People Australia

Jane Marriott (1847-1903) community worker

Birth: 1847 in Gosford, New South Wales, daughter of Irish-born parents James Cain or Cains, cooper and bushman, and Ellen, née Flynn, a kitchen-maid who was a convict. Marriages: (1) apparently had a de facto relationship in the late 1860s from which she had two sons and a daughter. (2) 1873 in Newcastle, NSW, to English-born Daniel Innes. (3) 11 September 1884 in St Philip’s church, Waratah, NSW, to Daniel Marriott, a miner. Death: 2 March 1903 in Charlestown, Newcastle. Religion: Anglican. 

• Was a widow living at Tighes Hill, Newcastle, when she married Marriott. Signed her name with a mark and gave her occupation as a housekeeper. Her son John Cain was known as John Marriott.
• Moved to Boulder, Western Australia, with husband Daniel in 1895.
• Her charitable acts “made her name a household word among the mining populations of Boulder and the Golden Mile. Her genial disposition and her readiness with her purse to help the poor and distressed, and her sympathy with the sick and ailing, made her an ever-welcome factor in the inner life of the people. Many a man she nursed back to life from typhoid fever, without any idea of accepting fee or reward for her services.”
• Returned with her husband to Newcastle in 1902.
• Cause of death “malignant disease and exhaustion”.