Hunter Living Histories

Agnes Bridget/Beatrice Mary Hayes was born in 1853 in Tipperary, Ireland. She came to Australia on 29th April 1854 as an assisted immigrant on the “Merchantman” with her parents Cornelius Hayes and Honora Hayes (nee Kennedy), with three siblings; Mary Ann, Honoria, and Joseph.

By 1856 the Hayes family were living in Maitland N.S.W and from 1862 in Singleton N.S.W., where Cornelius Hayes was the licensee of the Golden Fleece Hotel. He later became the proprietor of the Great Northern Hotel, Newcastle.​

Agnes became the licensee of the Great Northern Hotel after she took over from William Winch in 1873 at the youthful age of 20, which was unusual since most women who applied for licenses were much older, by comparison, at the time.​

During her time at the hotel, she had collected an extensive collection of photographs (or carte-de-visites). A carte-de-visite was a type of small photograph made of an albumen print, around 54.0 mm (2.125 in) × 89 mm (3.5 in) mounted on a card sized 64 mm (2.5 in) × 100 mm (4 in). Each photograph was the size of a visiting card, and such were traded among friends and visitors.

Some of the carte-de-visites in the collection were signed with written greetings on the reverse side of the card to Miss Hayes, in order for her to remember from whom they were from. Some of the individuals were travelers passing through Newcastle who stayed at the Great Northern Hotel. Miss Hayes operated the Hotel till 1879. Simeon Solomon Moses succeeded her.​

 

Provenance

An album of photographs was donated to Gionni Di Gravio, Archivist at the Archives, Rare Book & Special Collections (now Cultural Collections, University of Newcastle) in 2004 from Marje Cramp at the Newcastle & Hunter District Historical Society (N&HDHS).

The album had originally been donated to Marje Cramp at the N&HDHS in November 1996, from the Dubbo Museum and Historical Society.

By 2004, the album that housed the photographs was in very poor condition, and the decision was made to remove all the photographs (or carte-de-visites) and what remained of the album that housed them was discarded.

On closer initial examination, the inscriptions on the reverse sides of some of the images were names of ship’s captains to a “Miss Hays” so this provided a clue to the original owner of the album as being “Miss Hayes”.

This has now been confirmed with the help of our colleague Special Collections Librarian, Lyn Keily and historian and local researcher, Ed Tonks who have kindly assisted our work-integrated-learning student Tenzin Legden, in the GLAM^x Lab as he prepared his work on the collection of images during March and April 2019.

Ed Tonks, in an email 29/3/2019 to GDG  said:

“Just checked my records re Hayes and the Greta (Great) Northern Hotel, Newcastle. Agnes B. Mary Hayes was the licensee of the Great Northern Hotel, Newcastle from 1873 to 1879. In 1873 she took over from William Winch and in 1879 she was succeeded by Simeon Solomon Moses.”

So the date range for all images coming into the hands of Miss Hayes could now be dated as being from 1873-1879.

From Lyn, besides locating a copy of a photograph of Miss Hayes herself (as a carte-de-visite nonetheless) and confirmation of her as licensee of the Great Northern, also has identified that:

“Agnes Hayes married George Maliphant in Cobar in 1885, and died in Junee at the tender age of 60 in 1917. Her parents were Cornelius  and Honora Hayes. See her obituary at http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article116802532” And  A bit more trivia – Agnes’ father, Cornelius Hayes, was the licensee of the Golden Fleece [Hotel} in Singleton. Her mother, Honora Kennedy’s obituary is at http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article111331110 According to this, Honora was “an active, intelligent business woman” so it looks like Agnes (who appears to have been known as Bridget) took after her parents. I think Agnes/Bridget was probably born before the 1857 I quoted before. I can’t see a girl of 16 being the licensee of a pub. However, things may have been different then… I also have a photo of Honora if you’d like it, though it’s not really relevant to the Great Northern Hotel because she died in 1868.”

Her death in Junee also explains how her “Great Northern Album” of carte-de-visites got out west finally being donated to the Dubbo Museum (scan the letter as well in the box) before being donated to Marj Cramp at the Newcastle Historical Society, then onto Gionni Di Gravio at the University of Newcastle.

So, if we can deduce that the carte-de-visites were collected by Miss Agnes (or Bridget) Hayes from visitors and guests of the Great Northern Hotel in Newcastle during her time as licensee there, 1873-1879. This provides us with a nice snapshot of the clientele and licensee of the Great Northern Hotel of Newcastle in the 1870s.

Note on the digitised carte-de-visites from Miss Hayes’ Great Northern Hotel Album

The photographs were digitsed by work-integrated-learning student Tenzin Legden using an Epson Perfection V800 scanner in the GLAM^x Lab. They have been presented in three “galleries” according to the photographers; therefore the first gallery are those carte-de-visites from the Hunter Region, the second from Australia wide, and the third from international photographers. This provides us with information about the nature and origin of the visitors and clientele to the Great Northern Hotel itself, being truly local, national and international.

Miss Hayes Collection (Newcastle)

Photographs in the collection were taken by various photographers, but majority of them were taken by Carl Leibinger, William Francis Roberts, Morris Moss, and Joseph Lyne Brown. 

Additionally, one of the photos in the collection was of Reverend Charles Clark, who was a Baptist minister and a prominent public lecturer. – [see profile]

After she parted with the Great Northern Hotel, in 1885 Agnes Hayes married George Maliphant (born 1842) in Cobar. They had two sons; George Cornelius Maliphant, born 1886 and Stanley William Maliphant, born 05 October 1888 in Nymagee N.S.W. ​

Her husband died in 1899. Agnes herself passed away on April 24th, 1917 in Junee while she was on her way to Sydney to consult a specialist regarding her indifferent health accompanied by her son. Her remains were laid to rest in the Catholic site of the Junee Cemetery.​

By late 1920s her son George Cornelius Maliphant owned and ran The Western Age newspaper previously known as The Cobar Herald with Sidney Frank Anderson, The Western Age continued until 1963 when the name was changed to The Cobar Age. The last edition of The Cobar Age was published on 7 November 2012 as a subsidiary of Fairfax media. ​

Stanley was working at the “Free Press” Cobar as a staff, but later joined his brother, George at The Cobar Age.​

By 1929 both Gorge Cornelius Maliphant and Stanley William Maliphant were living in Dubbo N.S.W, where George would go on to be elected as an Alderman of the Municipality of Dubbo same year.

Later by 24 April 1933, the Maliphant brothers went on to own the Dubbo Dispatch newspaper where they acted as the publisher as well. The Dispatch was terminated on 9 November 1966.​

Whichexplains how her “Great Northern Album” of carte-de-visites got out west finally being donated to the Dubbo Museum.

Stanley William Maliphant died in 1960 in Dubbo, NSW. George Cornelius Maliphant died in 1972, St. Leonard, NSW​.

The Album was donated to Archives, Rare Book & Special Collections in 2004 from the Newcastle & Hunter District Historical Society. The donor to the N&HDHS was anonymous, but the letter from the Dubbo Museum provides some information on where it came from. The photographs (or carte-de-visites) were removed and what remained of the album that housed them was discarded. The inscriptions on the reverse sides of some of the images are names of ship’s captains to a “Miss Hays” so this was a clue to who originally owned the album as being Miss Hayes. This has now been confirmed by the help of researchers Lyn Keily and Ed Tonks.

Miss Hayes Collection (Australia)

 

International

 

– Tenzin Legden holds a Bachelor of Arts from University of Newcastle.