Midwife - Abigail Dann

Abigail Dann - the midwife

Let me make it clear from the start, Abigail Dann is not my ancestor. However, she did play a conspicuous role in the life of my great-grandmother Mary Ann Hole. Abigail appeared as a midwife on the birth certificates of four of her children, including my grandmother Dora.

 Abigail Dann (nee Goade) was a 10-pound pom, a 20-year old servant who came to Australia in 1856 as an assisted immigrant from Cornwall. When she set sail she left her parents behind to travel to the other side of the world!

It seems she had an Uncle Richard living in Maitland, NSW, so it was there she headed on arrival,  and where she remained for the rest of her life and the best part of 50 years.  Evidently, she also trained as a nurse and midwife. 

Abigail didn't waste any time in finding a partner and settled on Henry Hayward. I don't believe they were ever officially married, but they had 5 children together, Abigail was undoubtedly gathering much personal experience of childbirth. She had three girls and two boys, though sadly, the two boys died as infants. 

Abigail re-partnered in 1869, marrying Horace Dann, 20 years her senior.  They had no children together, though she became stepmother to his four adult children. Twenty-five years later her husband died of heart failure aged 78. 

Regarding her connection to Mary Ann, Abigail first appeared on our certificates in 1896, a widow and no doubt able to support herself with her trade. 

She delivered John Claud (1896),  Etty (1897), Otto (1898) and my grandmother Dora (1901). I originally wondered why she hadn't delivered Mary Ann's final child,  little Alice in 1903, and then I found that she had passed away in 1902. 

The reports of her death give quite a lot of detail about the town and the townsfolk. Abigail had lived in Melbourne Street West Maitland, just a couple of streets over from Abbott Street where Mary Ann lived with her husband John. 

On the morning of 25th October 1902, Abigail had been called in the wee hours of the morning to attend to one of her patients in a state of confinement. She spoke to her daughter and seemed in perfect health and set off on foot, but on the way to the call, she seems to have fainted on the doorstep of Rohan's Hotel. The local baker, Mr Sams, found her and went for Dr Power, just a few doors up. 

Waking Dr Power and his wife at 3am, they took her to the surgery but Dr and Mrs Power with all their efforts were unable to save her and she passed within 15 minutes.

She left behind 5 grown-up daughters, 14 grandchildren and 1 great-grandchild. Described as "a woman of kindly heart and charitable disposition", I hope this is how Mary Ann found her to be during childbirth. I would love to see a photo of this woman who helped our Mary Ann.

The other townsfolk mentioned

The baker, Mr George Sams, who came across Abigail, would have been on his way to work. I found that he had many professions before his 30 yr stint as a baker, including "as a folder off the old hand-printing machines" at the Newcastle Morning Herald and also a blacksmith. As a baker, he surely would have been well acquainted with the town residents!

Dr W.D. Power, apparently a genial Irishman who suffered from rheumatism. He was a medical officer to the Oddfellows Guild of which my great-grandfather John Tiedemann was a member. Dr Power was also an honorary medical officer to the Benevolent Home where Mary Ann gave birth to her son George. 

Mrs Power, his wife, was the only daughter of the proprietor of the Maitland Mercury Newspaper where Mary Ann's eldest son George worked as a young man.

And so...every town has its characters and it starts to build a real picture of where our ancestors existed and the people around them in their everyday lives. I shall have to research the butcher and the publican next..... :)