Female Offences and Society in

Melbourne, 1890-1945
By Rebekah Georgoudakis

PROV, VPRS 516/P0002, Unit N/A, Item volume 12, Sub-Item page 242 Philips, Beatrice; (Annie Smith): no. 7565. 6656 [altered]
Reproduced with the permission of the Keeper of Public Records, Public Records Office Victoria, Australia
 When one envisions a woman from the late nineteenth to mid twentieth
century they think a loving housewife, with children, perhaps even doing a
bit of work as the century unfolded. What about those women who did not
conform to those societal norms, those ‘fallen’ women who committed
crimes? The start of this time period saw the vilification of criminal
women, particularly those who committed reproductive crimes and repeat
petty crimes. This trend would continue into the twentieth century. There
was also a significant rise in the number of women executed. So, how do
these crimes and punishments reflect the experience of these women? And
what do these offences and their punishments say about the society in
which they lived? These two questions are best explored by examining the
cases of two female felons on both ends of the punishment spectrum.

The Beginnings of
Beatrice
Beatrice Phillips was
hardly a criminal
mastermind, yet she spent
the majority of her adult
life in prison. Born in
Castlemaine in the late
1870s, Beatrice’s life
would span over many
significant events for both
Melbourne and the world.i
The 1890’s in Melbourne
saw a devastating
economic depression in
which there were many
who were unemployed and
struggling. Life was bleak
and crime rates in
Melbourne rose. A ‘moral
panic’ also set in, which
had a significant impact
on the way in which
femininity was viewed
and how those who did not
Figure 1. Beatrice Phillips Prison Record, page 1.
PROV, VPRS 516/P0002, Unit N/A, Item volume 12, Sub-Item page 242 Philips, Beatrice; (Annie Smith): no. 7565. 6656
Reproduced with the permission of the Keeper of Public Records, Public Records Office Victoria, Australia
conform were treated.ii
Little is known about Beatrice’s
life before she builds up her
substantial prison record. It can
be speculated that she may have
grown up in Castlemaine,
migrating to Melbourne to find
work in the early to mid 1890s.
Or perhaps she arrived in
Melbourne hoping to make a
fresh start as prior to 1896 she
already had 10 prison stays under
her belt.iii Regardless of her
upbringing, Beatrice started her
criminal career early, at age 18 or
possibly earlier. Her most
common crime was vagrancy.
However, it will be seen that as
her life progressed some of her
crimes expanded out of the petty
category.
  from their husband.viii This can
Vagrancy and the moral
panic of Melbourne
During the colonial era, Victoria’s
vagrancy laws were based on the
British Vagrancy Act of 1824 and
covered a range of behaviours and
petty offences that were believed
to have contributed to the moral
decay of society. The vagrancy
charge was broad and the crimes
individuals could be charged with
include either ‘no visible lawful
means of support’ or ‘insufficient
means of support’, ‘idle and
disorderly’, ‘drunk and
disorderly’, ‘obscene language’
and ‘offensive language or
behaviour’.iv To give an idea of
the breadth of Victoria’s vagrancy
laws, in 1891 there were 25
categories that individuals could
be charged with.v Pivotal to this
was the police discretion that was
often used in determining if the
individual was a vagrant or not.vi
Police used vagrancy charges as a
form of welfare, arresting people
that needed assistance, and like
Beatrice, women were often
arrested after they were found
roaming the streets with
‘insufficient means of support.vii
Studies have found that vagrancy
laws became one of the primary
reasons for women’s incarceration
in Australia and this was
particularly true for working
class women and single women
who may have been separated
certainly be seen in Beatrice’s
case, as well as those of many
other women that fell into crime
during their lives.
There was a growing panic in the
nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries in Melbourne that the
city’s rapid development would
increase the risk of a rising
‘criminal class’.ix This fear
coincided with the Federation of
Australia in 1901 and the ideals
of respectability and modernity
became increasingly important.
According to this, Victoria’s
vagrancy laws underwent
changes and newer, harsher laws
were introduced in 1907.x With
the harsher laws and increased
 police surveillance on known
vagrants that came with it, arrest
rates for vagrancy rose and
Beatrice was not exempt from
this trend.

 
The Criminal Life of
Beatrice
It has been noted that Beatrice’s
crimes were predominantly
vagrancy charges. At the Figure 2.
Alex Gunn, City Watch House, 345-355 Russell Street, Melbourne
beginning of her criminal career [image], 1906-1912 (www.slv.vic.gov.au)
‘New City Watch House. Opened in Tribulation.’, Age (Melbourne), 2
she was frequently imprisoned for September 1909, in Trove [online database], p.8
six or twelve months for having to benefit from the welfare gaols
either ‘no visible means of provided, but to also keep her out
support’ or ‘insufficient means of of sight. In keeping her out of
support’. With such lengthy and sight she could not spread her
repeated stays in prison Beatrice bad influence and corrupt the
never learnt how to function in good order.
the society that was already However, despite efforts by the
against her. Beatrice, when facing authorities to keep her hidden,
court in 1907 on a vagrancy she was often in the public eye
charge pled due to her constant cycle in and
out of the prison system.
“It is very had to get work Newspapers loved to write about
when you come out of that Beatrice. When the new city
place, no respectable person watch house on Russell Street
will taye [sic] you”.xi opened in 1909 Beatrice was their
first prisoner and the newspapers
Despite her plea, she was described her almost as if she was
Geelong Advertiser (Vic. : 1859 - 1929), Thursday
imprisoned for twelve months. a wild animal causing havoc for
What this suggests is that by this the officers (see figure 2).xii
stage in her criminal career, the Furthermore, the newspapers

THE WORST "WOMAN IN MEL-

BOURNE.

theatre-going
publicof Melbourne
Therecently
Figure 3. ‘The Worst Woman in Melbourne’, Geelong Advertiser, 20 October 1904, in Trove [online database], p. 1
presented
have been
courts were not imprisoning her
presentation
with a re-
describing her as “the worst
of the "WorstWoman in
London,"
and to-day
Melbourne"
"the worst woman
presented
in was to the at-
tendants
at the City Court in the person
woman in Melbourne” or an disorderly, and Beatrice found
“incorrigible woman” reinforced herself imprisoned for three
her terrible reputation, making it months.xvi
harder for her to survive during
the times she was out of prison.xiii
The not so unusual case of
During the interwar years,
particularly from the mid 1920s, Frances Knorr  
Beatrice was increasingly
imprisoned for being drunk and
disorderly. With her increased
intoxication she also became
increasingly violent and
particularly fond of breaking
windows. Unlike the yearlong
sentences she received for having
insufficient means of support, her
punishment for being intoxicated
and destructive was to pay a
small fine or by default a number
of days or weeks as determined by Figure 4. Frances Knorr Prison Photo
PROV, VPRS 516/P0002 Unit N/A, Item 11, Sub-Item page
the judge.xiv However, as she was 324, Knorr, Frances: No. 6242
imprisoned and unemployed for Reproduced with the permission of the Keeper of Public
Records, Public Records Office Victoria, Australia
most of her life she could not  
afford these fines and so had to
After emphasising the
add to her already extensive
prominence of petty crimes and
record. What is most telling about
their punishments, it is
Beatrice’s experience during this
important to consider the
time is the sheer amount of drunk
opposite end of the criminal
and disorderly charges she
spectrum, to see what they can
accumulated. This indicates that
reveal about women’s experiences
by the 1920s Beatrice had become
and the societies in which they
an alcoholic. Even more
lived.
disturbing, she was convicted
several times for “drinking
metho”; likely due to the fact that Frances’ Beginnings
it was an inexpensive way of
In 1887 Frances Knorr’s family
getting drunk.xv However, the
shipped her off to Sydney for
more negative moral connotations
becoming a ‘fallen woman’; who
associated with this act meant
would bring her family into
that the punishment for this was
disrepute.xvii As a woman on her
more severe than drunk and
own Frances struggled to get by, them after receiving the fee from
and much like Beatrice, she fell the mother.
into the category of women who The attitudes that developed in
committed petty crimes. In 1888 England towards the women that
she found herself imprisoned for baby farmed were transferred to
stealing, and the following year Australia and would prove fatal
for false pretences. Not only did for Frances.
Frances have a bad reputation in
England, she now had one in
Australia. In 1889 she married
Rudolph Knorr. However, in the
depression of the 1890s her
marriage to Knorr could not give
Frances the security it might once
have. The Knorr’s struggled to
stay afloat and Rudolph was
arrested and imprisoned in 1891,
leaving Frances, now a mother, to
fend for herself.xviii

Baby farming
Figure 5. ‘The Brunswick Murderer.
During the nineteenth century a Sentence of Death Passed.’, South
Australian Chronicle (Adelaide), 23
childcare practice called ‘baby December 1893, in Trove [online
database], p. 6
farming’ came to prominence.
Originating in England, baby
An offence against femininity
farming involved a woman taking
in or seeking an infant (or child) and society
to care for in exchange for a fee.
The chaos in Melbourne during
The mothers of these infants had
the early 1890s brought about
often given birth to an
new societal values in which the
illegitimate child or simply could
high infant death rate became a
not afford to keep another child.xix
considerable concern.xx To counter
While this practice filled in for
this the 1890s Infant Life
the lack of welfare available to
Protection Act was passed, and
mothers and families, baby
what is vital to the Knorr case is
farming gained a bad reputation.
that this act regulated the baby
Medical experts denounced the
farming trade.xxi With new
practice as a profitable scheme,
societal importance being placed
believing that women were taking
on the lives of infants it became
infants into their care and
quite easy to vilify the women
purposely neglecting or killing
that used baby farming to get by
in a difficult time. Frances their best to vilify Frances,
exemplifies this, as she truly focusing on her past misdeeds
believed that she could not and leading readers to believe she
  was inherently evil. Depictions of
“make a living any other her often became more grotesque,
as demonstrated by Figure 5.xxvi
way”.xxii
Her harsh sentence led to
massive public protest, as women,
Frances’ story, up until her no matter how heinous their
conviction, shared the same crime, were rarely executed.
elements that many other women Often their death sentences were
experienced during the commuted to ten years hard
depression: despair, poverty, labourxxvii. The protests became so
deception and finally, death.xxiii extreme that Frances’s hangman
So in a society that was deeply chose to commit suicide over
religious and under severe killing a woman (see Figure
economic strain the crime of 6).xxviii What this reflects is
Frances Knorr was not just one of societies ideas about femininity;
murder, but against femininity the protection
Truthof(Sydney,
women and: 1894 - 1954), Sunday 7 Janu
NSW
and productiveness of society.xxiv sentencing them so women’s
St. in Omer,
At the height of the depression rejection of A HANGMAN COMMITS educational establish
teen
in his
(1893) Frances was accused and these ideals SUICIDE. an early foll
home, he turning
restraint,
and afte
found guilty of murdering babies would remain Sooner Die thanHanga Woman. strollingplayers, enl
regiment.
fath
His
in her care and was sentenced to hidden. out, fell Jones
enlisted
again
; th
Melbourne,

death in 1894.xxv Newspapers did Jones,of stay in. He

Cuts his entered
on an
Figure 6. ‘A Hangman Commits Suicide’, Truth where he was
Throat.

Conclusion
innocently

(Sydney), 7 Jan 1894, in Trove [online database], p. 5 chancing

as a
his luck
assisted frequently
in
between Bermuda an
The Melbournehangman, Jones, has shown great civil
positivelyobjected
war in
To conclude, these two women have very
good trait;
one woman, he to hang occasion
a and than ' sooner
work off ' he was
Frances Knorr
he cut his own had throat. Jones
son, fromgaoler
w
different stories. However, what is abundantly clear afterbeen
exploring them
bribing
ever drinking
since the heavily Execu- his
decided should the blockade
tive that the law take its
unfortunate
when that ve
is that they were not terrible women. They were women living with bad
with the course and often woman,
U.S. frigate Ius
form such a
dreadful hanging woman. Florida forattent
job as a
reputations in an unforgiving society and their difficult experience is sooner myself, averred, turned his
'I'dfar kill ' he
reallybelieved meant
but no one he it. He correspond
well-known theatrical co
even went as far as to with his
reflected through their crimes and punishments. The crimes is
committed
in
to
brother hangmen
the other
have
and
understood
a received
colonies,

decided
blocks under
an eventful career
an

not only by these women, but also by many others, were crimes against aa trip to
Service
negative assistanthangman the Civil
from the Sydney
(Jones) invitation
to his to take Jones (whooncew
moral society and expectations of femininity and motherhood. Their ter)
thatMrs. Knorr
completely col

punishments for petty crimes, as in the case of Beatrice Phillips, aimed at on him,and
from a
about to
frie
hang
keeping them hidden from society to prevent the spread of moral beenlong surmised

nerve. Indeed, it

corruption. This is also true for larger crimes such as murder; however, said
substitute

flowing beard. Jo
bein

the case of Frances Knorr was only different from other women as her
arrangements.

in his particulars
H
ing full o
names, weights, lengt
crime led her to hang. However, Frances’ hanging led to protests that each being
neatness,
given
in
his and w
demonstrated society’s attitudes towards women, as her execution defied
breaking
the skin
only snapping the
consi
this world
traditional femininity. is

neatest pieces
Patterson
of
understood
is
down over the sa

Melbourne
and turn Mrs. Knorr off. On re-
realised
ceipt of this letter Jones the degra- hysterical,
dation of his position. He became
marched direct quarters
to his in the Mel-
bourne Gaol, locked the door, stooped over
deliberately
the bath and cut his
throat. He leaves a wife and two
Reference List

Primary
Alex Gunn, City Watch House, 345-355 Russell Street, Melbourne [image],
1906-1912 (www.slv.vic.gov.au), accessed 20 October 2018
‘Undesirable Character’, Herald (Melbourne), 25 August 1902, in Trove
[online database], accessed 15 September 2018
Ancestry.com, Beatrice Phillips in Australia, Death Index, 1787-1985,
[online database], Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.
2010, accessed 2 October 2018
‘The Brunswick Murderer. Sentence of Death Passed.’, South Australian
Chronicle (Adelaide), 23 December 1893, in Trove [online database],
p. 6, accessed 20 October 2018
‘A Hangman Commits Suicide’, Truth (Sydney), 7 Jan 1894, in Trove
[online database], p. 5, accessed 15 October 2018
‘An Incorrigible Woman’, Age (Victoria), 4 December 1926, in Trove [online
database], p. 18, accessed 2 October 2018
‘Melbourne’, Bendigo Independent (Victoria), 5 November 1907, in Trove
[online database], p. 4, accessed 15 October 2018
‘New City Watch House. Opened in Tribulation.’, Age (Melbourne), 2
September 1909, in Trove [online database], p.8, accessed 15
October 2018
PROV, VA 1464 Penal and Gaols Branch, Chief Secretary’s Department,
VPRS 516/P0002 Central Register of Female Prisoners, Unit N/A,
Item 11, Sub-Item page 324, Knorr, Frances: No. 6242, 3 September
2018 (digitised copy, accessed 3 September 2018)
PROV, VA 1464 Penal and Gaols Branch, Chief Secretary’s Department,
VPRS 516/P0002 Central Register of Female Prisoners, Unit N/A,
Item volume 12, Sub-Item page 242, Philips, Beatrice; (Annie
Smith): no. 7565. 6656 (digitised copy, accessed 3 September 2018)
PROV, VA 1464 Penal and Gaols Branch, Chief Secretary’s Department,
VPRS 516/P0002, Central Register of Female Prisoners, Unit N/A,
Item volume 14/218, Sub-Item page 218, Phillips, Beatrice;
(Beatrice Black); (Annie Smith), (Annie Black), (digitized copy,
accessed 29 September 2018)
‘The Worst Woman in Melbourne’, Geelong Advertiser (Victoria), 20
October 1904, in Trove [online database], p. 1, accessed 2 October
2018
Secondary
Davis, Susanne, ‘‘Ragged, Dirty…Infamous and Obscene’: The Vagrant in
Late Nineteenth Century Melbourne’ in David Philips and Susanne
Davis (eds.) A Nation of Rogues?: Crime, Law, and Punishment in
Colonial Australia (Carlton: Melbourne University Press, 1994)
Ferguson, Kathryn H., ‘Legends of the Fall: Sensational Press Events of
Fin-de-Siècle Melbourne’, Doctor of Philosophy thesis (La Trobe
University, 2005)
Kimber, Julie, ‘‘Poor Laws’: A Historiography of Vagrancy in Australia,
History Compass, 11/8 (2013), pp. 537-550
Laster, Kathy, ‘Arbitrary Chivalry: Women and Capital Punishment in
Victoria, 1842-1967’ in David Philips and Susanne Davis (eds.) A
Nation of Rogues?: Crime, Law, and Punishment in Colonial
Australia (Carlton: Melbourne University Press, 1994)
Moss, Stella, ‘“An Abnormal Habit”: Alcohol Policy and the Control of
Methylated Spirit Drinking in England in the 1920s and 1930s’,
Drugs: Education, Prevention, Policy, 22/2 (2015), pp. 118-124
Piper, Alana Jayne, ‘“I’ll Have No Man”: Female Families in Melbourne’s
Criminal Subcultures, 1860-1920’, Journal of Australian Studies,
39/4 (2015), pp. 444-460
Straw, Leigh, ‘“The Worst Female Character”: Criminal Underclass
Women in Perth and Fremantle, 1900-1939’, Journal of Australian
Studies, 37/2 (2013), pp. 208-224
Sussex, Lucy, ‘Portrait of a Murderer in Mixed Media: Cultured Attitudes,
Infanticide and the Representation of Frances Knorr’, Australian
Feminist Law Journal, 4 (1995), pp. 39-54
Swain, Shurlee and Howe, Renate, Single Mothers and Their Children:
Disposal, Punishment and Survival in Australia (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1995)
Twomey, Christina, Deserted and Destitute: Motherhood, Wife Desertion
and Colonial Welfare (Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing,
2002)
 
ENDNOTES

i Ancestry.com, Beatrice Phillips in Australia, Death Index, 1787-1985,

[online database], Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. 2010,
accessed 2 October 2018.
ii Julie Kimber, ‘‘Poor Laws’: A Historiography of Vagrancy in Australia,

History Compass, 11/8 (2013), p. 538.

iii PROV, VA 1464 Penal and Gaols Branch, Chief Secretary’s Department,
VPRS 516/P0002 Central Register of Female Prisoners, Unit N/A, Item
volume 12, Sub-Item page 242, Philips, Beatrice; (Annie Smith): no. 7565.
6656.
iv Leigh Straw, ‘“The Worst Female Character”: Criminal Underclass

Women in Perth and Fremantle, 1900-1939’, Journal of Australian

Studies, 37/2 (2013), p. 123; Susanne Davis, ‘‘Ragged, Dirty…Infamous
and Obscene’: The Vagrant in Late Nineteenth Century Melbourne’ in
David Philips and Susanne Davis (eds.) A Nation of Rogues?: Crime, Law,
and Punishment in Colonial Australia (Carlton: Melbourne University
Press, 1994), p. 146.
v Davis, ‘‘Ragged, Dirty…Infamous and Obscene’: The Vagrant in Late

Nineteenth Century Melbourne’, p. 146.

vi Kimber, ‘‘Poor Laws’: A Historiography of Vagrancy in Australia’, p. 538.

vii Christina Twomey, Deserted and Destitute: Motherhood, Wife Desertion

and Colonial Welfare (Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2002),

p. 82.
viii Kimber, ‘‘Poor Laws’: A Historiography of Vagrancy in Australia’, p.

540; Twomey, Deserted and Destitute: Motherhood, Wife Desertion and

Colonial Welfare, p. 148.
ix Alana Jayne Piper, ‘“I’ll Have No Man”: Female Families in Melbourne’s

Criminal Subcultures, 1860-1920’, Journal of Australian Studies, 39/4

(2015), p. 444; Davis, ‘‘Ragged, Dirty…Infamous and Obscene’: The
Vagrant in Late Nineteenth Century Melbourne’, p. 143.
x Davis, ‘‘Ragged, Dirty…Infamous and Obscene’: The Vagrant in Late

Nineteenth Century Melbourne’, p. 165.

xi ‘Melbourne’, Bendigo Independent (Victoria), 5 November 1907, in Trove

[online database], p. 4.
xii ‘New City Watch House. Opened in Tribulation.’, Age (Melbourne), 2

September 1909, in Trove [online database], p.8.

xiii ‘The Worst Woman in Melbourne’, Geelong Advertiser (Victoria), 20

October 1904, in Trove [online database], p. 1; ‘An Incorrigible Woman’,

Age (Victoria), 4 December 1926, in Trove [online database], p. 18.
xiv PROV, VPRS 516/P0002, Sub-Item page 218, Phillips, Beatrice;

(Beatrice Black); (Annie Smith), (Annie Black).

xv PROV, VPRS 516/P0002, Sub-Item page 218, Phillips, Beatrice;

(Beatrice Black); (Annie Smith), (Annie Black).

xvi Stella Moss, ‘“An Abnormal Habit”: Alcohol Policy and the Control of

Methylated Spirit Drinking in England in the 1920s and 1930s’, Drugs:

Education, Prevention, Policy, 22/2 (2015), pp. 118-119.
xvii Kathryn H. Ferguson, ‘Legends of the Fall: Sensational Press Events of

Fin-de-Siècle Melbourne’, Doctor of Philosophy thesis (La Trobe

University, 2005), p. 159.
xviii Ferguson, ‘Legends of the Fall: Sensational Press Events of Fin-de-
Siècle Melbourne’, p. 159-160; Lucy Sussex, ‘Portrait of a Murderer in
Mixed Media: Cultured Attitudes, Infanticide and the Representation of
Frances Knorr’, Australian Feminist Law Journal, 4 (1995), p. 49.
xix Shurlee Swain and Renate Howe, Single Mothers and Their Children:

Disposal, Punishment and Survival in Australia (Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press, 1995), p. 100.
xx Ibid. p. 91.
xxi Ibid. p. 104.
xxii Sussex, ‘Portrait of a Murderer in Mixed Media: Cultured Attitudes,

Infanticide and the Representation of Frances Knorr’, p. 49.

xxiii Ferguson, ‘Legends of the Fall: Sensational Press Events of Fin-de-

Siècle Melbourne’, p. 160.

xxiv Ibid. p. 170.
xxv PROV, VPRS 516/P0002, Item 11, Sub-Item 324, Knorr, Frances: No.

6242.
xxvi ‘The Brunswick Murderer. Sentence of Death Passed.’, South

Australian Chronicle (Adelaide), 23 December 1893, in Trove [online

database], p. 6, accessed 20 October 2018
xxvii Kathy Laster, ‘Arbitrary Chivalry: Women and Capital Punishment in

Victoria, 1842-1967’ in David Philips and Susanne Davis (eds.) A Nation of

Rogues?: Crime, Law, and Punishment in Colonial Australia (Carlton:
Melbourne University Press, 1994), pp. 184-185.
xxviii ‘A Hangman Commits Suicide’, Truth (Sydney), 7 Jan 1894, in Trove

[online database], p. 5.