MARY ANN BUGG

Carol Baxter is the author of the book, Captain Thunderbolt and His Lady: The true story of bushrangers Frederick Ward and Mary Ann Bugg (Allen & Unwin, 2011). It was published to critical acclaim and is being turned into a TV series.

    While researching the lives of Fred and Mary Ann, Carol discovered that many of the claims made in books, articles and websites about them and their associates are wrong. To ensure that the correct information makes its way into the public arena, she provides the following information about Mary Ann's "husbands" and children. 

Brief overview

Exhaustive research has determined that Mary Ann Bugg had four "husbands" and at least fifteen children.

    In the first section below, Carol discusses her research journey as she attempted to identify Mary Ann's partners and children.  

    In the second section below, Carol provides detailed information about each of her partners and her thirteen identified children. 

Searching for Mary Ann Bugg's partners and children

When I began researching Mary Ann Bugg, I found various secondary-source references to Fred and Mary Ann’s children. For example, David Brouwer’s Captain Thunderbolt: Horsebreaker to Bushranger noted that they had the following: Marina Emily (26 October 1861), Elizabeth Ann (1864), Mary Ann (1866) and Frederick Wordsworth Ward (26 August 1868)[1].
    I was able to confirm the births of Marina and Fred junior by purchasing copies of their birth certificates. However, no births had been registered for the other two listed children, making it difficult to confirm their claimed connection with Fred and Mary Ann. Further research would be required. 
    Fred junior’s birth certificate and baptism entry both showed that he was born in August 1868, proving that Mary Ann Bugg could not have died in November 1867 as many Thunderbolt researchers have claimed. That being the case, the next step was to find her death certificate – with luck, it would provide a list her children. 
    Descendants of a Mary Ann Burrows who died at Mudgee in 1905 had long claimed that their ancestor was Thunderbolt’s Mary Ann and had given Thunderbolt researchers a copy of her death certificate. However their claim had been dismissed by most Thunderbolt researchers for the following reasons:

• Because they believed – incorrectly – that Mary Ann Bugg had died in 1867.
• Because the death certificate did not mention her known partners, Edmund Baker and Frederick Ward, but instead referred to two different partners and an abundance of unidentified children.
• Because the death certificate stated that she was born in New Zealand, rather than Gloucester, NSW. 

    As mentioned above, Mary Ann’s 1905 death certificate omitted any reference to Edmund Baker (whom she married in 1848) and Frederick Ward (with whom she was associated with from 1861 to 1867), and instead referred to two other marriages as follows:  

        A. Patrick McNally at Stroud when Mary Ann was aged 16
        B. John Burrows at Cooyal (near Mudgee) when Mary Ann was aged 44

    Of the thirteen children listed on Mary Ann’s death certificate, only one matched known information: her son Frederick, who was correctly listed as aged 36 in April 1905 when Mary Ann died. It is not surprising that Fred's age was listed correctly as he acted as the informant for her death certificate. However, no child named Marina was listed on the certificate, and everything else was confusing.
    The following is a list of the thirteen children named on Mary Ann’s death certificate along with estimated birth years based on their reported ages at the time of Mary Ann’s death: 
          
               Marriage B (John Burrows)
               James  47  (born c1858)
               John
               Frederick  36  (born c1869)
               Ada  34  (born c1871)
               Ida  30  (born c1875)
               George  28  (born c1877)
               Arthur  25  (born c1879)
               Helena
               Minnie
               Eliza

               Marriage A (Patrick McNally)
               Patrick
               Mary A
               Ellen

    Mary Ann's death certificate had been purchased by Berry Cameron, who was a descendant of Mary Ann's son George (listed above). Berry also obtained George’s birth, marriage and death certificates, and those for his sister Ida. George's marriage certificate listed his mother as Mary Ann Buggs, while Ida's marriage and death certificates both listed her mother as Mary Ann Bugg. As such, they confirmed beyond a shadow of a doubt that Mary Ann Bugg and Mary Ann Burrows were the same person. They also revealed that George and Ida’s father was named John Burrows, although they didn’t assist in tracing the remaining children. From this information, however, I had another two children to add to the confirmed list of Mary Ann's children, as follows:

               Marina Emily Ward - born 1861 
               Frederick Wordsworth Ward - born 1868 
               Ida Margaret Burrows - born c1874 
               George Herbert Burrows - born 1876

     The Eureka moment came when I discovered a letter in the files of historian Jillian Oppenheimer. Written by the late Roma Wallis, Honorary Researcher of the Gulgong Historical Society, it mentioned the births of three illegitimate children to James McNally and Mary Ann Baker at Mudgee: Mary Jane in 1856, Patrick Christopher in 1857, and Ellen in 1860. Not only were these children’s given names extraordinarily similar to those listed on Mary Ann’s death certificate, Mary Ann’s legal surname at that time was Baker – courtesy of her marriage to Edmund Baker. The Mudgee letter also mentioned a daughter named Ada Gertrude born to John and Mary Ann Burrows in 1870 and baptised at Gulgong (near Mudgee) in 1887. 
    A short time later, I received an email from Honorary Researcher Lynne Robinson of the Mudgee Historical Society confirming the details. Significantly, none of these baptism entries were listed in the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages Online Indexes, which partly explains why researchers had trouble tracing Mary Ann’s family.        
    These four entries tied in with another four of the children listed on Mary Ann’s death certificate. Moreover, these entries indicated that Mary Ann’s son Frederick, while clearly confused about some of his siblings and half-siblings, had managed to accurately – or nearly accurately – document some of the others. Later, a death certificate was found for Arthur under the surname Burroughs, which confirmed that he was born around 1880. This meant that eight of the thirteen children listed on Mary Ann’s death certificate had been identified.   
    When Mary Ann registered her son George’s birth certificate in 1876, she provided an incredibly useful piece of information. In the section “previous children”, she noted that she had “4 males and 7 females living, 1 male and 1 female deceased”. This indicated that she had given birth to thirteen children prior to George but that two had died, probably in infancy. With the addition of George and Arthur, this increased the list of her children to a magnificent fifteen, of whom two were known to have died prior to 1876. Significantly, thirteen “living” children were listed on her death certificate, as shown above. As she was around 45 when she gave birth to the last child listed on her death certificate (Arthur), she was unlikely to have given birth to any later children. Moreover, her son Frederick would have known about any later children if she had borne any. Therefore, this indicated that Mary Ann had given birth to a total of fifteen children, with two dying prior to 1876. 
    The next Eureka moment came when I was searching through the Mudgee electoral rolls and noticed that the 1877/78 roll listed a James Burrows and a John Burrows as residents of Cooyal where Mary Ann had been living when she met Fred Ward back in 1860.[2] This was significant because the eldest Burrows child listed on Mary Ann’s death certificate was named James. To be eligible to vote in 1877/78, James must have been born no later than the mid-1850s. Could he have been born before the McNally children? I wondered if he was perhaps called Burrows because he had adopted the surname of Mary Ann’s final partner, John Burrows.
    The second Burrows child listed on Mary Ann’s death certificate was named John so I noted with interest that the Registry of Births, Deaths & Marriages Online Indexes showed a marriage entry for a John Burrows at Gulgong in 1877. Could this be Mary Ann’s son? While a couple named John and Pamela Burrows were also living in the district, research showed that they did not have a son named John. So I purchased John’s Marriage Certificate but, frustratingly, his age and parents’ names were not listed. Fortunately, Lynne Robinson was able to find the original entry in the Gulgong church register which noted that he was aged 23 (therefore born around 1854) and was born in Bathurst to John Burrows and, significantly, Mary Ann Baker!
    Then Lynne Robinson found John Burrows’ baptism entry in the Mudgee registers. It noted that he was born in 1853 and was the son of John and Mary Ann Burrows. Then I found James Burrows’ baptism entry in the Bathurst registers (born 1851 to John and Mary Ann Burrows). Sons James and John Burrows were, of course, the first two Burrows children listed on Mary Ann’s death certificate. They had indeed been born before the McNally children to a man named John Burrows. 
    So what did this mean? That Mary Ann had either been living with two different men named John Burrows in the Mudgee district, one in the 1850s and one in the 1870s, or – more likely – that Mary Ann had lived with the same John Burrows at two different periods. No wonder her death certificate was so confusing to researchers. No wonder Fred Junior had himself been confused!
    Accordingly, I could produce a corrected list of Mary Ann's children and their birth-years, as follows: 

               James Burrows  (1851)
               John Burrows  (1853)
               Mary Jane  (1856)
               Patrick Christopher  (1857)
               Ellen  (1860)
               Marina (1861)
               Frederick (1868)
               Ada (1870)
               Ida (c1874)
               George (1876)
               Arthur (1879)
        
Plus:        Helena
               Minnie
               Eliza
 

Plus:        one boy and one girl deceased by 1876

    Additionally, primary-source records revealed that Mary Ann had given birth to a child while they were camping in the Manilla district in mid-1865.[3] Indeed, Fred was so concerned about Mary Ann’s wellbeing during her delivery that he paid a woman to stay and assist her while he went off bushranging. The child was still alive early in 1867[4] so had clearly survived the important first two years. This child was feasibly one of the thirteen “living” children listed on Mary Ann’s death certificate. 
    What could we ascertain about the childhood of the child born in 1865? Mary Ann had the infant with her when she was sentenced to three months servitude in Maitland Gaol in January 1867. She rejoined Fred in mid-1867 but the records make no mention of children accompanying them. This suggests that she had left the infant with friends or family prior to rejoining him. Most likely, she left the infant with its carers when she was admitted to Maitland gaol, suggesting that the child’s carers lived in the Maitland district.
    It is therefore important to note that a woman named Elizabeth Ann Ward recorded on her marriage certificate that she was the daughter of Frederick Ward and was born in Maitland. Her descendants said she claimed to be the daughter of bushranger Frederick Ward and was brought up by his Maitland relations. However, the age she gave on her second marriage certificate indicated that she was born in 1862 or 1863. Moreover, she was older than her second husband so she was unlikely to have “upped” her age. This was a problem because Fred and Mary Ann could not have given birth to a child in 1862 or 1863. Marina was born in 1861 after Fred went to gaol and he didn’t see Mary Ann again until late 1863. Therefore, the earliest a second child could have been born was mid-1864. 
    Mary Ann’s death certificate makes it clear that Fred Junior knew little about the child who preceded him, as this child was seemingly one of the age-less children listed on her death certificate. This supports the contention that, whoever this child was, it was almost certainly brought up away from Mudgee. Moreover, in the big scheme of things, an incorrect age is not of immense importance when a child born in the bush was brought up by others. More important is the fact that a photograph of Elizabeth Ann Ward suggests Aboriginality. So could any other evidence support the claim that Elizabeth Ann Ward was one of Mary Ann’s children?
    Which raises the subject of the age-less trio of girls listed on Mary Ann’s death certificate. How could we determine where these girls, Helena, Minnie and Eliza, fitted in? Evidently, Frederick knew little about these sisters, which indicated that they had preceded him in the birth order and had probably not lived in the Mudgee district. Clearly, additional information about Mary Ann’s children was needed however birth, marriage and death certificates had been exhausted as a source.
    As it turned out, newspaper reports revealed that Mary Ann was accompanied by two children early in 1864[5] (at a time when she could have given birth to only one of Fred’s children) and three children in March 1866[6]. At that later date, the eldest was noted as being a girl aged about six who was a good horse-rider. As Marina was less than four-and-a-half at the time, this could not have been a reference to Fred and Mary Ann’s eldest daughter. Significantly, Mary Ann’s preceding daughter, Ellen McNally, was aged six in 1866. That being the case, Mary Ann undoubtedly had both Ellen and Marina accompanying her in early 1864 and also in March 1866. In the aftermath, Ellen appears to have been left with Bugg relations as she herself had a child, James Albert McNally, born in Gloucester in 1880. Nothing further has been determined about Marina to date.
    As primary-source records indicated that Marina was still alive in 1866, it was highly likely that she was one of the “living” children listed on Mary Ann’s death certificate. Minnie and Marina are very similar as names. In fact, while Minnie is now a given name in its own right, it used to be a pet-name for Mary as were Molly, Polly and Marian among others.[7] Under the circumstances, Marina could also be considered a variation of Mary. So if we accept that Minnie was a pet-name for Marina, and if we assume (for the sake of argument) that Frederick Jnr listed the birth order of these three girls correctly (even if he didn’t know their ages), this suggests that Helena was born prior to Marina/Minnie in 1861 and that Eliza was born after Marina/Minnie in 1861.
    So when could the age-less Eliza have been born? We know that she could not have been born between 1861 and 1863 for two reasons:

• Marina was born in 1861 after Fred went to prison meaning that Fred could not have fathered another child with Mary Ann until he met up with her again at a later date.
• Fred was imprisoned on Cockatoo Island between 1861 and 1863 and had no contact with Mary Ann during his confinement.

    Eliza clearly was not born after 1868 as Frederick knew and accounted for those living children on Mary Ann’s death certificate. The only child known to have been born to Mary Ann between 1864 and 1867 was the child born mid-1865, the child who was with Mary Ann when she went to Maitland gaol in January 1867 but was not with her thereafter. That being the case, the child born in 1865 was almost certainly the child listed on Mary Ann’s death certificate as Eliza. This child was seemingly the woman later known to descendants as Elizabeth Ann Ward.
    If Elizabeth Ann Ward was indeed Eliza as seems likely (although only DNA tests would prove the connection), this indicates that Frederick Jnr listed the birth order of Marina/Minnie and Eliza correctly. If he listed all three sisters correctly, then Helena was evidently born before 1861. Looking at the above list, the only pre-1861 window during which Helena could have been born was around 1849, a year after Mary Ann’s marriage to Edmund Baker. Some unsubstantiated secondary-sources mention that Mary Ann and Edmund Baker bore a boy. Seemingly, if she did indeed bear a child to Baker, the child was almost certainly the girl Helena. 
    If Helena was born around 1849, if Minnie was Marina, and if Eliza was the child born in 1865, then all thirteen “living” children listed on Mary Ann’s death certificate are accounted for. The list of thirteen “living” children with birthdates is therefore as follows (more detailed information about these children is shown in the section at the bottom of this web page): 

               ? Helena Baker  (c1849)
               James Burrows  (Jul 1851)                                   
               John Burrows  (Oct 1853)
               Mary Jane McNally  (Mar 1856)
               Patrick Christopher McNally  (Dec 1857)
               Ellen McNally  (Mar 1860)
               Marina Emily Ward  (Oct 1861)  - listed as Minnie
          NB. Fred Ward in Cockatoo Island 1861-1863
               ?Eliza Ward  (Jun-Oct 1865)  - apparently Elizabeth Ann Ward
               Frederick Wordsworth Ward  (Aug 1868)
               Ada Gertrude Burrows  (Mar 1870)
               Ida Margaret Burrows  (c1874)      
               George Herbert Burrows  (Sep 1876)
               Arthur Burrows  (c1879)

    What about the two children Mary Ann noted as having died prior to 1876? Can we identify when they might have been born? 
    Looking at the above list, we see a noteworthy gap between 1870 and 1874. Even though Ida’s birth details have not been located, the evidence suggests that this was indeed a four-year gap. Ida listed her age as 22 at the time of her marriage on 30 December 1896 so, as she had almost certainly celebrated her birthday for the year (unless she was born on New Years’ Eve), this indicates that she was born in 1874.
     Mary Ann was evidently living with John Burrows throughout the 1870s and fertile women in a relationship usually had children approximately every two years. Frederick Jnr’s birth in 1868 was followed by that of Ada only nineteen months later, indicating that Mary Ann was still highly fertile. Yet a surprisingly long four years passed before Ida was born, and then only two years passed before George was born in 1876. A four-year gap during a fertile woman’s childbearing years strongly suggests a “missing” child - perhaps one who was alive but missing from birth/baptism records for some reason, or one who had died in infancy without being documented. As Mary Ann herself stated that she had two deceased children prior to 1876 and as there were few suitable gaps in her childbearing, it is highly likely that one of these deceased children was born in 1872 during that four-year gap.  
    What about the other? 
    It is also worth noting that Fred returned to the highly fertile Mary Ann late in 1863, soon after escaping from Cockatoo Island, yet Mary Ann seemingly did not fall pregnant until late 1864. While such a long stretch of barrenness is possible, it seems unlikely. Supposing that Mary Ann did in fact fall pregnant soon after Fred’s escape from Cockatoo Island, any such child would have been born in mid-1864 while they were camping alone at the Culgoa River – not an ideal place to give birth. If Mary Ann did give birth there, the child must have died soon afterwards as it was not with her and her other three children (Ellen, Marina and the nine-month-old) in March 1866. Moreover, two children born within the space of a year generally meant – at that time – that the earlier child had died at or soon after birth. If Mary Ann did indeed have a child born in 1864 who died soon after birth, this would account for the other “deceased” child she mentioned on the 1876 birth certificate. It would also explain Fred’s decision to employ a woman to assist Mary Ann during her next delivery in mid-1865.  
    The above information enables us to account for the preceding eleven living and two deceased children mentioned on George’s birth certificate in 1876, and the thirteen living children named on Mary Ann’s death certificate in 1905 (note that Mary Jane McNally, although listed as “living” on Mary Ann’s death certificate, was actually dead by that time; however, as she had died in Queensland, the news possibly had not filtered through to her Mudgee family). Accordingly, the list of Mary Ann’s known children appears to be as follows:

               ? Helena Baker  (c1849)
               James Burrows  (Jul 1851)                                   
               John Burrows  (Oct 1853)
               Mary Jane McNally  (Mar 1856)
               Patrick Christopher McNally  (Dec 1857)
               Ellen McNally  (Mar 1860)
               Marina Emily Ward  (Oct 1861)  - listed as Minnie
          NB. Fred Ward in Cockatoo Island 1861-1863
               ?unknown boy or girl (mid-1864)
               ?Eliza Ward  (Jun-Oct 1865)  - apparently Elizabeth Ann Ward
               Frederick Wordsworth Ward  (Aug 1868)
               Ada Gertrude Burrows  (Mar 1870)
               ?unknown boy or girl (1872)
               Ida Margaret Burrows  (1874)      
               George Herbert Burrows  (Sep 1876)
               Arthur Burrows  (c1879)

    There is one other noteworthy gap in Mary Ann’s child-bearing: the three years between the child born mid-1865 (?Eliza) and Fred Jnr born in August 1868. Could Mary Ann have given birth to a child in 1867, a child who died soon after birth? Interestingly, after Fred “eloped” with Louisa Mason, a newspaper remarked: “it is said that the highwayman’s lady is in an interesting situation [a common euphemism for “pregnancy” at that time] and that he wants this one [Louisa Mason] to wait on her.[8] A short time later, the Singleton Times wrote that “the unfortunate woman who was carried away by Thunderbolt … to wait upon his female associate has been brought dead into Aberdeen”.[9]
    It is possible that Fred brought Mary Ann from Manilla to the more settled districts in October 1867 because she was again pregnant and needed support, and that he left her there to deliver her child in relative safety. If so, the child evidently died at or immediately after birth as Mary Ann fell pregnant with Fred Jnr within weeks of Louisa Mason’s death. 
    However, as Fred in fact eloped with Louisa Mason to the Goulburn River (south-west of Muswellbrook) while leaving Mary Ann alone in the Scone district (north-east of Muswellbrook), it is clear that he did not “carry away” Louisa Mason to assist Mary Ann during her delivery. Therefore the references to Mary Ann’s pregnancy appear speculative – an explanation for Fred’s decision to take Louisa with him when the facts were not known – rather than statements based upon evidence. Significantly, the newspaper references to Mary Ann herself late in October 1867 made no comment about her being in an “interesting situation”.
    The two deceased children mentioned by Mary Ann in 1876 might not have been her only dead children. It is worth noting that stillborn children (born “still” or dead) were not treated the same as living children: their births were not registered nor were burial ceremonies performed. They didn’t “count” – in any sense of the word. If Mary Ann gave birth to a stillborn child during one of these childbearing gaps, the child would not have been included in the lists of living or dead children. If such a child existed, we will never know. 
    Fortunately, we have been able to identify all thirteen of Mary Ann’s “living” children. Of these, eleven have been traced to adulthood (only Helena and Marina have proved elusive), and nine to their deaths (if Elizabeth Ann Ward is included among them). Eight definitely had children and two sons seemingly didn't have children. Hopefully some of these descendants might discover this website and add to our knowledge of Mary Ann Bugg's family.   

Sources
[1] Brouwer, David Captain Thunderbolt: Horsebreaker to Bushranger, C.B. Alexander Foundation, Tocal, 2007, p.87
[2] NSW Electoral Rolls: Mudgee [SLNSW – Microfilms in Genealogical Section]
[3] Maitland Mercury 29 Mar 1866 p.2, 3 Apr 1866 p.2, 12 Jan 1867 p.8
[4] Maitland Mercury 12 Jan 1867 p.8
[5] Maitland Mercury 23 Feb 1864 p.2
[6] Maitland Mercury 29 Mar 1866 p.2, 3 Apr 1866 p.2
[7] Withycombe, E.G. The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names, Clarendon Press, London, 1950, pp.201 & 210
[8] The Empire 21 Nov 1867 p.8 (see Did Mary Ann Bugg die in 1867?)
[9] Sydney Morning Herald 28 Nov 1867 p.4 – from Singleton Times