic] gaol in the Market Place was nothing more or less for years than a boozing shop and a brothel. It was a “recuperator” for a lot of dear old parties of those days, such as Mother Holmes & Graves & her daughter, Mary McDonald, Hydraulic Jenny, Jane Crawford and a lot more of the old stagers.