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| meta_hobbs_emmeline_dorothy_eileen_hickson_frederic_robert_julius_ruth_m-p [2023/11/09 10:15] – judith | meta_hobbs_emmeline_dorothy_eileen_hickson_frederic_robert_julius_ruth_m-p [2023/11/09 10:21] – judith |
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| Nora apparently suffered 'perineal tears and subsequent haemorrhage' during Julius' birth (( Katie Spearitt, 'The Sexual Economics of Colonial marriage' in Gail Reekie (ed) On the Edge. Women's experiences of Queensland', University of Queensland Press, 1994, p.71)) but nevertheless, eight months later she conceived again and desperately, despairingly, sought to induce an abortion. With her earlier pregnancies, she had taken care not to miscarry, cancelling travel and postponing dental work.((Nora to Rosa, 9 February 1879, OM 81-71.)) This time was very different. In a much-quoted passage, she wrote to Rosa: '//What will you say to me? How will you manifest your disgust? When I tell you that I am again sick, sorry and expecting ... When it first began I resolved to try heroic remedies - so ... had sixteen teeth taken out - but ... I was much pulled down and very sick after it, but my prospects remain the same. What will become of all my little ones of whom the world stands in no need, how will they find niches & sure foothold for themselves amongst the many struggling ones who are each pushing for themself. There is certainly not room for them all to walk safely - some of them must go to the wall. No mother even bore children into the world with more foreboding than I do...//'((Nora M-P to Rosa Praed, 3 November, 21 December 1884, M-P papers, JOLQ, OM81-71. )) Fortunately for Nora, it was to be her last baby. | Nora apparently suffered 'perineal tears and subsequent haemorrhage' during Julius' birth (( Katie Spearitt, 'The Sexual Economics of Colonial marriage' in Gail Reekie (ed) On the Edge. Women's experiences of Queensland', University of Queensland Press, 1994, p.71)) but nevertheless, eight months later she conceived again and desperately, despairingly, sought to induce an abortion. With her earlier pregnancies, she had taken care not to miscarry, cancelling travel and postponing dental work.((Nora to Rosa, 9 February 1879, OM 81-71.)) This time was very different. In a much-quoted passage, she wrote to Rosa: '//What will you say to me? How will you manifest your disgust? When I tell you that I am again sick, sorry and expecting ... When it first began I resolved to try heroic remedies - so ... had sixteen teeth taken out - but ... I was much pulled down and very sick after it, but my prospects remain the same. What will become of all my little ones of whom the world stands in no need, how will they find niches & sure foothold for themselves amongst the many struggling ones who are each pushing for themself. There is certainly not room for them all to walk safely - some of them must go to the wall. No mother even bore children into the world with more foreboding than I do...//'((Nora M-P to Rosa Praed, 3 November, 21 December 1884, M-P papers, JOLQ, OM81-71. )) Fortunately for Nora, it was to be her last baby. |
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| 8. **Ruth** Angela (27 July 1885-15 August 1961).((Qld Births registration no. B34762; //Sydney Morning Herald//, 16 August 1961.)) The birth notice was in the Brisbane Courier on 28 July 1885: 'MURRAY-PRIOR.—On the 27th July, at Ervingstone, South Brisbane, the wife of Thos. L.Murray-Prior, of Maroon, of a daughter'. As there were other births at Ervingstone, it is likely it was a private maternity hospital. As TLM-P later stated that Ruth was born at Kangaroo Point, presumably that is where Ervingstone was located. Dorothy, Alienora and Ruth were all baptised at the Kangaroo Point Church of England by the Rev. D. A. Court. ((‘Questions to be answered by T.L.M-P’, 6pp Memoranda by the Herald Office, Somerset House, London re Burke’s Colonial Gentry.)) As the youngest child, Ruth was seven when her 73-year-old father died. When her mother chose a verse to describe her, probably in the 1890s, it was one from the poet Lowell, 'I know not how others see her/ but to me she is wholly fair.'((M-P family papers, NLA, Box 7, folder 42.)) From shortly before World War I, Ruth lived in England (mostly London) with her mother and her elder sister Dorothy. After Nora died, Ruth and Dorothy returned to Australia in 1931. The sisters spent the rest of their life at 'Drak', 17 Madeline Street, Hunters Hill.\\ | 8. **Ruth** Angela (27 July 1885-15 August 1961).((Qld Births registration no. B34762; //Sydney Morning Herald//, 16 August 1961.)) The birth notice((28 July 1885, Brisbane Courier)) stated that, like her brother Julius, Ruth was born at Ervingstone, presumably a private maternity hospital: 'MURRAY-PRIOR.—On the 27th July, at Ervingstone, South Brisbane, the wife of Thos. L. Murray-Prior, of Maroon, of a daughter'. Dorothy, Alienora and Ruth were all baptised at the Kangaroo Point Church of England by the Rev. D. A. Court.((‘Questions to be answered by T.L.M-P’, 6pp Memoranda by the Herald Office, Somerset House, London re Burke’s Colonial Gentry.)) As the youngest child, Ruth was seven when her 73-year-old father died. When her mother chose a verse to describe her, probably in the 1890s, it was one from the poet Lowell, 'I know not how others see her/ but to me she is wholly fair.'((M-P family papers, NLA, Box 7, folder 42.)) From shortly before World War I, Ruth lived in England (mostly London) with her mother and her elder sister Dorothy. After Nora died, Ruth and Dorothy returned to Australia in 1931. The sisters spent the rest of their life at 'Drak', 17 Madeline Street, Hunters Hill.\\ |
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| In 1903 the 18-year-old Ruth wrote to her 'Dearest Old Mother' saying that she would like to be coached in mathematics, if Nora could afford it.((M-P family papers, NLA MS 7801, folder 22)) If the coaching occurred and was for matriculation, it succeeded as she enrolled in the University of Sydney and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1906. Her success meant that for three successive years she, her brother Robert (in 1905) and her sister Dorothy (1904) all graduated from that University with a BA.((//Alunmi Sidneienses//, University of Sydney Archives, accessed 25 October 2003.)) Ruth shared her mother's and her sister Dorothy's intellectual interests: in 1904 all three attended the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science congress in New Zealand.((//Otago Daily Times//, 7 January 1904, p.2; //Evening Star//, 5 January 1904, p.4.))\\ | In 1903 the 18-year-old Ruth wrote to her 'Dearest Old Mother' saying that she would like to be coached in mathematics, if Nora could afford it.((M-P family papers, NLA MS 7801, folder 22)) If the coaching occurred and was for matriculation, it succeeded as she enrolled in the University of Sydney and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1906. Her success meant that for three successive years she, her brother Robert (in 1905) and her sister Dorothy (1904) all graduated from that University with a BA.((//Alunmi Sidneienses//, University of Sydney Archives, accessed 25 October 2003.)) Ruth shared her mother's and her sister Dorothy's intellectual interests: in 1904 all three attended the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science congress in New Zealand.((//Otago Daily Times//, 7 January 1904, p.2; //Evening Star//, 5 January 1904, p.4.))\\ |