One of the most tragic stories of Elizabeth Spinks’s descendants is that of her granddaughter Mary Louisa Whyms. Mary Louisa was the daughter of Elizabeth’s third daughter Mary Ann Dennis and her husband David William Whyms. Mary Louisa was born at Fairy Meadow in 1863 probably at or near Elizabeth Spinks’s home. When she was about three years old her family moved to the property at Jamberoo that Elizabeth had provided for her mother Mary Ann. When Mary Louisa was about 12 years old her mother died leaving her father with seven children under 15 to care for.
In 1878 when Mary Louisa was fifteen years old she was assaulted by John Wildman, the charge being attempting to commit rape. The day of 26 November or 5 December 1878 (the newspaper reports of the trials give two different dates)1 started out with Mary Louisa travelling by horseback to purchase some flour. Along the way Mary Louisa saw John Wildman who asked her to bring him a bottle of rum, to buy herself a handkerchief, and to return to him with the rum and the change from a one pound note. John Wildman was known to Mary Louisa as he had been to her home and lived along the same road.
On her return Mary Louisa gave Wildman his rum and change. He then took hold of her horse’s bridle forcing it into a bushy area and pulling Mary Louisa from the saddle. She struggled and shouted to be left alone but the assault lasted for about half an hour. Both newspaper reports note that some of the evidence was not fit for publication. After the attack Wildman asked Mary Louisa to take some rum but she would not, and said she would tell her aunt Mrs King.2 Mary Louisa did not tell her father on her return home as she feared he would beat her.
Mary Louisa told Mrs Emma Wildman (John Wildman’s wife) of the incident about a week later and she accompanied her to tell her father who took her to Dr William Tarrant to be examined. Mary Louisa did not know what rape was until she told by Mrs Wildman. She also told Mrs Hannah Keevers3 but it is not stated as to whether she spoke to her aunt Mrs King.
Mary Louisa was cross examined by counsel for the defence Mr W C King, as were witnesses Hannah Keevers and her father David Whyms. The doctor would not confirm that she had been raped but stated her injury may have been caused sometime previously. Mary Louisa was forced to defend herself against a number of claims made by the defence who also seem to have suggested that she went to Mrs Wildman as she knew the Wildman’s relationship was not in a good state, and thus she would have readily jumped to the defence of Mary Louisa. David Whyms, Mary Louisa’s father, stated that his daughter had never been to school but had attended Sunday School at times.4
At the first court hearing in Kiama, shortly after the assault, it was noted that the searching cross-examination of Mary Louisa was difficult owing to her ‘weak mental calibre’ and she was unable to answer any question unless it was put in the ‘most simple language’.5 It is possible that Mary Louisa had some level of intellectual disability. This may explain why she had never been to school and at 15 years of age did not understand what rape was.
At the conclusion of the initial hearing in Kiama on 20 December 1878 the defence counsel Mr W C King made a lengthy address in favour of his client’s liberation but the court ordered the matter proceed to the Wollongong quarter sessions. It may have seemed that justice would prevail but at the trial in Wollongong the verdict was ‘not guilty’.
Mary Louisa Whyms was a young girl who had endured a traumatic experience which she did not understand. She had no mother to confide in and feared retribution from her father if she were to tell him. After telling some older women they did exactly what they should have and supported Mary Louisa but the trial shows how the male controlled world of the nineteenth century operated.
John Wildman had previously been before the Kiama court in 1876 for being drunk and disorderly, a charge which was dismissed as it was his first offence.6 He appears again on 14 March 1877 on a charge of cattle stealing for which he escaped conviction due to a technicality.7 Following the rape trial he appears to have deserted his wife and family appearing in court on numerous occasions in the Illawarra for a wide range of offences including drunkenness, offensive behaviour, assault and theft.8 He was charged at the Bulli Police Court in June 1880 with wife desertion and ordered to pay his wife eight shillings a week for twelve months for support.9 He may have been the same John Wildman who committed extensive crimes in Sydney from the early 1880s including the assault of a two year old girl for which he was acquitted.10
What happened to Mary Louisa Whyms between 1879 and 1887 is not known. The rest of her story is here – Mary Louisa Whyms – the end…
1. ↑ The Kiama Examiner description of the first trial gives a date of 26 November 1878 and the Illawarra Mercury report of the trial held in Wollongong on 8 February 1879 gives the date at 5 December 1878.
2. ↑ Mrs King was Elizabeth Spinks’s daughter Charity Grace Dennis who was married to William King. The Kings lived next door to the Whyms. This King family had no connection to the defence counsel Mr W C King.
3. ↑ This was probably Hannah Hunt wife of Edward Keevers.
4. ↑ “SATURDAY, 8TH FEBRUARY.” Illawarra Mercury (Wollongong, NSW : 1856 – 1950) 11 February 1879: 2. Web. 5 May 2021 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article135687231>.
5. ↑ “Kiama Police Court.” The Kiama Independent, and Shoalhaven Advertiser (NSW : 1863 – 1947) 20 December 1878: 2. Web. 5 May 2021 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article114188034>.
6. ↑ “KIAMA POLICE COURT.” The Kiama Independent, and Shoalhaven Advertiser (NSW : 1863 – 1947) 2 March 1876: 2. Web. 5 May 2021 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article101481724>.
7. ↑ “Kiama Police Court.” The Kiama Independent, and Shoalhaven Advertiser (NSW : 1863 – 1947) 16 March 1877: 2. Web. 5 May 2021 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article114196068>.
8. ↑ State Records Authority of New South Wales; Kingswood, New South Wales, Australia; Clerk of the Peace, Index to Quarter Sessions, Criminal Cases, 1839-1888; Series Number: NRS 846;
9. ↑ “North Illawarra Municipal Council.”Illawarra Mercury (Wollongong, NSW : 1856 – 1950) 25 June 1880: 2. Web. 5 May 2021 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article135937536>.
10. ↑ “METROPOLITAN QUARTER SESSIONS.”The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW : 1883 – 1930) 16 April 1902: 10. Web. 5 May 2021 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.nshews-article237340580>.
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