Catherine Bentley
Contents
Background
Catherine (Sherwin) was born around 1829 in County Sligo, Ireland and came to Australia. Her parents were Amelia and Roderick Sherwin. She married James Bentley on 10 March 1853, St Peter’s Melbourne, and they produced the following family: Henry Francis b. 1853 Melbourne; Louise (died in 1922); Ada Selina (married 1883, Martin August Hoffmeister); Matilda b. 1857 Collingwood (married 1877, Albert Reid); Albert Action b. 1861 Inglewood (died 1861 Inglewood, aged 1 year). [1][2]
Both Catherine and her sister, Mary, were educated and sailed to Australia as free emigrants in 1850, and married soon after their their arrival in the Colony. [3]
Goldfields Involvement, 1854
Along with her husband, James Bentley, Catherine was accused of murdering James Scobie outside the Eureka Hotel in October 1854.
When Catherine Bentley was admitted to the Melbourne Gaol (as Catherine Bennett) in 1854 for the murder of James Scobie she said that she was an Irish protestant who had come to Victoria in 1850 on the Lochnagar. Catherine also said that she could read and write well, but was not of superior education. The prison authorities describe her as being of slight build, with a dark complexion, black hair and dark grey eyes. Sir Charles Hotham wrote that he felt she was a former convict. At the murder trial the Argus described Catherine as ‘young and handsome’. Catherine Bentley was acquitted but her husband was gaoled for three years. She claimed that the loss of the hotel and the subsequent trial had left her near destitute. Catherine was forced to take her two children to Maryborough where she ran a refreshment tent. She applied for compensation for the loss of her husband’s property by the burning of the hotel under the title of The Humble Petition of Catherine Bentley late of the Eureka Hotel Ballarat to Sir Charles Hotham 18 Jan 1855 and Maryborough 17 May 1855. The Board did not admit the claim.
Bentley, a broken man, only served half his sentence and was released on 18 March 1856. He turned to alcohol it is assumed to drown his sorrows after his massive hotel burned to ashes, and his future in tatters. After the release of her husband James and Catherine had two further children. The Australasian in February 1871 stated that ‘James Francis Bentley, pickle maker, of Little Bourke St, had attempted to commit suicide on the steps of Parliament House’. The report went on to say that this was the same Bentley who had been involved in the Eureka Stockade riots . His suicide attempt on 10 April 1873 at Carlton, from an overdose of laudanum, was successful. James Bentley was buried in the Boroondara Cemetery, Kew. Catherine stated at the inquest that ‘My husband had never been of quite right mind since he lost his property at the Ballarat Riots. He has never recovered from the effects of it’.
Six years later, on 2 October 1878 at Condell St, Fitzroy, Melbourne, Catherine married Andrew Mayo, from the State of Maine, United States of America. On the marriage certificate her name is recorded as Irene Ormsby Bentley. The couple had no children. Catherine died from apoplexy on 14 December 1906 aged 75 years, and was buried at Neerim South cemetery. She had spent 57 years in Victoria. [4]; [5]; [6]; [7].
Catherine Bentley was one of the sponsors to a baptism at St Alipius Chapel, Ballarat East. Bridget (Lennon) and Patrick Doyle had a son, Edward, baptised at St Alipius on 16 October 1854. The sponsors were James Doyle and Catherine Bentley. This Catherine was possibly the wife of the proprietor of the Eureka Hotel, James Bentley but this cannot be ascertained positively.
Post 1854 Experiences
See also
Further Reading
Corfield, J.,Wickham, D., & Gervasoni, C. The Eureka Encyclopaedia, Ballarat Heritage Services, 2004.
Wright, Claire, Labour Pains: Towards a Female Perspective on the birth of Australian Democracy IN Reappraising an Australian Legend, edited by Alan Mayne, Perth, Network Books, 2007.
References
- ↑ Justin Corfield, Dorothy Wickham, Clare Gervasoni, The Eureka Encyclopaedia, Ballarat Heritage Services, 2004
- ↑ Dorothy Wickham, Women of the Diggings: Ballarat 1854, Ballarat Heritage Services, 2009
- ↑ Wright, Claire, Labour Pains: Towards a Female Perspective on the birth of Australian Democracy IN Reappraising an Australian Legend, edited by Alan Mayne, Perth, Network Books, 2007.
- ↑ Ian McFarlane, Eureka: From the Official Records, Public Record Office Victoria, p. 68, 109
- ↑ Notes from Lois Keating and Clare Wright
- ↑ Betty Osborne & Trenear DuBourg, Maryborough: A Social History, Maryborough, 1985, p. 72
- ↑ Sally Wilde, Forests Old Pastures New: A History of Warragul, Shire of Warragul, 1988, p. 119
