Mary Ann (McCoy) Ah Car (1849-1872), the wife of an opium dealer

Mary Ann McCoy was one of a small number of European women who married Chinese men on the gold fields. Addicted to drink and opium she died age 22 at Percydale in 1872.

Mary Ann McCoy was born in 1849 in Sydney, daughter of George McCoy and Bridget McCoy nee Gunnan.

In the 1850s he McCoy family moved to Victoria. They were at Talbot in 1855 and in Ararat from about 1857 .

In 1867 at the age of about 17 Mary Ann married Ah Car, a Chinese opium dealer. They had no children.

Five years later, on 2 April 1872, she died at Percydale  age 22. A coroner’s inquest held the next day found her cause of death to be “effusion on the brain, the result of alcohol poisoning and excessive smoking of opium”.

Depositions were made by 

• Her husband, who spoke of her being a heavy drinker and opium smoker. He said that she was 22, a native of Sydney and that she left a father, mother and sister at Ararat and that her father was a farmer.
• A neighbour, Annie Williams, who had known her for three or four years and also spoke of her drinking and smoking opium.
• Another neighbour, Catherine Ah Toon, wife of another opium dealer, who was present at her death.
• The Avoca doctor John McMahon who performed the post-mortem examination.

Avoca Mail, Saturday 6 April 1872, page 2

An inquest was held by the coroner, L. Worsley Esq., at the Percydale Hotel, on Wednesday last on view of the body of Mary Ann Ah Kar, aged 22 years, the wife of a Chinese opium dealer. From the evidence adduced it appeared that the deceased had been taken ill on the previous Saturday, but no doctor was sent for as her husband did not apprehend any danger until a few hours before her death, when the services of a Chinese doctor were procured. The husband deposed that she had been a heavy drinker of gin for the last three or four years, and also smoked opium to a great extent. Two female witnesses, who had known her for several years passed, corroborated the testimony of the husband. The post mortem examination made by Dr McMahon proved that the cause of death was alcoholic poisoning. The doctor stated that the lungs and heart of deceased were in a healthy state, but that the liver was enormously enlarged, and there was also a serous effusion on the brain. The jury brought in a verdict in accordance with the medical testimony.

Mary Ann Ah Car was buried at the Avoca Cemetery on 4 April 1872. 

On the burial records her religion was stated to be Roman Catholic, her parents and siblings however were Wesleyan.

Opium was not illegal in Victoria until 1905.

In the 1868 Victorian Parliament Report on The Chinese Population in Victoria, there is a mention of “dens of infamy and immorality” populated with “abandoned European women”.

The report expressed concern that the effects of opium would “in the course of time the practice will gradually spread among the European population, and produce as disastrous results upon them as upon the Chinese people”.

Further reading:

• In the 1867 survey of Chinese in Avoca: Statistics of Chinese Population in Avoca supplied by Howqua, the Chinese interpreter stated
  • 4 Chinese were married to European women in this colony
  • 2 opium-shops.
    • Evils of opium smoking: A man comes to get an intolerable craving for it. If the Government were to impose a heavy duty on opium, the number of opium smokers would be lessened by one-half.
  • 50 Chinese out of 100 are opium smokers.
  • From 11s. to 12s. are spent by rich Chinese on opium per week; 6s. to 7s. by men in middling circumstances; 2s. 6d. to 3s. a week by poor men.
  • To stop opium smoking: A man who sees the evils that spring from it, will of himself cease using the drug.

• Grantsvale, Fiddler’s Creek (Percydale)

• Burt, D. (2018, March 23). The history of Melbourne’s opium dens and their continuation into the 1950s. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-23/curious-melbourne-opium-dens-in-little-lon/9575652

Wikitree: Mary Ann (McCoy) Ah Car (1849-1872)