Sensational case of Ellen Tremaye aka Edward De Lacy Evans,1879
The press in 1879 headlined their report about a woman who wore men's clothing as a "female impersonator" when clearly the person in question, Ellen Tremaye (1830-1901), was living as a transgender man, or - to use the terminology of the day - she was "impersonating" a male not a female.
Living as a man with the name Edward De Lacy Evans, Ellen Tremaye married three times: - to Mary Delahunty (m. 1856; Sep. 1862); to Sarah Moore (m. 1862; d. 1867) and to Julia Marquand (m. 1868). It was the birth of a daughter to Julia Marquand, fathered by her brother-in-law, that triggered Ellen/Edward's mental distress and episode which resulted in a sentence to the Lunatic Ward where Ellen's female biological sex was revealed.
Quoted in this article is Mrs Thompson, who recognised Ellen on delivering milk to the household of Edward De Lacy Evans and wife at Eaglehawk north of Melbourne ca. 1865. She reported to the press that she had met Ellen Tremaye on the voyage out to Melbourne in 1857 on the Ocean Monarch, yet later said she fully believed Ellen Tremaye was actually a biological man impersonating a woman called Ellen Tremaye.
The newspaper account (full text below) of this case of "personation" and "imposition" which stirred international interest in 1879 was meant to raise a laugh at the expense of everyone named, while also raising suspicions regarding Ellen/Edward’s role in the death of Ellen’s intimate friend Rose Kelly on the sea voyage out to Melbourne, and Mary Delahunty’s missing money once she had married Ellen/Edward on arrival in Melbourne. That - and Ellen/Edward’s insistence that Mrs Thompson refrain from mentioning anything of her/his/their previous marriages in second wife Sarah Moore’s presence – played the story to its coda, a joke as meta comment for the generic male reader about gender, about girls who think men to be stupid while women know they need them to father their children.
This published newspaper image in 1879 of Ellen/Edward was made as a wood engraving from a full-length carte-de-visite photograph attributed to A. Flegeltaub (1873) of Stawell, Vic. by the process of half-toning. Photogravure and the printing of real photographs in the press was not technically possible until the late 1890s. A clever cdv (see below) was created in 1880 from a photograph of Ellen/Edward in women’s clothing on left, coupled with the cdv by Flegeltaub of Edward in men’s fashions on right, cut and pasted to seem as if taken in the one studio sitting. These cdv’s were used to promote Ellen/Edward as the “mysterious man-woman” at the Waxworks and fairground shows in the 1880s.
Caption: "ELLEN TREMAYE, ALIAS EDWARD DE LACY EVANS, THE FEMALE IMPERSONATOR."
From the Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1870 - 1919), Saturday 11 October 1879, page 32
TRANSCRIPT
Ellen Tremaye, alias Edward De Lacy Evans, the Female Impersonator.Source: Ellen Tremaye, alias Edward De Lacy Evans, the Female Impersonator. (1879, October 11). Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1870 - 1919), p. 32.
SOME very strange revelations have been made consequent on the discovery which took place some two or three weeks ago, that a lunatic named Edward De Lacy Evans, who was remanded from Sandhurst [Bendigo, Victoria] to the Kew Lunatic Asylum [in Melbourne], was not a man but a woman. The discovery was made in consequence of the refusal of the lunatic to take the bath usual on admission. The fact being mentioned in the papers attracted notice at Sandhurst, where the past life of Evans was well known, and some very singular statements were the result. In our issue of September 6 we gave very full particulars, to which we now subjoin the following abridged from the AUSTRALASIAN SKETCHER:—
"It was on the 22nd July that Evans was admitted to the hospital as a lunatic. The hospital record is as follows:—'Edward De Lacy Evans, male, married, admitted 22nd July, native of Kilkenny, Ireland, religion Church of England, dangerous to others, demented on the day of his admission.' The attendants, as usual, proceeded to give him a bath, but Evans struggled violently, and finally got away from the place, but was recaptured, and brought back next day. He remained in the hospital six weeks, and during that time a warder slept in his room every night, but the secret was not discovered. There is some uncertainty as to the place of his birth. He says he was born at Paris, others say he was a native of Jersey, whilst, as shown above, the hospital record gives Kilkenny as his birthplace. He speaks with an Irish accent. He has claimed to be a nephew of the late General Sir Charles De Lacy (De Lacy Evans?) Dr. Poland, resident-surgeon of the hospital, having examined Evans, states that she has herself had one or more children. It is rumoured that Evans was married several years ago in Melbourne, but regarding this the evidence is not complete.
"On September 6, the Sandhurst correspondent of the ARGUS wrote:—The De Lacy Evans case has created great excitement here. The man-woman having resided in the district about 20 years, was well known amongst the miners, but no one appeared ever to have supposed that she was other than as she represented herself to be, and the discovery of her sex has caused the greatest astonishment. The police have not yet moved in the matter of the discovery of her antecedents, but from the result of inquiries I have made, there seems to be no room to doubt that the woman is identical with the girl Ellen Tremaye, referred to in yesterday's telegram as having arrived at Melbourne by the ship Ocean Monarch in June, 1857. The nurse at the hospital, Mrs. Holt, is positive she is the same, and says the opinion was held amongst those on board the vessel that Tremaye had been well connected, and that she had left home in consequence of some misconduct. The Ocean Monarch was an immigrant vessel, and on the voyage Tremaye and another young woman, named Rose Kelly, were very intimate, but the latter, being seized with a dangerous illness, was left at Rio Janiero. Mrs. Evans, the wife of the supposed man, states that she frequently heard Evans say that she came out by the Ocean Monarch. But the most satisfactory information of Evans's previous history yet received has been obtained from a Mrs. Thompson, a charwoman at Myers's Creek, who was also a shipmate of the girl Tremaye. At the time she made the voyage she was unmarried, and was accompanied by Miss Mary Ann Delahunty, a young lady who was very well connected, and who came from the same village as herself, named Monakine, on the north bank of the river Suir, in Kilkenny. Miss Delahunty was an orphan, and brought with her about £900. After Rose Kelly was taken ill, Tremaye resorted to Miss Delahunty's berth, and the passengers appeared to think there was something strange about the manner in which Tremaye conducted herself, and she had been observed to wear a man's under-clothing. Upon the arrival of the ship in Hobson's Bay, Tremaye declared herself to be a man, and told Mrs. Thompson she intended to marry Miss Delahunty.
The next Mrs. Thompson saw of Ellen Tremaye was at Pegleg Gully, Eaglehawk. Tremaye had just established herself in a house there under the name of Edward De Lacy Evans, and Mrs. Thompson went to serve them with milk. "When she went to the house, she saw Evans sitting inside dressed in male attire, and immediately recognised him as her fellow-passenger, Ellen Tremaye. Evans had, at this time, married his second wife, Miss Moore, who was then present, Evans remarked to her—'I think I know you.' To which Mrs. Thompson replied—'I know you, too,' and added something to the effect that Ellen (referring to Tremaye) was a queer girl. 'Oh.' said Evans, evidently anxious that his then wife should not understand Mrs. Thompson's reference, 'It's a good job she is gone back to the old country.' Mrs. Thompson inquired as to what had become of Miss Delahunty, and Evans replied, 'Oh, my poor wife and boy both died of consumption, and are buried in the North Melbourne cemetery.' In reply to an inquiry as to what had been done with her (Delahunty's) money, Evans said she had sent it home to a nunnery. Evans's then wife had been absent during a portion of this conversation, but at this point she returned, and Evans went outside to the milkwoman, and said, 'For your life don't mention my dead wife's name; call me Mr. Evans. This missus of mine is death on the Roman Catholics, and she can't bear to hear my dead wife's name mentioned.' This conversation took place about 12 or 14 years ago, and Mrs. Thompson seems to have quite believed that Evans had personated a woman under the name of Ellen Tremaye on the voyage out, and was really a man. She lost sight of Evans soon afterwards, and took no further notice of the affair."
One for the Old Man.—This must have somehow set the old man to thinking. A mother and father were trying to persuade their daughter to marry a man she did not love. But the girl objected, and on being pressed for her objections, she replied: "Well, in the first place he is stupid." "Now, hold on my child," put in her mother: "that's no reason at all. Didn't I marry your father ?"
PICTURED: ELLEN TREMAYE, ALIAS EDWARD DE LACY EVANS, THE FEMALE IMPERSONATOR.
Retrieved March 1, 2024, from https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article70973757
On 4 September 1879, the Bendigo Advertiser ran with the headline 'Extraordinary Case Of Concealment Of Sex' and wrote:
"One of the most unparalleled impostures has been brought to light during the past few days, which it has ever been the province of the press of these colonies to chronicle, and we might even add is unprecedented in the annals of the whole world. A woman, under the name of Edward De Lacy Evans, has for 20 years passed for a man in various parts of the colony of Victoria... As it is almost impossible to give an account of the case without making use of the masculine pronoun when referring to Evans, we propose to use that appellation... "Source: Extraordinary Case of Concealment of Sex". Bendigo Advertiser. Vic.: National Library of Australia. 4 September 1879. p. 2.
Link: https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article88216252
The Launceston Examiner on 9 September 1879 published the medical fraternity's opinion of the causes of Ellen/Edward's cross-dressing - what would be described today as lesbianism, or transexualism, or gender dysphoria but then as an "ailment" - with an optimistic prognosis:
As to " his" insanity it seems pretty clear that the attack is not a very bad one. The circumstances of " his" life make it very probable that "his" chief ailment is cerebral mania, which has caused the insane desire for marrying woman, and which of a necessity produces amentia. However, the disease is not incurable. The cause of none of the wives exposing the deception practiced on them has been without doubt nymphomania. It is considered likely by Dr. Poland - and his experience should be a sufficient judge - that in a few weeks the patient will be all right again. All required is rest, quiet, good nourishment, and the absence of the practices which have caused the mental weakness, to restore " him" to good health of mind, while "his" bodily health is excellent.Source:AN EXTRAORDINARY PERSONATION CASE. (1879, September 9). Launceston Examiner, p. 3.
Link: https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article47801728
And by the 13th October the Hobart Mercury was re-assuring readers that : -
The woman Ellen Tremaye, who for twenty years passed as a man and went through many hardships, has recovered her reason, and has become reconciled to female attire. She expresses a desire to leave the colony.Ellen Tremaye/ Edward De Lacy Evans died in the Immigrants' Home, St Kilda Rd, Melbourne on 25 August 1901, aged 70 [?] years.
Read more at Wikipedia: Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_De_Lacy_Evans
"A carte de visite of Evans created, most likely as a 'cut & paste', by photographer N. White, of Bendigo, after September 1879, to be sold as a curiosity." Source: State Library of New South Wales - [Ellen Tremaye alias Edward] de Lacy Evans, c, 1879 by N. White
The State Library of Victoria holds a collection of sepia photographs taken of Ellen Tremaye/Edward De Lacy Evans in various formats, including this one posed with third wife Julia Marquand:
Portrait of De Lacy Evans and his wife [picture] / Aaron Flegeltaub.
Flegeltaub, Aaron, fl. 1882-1891 photographer.[ca. 1870]
State library of Victoria. Link: https://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/291088
Available at the National Library of Australia, the pamphlet sold at Sydney 'shows': The History and confession of Ellen Tremaye, alias, De Lacy Evans, the man-woman (1880):
The History and confession of Ellen Tremaye, alias, De Lacy Evans, the man-woman
Created/Published [Melbourne? : s.n.], 1880 printing,
Link: View Catalogue (31 images)
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