Article P - The Veranda Baby

From Clipping to Conclusion

This post is part of the Blogging from A to Z Challenge (#AtoZChallenge), where I’m exploring historical newspaper clippings—one story at a time—through my series “Behind the Newsprint.”

The Clipping

On a Wednesday in October 1874, readers of the Kyneton Guardian found a startling brief in the local news:

"The Castlemaine Representative states that early on Sunday morning Mr Jeremiah Bennett, farmer at Farady, found a female infant about six weeks old deposited on his verandah."[i]

What It Suggests

At first glance, this looks like a classic Victorian tragedy: a desperate, unknown mother abandoning her child at the doorstep of a respectable farmer. It paints Jeremiah Bennett as a surprised victim of a random act, perhaps chosen only because his farm was a known landmark in Faraday.

Looking Closer

When we look closer into the incident, we find a Castlemaine Police Court report on 26 January 1875 in the Mount Alexander Mail, the "surprise" evaporates, revealing a tangled web of history:[ii]

• The Mother Identified: The woman who left the baby was Agnes Swift, a former servant in the Bennett household who earned 6s a week.
• A History of "Intimacy": This wasn't their first child. Jeremiah admitted to fathering twins with Agnes in 1872—Selina Ann and Louisa Victoria.
• The Alibi: Jeremiah claimed he couldn’t be the father of this third child because he had been away in Sandhurst (Bendigo) for sixteen months.
•  The First Wife’s Pain: Jeremiah’s legal wife, Elizabeth, testified that she had tried to keep the two apart after "former occurrences," and lamented that Agnes had been the "ruin of her house".
• The Verdict: Despite Jeremiah's "pantomimic gestures" of horror at the allegations, the court ordered him to pay 7s 6d a week for the child's maintenance.

What Lies Behind It

The true "twist" in this story doesn't happen in the courtroom, but in the years that followed. While the 1875 news report suggests a bridge burned beyond repair, the records tell a different story of reconciliation:

• Marriage: After Jeremiah’s first wife passed away in 1878,[iii] he married Agnes Swift on 28 May that same year.[iv] They remained together for the rest of his life and had four more children.
• A Father’s Final Word: In his 1893 Will, Jeremiah’s denial vanished.[v] He referred to Agnes as his "widow" and explicitly named the children from the scandal, including Selina and Emeline (the "veranda baby"), as his rightful heirs.
• A Quiet End: The "ruin of the house" became the mistress of the homestead. Agnes lived as Jeremiah’s widow for nearly 20 years after his death, only passing away in 1912.

Reflection

Newspapers are often called the "first draft of history," but as this case shows, they are frequently the most sensational draft.

Newspaper fragments rarely tell the whole story.

One report gives us:

a foundling child, briefly noted and quickly passed over.

Another gives us:

a courtroom filled with accusation, denial, and uneasy compromise.

Only by placing them together, and alongside the records that sit beyond the newsprint, do we begin to see what lies beneath.

If we stopped there, we would see Jeremiah as a cad and Agnes as a "ruin." It is only by looking at the silence of the years that followed, and the finality of a Will, that we see the scandal was the messy beginning of a family that stayed together until the end.

Further reads:

For those interested in learning more see Jeremiah Bennetts & Agnes Bennetts nee Swift profiles on WikiTree.

Sources:

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[i] LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS. (1874, October 14). Kyneton Guardian (Vic. : 1870 - 1881; 1914 - 1918), p. 2. Retrieved March 30, 2026, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article232496228

[ii] 1875 'CASTLEMAINE POLICE COURT.', Mount Alexander Mail (Vic. : 1854 - 1917), 27 January, p. 2. , viewed 07 Nov 2020, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article197550620

[iii] Death Index Entry for Elizabeth Bennett, aged 51 born Cornwall, parents Mathew May & Mary Richards husband Jeremiah, VICBDM 827 / 1878 [no place of death listed]

[iv] Marriage Certificate of Jeremiah Bennett & Agnes Swift Registration 28 May 1878, St Johns, Taravale, Victoria, Australia, Registration number: 1509 / 1878

[v] Jeremiah Bennetts Will written on 3 March 1893, VPRS 7591/P0002, 126/850, Probate granted 12 Dec 1912, VPRS 28/P0003, 126/850