Hannah Killen (nee Beazley)

Source: Lynne Allan, one of William and Hannah's great great grand daughters. All photos very kindly provided by Lynne Allan except where otherwise indicated.

Eliza's sister Hannah was born around 1843 and came out from Ireland as an unassisted migrant on the Jessie Munn, arriving in Melbourne on 11 October 1863 (7 years after her sister Eliza and family arrived). Since she was an unassisted migrant it is possible that the McCraiths helped pay for her passage. On the index she is shown as “English”, but clearly she wasn’t and I expect that that was just British imperialism.

Hannah married William John Killen on 5 July 1873. William was born 1833 in Duncan, Ireland, to John Killen (a farmer) and Mary Jane King. On their wedding certificate (PDF - 594k) she is listed as a 27 year old dressmaker, and he as a 40 year old police officer, both living in Geelong.

Hannah, 1870s	William, 1870s
Children of William and Hannah Killen and nursemaid (Lynne Allan believes taken in about 1885)	William John Killen in Police Uniform, 1874

William Killen was a policeman like Eliza's husband, Michael, so it is possible William and Michael knew each other and that could have been how Hannah met him. William was involved in a famous case known as the Colac murder that gets a mention in a book entitled "A history of heroism and duty since 1837: Mounted Policemen from Victoria and Tasmania" (pages 128-129 - see extract below). There is also a detailed account of the trial in the Argus, Saturday 8 April 1871.

In those days the mounted policeman had to do without the assistance of forensic scientists. This was apparent from a celebrated murder case in 1871 when Patrick Geary was convicted of murdering Thomas Brookhouse back in February 1854. Geary had murdered in order to cover up sheep stealing. He hid the body of his victim and despite an intensive police search it was not found, so no action was taken against Geary even though suspicion was directed towards him after his wife was heard to say to him, ‘Oh, Paddy, you murdering…!’

Fifteen years after Geary had left the district where his victim’s body had been hidden, a boy chasing rabbits found the skeleton of a man mingled with rocks. Former friends of Brookhouse identified some objects found among the bones while, because of his size, another former friend said, ‘I could nearly swear to Brookhouse’s skeleton’.

There remained the problem of getting hold of the suspect. Against the day the skeleton might be needed in court, Mounted Constable William Job (sic) Killen took it home and kept it under his bed. Eighteen months passed and Geary duly appeared in court. Since leaving the scene of the murder he had been obliging enough to talk freely about his crime, and thanks to that fact and the constable who slept over Brookhouse’s skeleton, Geary went to the gallows.

In Hannah's will she left her ‘jewelry and trinkets’ to her niece Alice McCraith and her chest of drawers to her sister Eliza McCraith. The rest of her estate was to be held in trust for her children. See a digitised copy of the will and probate documents.

William & Hannah Killen and their first three children in front of their house, 1874

William Killen died 2 July 1883 aged about 50 in Wedderburn, Vic. The Argus, 3 July 1883 reported: "SANDHURST (From our own correspondent), Monday evening, Intelligence has been received by the police here that Mounted constable KILLEN, stationed at Wedderburn, dropped dead this afternoon whilst conversing with a gentleman in the Wedderburn camp-yard. An inquest will be held".

We assume this is Hannah at her husband's grave shortly after his death in 1883. It was sent to us by someone who found it in the attic of a house he was renovating in Golden Square, Bendigo. Their youngest son Henry Sandford had died in Golden Square in 1942 so perhaps it had been his house?

Their 6 children became orphans when Hannah died 25 April 1886 in Mt Korong, Victoria, and they went to a number of different homes including an orphanage in Wedderburn (Clifden Home). Hannah's death certificate (PDF - 166k) shows her sister Eliza as the informant, and says Hannah was a "produce merchant" who died of alcoholism and hepatitis. Three of William and Hannah's sons died fairly young, not long after their mother.

Source: Lynne Allan, one of William and Hannah's great great grand daughters. Some of this info was confirmed by Phillip Dwyer's research. All photos very kindly provided by Lynne Allan except where otherwise indicated.