Mrs Ah Kit vouched for Henrietta BYNG in the Castlemaine Police Court, but her testament was disregarded.
March 1869 ‘An Old Offender’ Henrietta Byng was brought before the Castlemaine Police Court ‘on a charge of indecent behaviour in a public place and having no lawful visible means of support’. Constable King gave derogatory evidence as to her character, whereas ‘Mrs Ah Kit stated that she kept Henrietta Byng’ but ‘the Bench disregarded her testimony, and sent Henrietta to gaol for twelve months’. This time Henrietta and her child were separated. ‘The woman [Henrietta] on being removed, pleaded hard for her child 18 months old to be sent to gaol with her, but the Bench resolved to send it to the Industrial School, and the woman was removed still begging not to be separated from her child’. Emma was made a Ward of the State and is listed in the Index to Children’s Registers of State Wards, 1850-1893, under various surnames (Rogers, Byng and Johns).