Henry Richard was apparently also known as 'Richard Warland'. For the purposes of this document, the name 'Henry Richard' will be used to avoid any confusion.
Henry Richard Warland, born 9 August 1843, was the second son of Robert Warland (1807 - 1868), who with his wife Eliza Hordern, arrived in South Australia in November 1839 with his brother William Warlandand his wife and children. Sometime before 1860, Robert settled in the Thebarton area of South Australia. He placed an advertisement in the Adelaide Observer on 17 September 1859 stating: 'Henry Richard Warland, having left his home on the 31st August last without his father's consent, any person harbouring him after this date without informing his father will be prosecuted. Robert Warland, Balhannah'. Robert was recorded on 16 June 1860 living at Greenclose Park near Balhannah, having just suffered the loss of his five year old daughter Amelia, after '… a long and painful illness' (Adelaide Observer, 23 June 1860).
It is not known for certain what happened to Henry Richard Warland from the death of his father in 1868 (when he was 25) until at least 1880, when his mother died, or 1886, when he appears in Meningie (see below). One possibility is that he remained on the farm with his mother and siblings, including older brother Robert Frederick Warland and younger brother Edwin Warland.
A possible clue to Henry Richard Warland's life in the period from 1868 to 1886 may be found in the book 'So I Headed West' (Ballarat to Broken Hill, to Kanowna, to Kalgoorlie' by WG (Bill) Manners, a goldfields pioneer who lived from 1863 to 1924 (ISBN 0859051234, Copyright Ron Manners 1992. In the chapter 'School and Work (1875 - 1883)', Bill Manners wrote that he worked at the Phoenix Foundry, a locomotive works in Ballarat. He noted that 'there were quite a lot of real good fellows in this ship'. The company encouraged the men to attend the School of Mines as well. On pages 20 and 21 of the book, describing events in the early to mid 1880s, Manners wrote about the six men and boys who worked in the factory assembling tenders. After writing about three of the men, the chapter then has this paragraph:
The other three were nicknamed Long Dick, Fat Dick, and Little Dick. Long Dick was a man named Warland. He was about six foot three inches in height, and proportionately strong. He was 'a bit of a lad', afraid of no man, and was always chewing tobacco.'
Could this 'Dick' be (Henry) Richard Warland? Neither Long Dick nor Warland are mentioned again in this book. Further research might help to reveal if Richard Warland was in fact in Ballarat before returning to South Australia.
Henry Richard Warland does not appear in any records until 14 September 1886, in Meningie, at the age of 43, when he married the widow Mary Jane Washington. Mary Jane Washington already knew or met the older Henry Richard Warland in Meningie where he was working. They formed a relationship and she fell pregnant.
Having fallen pregnant to Henry Richard Warland, it is assumed that the Washington/May families placed some pressure on him to marry Mary Jane Washington- though he may have left it as late as possible. They married on 14 September 1886 'in house' ('House Meningie' in the BDM record) in Meningie, two months before the birth of Silvia (also known as Sylvia) on 10 November 1886. The marriage certificate indicates that Mary Jane was a widow at the time (her former husband George Russell having died of a self-inflicted but accidental gunshot wound on 31 January 1885. At the time of the accident they lived at at Milang, South Australia (near Meningie).
Henry Richard Warland was recorded as a laborer at Meningie in 1890. Mary Jane and Henry Richard Warland had the following additional children after Silvia Warland was born:
Henry Richard and Mary Jane Warland may have had one more child as Henry's death certificate records a deceased male child in addition to the three above.
Family descendents speaking in the mid 1980's stated that Henry Richard Warland was employed as a labourer on Malang Station, Bordertown, in 1893. William Edwin Warland was born in this year (as noted above).
Exactly what happened after the birth of William Edwin Warland in 1893 is not known. However, it seems that Mary Jane and Henry Richard Warland separated or became estranged sometime after William Edwin was born. By 1898, records show that Mary Jane was living with Charles Dunbar in Bordertown, presumably with her three children.
Henry Richard Warland then disappears from the official record from 1893 until 1916 when he re-appears as a gardener in Penola (Barker Division of South Australia electoral records) (see below).
One possibility is that Henry Richard Warland returned to the family home in Balhannah managed (possibly) by his younger brother Edwin Warland. He may have also travelled interstate although there is no apparent reference to him in Victoria registers. NSW remains a possibility but yet to be confirmed.
Mary Jane Warland was admitted to Mt Gambier Goal on 23 August 1900, convicted of 'feloniously receiving stolen property' at Bordertown and sent to jail for three months, according to the Prisoners Admission Book for Mt Gambier Goal.(Source: PRO SA letter dated August 1988). It is interesting to note that the record shows that she was from Milang, not Bordertown (where Charles was living at the time). She was released three months later - see below.
This possibly helps to explain the belief by some members of the family 90 or so years later that someone (they thought Henry Richard) had been to jail, and that was why the children had been fostered out.
As a result of their mother having been imprisoned, the young William Edwin Warland (aged 7) and his older sister Edith Jane Warland (aged 11) were fostered out in September 1900. This was recorded in the Ledgers of Children Boarded Out (1862 - 1920) (PRO SA Ref GRG 27/5).
The Register of Admissions to the Industrial School, No. 235 of 1900 (PRO SA Ref GRG 27/9/2), referred to both children. It stated that 'Mother Mary Jane Warland Prot(estant) late of Bordertown now in Mt Gambier Goal convicted of receiving stolen property. Father Henry Richard Warland, respectable but prior address unknown, step sister Kate Russell'. Both William and Edith were '... sentenced until l8 years being neglected children who are under unfit guardianship and whose father cannot be found'. This would suggest that Charles Dunbar was also unfit to look after the young children.
Mary Jane's daughter Silvia Warland, who was 14 at the time, was not fostered out. Avis Pearce has suggested it is possible that she went to live with Charles Dunbar or someone else in Bordertown, or with the Mays at Meningie, or alternatively was looked after by her grandmother Ellen and Robert. In any case, she returned to Bordertown no later than 1905.
Cate Russell, the children's half-sister, was in the Reformatory at Adelaide until 1901. Cate was living at Milang when she fell pregnant to the 'out of work stationhand Charles Seymour' in 1902, according to the adoption records of 1917.
William was fostered out to Jane Margaret Mutton of Kangarilla, 'sentenced until 18 years'. He appears to have remained with the Muttons, and worked as a farm labourer there, until he enlisted in the AIF in 1915. He was recorded there in the electoral roll for 1915.
Edith was initially fostered to Eliza Woodhead of Kensington Terrace, Norwood from 1900 to 1907, 'to go to school until 14 years; in 1903 the 'period at special terms' had expired. In March 1907, at the age of 17 3/4, she was removed to the home of Elizabeth Hylor (sp?) in Richmond Road (suburb not clear) but she was returned because she was 'unable to keep' (recorded 4 March 1907) because (it was recorded) she was 'dissatisifed with her house and subsequent enquiry by inspectors'. At 18 5/6, she was removed to the home of Charles James Jackman, Ironmonger of Jasper Street, Hyde Park. She absconded from the Jackmans on 24 July 1908 - see below.
In 1906 (the last date that Charles is recorded in Bordertown), Mary Jane's daughter Silvia was married in Bordertown on 3 October 1906 to Ernest Henry Joseph Dart at the residence of Thomas Dart snr, Bordertown. She was 19. She then moved to Geelong, Victoria. Their son Garnett was born in 1908 in Geelong, and daughter Edith was born in 1910.
It is not known if Charles had any involvement with the other children – Avis Pearce said that Andrew denied knowing anything about his father whom he said he believed to be Henry Richard Warland, but since Mary Jane had been living with Charles from before Andrew's birth, he must have known about the relationship and, as a seven year old schoolboy, must have known of Charles' death.
Silvia, who was living in and met her husband in Bordertown, and possibly Cate, as young adults, must have known of their mother's liaison with Charles Dunbar.
On 24 July 1908, Edith Jane Warland, who had been fostered out to the Jackman family, absconded. On the same day, the SA Police Gazette noted that an Edith Warland, fostered to a Mrs Jackman as a State Child, had absconded from Hyde Park. At some point after this, Edith left Adelaide and returned to Meningie; the electoral recorsd for 1914 show her there at that time, probably living with her grandmother Ellen Washington.
William Edwin Warland enlisted in the Army at Mitcham in 1915. Electoral records show him as living and working as a (farm) labourer at nearby Clarendon, suggesting he may he had travelled there from the May family home to get away from the farm work he said he wanted to escape. He may have visited (or even lived for a while) with his mother, though Andrew only mentioned him as a shadowy figure.
William Edwin named his next of kin as a T Mutton (his adopted parents) of Kangarilla (adjacent to Clarendon) when he enlisted, rather than Mary Jane or Edith who was living in Adelaide at the time, perhaps indicating an estrangement from the family. Mitcham would probably have been his nearest centre for enlistment in the Army.
William was apparently welcomed back to Kangarilla on his return, but left and was never seen again, having moved to Victoria.
It is not known yet what exactly happened to Henry Richard after 1893 (the birth of William Edwin) to 1915. He appears to have vanished from the scene (there is no reference to him in any electoral roll in the Barker Division of South Australia from 1905 to 1915) and then reappears in 1916 as a 'gardener' in Penola/Naracoorte. He was also recorded there in 1917. He died of heart failure on 15 April 1918, at Naracoorte. A newspaper article described him as an 'old age pensioner' who lived in the West end of the town. It noted that he arrived from Penola 'about two months ago and was about 75 years of age'.
The Warland children may not have been aware that their father was still alive in 1918, and may have been told by their mother that he had been killed by the kick of a horse; initially she may not have been able to care for the children when she went to live with Charles Dunbar or during her imprisonment and left her children in Meningie with her sister (or sister-in-law) Ellen Washington.
Henry Richard's death certificate lists Mary Jane Warland as his relation. Henry Richard was buried in Naracoorte.
The electoral records for the Barker Division of South Australia show the following individuals.
Bordertown
Clarendon
Meningie
Mundulla
Penola
As noted earlier, Silvia moved to Victoria and died in Warracknabeal in 1977 aged 90. Somewhat curiously, while her death certificate shows her father as Richard Warland (not 'Henry Richard'), her mother's maiden name is given as Mary Jane MAY. It seems possible that whoever gave the details for her death certificate either did not know or got the details wrong. Her husband Ernest Dart had pre-deceased her (aged 70) in 1954.
Edith died aged 93 in a nursing home at Prospect SA. Her husband George Gillies had predeceased her in 1953, aged 62.
William died at Geelong in 1993, aged 99 years and 364 days.
Page created 29 April 2013, updated 9 April 2020. Copyright © 2021 Andrew Warland. (andrewwarland(at)gmail.com)