MARY WITHERINGTON OR CHRISTIAN CAMERON

A caricature of a convict woman 7th voussoir R eastern arch north face

It has been asserted that the portrait on the eastern arch of the north face is of Mary Witherington, Daniel Herbert’s wife. Norman Laird and Leslie Greener in their book Ross Bridge and the sculpture of Daniel Herbert (1970) made the assertion but I am not so sure.

There are four caricatures on the eastern arch of the north face: on the left as you look at it, on the 7th stone is Norah Cobbett, the despised convict informer. On the 9th stone is her husband, Jorgen Jorgenson, the man who married her to protect her, though against sage advice.

Matching him on the right side is Rum John Conn, an Indian from Gujarat who was about 70 years old when the carvings were fixed into the arches. He arrived in the district in 1823, the owner of Emu Point, the best land on the Macquarie, according to the land commissioners in 1826. IN 1835, he married Christian Cameron, a convict woman who had been banished to the interior owing to her recividism in Hobart Town. Convict women were permitted to be married to free men but were still under the surveillance of the police.

Rum John Conn’s record of marriage with Christian Cameron 30th November 1835

Christian Cameron was a Glaswegian who was tried in Edinburgh on 6th June 1831 for picking pockets. She had been a house servant and imprisoned twice before; this time she was sentenced to 14 years transportation. (TAHO Con40-1-P335). She arrived in the Hydery on 11th August, 1832 and was sent to the female House of Correction(TAHO CON15-2-1, image 26; CON27-2-1_00003).

She was 23 years old, five feet and three quarters of an inch tall, of sallow complexion. She had brown hair and eyebrows with dark grey eyes, an oval face with a perpendicular forehead, a medium wide mouth, a small nose and a small chin. She had a scar on her right cheek. (CON 19-1-13 image 73)

Mary Witherington had been a house maid. She was indicted for stealing, on 4th June 1828, 3 spoons, value 8s; 4 blankets, value 8s; 2 tablecloths, value 5s; 5 sheets, value 14s; 1 counterpane, value 4s; 1 bolster, value 2s; 3 pillows, value 3s; 1 table-cover, value 1s, the goods of Ann Stanley, widow, of Tavistock Street, Covent Garden, her mistress. The items had been pawned at four pawnbrokers. She was found guilty and transported for 14 years.

(www.oldbaileyonline.org. Mary Witherington; Theft: simple larceny; 3rd July 1828 reft18280703-101)

Mary was short , only four feet, eleven and a half inches, with a fair complexion and light brown hair. Her face was ‘nearly’ round, her forehead perpendicular, her eyebrows brown and eyes hazel to grey. Her nose tended to be large as was her chin; her mouth was medium wide. (CON19-1-13 image 55) She had been baptised on June 22nd, 1806, at Sixpenny Handley, Dorset. (Ancestry.com)

Two views of the caricature of the woman on the 7th voussoir, right side of the eastern arch, north face

The stone-carvers were not skilled portrait artists. This woman is wearing a tizzy cap with a jewel-clasp and lacy edge. She has a lacy collar and has carefully curled her fringe and ringlets, held in place by a ribbon over her ears.. Convict women were ordered to wear plain clothes and the carver has dressed up his subject like a prostitute. Dan’s wife would not have been portrayed as such while he was overseer on the bridge.. Mary received her ticket of leave in October 1836; Christian received hers in 1838, both after their marriages and after the bridge was completed. On the other side of the arch, Norah Cobbett is similarly tarted up.

Norah Cobbett, convict, who absconded and lived with stock thieves before informing on them.

A caricature most likely carved by James Colbeck, St Lukes Church, Bothwell

The style of the woman’s head on St Lukes Church, Bothwell, is similar: fancy head-dress, .curly fringe, thick eyebrows, outlined almond-shaped eyes, a straight undetailed nose, no naso-labial folds, smooth cheeks, a thin-lipped mouth and non-descript chin. The St Lukes’ head was carved six years before the Ross Bridge carvings, when James Colbeck (but not Dan Herbert) was working there. He arrived in Ross in 1831 and is likely to have known Rum John Conn, Jorgen Jorgenson and Norah Cobbett. He had a chance to practise his sculpting technique before Dan Herbert arrived in mid-1835; Mary Witherington arrived for her marriage with Dan which was on July 1st, permission having been granted in May. Christian must have arrived about June, after 3 months imprisonment for general misconduct and being AWOL while assigned to the McKenzie household at Great Swanport.

Below her on the edge of the stone is a moth, presumably flying from dark towards the light. Above her is a raptor in descent. Does it refer to her or her captor …. ? Together do they symbolise the captive, criminal woman who has found a way to the light?

Description records are thought to be dubious. Does the woman have a largish or small nose? Does she have an oval face and small chin.There is a photograph of Mary Herbert taken in her middle age - perhaps in 1846 after her son Ernest Henry died. She may be wearing mourning clothes. Is it possible to say there is a likeness?

Photographic portrait of Mary Witherington.

It seems that the carving is of a convict woman, satirised as a prostitute. She relates to Rum John Conn as Norah Cobbett relates to her husband, Jorgen Jorgenson on the same arch. Because Mary Witherington was in Ross as Mrs. Daniel Herbert, it is unlikely she would have been portrayed as a doxy. Her behaviour was steadier than Christian’s during the years before their arrival in Ross; Christian was rebellious enough to be banished to the country. Description records are unreliable; a ‘nearly round’ face; medium large nose and medium wide mouths seems equivocal. Only Christian’s ‘oval visage’ and ‘small chin’ might be described in the sculpture which must have been done in the latter half of 1835, even after November, if it is assumed that she is Rum John Conn’s wife.

Who knows? But I do not think it can be asserted without question that the face is of Mary Witherington.

Self-doubt; self reproach, even?

THE STONE CARVERS AS CYNICS