Mary Russell age 52 died Athlone Street in the Parish of Camperdown in the County of Cumberland.

A newspaper article in 1852 from Bathurst may refer to our Mary Ann Russell and William Russell. The article is in the Bathurst Free press, it does not give any details of which Mary Ann Russell and William Russell it refers to but it is reasonable to thin that this may be our Mary Ann Russell. There are other Mary Russells in the area and other William Russells but to date I have not confirmed a coupled William Russell and Mary Ann Russell living in the Bathurst area other than our Mary and William Russell.

WHEREAS my wife, MARY ANN RUSSELL absconded from her home on Sunday the 27th June without just cause or provocation ; the public are hereby cautioned against trusting her, as after this notice I will not be responsible for any debts she may contract. Any person found harbouring her will be prosecuted to the utmost rigour of the law.

WILLIAM RUSSELL.

July lst, 1852.

“Advertising” Bathurst Free Press and Mining Journal (NSW : 1851 – 1904) 7 July 1852: 1. Web. 31 Oct 2016 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article62517099.

Given the possibility that our Mary Ann and William Russell were not living together at the time of Mary Ann’s death this opens up the searches for where Mary Ann may have lived in the last part of her life and where she may have died.

Athlone Place was a street in the Blackwattle Creek Slums of Sydney, now part of Ultimo. A description of Athlone place was written by a City Health Official in 1890.

There had been a heavy storm the evening before my visit to this street, and the water marks were plainly visible. The water was six inches above the floor in a few of the houses on the north side … From No. 11 to 27 there were the most offensive cesspits it has ever been my lot to come across. The yards were ill-drained and very damp, the open drain from one house running through the yard of the next, and so on … At No. 33 there is a cellar, which had 2 feet of stinking water in it. The tenants in this case have had constant ill-health, but have continued living here for ten years. There has been sickness in almost every house, typhoid fever and diarrhoea have been very prevalent (Clay 1890:4).

Sneddon, A. 2006. SEEING SLUMS THROUGH ROSE-COLOURED GLASSES: The Mountain Street Site, Sydney and its Limitations in the Search for Vanished Slum Communities. Australian Archaeology Number 63, December 2006 https://www.library.uq.edu.au/ojs/index.php/aa/article/viewFile/350/388

If Mary Russell moved back to Sydney when she left her husband then it is possible that she would have lived in a slum area like this. People in these areas were working class people struggling day by day to live. Mary had an educated mother who had been able to teach when she left her husband but Mary may not have had these same opportunities and even if she did teaching would not have enabled her to live a life of much comfort.

The Mary Russell who lived in Athlone Place in Sydney died in 1864. On the death certificate she is noted as being 52 years of age. This would give her a birth date of 1812 or there abouts. This fits in with the known details of Mary Ann Russell nee Gransden. The only other details that the death certificate for this Mary Russell gives is that she was buried at Camperdown.  NSW BDM, Russell, Mary. Death Cert. Vol 122C No 12256. A further search of the Camperdown Burial Butts elicits two further pieces of information, Mary Russell died of Natural causes and she was buried in a paupers grave with no headstone.

If this is our Mary Ann Russell nee Gransden there is still not enough information to confirm so at this stage.

For further details on this subject go to;

The Death of Mary Ann Russell nee Gransden

Mary Ann Russell nee Gransden possible death

Mary Ann Russell nee Gransden- the Asylums