Hessie Lang - More to the Mystery

I had no idea when I sat down to write this follow up post about Hessie Lang that it has been EXACTLY 10 years since I first wrote about her.

When I was researching Edward Lang I started to think perhaps some of the John Lee Ross family had enlisted as well. To my surprise I stumbled across Frederick Ross a name which I knew as Hessie's husband. When I looked at the papers it gave the next of kin as Frank Seymour of Murrumburrah. After a bit of searching Trove threw up something I wasn't expecting to see, though I know I have read this article many times. John Lang's obituary mentions his daughters and one is Mrs Seymour. I'm not sure I ever looked or wondered about who Mrs Seymour might be as I have not included her on my blog or my tree. 

"Mr. John Lang." Murrumburrah Signal and County of Harden Advocate,
7 July 1927, p. 2, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article214457204

If we compare the names of the children from the obituary to those found on the death certificate we note:

The four sons John, Frank, Edward and Charles are listed.

The daughters are listed married daughters first, then Catherine and Mabel listed as Misses Kate and Mabel Lang. The deceased females were Mary (Edwards having passed in 1925), Agnes Lang (died 1914) and Josephine who had died as a baby (1887). From family records we know that Sarah was Mrs Cullen, Rose was Mrs Mellish so it left Hessie to be named as Mrs Seymour (interestingly no initial was given to denote her husband's name). In Mary Edward's obituary in 1925 she is noted as living at Cowra. 

From Frederick Ross' attestation papers we know that he was living in Garah near Narrabri. Frank Seymour was living in Murrumburrah.

As I had already written, it appears Hessie left town with an Aboriginal man. A recent comment on this blog from a distant cousin confirms that other families had the same belief. Hessie had definitely been a mystery and it would appear once she left town no one really knew much about what she did or where she was. The comment goes on to say that Hessie, after being abandoned by her husband, had taken her children and was living with them in a cave in the Pilbara where they all starved to death. We know this is not true, and a terrible story like this hints that it was better to admit she was neglected by her Aboriginal husband than enjoying a loving relationship with him.

In 1916 Hessie had given birth to a child, William, who had died soon after birth. No father was listed. On her death certificate only the children of Fred Ross are noted. 

So here is my theory: 

Hessie and Frank Seymour knew each other while he was in Murrumburrah. We know there was a married man with that name living in Murrumburrah (maybe Wombat) [Ref: "OBITUARY," Young Witness, 11 April 1919, p. 6, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article122432778.]

William may have been the product of an affair between them. Alternatively Frank Seymour may have been another child of Frank & Mary Seymour. As Fred Ross was listed as a step-brother it is possible Mary may have been his mother and Frank his step-father. 

Sometime between 1915 and 1920 Hessie leaves Murrumburrah and begins living at Narrandera. As Fred had been overseas as a soldier until 1918 we can presume that the relationship began around late 1918-1919. Her death certificate states they had been together ten years, so this matches the theory. 

It is possible that Frank Seymour introduced the two of them. Fred had wished to return to Murrumburrah after the war and may have been known as Fred Seymour in town if his step father was Seymour. A number of conflicting records identify Fred as being born in either Narrabri, Gunning or Redfern. It is possible he may have wanted to hide an Aboriginal identity. It is likely as well that his father worked for the railways if he was born in Redfern. In 1890 the NSW Department of Railways was the largest employee of Aboriginal people. [Ref: http://www.redfernoralhistory.org/Timeline/Timeline/tabid/239/Default.aspx]

The fact that the family refer to Hessie as Mrs Seymour is very telling that they either did not approve of her relationship or preferred the family know her as Mrs Seymour instead of by the name Ross. Ross, perhaps the Aboriginal side. 

Once again we find few records on Hessie under the name Ross other than her death records and children's birth records. We cannot find anything in the electoral rolls for either her or Fred Ross despite him being well known in the town of Portland at the time of Hessie's death.