Reference:
Reference details
Frances Louisa Morgan, 1 month 2 weeks, died 13 March 1886 at Islington St, Collingwood of marasmus (3 weeks), J. D. Hooper, 12 March 1886. Mother, Fanny Morgan, no profession. Authorised informant: Adela M. Miller, 32 Islington St, Collingwood. Registered 15 March 1886, Collingwood. Buried 15 March 1886 in the Melbourne General Cemetery [organised by] Ellen Vontom. Witnesses of burial: M. Brennan, [??] G Clowes.
32 Islington St was Dr Singleton’s Temporary Home for Friendless and Fallen Women. The home was close at hand to Cromwell Street, Collingwood (the next street), where Fanny’s older – and now married – brother Gabriel was living at this time. Ellen Vontom, who organised the burial of baby Frances, was Fanny's brother Gabriel Morgan’s mother-in-law. Adela Miller may have been Adelaide Miller (married name Caston), recently released from 15 months in prison.
Cemetery staff were witnesses to the burial – elderly Joseph Clowes, the longtime resident clerk, and Michael Brennan, 27 years caretaker of the cemetery, who stipulated for himself a flowerless funeral in 1901. (Joseph Clowes would also witness the burial of her mother Fanny Morgan thirteen years later, and possibly the burial of her grandmother Elizabeth eight years later.)