This year marks the 130th anniversary of the death of Ipswich’s remarkable Mrs Martin who was afraid of no one and set Ipswich legal history. I told a version of this story live on Ipswich’s West Bremer Radio.

Mrs. Ellen Martin died in Ipswich in 1896. She was 90 years of age. Her father died at 106 and her mother at 107. She was a native of Bangor in what was then King’s County, Ireland, and was a remarkable figure in Ipswich for forty-one years. She attended Mass daily and only gave up that when she could no longer walk.

Mrs Martin arrived in Moreton Bay on the ship Truro in 1855 with her husband and their nine children. The husband died shortly after, leaving Mrs Martin in the frontier city of Ipswich to raise her children alone, and she didn’t back down one bit. In fact she established a reputation as the most litigious Ipswich single mother in history.

In 1858, Mrs Martin bought two cows from Patrick McNamara. He was a regular in the Ipswich court for things like indecent and profane language, and even had a twelve-month alcohol ban placed on him. Anyway, Mrs Martin bought two cows off McNamara who assured her that they were both good milkers. But one of them had turned out to be very different. Mrs Martin had paid £14 for the two, estimated her damages at £5 and won the case.

In 1860, Mrs Martin’s daughter Mary married the Frenchman August La Fontain, but Mrs Martin didn’t like him much. A letter containing money arrived from Toowoomba addressed to him care of Mrs Martin. One son Denis gave it to another son Michael who gave it to their mother Mrs Martin, who kept it herself. The son-in-law took them all to court, charges against the Martins were dismissed, but the letter had to be handed over.

The daughter Mary was every bit like her mother and took her husband La Fontain to court, charged with assault and desertion. She took her landlord Charles Kelly to court after he charged into her house to collect the rent, but Mary pushed him out the door, and took him to court. She won both cases.

In 1873, Mrs Martin took her neighbour Robert Gough to court. He was the nephew of Ipswich’s invincible Maurice Gough who famously was shipwrecked off China and survived, speared by Aboriginals and survived, fallen on by a tree that killed his wife but he survived, and so on. In any case, Mrs Martin sued Gough for having her cattle impounded after they strayed onto his land. It turned out that Mrs Martin was in the habit of letting her cattle out to graze for free.

Also in 1873, Mrs Martin and another neighbour John Smith sued and counter sued one another on a daily basis. Smith was Ipswich royalty, but that didn’t worry Mrs Martin. You see Smith was the driver of the very first passenger train in Queensland in 1865 and continued driving trains his entire life, and in Ipswich back then, there was no higher calling.

In any case, their dispute concerned a vacant block that was between them. Mrs Martin got the better of Smith after he spat at her with a mixture of saliva and tobacco particles. This so disgusted the judge that Smith was sentenced to one month imprisonment with hard labour, during which time Mrs Martin used the vacant block unhindered.

So you see, from the day that Mrs Martin arrived in Ipswich in 1855 to the day she died in 1896, she was a single mum who was afraid of no one. She became one of the most litigious people in Ipswich history, so maybe she’s worth commemorating in this the 130th anniversary year of her death.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO A VERSION OF THIS STORY TOLD ON WEST BREMER RADIO.

Photo credits:
Representation of the Mrs Martin story – Copilot image.
Truro c1855 – Tagneyhood website,
Ipswich courthouse c1860 – State Library of Queensland.