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Record #16454
Name :
: Robina Mowat DELANEY (1880 - )
  aka : Bessie Delaney; Bessie Wh


Father
:
Mother
:
BMD and other details
Date of Birth
: 17 Jun 1880

Marriage (1)
:
Marriage (2)
:

Date of Death
:
Abode (1) : Place of BirthScotland, Midlothian, Edinburgh

17 St. Mary Street
Abode (2) : Place of Death / Burial
Sailing Information
Date of Arrival
: 5 Jun 1886
Country
: Canada

Ship
: Caspian

Placement Family
: Blacklock; Raworth
Homes / Agencys
Institution (GB)
:

Agency
: Emma Stirling
NotesA birth registration was found for Robina Mowat Delany: Date: June 17, 1880, 4:30 AM; Place: 17 St. Mary Street, Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland; Parents: Arthur Delaney, glass cutter, and Mary Mowat, married May 10, 1878, Edingburgh, Midlothian, Scotland.

Mary Mowat Delaney died on June 24, 1882 at 5:10 AM, at Morrison's Close, 117 High Street, Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland. Her parents names were Robert Mowat, a mason, and Mary Brown, both deceased at the time of her death. She died of septicaemia, 7 days duration.

In 1886, Bessie Delaney, 9, arrived at Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, in a group of 21 Scottish children accompanied by Miss Stirling, from Edinburgh, Scotland.

In November 1886, James and Robina Delaney returned to Scotland on the Carthaginian with Emma Stirling.

In April, 1887, James, Robina and Annie Delaney returned to Nova Scotia, Canada with Emma Stirling.

Robina and her siblings were the subject of legal action initiated by their father in Scotland. Emma Stirling, in her book "Our Children in old Scotland and Nova Scotia" writes about this case:

"In order to explain one great subject of interest and increased anxiety during these years, I must go back in our history to 1886, and tell you that no sooner were we located here than my troubles began in another direction. A man of notoriously bad character had brought his three children to my care in 1882, and deserted them immediately after. When he applied for their admission, he stated he had been a Roman Catholic, but was tired of the neglect and tyranny of the priests, and desired to have them brought up Protestants. As I have said, he deserted them immediately. In the course of four years he had only once asked after them, and during the same period send 1.17 (pound/Shilling) towards their maintenance. But in 1886, finding that two of the children had been by the directors to Nova Scotia in the course of that year, he consulted a priest, who recommended him to a Roman Catholic agent, by whom he was advised to apply for them. The directors then requested me to bring them home, which I did at once, but, knowing what the fate of the children would be, I was naturally unwilling to give them up if it could be avoided, and as the father did not make an further attempt to obtain them, the former application to the directors was allowed to drop. After waiting five month, I sent them out again, and with them the third child, who had not been in the Homes since 1884, but had been supported at my private expense in the country, and in due course they were provided for. After eighteen months a lawsuit was instituted, which has been alike troublesome and expensive. The decision in my favour recently given by the Court in Nova Scotia in the above case has been a great relief to me. The inconvenience and outlay have been very considerable, but, as I was advised to carry it on in the interests of poor children as well as of the Protestant cause, the risk seemed unavoidable."

This case was also written about in the booklet: Emma M Stirling and the Hillfoot Farm by Mary Louise Rippy:

Her troubles however had not all been left behind. At the urgent request of the Secretary for the Society in Edinbourgh, Miss Stirling returned to Scotland on the SS Carthaginian sailing from Halifax on the 8th of November 1886 accompanied by two of the children, James and Robina Delaney.

According to an affidavit filed by Emma Stirling, Arthur Delaney applied in December 1882 for admission of his three children, James aged five years, Annie aged three and 1/2 and Robina aged 2 to the Stockbridge Day Nursery and Infant House following the death of his wife Mary. Robina Delaney came to Nova Scotia with the first group in May 1886 and James Delaney arrived with the second group in September. Annie Delaney remained in Scotland and was boarded out with other children at Dumfries.

Arthur Delaney requested the return of his children after learning that two had been taken to Nova Scotia. He later claimed in an affidavit that he had paid regularly toward their upkeep although admitted to being unemployed and claimed that he visited regularly as did his sister and mother. Miss Stirling held a very different opinion as to the character of Mr. Delaney and after five months in Scotland returned to Nova Scotia in April of 1887 with all three of his children.

In August 1890 the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia in Halifax ordered that the bodies of the three children be produced. Emma Stirling's defence was that the children were no longer in her care, that they had been given to respectable persons who undertook to bring them up. James Delaney was placed in June 1887 with Rufus DeWold of Middleton, but had since run away. Annie Delaney was placed in January 1888 with Mrs. Jones "of or near" Grand Metis, Quebec after staying for a time with John Tuttle of Pugwash. Robina Delaney was placed about the same time with Mrs. Smith Blacklock of Little Shemogue, New Brunswick and then with Mrs. Raworth of "Black Point or Black Rock" New Brunswick.

Mrs. Stirling explained that it was her practice to make enquiries of a minister and a magistrate in the neighbourhood as to the character, sobriety and church membership of the families where her children were placed.


Aberdeen Journal
Saturday, 17 October 1891

THE DELANEY CHILD CUSTODY CASE.--with reference to the petition by Arthur Delaney, painter, Edinburgh, for the custody of his three childen, who were taken to Nova Scotia by Miss Stirling, a report was presented yesterday by H. Mellish, detective officer, Halifax, who on the instruction sof the agents for the respondents, the directors of the Edinburgh and Leith Childrens Aid and Refuge, had made search for the children in Nova Scotia. He says that about the 1st of August, 1891, he went in searcho f Robina Delaney. He found that she had been lviing at Little Shemogue, County of Westmoreland, province of New Brunswick, at the House of Smith Blacklock, under the name of Bessie Whitehead, up to the month of April, 1890, when she was taken away by a man who came for her in company with her brother (James, he supposed). He could find no clue to her after that. She was known in the neighbourhood as a bright child, and a good singer. He then went to Grand Metis, a French settlement on the river St Lawrence, in the province of Quebec, and found tha a child who gave her name as Whitehead (presumably Annie Delaney) had been living with Joseph Jones, a married man with no family, up to the end of September, 1890, when she was taken away by a man who represented himself as the child's uncle, and whom the child recognised when he came to her. She was tken hurriedly to the railway station, and put on board a train bound north, but he could obtain no information of her in that direction. Lastly, he visited Middleton in Nova Scotia in search of James Delaney. He found the boy attended a little school about three miles from Middleton, for some time previous to January 14th, 1890, and lived at Rufus de Wolfe's, two miles from the station. In September, 1890, he ran away, and since that date his whereabouts were unknown in the community. In conclusion, Mr Mellish says he is convinced that the several changes effected in their respective residences of late were made with the deliberate intention of avoiding location in case of inquiry, and that he knows of nothing further he can do except grope somewhat aimlessly without anything to work upon. The report to-day was sent to the Summer Roll for discussion. 
ContributorsCreated : 2012-07-13 21:57:35 / From original database

Last Updated : 2012-07-29 20:57:59 /

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Surnames starting with:   A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M  N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z  8 Entries        
IDNameDOBPlace of birthArrivals & ShipsDest.AgencyFamily links
16455 DELANEY, Annie1879SCT, MLN, Edinburgh Apr 1877 : - Unknown - CAN Emma Stirling  
22964 DELANEY, Francis1894ENG,     May 1906 : Empress of Britain CAN Fegan Homes for Boys  
20043 DELANEY, George J.1871ENG,     Jun 1886 : Lake Superior CAN Barnardos  
16451 DELANEY, James1876SCT, MLN, Edinburgh Sep 1886 : Carthaginian CAN Emma Stirling  
22094 DELANEY, James G.1886ENG,     Apr 1897 : Labrador CAN Barnardos  
16454 DELANEY, Robina Mowat1880SCT, MLN, Edinburgh Jun 1886 : Caspian CAN Emma Stirling  
16036 DELANEY, Thomas1869ENG,     Sep 1883 : Sardinian CAN Cardinal Manning (now Nugent Care)  
26906 DELANY, Peter1928ENG,     Mar 1939 : Strathnaver AUS Christian Brothers