Jeanie Jack was born 1867 in Hamilton on the southeastern outskirts of Glasgow, Scotland. Her parents were William Jack and Catherine McDonald. William, a coalminer, was the son of Arthur Jack, labourer, and Jane Jackson. Catherine was the daughter of Malcolm McDonald, housepainter, and Jane Millar.
William and Catherine married on the 21st December 1861 in Leechlee Street, Hamilton, “according to the forms of the UP Church of Scotland”.
Jeanie was the first daughter of a large family to William and Catherine. Older than her were brothers Arthur (1863) and Malcolm (1865). Younger siblings included Mary-Ann, born on the 10th January 1869, Annie (1871), John (1875), Alexander (1877) and James (1881).
The next record of Jeanie is found in the NSW immigration papers. Here she is listed as Jane Jack, 18 years old. Her occupation is listed as “servant”, home county as Lanark, and her religion as Presbyterian.
Jane listed an uncle as present in the Colony. This may have been either William Spalding, her aunt’s husband, or perhaps more likely her mother’s brother, John McDonald who is believed to have come to the colony with his wife Martha for a while. It is not yet known who paid the immigration deposit for Jane. She left Scotland aboard the SS Belgic out of Plymouth Harbour, arriving in Sydney on the 12th of September 1885.
On arrival, she probably stayed with her aunt, Ann Spalding, in Rosebery Street, Balmain. William Spalding, his wife Ann and family had arrived in Sydney the year before aboard the Stirlingshire. This is probably where Jane came to meet young Thomas Baird Hannah whom she married in 1888.
The wedding took place “according to the forms of the Presbyterian church” in the home of William and Ann Spalding, attended and witnessed by Albert Kitching and Maria Carr, who was later to marry William Spalding Jnr. The ceremony was performed by Reverend James Cosh.
In addition to the Spaldings, family members who attended may have included Thomas’s sister Margaret and husband Charles Burns (with cousins William, Charles, Mary and baby Robert), and sister Jane, her husband Alexander, and their daughter Agnes. Probably also Jane’s uncle John MacDonald, his wife Martha and family were there as well.
Children were soon to follow. William Alexander Hannah was born on the 3rd of December 1888 in Halloran Street, Leichardt. A Mrs Sonter, or perhaps Souter, Thomas’ sister Jane, attended the birth.
Their second child, Agnes, was born on 7th September 1892. By now, Thomas and Jane had moved to 120 Foucart Street, Balmain. Foucart Street runs away from Rozelle Bay and up the hill to Balmain. In attendance at the birth were Doctor Davidson and Mrs Spalding. This could have been either Mrs Ann Spalding, or her daughter-in-law, Maria. Their last child, Catherine (Kate) was born on the 11th December 1894. This is the first occasion when Jane recorded her name as “Jeanie”. Doctor Kelly and Mrs Spalding attended the birth.
When baby Catherine was almost five months old, tragedy was to strike the little family. On the evening of Monday the 8th of April, Thomas decided to go down to the wharf at the bottom of Gordon Street, Rozelle, and catch some prawns. The Daily Telegraph reported that an eyewitness alerted Balmain police that she had seen “a man” slip from the rocks after the net become tangled around his leg. The water police recovered Thomas’s body at 11 am on Tuesday morning.
William Spalding of 21 Christie Street, Balmain, and Jane Hannah of Foucart Street, Balmain witnessed Thomas’s death certificate.
Jeanie would have stayed in Sydney for a few years. After the deaths of Charles Burns and Alexander Souter, and with the outbreak of bubonic plague in Sydney around 1900 she decided to return to her hometown of Hamilton with her three children.
Charles Burns Jnr writes of the time around her departure as follows:
“He (William Alexander Hannah) was a native of Rozelle and went home to Scotland with his mother and sister Agnes when they were very small, after their father had been drowned in Rozelle Bay. The Balmain people got up a benefit for my Aunt, and they raised 100 pound. I went with my mother to the concert.
‘It was during the bubonic plague and when we got there we were told that that part of Balmain was to be quarantined, but this did not happen till two days after. I carried Agnes who was about 3 years old aboard the ship, and didn’t she play up on the way over. The youngest Cathie got thrown out of her Bunk and broke her collarbone.”
Hamilton was a major coal mining town in the early 1900’s. Just south east of Glasgow, most of it’s population was either involved in, or dependant on the industry. The children attended the Hamilton “ragged” school as it was apparently known. In March 1901 when the census was taken, the family were living at 45 Muir Street, along with Jeanie’s parents and 21 other people. The building must have been typical of the tenement style dwellings built to accommodate the mine workers. Unfortunately most of the buildings that stood there in the early part of the 20th century have now been demolished to make way for widening of the road.
On the census returns, Jeanie recorded her occupation as “washerwoman”, surely a hard, thankless and tiresome task in a town and family of coalminers. The children were all recorded as scholars.
In 1901 Jeanie remarried to William Linton in Hamilton. A daughter Janet (Jessie) was born to the couple on the 7th June 1905. Legend suggests that the children of her first marriage didn’t get on well with their stepfather, perhaps preferring the company of their uncle William and family. This would account for why their uncle was involved in their schooling.
Jeanie Jack died on Sunday the 3rd of July, 1910 at 45 Muir Street, Hamilton, at the age of 42 years. The cause of death was given as pulmonary phthisis, a form of consumption. Her death registration was witnessed by her husband William. She was buried in Plot G597, Wellhall Cemetery, Hamilton. Memorial inscription here.
The following notices appeared in the Hamilton Advertiser.
Her husband William was to die thirty years later on the 18th of November 1940. He was placed in the same plot.
