I now have a clearer idea of where these recently found scraps of paper came from; they date from the 1980s, as my interest in this particular area of research became more serious. Yet there’s no mention of my taking the subject out of the academy, and appealing to family historians for help.
Some of the scraps relate to my doubts about venturing into women’s history. I was obviously concerned about doing so. Brave? Stupid? Naive? Obstinate? This all seems apparent from what I jotted down.
Here is a random selection of my jottings.
‘Women’s participation in the flight from Ireland in the 19th century has not always been appreciated, or given the attention it deserves‘.
‘It may seem reasonable to assume that destitute young Irish females, victims of the Great Famine, inmates of Victorian workhouses, were among the wretched and oppressed of the earth. But it would be wrong to lump them all together indiscriminately as powerless and passive victims of patriarchal society’. From an early date, I was determined not to deny the famine orphans any agency.
‘Don’t start from an ‘a priori’ position, either forcing or distorting evidence to suit one’s ends, or failing to apply the canons of rigorous self-criticism’.
‘What was the structure of their oppression? Were they passive victims of government instrumentalities—selected, inspected, packed and freighted, indentured and apprenticed, and protected, by a succession of remarkably paternalistic bureaucrats’?
‘Patriarchal values formed part of their cultural background and instinctively some women reacted to the subjugation which these implied. Rebellious or so-called refractory behaviour in a workhouse, or on-board ship to Australia might be interpreted in such a light. Perhaps, too, the decision to emigrate’.
‘Yet however plausible the argument that disaffection with the patriarchal society in which they lived encouraged women to emigrate, there still remains the difficult distance between plausibility, and establishing that this was in fact so’.
‘19th century Irish newspapers cast females in the classic Madonna-Whore mould. Female convicts sent to Van Diemen’s Land were ‘pariahs of their sex, condemned of the law and outcasts of the world’. Female orphans were idealized innocents, ‘rosy-cheeked’, ‘smiling’ and laying claim ‘to that unparalleled beauty for which the daughters of Erin are so characteristic’. But on board ship these rosy-cheeked innocents became ‘the sport and prey of brutalized mariners’, and were led down the road to perdition.
‘But what do stereotypical and patronising attitudes shown towards women in newspapers tell us about the regard with which women were held in society at large anyway? Arguably, not a great deal’.
Do you, dear reader, ever use writing as a way of clarifying your thinking? I imagine that was what I was doing here.
If you have a glance at either of the Cambridge University repository links below, you’ll see how far away from https://earlgreysfamineorphans.wordpress.com the subject of my doctoral thesis was. (Not that i was a total newcomer to Irish history).
I am extremely pleased that so much good material is available on ‘open access’ nowadays. Combat misinformation however and whenever you can…even if my own interest in ‘Jacques Rohault and the history of natural philosophy’ might be a sure fire cure for your insomnia.
I’ve come across a few more typed pages that date from around the same time as these scraps of paper. They deal with the question why so many Irish women left Ireland in the 19th century. I’ll share them with you in the next post. My experience with http://www.tintean.org.au has shown me that posts can, and should sometimes, be short.
…and could hear her saying, yet again, and very clearly, and so late in the day, that she’d changed her mind ...
(from Claire Keegan, So Late in the Day, Faber and Faber, 2023.)
P.S. A landmark commemoration of the Famine orphans will take place in Williamstown 19 November commencing at 2pm.
Disclaimer. ChatGPT is responsible for the description of this post.
From County Westmeath, Ireland to County of Westmoreland, New South Wales.
By Caroline Thornthwaite
This is the story, as much of it as I have been able to put together, of Elizabeth Feeney, a young Irish Catholic orphan who migrated to the Australian colonies under the sponsorship of Earl Grey’s Famine Orphan Emigration Scheme. She is identified as passenger 97 on the Tippoo Saib, which arrived in Port Jackson on 29 July 1850.
Elizabeth, the daughter of Edward Feeny and Jane Thompson, was baptized on 27 June 1832 in the Townland of Mayne (Irish: Maighean), County Westmeath, Ireland.
The Civil Parish of Mayne comprises 19 townlands, including the townland of Mayne. The only village in the Civil Parish of Mayne is Coole, which lies in the townland of Coole (formerly Faughalstown) and borders the townland of Mayne. Geographically, Mayne Townland consists mainly of farming land and low-lying bog land. Its Irish name Maighean literally means ‘farmstead’.
The Catholic Parish of Mayne lies within the Civil Parish of Mayne in the Barony of Fore, County Westmeath. Civil registration of baptisms, marriages and deaths in Ireland did not begin until 1 January 1864. Prior to that, such records were often kept only by the conscientious priests, as they were under no legal or ecclesiastical obligation to do so. Fortunately, the parish priests of Mayne were of the conscientious type, and they kept records from the latter part of 1777. Sadly for family historians, some of the text has faded beyond reading and quite a few pages are missing from the record books.
The names Feeny and Feeney occur in the surviving Church records only on about a dozen occasions, and only between the years 1815 to 1864. This suggests that the family probably moved into the district not long before 1815. There are no Feenys mentioned in the Church records of neighbouring townlands. There are no notations in the church records to indicate where the Feenys came from or what brought them to Mayne Townland. They may, however, have had relatives in the Parish as there are several instances found in church records connecting them to the Tormey family.
There is no record of any Feenys in the Tithe Applotment Books for the Parish of Mayne. These books were compiled between 1823 and 1837 in order to determine the amount which occupiers of agricultural holdings over one acre should pay in tithes (a 10 per cent religious tax) for the upkeep of the Church of Ireland. Their absence from the Tithe Applotment Books suggests the family were probably farm labourers. If the family had leased any land during those years, it would likely only have been a small plot for growing potatos: potatoes and milk having been the staple diet of the agricultural labouring population until the great famine which decimated the population in the mid-1800s.
Only one Feeny is listed in the Griffith’s Valuation of Ireland for the Parish of Mayne. This valuation of tenements was compiled between 1847-1864 and was a uniform guide to the relative value of land throughout the whole of Ireland. It was used to calculate the amount of Poor Rate each occupier of land was liable to pay. The Poor Rate was effectively a tax for the support of the poor and destitute within each Poor Law Union.
The Valuation of Tenements printed in 1854 lists a James Feeny who rented a house, forge and garden from Reverend Thomas Smith in the Parish of Mayne, Village of Upper Coole, Westmeath. Church records show that James died in 1864. The record gives no indication of his age, marital or social status but simply states “1864, February, Jas Feeney, Coole”. At that time Coole was in the townland of Faughalstown (it later became the townland of Coole) and was also part of the Parish of Mayne.
Given the scarcity of Feenys in the church and civil records and, considering the timeline of the records found so far, it would seem safe to make some assumptions about the make-up of the family.
The family patriarch was Richard, who died in May 1820; age not given. Richard’s wife was Anne; maiden name not given. Anne, described as a widow, died in July 1837; age not given. According to the records, both Richard and Anne were parishioners of the local Catholic church and residents of Mayne Townland. Richard and Anne seemed to have had one daughter and three, possibly four, sons.
A son, Edward, first appears in the records as Edward Finey, a sponsor at the baptism of James Tormey in January 1815. According to Catholic Canon Law, a godparent had to be at least 16 years of age, therefore, Edward could not have been born any later than January 1799.
On 6 February 1829, a daughter, Elizabeth Feeney, married Laurence McGrath. The witnesses were John Reilly and Mary Tormey. Their daughters, Mary and Anne, were baptized on 4 October 1829 and 7 October 1829 respectively; no dates of birth given. Mary’s godparents were Francis Gordon and Mary Tormey, and Anne’s godparents were Terence Clarke and Mary Tims.
On 16 February 1829, Edward Feeney married Jane Thompson in Mayne on 16 February 1829 in the presence of the Reverend Francis Sheridan and the Reverend John Leavy. Jane Thompson was a recent convert to the Catholic faith. She made her profession of faith, and was received into the Roman Catholic church, on 2 November 1828 in the presence of Francis Gordon and James Hughes.
In April 1836, the records show a death for a Mary Feeney, married, from the Parish of Mayne, residing in Mayne Townland: no maiden name given. In April 1843 they show a death for an Elenor Feeny, married, from the Parish of Mayne, residing in Mayne Townland; no maiden name given. Presumably both Mary and Elenor had married one of Richard and Anne’s sons. Perhaps one of them had been the wife of James.
Tragedy struck Edward and Jane’s daughter Elizabeth very early in her life. Edward died on 17 July 1832, a mere 20 days after his daughter Elizabeth was baptized. No details apart from the date of Edwards death were recorded. While still in her teenage years, a second tragedy struck young Elizabeth’s life. The Great Hunger of 1845-1852 had a significant effect on the population of Mayne Townland, an area of 541 acres (about 219 hectares). According to the 1881 Census of Ireland (Province of Leinster), before the famine the population in 1841 was 193 people living in 31 dwellings. Towards the end of the famine in 1851, the population was 118 people living in 20 dwellings. Over the next ten years the population continued to fall and by 1861 there were only 56 people living in 12 dwellings.
Just short of one year after her arrival in New South Wales, Elizabeth married Samuel Slater, a former convict who had, having received a life sentence for housebreaking, received a conditional pardon two years earlier. That Elizabeth Feeney, wife of Samuel Slater, is the same person as Elizabeth Feeny, orphan immigrant, is beyond doubt. The only immigration record found in the archives of the State Records Authority of New South Wales that could possibly match Elizabeth’s arrival in the colony of NSW is found in the Assisted Immigrants Index, in the passenger records for the Tippoo Saib, which arrived in Port Jackson on 29 July, 1850.
According to NSW immigration records and Elizabeth’s death record, her year of birth is calculated as 1835; according to her baptism record and marriage record it is calculated as 1832. Her 1901 obituary[1] states Elizabeth was 69 years old when she died and had lived in the Goulburn district for more than 50 years. That would place her approximate year of birth as 1832 and her arrival in the colony before 1851. The original record of the Tippoo Saibship passenger manifest shows:
No. 97 Feeny Elizabeth, age 15, Dairymaid, Native of Mahan Westmeath, Church of Rome, neither read nor write[2].
The Immigration Board passenger inspection list, recorded before the passengers were permitted to disembark, corroborates the data on the ship passenger manifest and describes Elizabeth’s “state of bodily health, strength and probable usefulness” as “good”.
No.97 Feeny Elizabeth, 15, Dairymaid, Mahan W. Meath, parents Edward & Jane both dead, Roman Catholic, neither read nor write, no relations in the Colony[3].
The age discrepancy on her immigration documents may have been a clerical error, or Elizabeth may have lied about her age, particularly if the workhouse Board of Governors favoured selecting younger females for the orphan emigration scheme (her year of birth is calculated as either 1832 or 1835 on all the official records discovered thus far). A further possibility is that Elizabeth may not have known how old she actually was.
Elizabeth’s place of residence in Ireland is given as Mahan in County Westmeath, however, there is no Mahan found on contemporary maps of County Westmeath or mentioned in Griffiths Valuation of Tenements 1848-1864. Possible locations for Elizabeth’s place of residence in Ireland were Mahonstown, about 12km east of Mullingar, and the townland of Mayne (Irish: Maighean), located about 18km north of Mullingar. A search of the County Westmeath Catholic Church records was rewarded by the find of an Elizabeth Feeny, daughter of Edward and Jane, baptized in the Townland of Mayne in 1832. It is likely that Mahan was a phonetic spelling as heard by the ear of the record-taker.
Elizabeth fared better than many of her orphan contemporaries. Because she was a dairy maid, it is likely that her time at the Hyde Park Barracks would have been short; girls with her experience would have been sent directly to a farming area rather than be sent out as domestic servants. From what we know of Elizabeth’s life, it seems that she was transferred from Hyde Park Barracks to the Immigration Depot at Goulburn, probably enduring a long and uncomfortable journey over the Great Dividing Range by bullock dray. From Goulburn, she would have been collected by her new employer and settled into her new life in the farming community at Richlands, about 45 km (28 miles) north of Goulburn. At that time the Richlands estate, including the estate workers’ village now called Taralga, was owned by William Macarthur and managed by his brother James, sons of the infamous John Macarthur – racketeer, entrepreneur, instigator of the Rum Rebellion and pioneer of the Australian merino wool industry. The Series NRS-5240 Registers and indexes of applications for orphans 1848-1851 held by the State Records Authority of NSW archives holds no details specific to Elizabeth Feeney, nor is there mention of indentures for any of the orphans who arrived aboard the Tippoo Saib in July 1850. The index for 1850 does, however, mention correspondence from the colonial Immigration Agent dated 21 March 1850 forwarding a letter from WJ McArthur of Goulburn “enclosing five Indentures completed and six for completion”. Further correspondence is mentioned in July 1850 from the Immigration Agent forwarding a letter from J McArthur Esq., Goulburn, “reporting the marriage of Mary Lanahan (sic) and Mary Leery (sic), Orphan Females per William & Mary”[4]. The J McArthur referred to was probably JF
[3] State Records Authority of New South Wales: Shipping Master’s Office; Passengers Arriving 1826 – 1900; Part Colonial Secretary series covering 1845 – 1853, reels 1272 [4/5227], 1280 [4/5244].
[4] The orphan ship William & Mary arrived in Sydney on 21 November 1849. Mary Lenahan was employed by William King of Goulburn at £8 for a period of 12 months. Mary Seery was employed by Thomas Capel, a brewer from Goulburn at £10 for a 12-month period. Mary, as Mary Saary, married John Steward on 1 July 1850 at St Saviour’s Church of England, Goulburn.
McArthur Esq, a Justice of the Peace and a sitting Magistrate on the Goulburn Bench. He, presumably, was acting on instructions from the Immigration Office in Sydney in the role of a local guardian.
Although the name of Elizabeth’s employer is not known, such correspondence confirms that young women from the Orphan Emigration Scheme had been sent to employers in Goulburn from at least 1849 onwards, as three orphans from the William & Mary are known to have been in Goulburn in early 1850[1].
Of the 297 orphan girls on board the Tippoo Saib, Elizabeth was one of only seven dairy maids, the other girls being mainly general house servants or nurse maids. Elizabeth may have been selected for employment specifically for that reason and employed either by Messrs Macarthur or one of their Richlands tenants, some of whom were dairy farmers[2]. Various birth, death and marriage records confirm that Elizabeth lived on the Richlands estate for the remainder of her life.
On 25 June 1851, one year after her arrival in New South Wales, Elizabeth married Samuel Slater at Richlands homestead, the home of the estate manager, Mr George Martyr. The marriage was conducted by William Sowerby, a minister from St Saviour’s Church of England, Goulburn. Samuel Slater had been assigned to James Macarthur in 1832 and worked between the Macarthur-owned estates of Camden Park and Richlands. On being granted a Ticket of Leave in 1841, Samuel was employed by the Macarthur family and soon relocated permanently to Richlands around 1842. Samuel received a Conditional Pardon in 1848.
At the time of Elizabeth’s arrival in the district, there were about 50 families living on the Richlands estate. They were all tenant farmers growing cereal crops such as wheat, oats and barley, or raising sheep, cattle, pigs and horses. The usual lease arrangements were 20-year leases for £15 per acre. Most of the lots averaged about 500 acres in size and were on what was widely considered to be some of the best land in the colony.
The marriage record of Samuel Slater and Elizabeth Feeney states that the groom was a bachelor, born in Derbyshire, a Stonemason, age 58 [according to the government records Samuel would actually have been 48], residing at Richlands, parents not listed. The bride was a spinster, born in Ireland, occupation not listed, age 19, residing at Richlands, parents not listed. The witnesses were George Martyr (the manager of Richlands estate), Angus Mackay (who would later become Instructor in Agriculture to the Board of Technical Education) and Elizabeth Weeks (wife of one of the tenant farmers), all of Richlands. The couple were married by banns. The bride signed with her mark[3].
The marriage of a 19-year-old girl to a man nearing his 50th birthday would be almost unheard of in our day and age, but at that time marriages were nearly always a matter of convenience. If love were to flower in time, all the better. In the case of Elizabeth and Samuel, the marriage would have been mutually beneficial. In marrying Samuel, Elizabeth would be working for herself and her future family; she need never be at the beck and call of an employer again. On the financial side, Samuel had been a wage-earner for almost ten years and, if he was not already a leaseholder, was probably well on his way to affording to lease his own farm on the Richlands estate. In marrying Elizabeth, Samuel had gained a young and healthy wife; as a dairymaid, Elizabeth knew her way around cattle and would contribute to the work of a farm, as well as provide Samuel with the creature comforts of home and companionship.
[1] In addition to Mary Lenehan and Mary Seery, Mary Ann Long (according to the Famine Orphan Database) on “14 Feb 1850 one of 4 orphans who absconded from Mr Peter’s dray on way to Wagga, returned to Goulburn Depot.”
[2] Dairy products had been produced since the earliest days of settlement in the Taralga district. The 600-acre property granted to Mr Thomas Howe, cheesemaker, in 1828 was later purchased by Edward Macarthur as it joined the northern boundary of Macarthur’s ‘Richlands’ estate. Richlands homestead and its various buildings were subsequently built there. Source: Taralga Historical Society Inc, 83 Orchard Road Taralga, NSW, 2580, Newsletter No 4, 2019, http://taralgahistoricalsociety.com.au/THS%20NEWS%204,%202019.pdf.
[3] NSW Registry of Births, Deaths & Marriages, Marriage 434/1851 V1851434 37B, Slater Samuel, Feaney Elizabeth, MC.
Elizabeth and Samuel were married for 18 years and had thirteen children together. Sadly, only seven of their children survived to adulthood. According to Samuel’s death certificate of 1869, two males and three females died in infancy (those births were not registered, which was not uncommon in the remoter areas of the colony) and toddler Samuel Junior, not yet two years old, fell into a well and drowned. Of the remaining seven children, four males and three females, all but Joseph married and had children of their own. The older children seem to have been baptized into the Anglican faith and the younger ones into the Roman Catholic faith. This may have been due to a lack of Catholic clergy in the area in the earlier years, as the first Catholic church built in the area was St Ignatius at Taralga in 1864, and even then, the priest was attached to the parish at Crookwell, 39 km (29 miles) away.
The four surviving adult sons – Thomas, Samuel Francis, Edward and Joseph – initially all lived in the Taralga area on or near the Macarthur Richlands and Guineacor properties; first as labourers, then later as tenant crop farmers and also raising horses, cattle and sheep. The Slater brothers’ personal stock brands were registered and published in the NSW Government Gazette between 1890 and 1921. Thomas, who “was of a retiring disposition” and “well-liked by all who knew him”[2], married Norah Foran, a farmer’s daughter and assisted immigrant from Glasclune, County Clare, Ireland who had arrived in 1881 per Clyde. Thomas and Norah eventually pioneered at Redground, to the northeast of Goulburn. Of Thomas and Norah’s children, three daughters and one son married siblings from the neighbouring Skelly family, whose parents were both of Irish descent. Thomas died at Goulburn in 1939. Joseph remained a bachelor and died at the Rydalmere Mental Hospital in 1944. Samuel Francis, a “widely known stockman”[3] and who was “well known and highly respected throughout the community”[4], married Norah Foran’s younger sister, Catherine. Catherine (known as Katie or Kate) was also an assisted immigrant, arriving in 1886 per Port Victor. Sam and Kate bought a 200-acre grazing property at Wombeyan Caves to the northeast of Taralga in 1910, which they called Wattle Flat. Sam worked his property until shortly before his death at Goulburn in 1950. Edward married Mary Lennam, a nurse, also of Irish descent. He is believed to have died in Tasmania.
One can only imagine Elizabeth’s delight when three of her sons married Irish brides and two of her three daughters married Irish-born or Irish-descended men. Did they speak Gaelic and reminisce about the old country when they were together? Did they sing Irish folk songs and share stories around the fireplace? Perhaps it helped to ease any homesickness or sadness at separation from family, perhaps the Irish commonality strengthened the bond of extended family ties.
Samuel Slater died in 1869, leaving Elizabeth a widow at a relatively young age with seven minor children to care for, one of whom was just a babe in arms. Elizabeth did not remarry, as many of the other Earl Grey orphans were forced to do to ensure some kind of security for themselves and their children. According to Elizabeth’s 1901 newspaper obituary, many years earlier she had been granted a farm free of rent for her lifetime in consideration of the Slaters’ long and faithful years of service to the Macarthur family. That farm and house would have been the property on Portion 3, where the Slaters had been farming and raising stock for some years. This act of generosity was undoubtably at the hand of Mrs Elizabeth Macarthur-Onslow (James Macarthur’s sole child and heir) and would have occurred at the time of Samuel’s death. Mrs Macarthur-Onslow had a reputation as a kind and generous person who had great concern for her employees and their families and “was always devising ways to give them better homes and brighter lives”[10]. Elizabeth remained a widow for 31 years.
In January 1901, Elizabeth contracted influenza resulting in pneumonia. After a nine-day illness, she died in her home at Richlands on 14 January 1901, having been well cared for by her family and attended to by her parish priest. Her death certificate states she was 69 years old, born in County Westmeath, Ireland and that her time in the colony was 56 years[11]. Elizabeth’s son Edward was the informant; however, there are errors in the information he provided. Edward mistakenly attributed his own father’s trade of stonemason to Elizabeth’s father and gave the name of Elizabeth’s mother as Elizabeth instead of Jane. Although Elizabeth did not name any of her daughters after her own mother, three of her granddaughters were given Jane as a middle name (Elizabeth Jane Barry, Bessie Jane Slater and Clara Jane McAleer). It is likely that Elizabeth was, herself, generally referred to as Bessie. Elizabeth was buried on 16 January 1901 in the Catholic section of the Stonequarry Cemetery (now Taralga Cemetery), off Golspie Road near Taralga, NSW.
The day after Elizabeth’s funeral, her house and its entire contents burned to the ground due to an accidental fire. Elizabeth’s orphan box may well have been among the contents destroyed in the fire. That same little box, made to a regulation size of 2 feet long x 14 inches wide x 14 inches deep (61cm x 35.5cm x 35.5cm) and with her name painted on the front, that accompanied her to Australia and was full with treasure in the form of clothes and personal items, all brand new and of good quality in accordance with a list prescribed by the Emigration Commission which was pasted inside the lid.
Only one of the boxes issued to the 4,114 girls participating in the Orphan Emigration Scheme in NSW is known to have survived and was on display in the Hyde Park Barracks Museum in Macquarie Street, Sydney in 2021.
Box belonging to Margaret Hurley from Gort, Co. Galway per Thomas Arbuthnot (arrived Sydney 1849).
Owned by her great-granddaughter, Rose Marie Perry. Photo: Darrell Thornthwaite.
Elizabeth’s obituary was published in The Catholic Press and the Goulburn Herald.
Elizabeth Feeney and Samuel Slater had at least 40 grandchildren. Their descendants include pioneering farmers, stockmen, graziers, votaries, health care professionals, public servants, servicemen in the armed forces and fire brigade, schoolteachers and businesspeople. Although there is little in the surviving records to tell us much about Elizabeth as a person, we can safely deduce that she was level-headed and not fearful of taking big steps to ensure her own survival against huge odds; that she was a dedicated wife and mother who knew the pain of losing some of her children at far too young an age; that, as a young widow, she was physically and emotionally strong enough to bring up her children alone; that her surviving children loved her and cared for her in her old age; that she had a most generous benefactress who deemed Elizabeth, even though she was not yet 40 years old, deserving of farmland and housing free of rent for the rest of her life; that she had brought up her children to be good, kind and charitable people who were well thought of by all who knew them; that she was a woman of faith; and that she was well respected within her community because her funeral was “very largely attended”. Elizabeth will be remembered by her descendants as one of the 4,114 Irish orphan females landed in NSW who truly became the ‘mothers of Australia’.
Researched and written by Caroline Thornthwaite, 2022.
For my husband Darrell and his three brothers, Dennis, David and Bruce; fourth-generation descendants of Samuel Slater and Elizabeth Feeney.
State Records Authority of NSW, Assisted Immigrants (digital) shipping lists 1828-1896, Tippoo Saib 29 July 1850, viewed 2021, https://indexes.records.nsw.gov.au/ebook/list.aspx?Page=NRS5316/4_4786/Tippoo%20Saib_29%20Jul%201850/4_478600555.jpg&No=6
State Records Authority of NSW, Immigration – Registers and Indexes of Applications for Orphans 1848-51, Item 4/4716, Register 1850-51, Volume 3, Reel 3111.
State Records Authority of New South Wales: Shipping Master’s Office; Passengers Arriving 1826 -1900; Part Colonial Secretary series covering 1845 – 1853, reels 1272 [4/5227], 1280 [4/5244].
Sydney Living Museums, Irish Orphan Girls at Hyde Park Barracks, viewed 2021
[11] NSW Registry of Births, Deaths & Marriages, Death 3217/1901, Slater Elizabeth, Taralga.
My thanks to Caroline Thornthwaite who has kindly allowed me to put into my blog, her well-researched and finely written orphan story, that of Elizabeth Feeney from ‘Mahan, Westmeath’ per Tippoo Saib. She hopes readers will find it either interesting or useful, or both.
Readers will be aware that my last few blogposts are concerned with encouraging people to write ‘their’ own orphan histories, asking them to think about ethical issues, historical context, and the like, as they go. My view is that the primary authority for orphan histories lies with descendants themselves. An outsider, academic or otherwise cannot provide the personal, lively, and passionate engagement that only a descendant can, no matter how helpful the outsider may be. Had i still been teaching I’m sure we could have had some interesting discussions, and disagreements, about this. If you know the saying attributed to Socrates, ‘the unexamined life is not worth living‘, then you’ll understand why I’ve been encouraging some Irish Famine orphan descendants to examine their relationship with ‘their’ orphan, and her effects/affects (easy to confuse these) upon them. There are plenty of different ways of doing this. You don’t have to follow the same path as Kaye or Peter or Brenda (see my recent blogposts, for some very interesting examples).
I hope many of you are familiar with the wonderful story written by Kaye Schofield that appeared in last month’s Tinteán. Here’s the link, in case you aren’t, or just wish to read it again.
I’m also going to put the following essay into this month’s issue of the free online magazine. It’s only fair that Tinteán‘s readers get the chance to read Kaye’s response to the question,
How has Bridget Hopkins affected me?
By Kaye Schofield
The question posed was: How has ‘your’ orphan affected you. This was a question I had not thought about, and I was not convinced that it was even a question worth exploring. I wondered what the point of it was and pushed it away, but it was persistent. I finally succumbed to the siren song, and here is my answer.
I have known the name of my great-great-grandmother Bridget Hopkins for around 15 years but she was just another one of those many family ghosts who floated around in the background of my own very busy and peripatetic life. Some 5 years ago, Bridget became the subject of my first serious family history effort. She was a demanding subject who did not yield up her secrets readily.
I started with the usual official reports: Select Committee on Poor Laws; Poor Law Boundaries Commission; Poor Law Commissioners’ Reports; Papers on the State of the Unions and Workhouses in Ireland and the like. Anyone who has ever read a parliamentary report will understand how much is omitted and how colour and movement is erased by the officialese. As the Great Famine in Galway and Connaught more broadly began to take a form in my head, I had a creeping sense of shame that I had lived so long and not really thought about it in any way beyond the superficial. Bridget urged me to seek a greater contextual understanding of the circumstances that likely led her to her admission into the Castlerea workhouse in County Roscommon.
I dived into a range of Irish historians such as Cormac Ó Gráda, Alan Fernihough, Christine Kinealy, Brendan Ó Cathaoir, Ciarán Reilly and David Fitzpatrick as well as Colm Tóibín’s marvellous essay Erasures. I became interested in the political economy of the Great Famine as well as its social dimensions and impact. I read various theses of variable quality and realised that writers from Ireland, England, Australian, Canada and the United States bring very different perspectives to the Great Famine, emigration and immigration. I read accounts which challenged the notion of women as passive spectators or victims of the Great Famine and emphasised female agency. I read the debates about whether the Great Irish Famine was an example of genocide and the arguments that the Great Famine was an Irish Holocaust. I found the powerful poem “What Shall I Wear, Darling, to The Great Hunger?” by Paul Durcan and other such creative works that have been described as famine satire, and read discussions about whether the Great Famine was a suitable subject for satire anyway. Navigating my way through such complex debates was challenging and I wondered why I was doing this at all, since it would take a lifetime of study to really come to any seriously informed point of view. After all, I was just an amateur skating over the surface of a relatively brief if totally transformative period in Irish history to write up ‘my’ Earl Grey orphan.
Bridget then suggested that I take a break and go really local. I have been a fan of oral history since I first read the work of Studs Terkel in the 1970s so I did not take much urging. I found the Irish Folklore Collection and began searching for all things Galway, Roscommon and Castlerea. Eventually I came across the book Famine Echoes– Folk Memories of the Great Irish Famine: An Oral History of Ireland’s Greatest Tragedy by Cathal Póirtéir. I remember distinctly the very moment when I read the recollections of the son of Johnny Callaghan, a baker in the Castlerea workhouse during and for many years after the Famine, and who had worked alongside his father. Amongst other things, he recalled ‘The Black Room’ where the sick were allowed to die, after which the corpse was allowed to slide down boards into the pit beneath and lime was put over the corpse, along the boards and along the wall of the gable. This caused the wall to go black and gave the name to the ‘Black Gable’. When I first read this, I paced up and down my hallway, muttering to myself that surely this cannot be so? Vivid images of Bridget’s parents, grandparents, brothers or sisters sliding down boards into a lime pit kept recurring. I was rendered speechless with deep rage.
From that moment, I became hyper-aware of all things Irish, past and present. In trying to recover her memory, Bridget has taught me to notice all the big things like the Corn Laws and also the small things like the properties of Indian maize and the Lumper potato when in combination with buttermilk. She led me to look at the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland, the landlord system, resident and absentee landlords, Catholic and Protestant landlords, the Gregory clause, evictions, clearances and emigration and to find out about Richard D’Arcy of New Forest, the landlord of Glen village where I believe Bridget came from. She sent me searching through the fine print of Irish and English newspapers for any sliver about the Castlerea Poor Law Union and its Castlerea workhouse. She thought I should know more about Lieutenant John Henry R. N., the Emigration Agent for the Colonial Land and Emigration Commission who selected her in September 1848, along with 19 other orphan girls, for emigration to the Australian colonies and whether he was decent or not (yes, I think he was).
Having led me a merry dance around both the wood and the trees, I finally felt I had a good enough but certainly not perfect feel for Bridget’s time in Ireland. But before I could put pen to paper, I had to know everything I could about the ship Digby that carried her to Sydney. Then with my forensic skills now sharply honed, I laboriously ploughed my way through the next 66 years of her life, dealing with the tedium of publican’s licenses in Bathurst, the seemingly endless array of boarding houses in Bourke, and marriage, divorce and bankruptcy laws in NSW.
All this research took the best part of six months and only then did I feel I could start writing, which took another six months. Much of my research never actually made its way into my written accounts as I tried to focus on a narrative that others might find accessible and interesting. The research was not wasted, just living in a backroom.
Researching Bridget has occupied a big chunk of my life over recent years, teaching me a good deal about the history, geography, economics and politics of Ireland and of NSW. I have become somewhat obsessive about getting the details right while placing them in a wider context, endlessly fearful of the banal or trite which can come with too little knowledge. And just when I think I have got everything just so and write it up and put into the public domain, Bridget throws me another curve ball and it all starts again. I feel sorry for my 15 other great-great-grandparents. They are all getting short shrift unless, that is, they too are Irish.
BRIDGET’ S GRANDSON CORPORAL ALBERT EDWARD CARROLL #385 19TH BATTALION ORANGE NSW ON LEFT STUDIO PORTRAIT TAKEN SHORTLY BEFORE THE 19TH BATTALION DEPARTED FOR GALLIPOLI ALBERT THE SON OF WILLIAM BERNARD CARROLL WAS KILLED IN ACTION IN 1917 AT THE SECOND BATTLE AT BULLECOURT AGED 23. PHOTO COURTESY AUSTRALIAN W AR MEMORIAL
Kaye Schofield AO has very recently retired after a 55-year career in education, initially in schools and then tertiary education and later advising on Australia’s international development programs in the Indo-Pacific. She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees and an honorary doctorate in education. Her DNA ethnicity estimate is 46% Irish. Her passion for family history is relatively new but her original training in history and geography has proved helpful. Her family is a little bemused by but grateful for her obsession.
Recently someone asked me how to find which workhouse their orphan came from. I provided some suggestions, basically how to do the research themselves. Would you like to have a go? Here are some links you will find helpful. https://earlgreysfamineorphans.wordpress.com/2015/07/24/earl-greys-irish-famine-orphans-20/ Trying to sort out the difficuties that have arisen from the next par below.
The first is to the contents of the blog. It is incomplete but it contains what you need for this exercise. Try clicking on the Contents title below, and then on post number 20, at the HTTP link; it’s the one that begins ‘British Parliamentary Papers’, a fair way down the page. It should tell you the names of workhouses that sent orphans for each ship, the early ships anyway.
A more direct but still quite complex method would be to go to the search box that appears at the end of each post, just after the comments.
Here’s a screenshot. Type what you are looking for into the search box; i typed the words, ‘which workhouse’, and up came a number of places where these two words appear in my blog, posts 62, 64 and 66, for example
Here’s another screenshot showing part of what came up. You need to click on those different links and search for what you are after.
In this case, post 62, scroll down past “Literacy” and “Sydney Legend” and follow my suggestions. Take your time and work through at your own pace. If you you encounter difficulties, I’m sure there is someone at home, or in your orphan Facebook group who will be willing to help. At some stage you will also need ‘Google maps’ and Peter Higginbotham’s great workhouse website. But let’s go slowly.
What you are doing is identifying the workhouses that sent orphans on your orphan’s ship (blog post 20). Then with information about your particular orphan’s native place (see shipping lists, the https://irishfaminememorial.org/ website, or my Barefoot ) go to Peter Higginbotham’s www.workhouses.org and see if you can find the workhouse your orphan most likely came from. Which was closest to her native place? The method is not foolproof. But it is a good start. [You may need to use the search box again to see how to use Peter’s workhouse site].
Best of luck with your quest. Technology can tie us in knots,especially if we aren’t used to it.
I’d be interested in hearing about your experience. Please tell me, and other people by adding a comment at the end of this post.
May i ask if you found any information about your particular orphan when you typed her name into the search box?
What specific words did you use in the search box that directed you to information that was both helpful and interesting? Have you any tips for other searchers? Have you any queries?
Given how close we are to June 16th, it seems appropriate to finish with a quotation from this work,
The gravediggers took up their spades and flung heavy clods of clay in on the coffin. Mr Bloom turned his face. And if he was alive all the time? Whew! By Jingo, that would be awful!
Peter has kindly allowed me to share this version of his orphan ancestor’s story. (see Blogpost 84) Ann was another Port Phillip arrival.
Ann Trainer or Traynor per Derwent
Born c 1833 Ireland. Died 1874 New Zealand
Her story
by great great grandson Peter James Hansen, February 2022.
Ann Trainer, my great great grandmother, was unknown to my family until the early 1990s. My discovery of her was a huge surprise as my parents prided themselves as having no benighted Irish or Roman Catholics in their ancestry. I found an Irish Roman Catholic ancestor on both sides of our family. Both were Irish female famine orphans, each with sad stories to uncover.
This story is about Ann Trainer on my mother’s side.
Born out of wedlock, institutionalised, living much of her youth in a workhouse. Shipped to Australia under a British Govt scheme to provide domestic servants & wives. The Victorian gold rush in Australia from 1851-late 1860s. Marriage to a sea captain, three children, prostitution, drunkenness & finally an early death in a rip-roaring frontier gold rush town on New Zealand’s wild West Coast.
According to the Magherafelt Workhouse records, Ann Trainer’s mother was Catherine Cassidy b c 1797, single spinster Roman Catholic who had three illegitimate children, Samuel Cassidy b c 1830, Ann Traynor b c 1833 & Patrick Henry b c 1839.
Sam’s father is unknown but Ann & Pat both had surnames acknowledging the putative fathers, Traynor/Trainer & Henry.
The Magherafelt Workhouse records usually name Ann as Ann Traynor but occasionally as Ann Cassidy.
The Magherafelt Workhouse opened in March 1842.
A few weeks later Catherine Cassidy aged 45 single spinster Roman Catholic, clean, from the Electoral Division of Tobermore townland of Drumreany was admitted 26 March 1842 with two bastard children. Ann Traynor aged 9 & Patrick Henry aged 3. They were discharged on 5 August 1842.
Further transcriptions of the Magherafelt Workhouse records reveal the following
Entering the workhouse 23 August 1842, leaving 16 Sept 1842. Catherine with two children. Ann’s age was recorded as 10.
In 16 Dec 1842 & out 3 April 1843 when Catherine 46 is described as single, a spinner, Roman Catholic woman with 3 bastard children. Ann described as being 9.
In 25 Sept & out 14 Oct 1843. Catherine Cassidy aged 48, single, with children all very wretched. Samuel Cassidy 12, Ann Traynor 10 Pat Henry 4.
In 4 Feb 1845 out 24 March 1845. Catherine Cassidy single mendicant, clean of Tobermore with two children. Ann Traynor 10 & Pat’k Henry 5.
In 12 July 1845 out 28 July 1845. Catherine Cassidy 49 single mendicant having one child clean & healthy of Tobermore. Patrick Henry 7.
(Where were Ann Traynor & Samuel Cassidy?)
Autumn of 1845 saw the first failure of the potato crop.
In 2 Dec 1845 out 26 Jan 1846. Catherine Cassidy 40! Single with 2 children. Clean, of Tobermore. Samuel Cassidy 15 occupation out of service escaped over wall 25 Jan 1846. Ann Traynor 12 out of service.
In 15 May 1846 out 24 Aug 1846. Catherine Cassidy labourer,49, unable to support herself and her children. Tobermore townland of Ballinderry, clean. Ann Cassidy (Traynor) 12 & Pat Casidy (Henry) 8.
Autumn of 1846 saw the second failure of the potato crop.
In 26 Sept 1846 out 6 Aug 1847. Catherine Cassidy 48 single labourer unable to support herself and children, clean from Tobermore. Samuel Cassidy 15 escaped over the wall 2 Oct 1846 (for the second time). Ann aged 12.
The winter of 1846/47 was severe and fever was rife.
Patrick Henry aged 8 died 21 April 1847 in the Magherafelt Workhouse.
In 24 Dec 1847 out 7 July 1848. Catherine Cassidy 52, single no means of support mendicant with one child healthy. Ann bastard child healthy.
In 4 January 1849 out 30 Oct 1849. Anne Cassidy listed on her own aged 16 single destitute. (Where was her mother?)
Nothing more is known of Catherine Cassidy. Had she died by Jan 1849?
What happened to Samuel Cassidy after his second escape over the workhouse wall 2 Oct 1846?
Ann Trainer was selected from the Magherafelt Workhouse to be part of the ‘Earl Grey scheme’.
On 9th Nov 1849 she and 135 other female orphans from northern Ireland left Plymouth in the 365 ton barque ‘Derwent’ for Port Phillip. There was the usual problem of the crew fraternising with these young girls on the long voyage. There is no record of Ann being involved in any incidents on the 78-day trip.
The ‘Derwent’ arrived at Port Phillip Bay on 25 February 1850.
The Derwent’s manifesto names Ann,
No 121 Trainer, Ann, House Servant, age 16, Native Place and County – Maherfelt, Derry, Roman Catholic, Read & Write – both. (Ann only signed with an ‘X’ on her marriage registration)
On the Disposal list she appears as ‘Trainer, Ann, 16, RC, House Servt., Employer – Andrew Doyle, Carpenter, Collins St. at the rate of £8 per annum for 6 months.
There is no further record of Ann until her marriage in January 1854.
In the meantime, the Victorian goldrushes commenced in 1851 and literally hordes of mostly males seeking their fortunes arrived at Melbourne from the world over and dispersed throughout the diggings in Victoria. Melbourne became deserted as goldrush mania affected many. Crews deserted their ships including that of Ann’s future son-in-law William McKechnie from Dundee, Scotland. It was probably there that he first met Captain Whitford, Ann’s husband and also Richard Seddon, future Prime Minister of New Zealand. They were all ‘mates’.
On 18 January 1854, St James Church Melbourne Ann married George Whitford. The marriage certificate describes George as,
George Whitford, Bachelor, born At Sea, Master Mariner, age 23, residence Russell Street, parents John Whitford, deceased, Master Mariner, Mary Whitford maiden name unknown.
And Ann as, Ann Trainer, spinster, born Belfast, Ireland, occupation ‘Independant’, age 21, residence Russell Street, parents James Trainer, Schoolmaster, Catherine Kessedy maiden name.
They married in the Cathedral Church of St James according to the Rites of the Church of England.
Signed-George Whitford & Ann ‘X’ Trainer
George Whitford was master of the lighter “Allegro” which traded around Port Phillip Bay. Ann went to live with him on the ship and their three children were born on board at nearby Hobsons Bay.
Their first child George Arthur Whitford was born in Hobsons Bay 20 August 1854.
Their second child was born on the lighter ‘Legro’ (the “Allegro”) Hobsons Bay 23 May 1856. She was registered on 24 July 1856 by Ann as Winefred Elizabeth Whitford. Father, George Richard Whitford, 25, Master Mariner, born at sea Malabar Coast (India), mother Ann Whitford formerly Trainer, 22 born Belfast Ireland. Informant-The X mark of Ann Whitford, mother, Hobson’s Bay.
No trace of Winefred Elizabeth exists after this. However, on 15 October 1856 a baptism took place in St James’ Cathedral of a Mary Jane Whitford with the same birth date 23 May 1856, same parents & their abode is given as Yarra Yarra (Melbourne wharves). Baptismal names take precedence over registered names. Mary Jane is my great grandmother.
Their third child James Richard Whitford was born on the ‘Allegro’ 5th May 1858. Ann again signed X Her mark.
George Whitford then went on to be master of the paddle steamer ‘Lioness’ for seven years. It seems that the Whitford family then moved into a cottage at Port Sandridge near Melbourne.
In Oct 1865 at Hokitika, Westland, New Zealand, Capt George Whitford met his former ship ps ‘Lioness’ to take up duties as a tug master towing sailing ships over the dangerous Hokitika river bar. Hokitika and Greymouth became the centres of a goldrush. There are numerous recorded accounts of Capt Whitford and his superb seamanship.
Ann and the three children followed at a later date & lived in a house Capt Whitford owned near Gibsons Quay in the town.
In 1869 Capt Whitford was appointed as Pilot for the Ports of Westland. However soon afterwards he disappeared. A George Whitford seaman died in a Melbourne infirmary in 1879.
George Whitford, Master Mariner, Ann’s husband.
Family tradition is that Ann and her children were left unsupported and destitute. However, the children appear to have received an education.
Shortly before she died in 1874 Ann featured in a sordid court case held in the Magistrates & then Supreme Court. March & September 1874. It was reported in salacious detail in the West Coast Times. A sad finale to her life. Ann was acquitted of charges but was a witness to a theft in a brothel where she was staying. She’s described as being very drunk.
Finally, in the West Coast Times 8 Sept 1874
“In the case of Annie Haines tried yesterday for larceny, a most material witness, a woman named Whitford, was unable to attend, being ill in Hospital……”
Annie Cassidy/Trainer/Whitford died on 8th October 1874, Hokitika Hospital aged 36 (sic) years, actually c 41) married, of Phthsis (Tuberculosis), informant NR Goodrich, Carpenter, Hokitika.
Annie Whitford was interred in Hokitika Cemetery 13 October 1874. The plot in the Roman Catholic section was purchased by her husband’s friend William McKechnie.
Annie’s grave set apart from the row of nuns nearby.
Lately I’ve been thinking about the relationship between academic and family historians. Is it an equal relationship? Do outsiders always bring a helpful perspective, or does their influence weaken the very personal and emotional tie family historians have with their orphan ancestor(s)? If authority is shared in the best possible way then everyone wins. I’m thinking here of David Fitzpatrick’s Oceans of Consolation and Tanya Evans’s Fractured Families. But it may not always be the case.
Let me test my belief that family historians should be given free-rein to write their particular orphan history. Only they can provide a very personal, passionate and lively engagement. Let’s test the hypothesis.
First is an interesting essay by Peter Hansen from New Zealand describing the effect his orphan(s) have had on him. My sincere thanks to Peter for allowing me to publish it.
PETER and his Irish orphan
It’s 30 years since I first came across Ann Trainer per Derwent as one of my ancestors. The initial shock impact of my discoveries has long gone. Information-gathering has been slow, in fits and starts, and very piecemeal. I’ve done most of the research along with three Whitford cousins, all of us descended from the two sons and the daughter of Ann Trainer/Whitford.
It’s astonishing how quickly families forget their recent family histories and ancestors. At least it is in Western societies. Here in New Zealand the indigenous people, the Maori, know their ‘whakapapa’, their genealogy, for 10, 20, 40 generations or more. I have a Syrian friend who could trace his family back to Adam.
In Ann Trainer’s case, was it because her family didn’t want to remember her because of her colourful history in the Victorian culture of that time? Who knows? Or was it because Ann died young at the age of 41 and there were stories untold to her children?
Or perhaps it was because her daughter Mary Jane Whitford/McKechnie died aged 36. My grandfather was 7 when she died and he and his siblings had little memory of their mother. Stories untold and lost. I don’t even know if any of them knew that their grandmother was buried in a nearby town. Or that she was Irish, and Roman Catholic?
But it’s left me with lots of unanswered questions, questions that perhaps haunt me, or have become obsessional. I have many ancestors I could research but Ann Trainer’s story is the one on which I seem to focus. It’s so out of the ordinary. Reactions from family and friends vary from having a giggle about a prostitute in the family to having a deep empathy for Ann’s life and circumstances.
I worked for many years in social services, chaplaincy and counselling, and am well-acquainted with sad and dismal stories. I was always objective. But that changed when I was affected personally. Subjective, not objective. There was an ancestor in my mother’s respectable family who was a bastard, a prostitute, a drunkard, and frequently in the courts.
It was compounded at the same time when I discovered my father’s Irish famine orphan ancestor in Sydney, NSW, was in and out of the courts and prison, a drunkard and a well-known prostitute. Disfunctional. How much did her earlier tragic life affect her in later years? All published in the media. It was a relief recently to finally learn through a DNA match that her husband was the actual father of my paternal gran’s mother. I could never tell my elderly parents any of this as they would’ve been too shocked. My siblings and cousins knew though.
My mother’s family, Scottish and Cornish were well-educated, liberal-minded, urbane and involved in politics and community. Her father was a bank manager in a prosperous rural farming district in South Canterbury, New Zealand. Very much the country gentleman and sportsman. His maternal grandmother, as I discovered, was Ann Trainer, born only 50 years earlier than he. What a stark contrast there was in their lives.
I’ve found it distressing reading the descriptions of Ann and her family in the Magherafelt Workhouse records, where the keywords are,
Bastard(s), mendicant, very wretched, destitute, no means of support.
It’s left me with an underlying grief, learning about my two Irish Famine orphans. Life was awful. My father’s orphan ancestor’s parents are likely buried in a mass grave in Athy, Kildare along with 10,000 others. Sobering.
The Famine has become very real and personal to me.
In 2015 I spent a week in Sydney researching my father’s famine ancestor. A highlight was visiting a museum, the former Hyde Park convict barracks used from 1819-1848 to house convicts transported from Britain. It was then used as an immigration barracks for Irish female famine orphans coming to Sydney 1848-1850. (Ann Trainer went to the Immigrants’ Depot in Melbourne)
Outside in the yard is a memorial to the Irish famine orphans sent to Australia. It’s stark but very moving and poignant. A metal table and stool, a bowl and spoon. This Australian Monument to the Great Irish Famine was inspired by Mary Robinson, President of Ireland.
I sat at that table in the deserted yard and suddenly found myself overwhelmed and weeping, quietly. A grief welling up inside me for what my ancestors had endured.
Their lives still affect me but I’m more objective now in my search for facts. I’ve lots of questions! Who was Cathy Cassidy, mother of Ann Trainer? Who was her family? Why did she not marry? She had her first child when aged 30. That’s late. Who were these men that she had relationships with? James Trainer and a Mr Henry who sired two of her children. Are there secrets in their families?
What made William McKechnie buy the burial plot for a ‘fallen’ Ann Trainer/Whitford whose daughter he married a few months later? We know that he was a friend of Annie’s husband Captain George Whitford. William McKechnie was a well-known businessman, philanthropist and local politician on the West Coast of New Zealand. He was good friends with Richard ‘Dick’ Seddon, Prime Minister of New Zealand. Roman Catholic Bishop Grimes was a guest at William’s hotel in a goldfields town near Greymouth and Hokitika. My grandfather & his siblings used to tell me stories of these people.
This is the world of people that Annie’s daughter lived in. But there’s nothing about Annie Trainer/Whitford, who’s not far removed from these notables.
Her descendants have done well overall and become good citizens in Australia and New Zealand–in all walks of life including the public realm. Though at times some of us have wondered if inherited characteristics from Annie and her husband have been responsible for some of our families’ misfortunes? Just a thought.
Peter J Hansen ( J = James as in James McKechnie, James Whitford & James Trainer)
Born & raised in New Zealand. Family history was important to me from an early age because I had no first cousins. A sense of loss not having extended family to connect into. Well-travelled in my younger days, living overseas for 11 years in the UK & South Asia. I’ve years of family research desperately needing to be written up, and digitised. Ensuring our stories are not lost to our families & communities. That’s my current goal & project. As C.S. Lewis said “You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.”
Peter’s visit to the Irish Famine Monument at Hyde Park Barracks
One of the advantages of growing older is that the urge to go minimalist grows stronger. The other day I was clearing out some cupboards and examining computer files located in different places, some of them with strange, unrecognisable names. And lo, i came across some orphan stories I think, i hope i forwarded to the new people looking after the irishfaminememorial website in about 2009. Most of the stories had come to me when i was responsible for the first version of the website. One disadvantage is that i don’t always have the names, or know how to get in touch with those who sent them to me. Forgive me then if these stories are not new to you, and if the people to whom they belong are not properly recognised. Maybe they will get in touch again.
My other good news is that Barefoot & Pregnant? volume 1 has been digitised as part of a research project at Melbourne Uni https://untapped.org.au You can find it under the Non Fiction category and the date of publication, 1991. It will be available in some libraries and on other platforms from 6 December, I’m told. How i got into such illustrious company, heaven knows.
The stories below, sent to me by orphan descendants in the noughties, are not in any order.
Here’s the first one. I’ll keep searching for more. If any of the authors wants me to remove any of this, please just ask. And please excuse my rubbishy attempt at formatting.
(1) Eliza Caroline orphan;Mary Ann Minahan from Skibbereenby Kathleen Newman
“Trevor I’m updating the latest information online about the Irish Famine Orphans because an Irish researcher has contacted me through Vol 2 of Barefoot & Pregnant about my great-grandmother, Mary Ann Minihan (Minnahan) p.392. I found your entries on this forum.
After you published Vol 2, I found that Mary Ann died at Yarra Bend Asylum on 10 May 1901 having been taken there from the Melbourne Hospital. After ruling out all other possibilities, I am 99 per cent sure she is the Mary Brown whose Inquest papers are at the Victorian PRO.
She also had 10 children, not just the 8 I had previously found. Through the records of her last child I found my grandfather’s record as a Ward of the State as well. The first of her many convictions appears to coincide with the date of her youngest child being made a State Ward in 1878.
Looking forward to Vol 3?
Kathleen Newman”
Anne Cooney from Antrim per Earl Greysent to me by ???
It is always fascinating to see how others record their research.
(2) <<BELFAST ORPHAN REFERENCE SHEET (BORS)
Name: Anne Cooney
DOB: 1828(?) POB: Antrim, County Antrim
Calling:
Education
Reads: Writes:
Religion: RC
Physical Description
Height: Hair: Eyes: Complexion:
Family
Father:
Mother:
Siblings:
Belfast Poor Law Union Workhouse
When Arrived: Reason for Entry: Age:
Duties:
When Left: May 1848 Reason for Leaving: Emigration Age: 20
Emigration
Ireland Departure Port: Belfast Ship: Athlone Date: May 1848
Arrive England: May 1848
UKDeparture Port: Plymouth Ship: Earl Grey Date: 5 June 1848
Arrive Sydney: 6 Oct 1848 Housed: Aboard Earl Grey
Depart Sydney: 17 Oct 1848 Ship: Ann Mary Arrival Brisbane: 20 Oct 1848
Housed: Brisbane hospital until indentured
Indented To: George S Le Breton, North Brisbane, £14, 3 months (he was a trustee of the Brisbane Hospital)
Close Associates/Friends
Name: Belfast Girl:
Name: Belfast Girl:
Name: Belfast Girl:
Name: Belfast Girl:
Name: Belfast Girl:
Marriage (in Australia)
Annie Cooney
DOM: 1849 (NSW V1849153 96/1849) (QLD 1854/BMA0345) QLD reference is for Annie Cooney and John Ibell
Where: Roman Catholic church, Brisbane
Banns/Licence: Celebrant:
Witnesses:
Sign/Made mark:
Spouse: John Ibell Religion:
Occupation:
Convict: Ex-convict: Believed to be (Portsea 1838) Free Settler:
ToL:45/811 CoF:
Location at Freedom: Moreton Bay
Note: The name Ibell is so unusual that the probability of there being two John Ibells in the Brisbane area in the 1848/49 period is fairly remote and therefore believe that the convict John Ibell is the man who married Anne Cooney.
Residences
Children
No QLD or NSW birth or death records have been found for any children born to Anne Cooney and John Ibell
DOD: Anne seems to have disappeared from the face of the earth. No QLD or NSW death record has been found for Anne Cooney or Anne Ibell.
A John Ibell married a Mary McGill in Ipswich in 1857 (QLD 1859/C000098) (NSW 1849/1857) and had at least two children by her, both born in Drayton.
Sources
Barefoot and Pregnant? Vol 2
NSW and QLD BDM
Libby Connors’ address to the 2006 ABC Christmas broadcast>>
(3)
<<Eliza Icombe per Lady Peelby Roland Webb
My Great Grandmother, Eliza (Elizabeth) Annie Icombe aged 15 at the time, came to Australia on the ship the “Lady Peel” arriving in July 1849. I believe she could read and write although the marriage licence (No 504) (Index V1853738 39C/1853) indicates differently. She married a Thomas Francis Regin from Port Jackson in Sydney on the 22 December, 1853. Witnesses to the wedding were her sister Catherine Icombe of Little George Street who came to Australia on the ship “Kate” in 1851 and James Keem of Port Jackson.
Eliza and Thomas apparently set out for Ballarat, Victoria in 1854 by oxen and dray despite Thomas having a maritime history. They first settled in a tent at Burnt Bridge between Ballarat and Geelong and later at Yendon in a hotel near Buninyong. There first baby Charlotte Regin was born in 1856. Records after this indicate that Thomas Francis Regin became Thomas Francis Webb. I am not sure of the reason for this but when Eliza had her first child she was nursed by a Mrs Regan. The following 8 children were “Webb”s.
Thomas’s father was a sea captain and died at sea. His mother may have been Mrs Regin the person who nursed their first child. Perhaps she was initially Mrs Webb and as a result of her husbands death at sea remarried and became Mrs Regin. Maybe Thomas at first took his mothers remarried name but for legal or other reasons reverted to the name “Webb”. However, at this stage this is all speculation.
Eliza Icombe’s sister Catherine who came to Australia on the Ship “Kate” died at Bathurst in 1876.(NSWbdm Reg No 4956/1876). Eliza had another sister Ethinda Icombe who came to Australia by ship which landed at Geelong, Victoria in 1856/7.
The marriage of Eliza Icombe in Sydney in 1853 and the travelling from one state to another plus the changing of the family name from Regin to Webb would make it a difficult for any Genealogist (especially from overseas) searching the “Icombe” line.
My query in “The Female Irish (Potato Famine) Orphans list is under the heading “Other” where it states Eliza’s Employment by a J Hunt from Balmain, 9 Pounds, 3 yrs Appendix J No 139, 28 Jun 1850 Mr J Hunt Balmain, returned to service promising to behave better. Is this a court record and where could I locate it?
Roland Webb
10 Hillside Drive
Ballarat Vic 3350.
Dear Trevor,
The detective work started in 1972 and was initially commenced by my cousin Glenis Rusca (nee Webb) while I tagged along. Sadly, Glenis passed away after a long illness. Others have since contributed along the way and I believe may be further advanced than I.
I mentioned that one of Eliza’s sisters was Ethinda and this should be corrected to Ethelinda. Ethelinda came to Australia on the ship Persia which landed at Geelong. Documentary proof of this was obtained in 1972 from the original books in the State Library of Victoria. The thermal copy that was taken at the time has deteriorated such that it is difficult to read. “On line” I have had difficulty finding a copy of the original ships passenger list.
Eliza’s parents were Thomas Icombe and Mary Maria Murray and they lived in Ireland. Your book “Barefoot and Pregnant? Vol.1″ shows Eliza was from Bartinglass, Wicklow. Eliza claimed she was from Honiton, Devon and her father was a Major Icombe who had spent some time in Ireland. Eliza claimed, according to one of her grandchildren, “living in County Wicklow was the highest feather in her cap.”???
The National Archives (England) show that a Thomas Icombe born at Spittalfields, London and Middlesex served in the English 15th Foot Regiment from 1814 to 1835 and was discharged at 39 years of age. This Regiment I believe spent most of its time in Canada and Ireland during his period of service. This Thomas is believed to be Eliza’s father. Research by other members of the family concur with this but I have not yet been able to substantiate the links with documentary evidence.
According to the Church of Latter Day Saints, Brisbane records Eliza was christened Ellisa Hicomb on the 27th September, 1837. Eliza died on the 16th May,1911 and was buried on the 18th May, 1911 at the Ballarat New Cemetery 2A No. 01. During her life Eliza had 7 children, and shared a hotel, grocery and butcher business with her husband Thomas. At first they lived at Burnt Bridge (before the Ballarat to Geelong railway) and shortly after they moved to Yendon. The family purchased many blocks of land surrounding Yendon (mostly small) and Eliza lived in the Yendon area all her life.
Trevor, adding a few lines alongside Eliza’s name on your website I hope would be helpful to others. However, I feel you would be more adept than I in formulating the words as I guess you are restricted by how much and what should be written. If any information I have supplied proves to be incorrect I will inform you and hope that it is easily changed. In relation to an address I find the internet convenient and hope that most people have access to the internet and therefore please place my internet email address on your website.
Thank you for the information on Volume 2. I have been to the Ballarat Library to check it out and at some time in the future intend visiting the Mitchell Library in Sydney. I obtained Volume 1 in 1999 from the National Library in Canberra whilst I was working there. I copied the pages relevant to Eliza at the time. While there, I also found on microfiche a copy of Eliza’s Marriage Licence and reference to her sister Catherine in an alphabetical list of “Assisted Passengers” into Sydney or Australia.
Happy hunting
Roland Webb
Ballarat>>
(4)
JOHANNA SMYTH/SMITH per “Elgin” to Adelaide 10 September 1849 by ??? (possibly Heather Sushames?)
Johanna could have come from around Bandon, Cork but I have not found any Workhouse records relating to her. Her traveling box which had been passed down to one of her daughters was always called “The Bandon Box” which her family thought she brought out full of monogrammed linen etc. She told them grand stories of her wealthy background but as she signed her marriage certificate with a cross, she’d obviously had not been educated. No mention was ever made that she had come out as an orphan.
No records have been found as to where Johanna worked after arriving in Adelaide.
She first turned up in a passenger list in the South Australian newspaper as Mrs. Creasey arriving in Adelaide per “Emu” schooner from Port Lincoln on 7 November 1850. A Mr. Creasey was also with her. Perhaps she had been working at Port Lincoln and met George there.
George Creasey and Johanna Smith were married in Kooringa Church of England near Burra, on 15 March 1851. George was probably working in the Burra copper mines. George is thought to have arrived in the Colony as a ships carpenter, but no record can be found. His seaman’s papers at Kew are incomplete and do not show how he signed off from his last voyage, but he probably ‘jumped ship’ and this could be why he altered the spelling of his surname. I haven’t been able to verify any of the stories he told my mother about his English family and feel he, like Johanna, had a vivid imagination.
A George Creasey traveled to Melbourne from Adelaide on the “Fanny” on 12 November 1851 and sometime after that Johanna must have followed as a son George Thomas was baptised at St. James Church, Melbourne on 27 January 1852. Date of birth was shown as 7 January 1852, but doesn’t state where.
George apparently then went to Tasmania – probably working his way over as a crew member of the “City of Melbourne” under George Smith. He returned to Melbourne as George Creasey per “William” on 9 February 1852. The couple may have then gone to Ballarat but on 14 January 1853, the Adelaide Observer lists them as arriving in Adelaide from Melbourne on the “Dreadnought”. It was noted they had a letter from Captain Laurie.
They left for Tasmania sometime in 1854 as the birth of a daughter Maria Jane was registered in Launceston on 12 September 1854 giving a birth date of 7 July 1854, but not stating where. On Maria Jane’s marriage certificate she stated she was born at Ballarat.
The couple settled on a farm in Winkleigh, northern Tasmania and in all had 13 children, all except the eldest who was accidentally killed when he was 11, lived until adulthood.
Johanna died in Launceston Hospital of cancer on 16 May 1896 and was buried in the Catholic Cemetery, Launceston which later became a bowling green. I believe there was a headstone on her grave but they were all destroyed when Patons & Baldwins took over the land many years later. A sad end to a very courageous lady.>>
(5) The following one was originally a PDF file. I haven’t converted it to the standard of Fiona’s original. The footnotes are interleaved with the text, for example. Persist with it. It is a good story well put together.
Mary Jane Magnar (aka Mary McGuire)by Fiona Cole
(Born: c1832 – Died: 1 December 1882)
Mary Jane McGuire (Magnar) was born c.1837 to parents Thomas Magnar and Johanna
Frein, Tipperary, county Tipperary, Ireland. 1
Mary Jane came to Australia on the “Pemberton” as a Female Orphan at the age of 17.
On the register, she is initially listed as Mary McGuire, with the name Magner written
beside the first surname in smaller print. Mary Magnar was received into the Depot on
26 May, 1849 by “A. Cunningham” of “Kinlochewe,” a village just outside of Melbourne
on the old Sydney Road, near Donnybrook in the district of Merriang in the electorate of
Whittlesea. She was licensed out (hired) to the Cunningham’s for a period of six months
on the 31st of May, 1849, at the rate of 10 -0-0. Her usual profession is cited as being a
‘child’s maid.’2
Andrew Cunningham held a freehold in the district of Merriang at the time he enrolled on
the Australian Electoral Roll 1 May, 1849 and on the 1851 roll held a freehold in the
Plenty Ranges in the district of North Bourke. In the Victorian elections of 1856, he is
listed as a freeholder at Merriang, Whittlesea Division. This is believed to the same ‘A.
Cunningham’ who received Mary Jane Magnar from the Port of Melbourne. A
Cunningham is listed in the Banniere’s directory of 1856 as a farmer at Whittelsea3. It is
likely therefore, that Mary Jane was employed as a farm maid and worked on the
property north of Melbourne from 1849 until she left the Cunningham’s employment.
Andrew Cunningham, born around 1811 would have been approximately 38 years of age
when Mary Jane Magnar came to work for him and his wife, Martha (nee McDougall) at
Kinlochewe. Although Andrew and Martha Cunningham had a son (Charles Andrew)
born in 1851 at Merriang (who died in 1860 (aged 10)) it is possible that Mary Jane was
the child’s maid for a period of time, but more likely that she worked on the farm as a
domestic.
In 1861, the Cunningham’s had another child, Martha Eliza, but by this time, Mary Jane
Magnar had well and truly left their employ.
Sometime before 1856 Mary Jane Magnar left the Whittlesea district and moved to
Beechworth, possibly under the influence of friends she had made while on board the
Pemberton. The 1856 marriage register showing Mary Jane’s marriage to Richard Young
Trotter also shows that the next marriage to be performed was for that of her shipmate,
Mary Collins.4
1 Richard Youngtrotter and Mary Jane Magnar Marriage Certificate –
2 Shipping List – Pemberton, 14 May, 1849, pg 13 (PROV- Microfiche)
3 PROV XXXXX
4 Marriages solemnized in the District of Beechworth, 1856, nos 73 & 74
The marriages were performed by Rev John C Symons, an evangelical minister who
spent several years ministering on convict ships and throughout the gold fields, trying to
bring God to the lives of the poor.
Mary Jane and Richard Young Trotter lived at Beechworth and had at one child5, Mary
Jane Youngtrotter (who would go on to become Mary Jane Harrison and then Mary Jane
Gould).
Mary Jane’s husband, Richard worked as a carrier and a teamster during their short
marriage. He died by accidental drowning in the Mitta Mitta River at Morse’s Station on
5 November 1857.6 Surprisingly, there was no inquest into his death, Richard and Mary
Jane Youngtrotter appear to have been living at Yackandandah at this time, but after his
death, Mary Jane appears to have returned to live in Beechworth.
Mary Jane Youngtrotter registered the birth of three children (1858, 1862 and 1865) after
the death of her husband in 1857. None of these children survived more than a few days.
The first of these children, Thomas, was the subject of an inquest and Mary Jane was held
accountable for Manslaughter by Neglect. The charges were dropped and the coroner
found that she had no case to answer. Witnesses were brought before the court both for
and against Mary Jane, for the prosecution, a witness by the name of William Hughes
testifies that Mary Jane was frequently drunk and ‘could not even hold a glass of brandy
without spilling it.’ In her defence, Thomas Conway, apparently the father of the child
and her civil union partner claimed that while Mary Jane was known to drink, she was
not incapable of looking after the child, nor was she drunk the night the child died. He
testified that when he returned home on the night the child died, he found Mary Jane
sitting on a stool, crying. She said to him “Thomas, my child is dying.” at which point,
he left to find the doctor to help the child, but by the time they returned it was too late.7
Mary Jane Youngtrotter appears to have lived a somewhat depraved life after the death of
her third baby, as she was incarcerated from 1865 for larceny (stealing)8 and vagrancy9 (a
term often applied to women of no means, and who often resorted to prostitution). It
appears that Thomas Conway either died or did not stay with her after this point as he
does not feature as a near relative of next of kin on her admittance records to the
Beechworth Asylum.
Mary Jane Youngtrotter’s only surviving daughter (Mary Jane Youngtrotter (Harrison,
Gould) was admitted as of the state to the Industrial School in 1865 and then assigned to
the Browns of Curyo station in 1868.
5 Richard Trotter Death Certificate
6 Ibid
7 Thomas Young Trotter Inquest VPRS30/PO Unit 219 File NCR 2339
8 VPRS 516/P1 Central Register of Female Prisoners, Mary Jane Youngtrotter, Prison Reg. No 573, Vol 1,
pg 573
9 Mary Jane Young Trotter – Industrial School Records VPRS 4527, Vol OS2, pg 147 (No 633)
On 12 August, 1871 Mary Jane Youngtrotter was admitted to the Beechworth Lunatic
Asylum and released a month later on 26 September 1871.10
On Thursday 6 September 1873 Mary Jane Youngtrotter appeared before Judge Bowman
at the Beechworth General Sessions. She was charged with Attempted Suicide. The
prosecutor told the judge that her crime was a misdemeanour and recommended no heavy
penalty. The Judge ordered that she be released to enter into her own recognisance
provided she pay a 20 surety (or as the Wodonga Herald claims, a 90 surety11) and a
50 fine to keep the peace for six months, or in default, one month’s imprisonment.12
It appears that Mary Jane Youngtrotter could not afford the surety or the fine and was
remanded at Beechworth Prison as this is listed on her subsequent admission to the
Beechworth Asylum as her last known place of residence.13
Mary Jane Youngtrotter was admitted to the Beechworth Asylum 2 October, 1873 (a
month after her court appearance before Judge Bowen – the time prescribed by Bowen
that she should serve in default of payment of the surety and fine) and she remained there
until her death 1 December 1882.14
Mary Jane Youngtrotter’s death certificate states that she died aged 45,15 however, her
marriage certificate to Richard Youngtrotter, provides an alternative and more realistic
date of birth, stating her age as 23 in 1856, making her 59 when she died.
Fredrick Western (Medical Superintendant) at Beechworth Asylum noted that Mary Jane
Youngtrotter ‘suffered from delusinal [sic] insanity and delicate bodily health.’ and that
10 months before her death she was ‘somewhat feeble and unable to go about.’16 By the
20 November 1882, Mary Jane Youngtrotter was ‘rather ill and confined to bed on the
23rd she was transferred to the Hospital. She did not improve and got gradually worse and
worse [?] and died and her death was reported to have taken place at 5.30am.’17
There are no case notes for Mary Jane Youngtrotter time incarcerated at Beechworth
Assylum – PROV holds female case books 1878 – 1912.
10 VPRS 7446 P1 Alphabetical Lists of Patients in Asylums (VA 2863)
11 The Wodonga Herald, Saturday 6 September 1873
12 The Ovens and Murray Advertiser, Friday 5 September 1873
13 VPRS 7446 P1 Alphabetical Lists of Patients in Asylums (VA 2863)
14 Ibid
15 Mary Jane Youngtrotter death certificate – Appendix XX
16 Public Records Office Victoria (VPRS 24/P/0000 – Unit 446, 1882/1373).
17 Ibid.
(6) Finally, here is another interesting one, evidently written by a genealogical expert, that came to me originally as a PDF file. There are two lovely photographs at the end i’m still trying to capture. Fingers crossed. The covering letter that accompanied some of these great stories has disappeared into the aether, alas. I wonder who wrote this one.
<<PROFILE of Ellen EAGAN/EGAN per “Lady Kennaway” Arrived to Hobson’s Bay – 6th. December 1848 Ellen EAGAN/EGAN, aged 16 years, from Barney, Louth, Cornwall, departed 11th September 1848 from Plymouth, England on the “Lady Kennaway”, one of the Famine Orphan Girl Ships to Australia, arriving into Hobson’s Bay, Victoria on 6 December 1848. She was admitted to the depot in King Street, Melbourne on the 13th. December 1848. I firmly believe Sarah EAGAN/EGAN aged 19 years, from Ballinasloe, Galway who travelled on the same ship was Ellen’s older sister, because at a later date family relationships were confirmed. A brother, Patrick EGAN was also located at Whitehead’s Creek.. (Note: Extracts about Ellen EAGAN/EGAN & Sarah EAGAN/EGAN compiled initially from article by Trevor McClaughlin, ‘Barefoot and Pregnant’ Female Orphans who emigrated from Irish Workhouses to Australia, 1848- 1850′, in Familia: Ulster Genealogical Review, incorporating Ulster Genealogical & Historical Guild ‘Newsletter’, Vol.2, No.3, 1987, pp.31-36 and updated from shipping lists in New South Wales and South Australia. Shipping List :”Lady Kennaway”- Arrived 6 December 1848: Admitted to depot 13 December SRNSW 4/4816 Reel 2144 (with thanks to Ada Ackerley, Linda Paoloni and to Dr Pauline Rule) We know little or nothing about Ellen’s life in County Galway, other than the names of her parents: James EGAN (occupation:Farmer) & Ellen WHITE (Ellen’s Death Certificate), and what has been recorded about other young women from similar circumstances who survived during the ‘famine’ years. Ellen is recorded as being from Barney, Louth, Cornwall. During those devastating years she may have been employed in County Louth, and in Cornwall, England while awaiting her departure on “Lady Kennaway”. The “Lady Kennaway”, a barque of 585 tons, measuring 38 metres long, 9 metres wide and 5 metres deep, was built of teak timber in Calcutta in 1817. The ship’s Master was – James SANTRY for a voyage of 89 days, with a total of 256 passengers – 191 female orphans, 25 free settlers and 40 crew members. She carried a cargo of -306 casks of Beer; 12 hogsheads of Beer; 55 cases of Wine; 10 hogsheads of Brandy; 12 quarter casks of Brandy; 10 hogsheads of Rum; 9 trunks of Merchandise; 5 cases of Merchandise; 11 cases of Printing Material; 7 hogsheads of Tinware; 1 case of Tinware; 18 crates of Earthenware and 4 cases of Books, and enough water and food for 95 days. There was enough clothing for 256 people. ( Contributed by Laurie Thompson (PPPG Member No. 944) http://home.vicnet.net.au/~pioneers/pppg5bg.htm) The “Lady Kennaway” made three voyages as a convict transport to Hobart in 1835 and 1851 and to Sydney in 1836. She also made voyages with Government assisted emigrants – to Sydney in 1841, and to Port Phillip in 1848, 1850 and 1853. www.findboatpics.com/wpct.html
“Lady Kennaway” a barque of 585 tons. Artist: William Adolphus Knell Date: 1840 Source: http://www.nmm.ac.uk
A Report by The Immigration Board of Inspectors under the chairmanship of Dr John Patterson on the “Lady Kennaway’s” arrival to Hobson’s Bay (Williamstown) reveals that “on board this 1 vessel were 7 families, 191 girls, and one child died on the journey. The people arrived in excellent health and exhibited the appearance of having been on full allowance. Not a single complaint was made”. Ann KELLY, an orphan from Letterkenny wrote to her family: “I have arrived safely at my journey’s end after a very good voyage of 3 months. We were all very well treated on board the ship by every person, the doctor, Captain and Matron being all very kind to us” Apparently girls aged between 14 and 18 years had been selected from several poorhouse unions of Ireland. Generally they were ‘Roman Catholic, were low in stature, of stout make, had been in service previously before leaving their native land’, and were healthy enough to endure the rigors of the harsh sea voyage of three months. ‘Most of them were illiterate, although the authorities issued them with a Prayer Book and a Testament’.¹ An experienced naval surgeon Dr Henry G BROCK and 48 year old English matron, Christine ENSOR were appointed by the British Emigration Commission to supervise the voyage. The girls are described as ‘generally of a stout make, rather low in stature and endowed with strongly marked Irish features’, anxious to please their employers and would keep in the paths of virtue.² (Sources:(1)-Female orphans from Donegal Dispatched to Australia 1848 – 1850 – Part 2 By May McClintock) & (2)-‘Perilous Voyages to the New Land’ by Michael Cannon, page 139-140 On her arrival to Melbourne in December 1848, Ellen EAGAN/EGAN was employed by A. WREIDE, Altona for £14 for 6 months. Sometime, possibly mid 1849, Ellen was engaged by Thomas WADE, a widower, to care for his two sons – William aged 6 years & Henry aged 2 years. Family hearsay said that Ellen accompanied them on a ship to Van Dieman’s Land (Tasmania). Although Thomas had been discharged in Sydney in 1847, as being medically unfit for duties (with the 99th. Regiment of Foot after 22 years of service), he may have been seconded to temporary duties in Tasmania. On return to Melbourne, Ellen married Thomas WADE, at St. Peter’s Church of England, Melbourne – 9 December 1850, and again – at St. Francis’s Catholic Church – 2 February 1853. (Marriage Certificates) There are two possible explanations for their two marriages to each other. Their first marriage was by Banns in St Peter’s Church of England in 1850. Thomas was an Anglican, and because he (aged 42 years), was literate and had more life experiences, one could assume Ellen adopted a subordinate role as an 18 year old inexperienced country girl living in a new land. Their second marriage at St Francis’s Catholic Church, was 15 days prior the death of their first child, 8 months old son- Thomas James WADE who was buried 17 Febuary 1853 (Document: New South Wales Roman Catholic Burials, Parish of St. Francis’s County of Bourke No.45333-1853). The church was opposite their Boot and Shoe Store in Lonsdale Street (part of the back section of Myer Stores). Also at this time Sarah EAGAN/EGAN (Ellen’s sister) married Patrick McCARTY/McCARTHY at St Francis’s Church. It could be said that strong coercive influences from her sister Sarah; and the Catholic Priest. The priest would have claimed that Ellen’s first marriage to Thomas was not in the Catholic church, and she was not really married in the eyes of God. One can only speculate as to their reasons. Between 1850-1854, they were living at 14 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne, Thomas, a Master Bootmaker in the Army, manufactured Wellington boots and shoes. In 1847, Thomas operated a Boot and Shoe Shop in Pitt Street, Sydney to raise £18, the amount he was required to pay for the purchase of his discharge from the Army (Document: 5 years service:Enlisted 25 July 1842-Discharged 31 December 1847). Thomas was granted a Pension for Life as an Out-Pensioner. According to the Melbourne Rate Books -1853, the shop was a three room brick dwelling Lot 13 near to Elizabeth Street. It was during this time that their first son – Thomas James WADE (1851-1853) was born, and she also had the additional care of her two stepsons – William and Henry. 2 In 1853, a crude water colour drawing of their likenesses was done and signed by a T. HARDY. This drawing is now in possession of Michael WADE, the last WADE of Thomas & Ellen’s descendants. It is said to be of Thomas WADE handing Ellen (EGAN) an envelope said to contain the deeds of some property. It may have been a small allocation of land given to those who had given long military service (22 years) in the 99th. Regiment of Foot. They were both dressed in black. Ellen held a red rose, and Thomas wore a cravat and brown floral patterned waistcoat. Judging by her appearance, Ellen was of slight build and diminutive, probably around 5 feet in stature because Thomas’s records state he was 5 feet 11 inches tall. (Pension Document -1868). It could be suggested that during these years, Ellen developed self confidence and a higher level of social standing in the community. She had the security of her husband’s army pension, and accumulated a moderate level of comfort. Some kinfolk who were privy to early family information, said that Ellen was not only able take on the responsibility for the two sons of her husband’s first marriage, and that of her own seven children, but also the care of her elderly husband as his health declined following a severe stroke. All of her other six children – Ellen(1854), Mary(1857) , Sarah(1859), Thomas James (2)(1862), Patrick (1864), & Michael (1868) were born Kilmore to Broadford. On part of the 19 acres at Sugarloaf Creek, Ellen was the Licencee of the Sugarloaf Creek Hotel from 1882. (The hotel was near the three Chain Road – once the main route from Port Phillip to Sydney). She, with the assistance of her three youngest sons, was able to operate any endeavors they undertook on this and two other nearby blocks on the Sugarloaf Creek, raising cattle involving dairying which had developed in the Broadford district. Part of the 19 acres she leased out to Hunt & Ahern for a Cattle Auction Yards. Another part, was let for a good rental to a Saw Mill Proprietor. The whole WADE family became fully integrated into this and nearby communities. Cousins claimed that the WADEs “mixed with the upper class families such as– Turnbulls, Grimwades, Michaelis Hallensteins, in silks and satins at weekends” It was said that the Turnbulls were first cousins to the Wades. After the death of her husband, Ellen continued to operate her enterprises with the assistance of her children. One interesting Report in the Seymour Newspaper is indicative of the strong, fearless and assertive person Ellen had become. “In my thirty years in this colony, this is the first time I have been summoned to the Court by any man”, was the reply to the Magistrate in the Seymour Court where Ellen appeared over a legal battle with a neighbour over accusations of broken fences and straying cattle. The diminutive Ellen was quite indignant about the matter. At another appearance – 3 February 1885 in the Seymour Court; M. J. McCULLA v Ellen WADE in which £5 was claimed for damage of a bull trespassing …… was heard with this one. “Ellen WADE deposed: “Occupy a paddock joining Mr McCULLA. Never asked him to let his bull into paddock.”.. “On 9th. Inst. saw the beast in the yard with some cows. When Mr McCULLA called for cattle, I demanded £5 damage for the bull. Gave Mr Mc CULLA a receipt on account showing balance of £5 due. No cattle but his ever got into my paddock.” A written notice was served on McCULLA to put up a fence but he refused. McCULLA was laughed out of court because a WADE bull about he lodged a complaint had been dead for over five years. Incidentally, other neighbours had court battles with the same man over exactly the same situations. One of Ellen’s grandchildren, Ellen Veronica Wade recalled visiting other EGAN family members at Whitehead’s Creek. She said that an Uncle James EGAN was the one-armed mail coach driver referred to in a history of Seymour by Martindale, “A New Crossing Place”. A Patrick EGAN, a 3 farmer of Seymour was an Executor of the Will of Ellen WADE in 1892. Although Ellen had operated the Sugarloaf Creek Hotel since 1882, the hotel was auctioned on the 1st June, 1892, to pay creditors of her insolvent deceased estate. Ellen had to reestablish herself after the death of her husband in 1885, when the income from his military pension ceased. Because she had initially lived in and was familiar with central Melbourne, she returned there, and relocated to a tenement residence at- 19 Provost Street, North Melbourne, with her daughter Sarah & grand daughter Mary WADE, and her grandson John Michael David MORRISSEY (1880-1945). In 1908, after the death of Ellen’s son Michael aged 40 years, his widow Sarah Maria, with four young dependent daughters resided in a rental dwelling in Little Provost Street which backed onto Provost Street. Ellen died: 19 Provost St. North .Melbourne aged 57yrs-10.2.1892. Cause of Death: Apoplexy (serous) THOMAS James & ELLEN WADE are buried at Dabyminga Cemetery (Tallarook Cemetery) Victoria Photograph of Water Color of Thomas & Ellen (nee EGAN) WADE c1853 signed T. HARDY.
Watercolour c. 1853
4 Photograph -Ellen (nee EAGAN/EGAN) WADE c. 1890. Melbourne.
Ellen Eagan/Wade c. 1890
>> 5
I’m looking forward to seeing Matt Rubinstein’s great work in digitising Barefoot 1. Information about individual orphans has been updated more than once since the book was first published by the Genealogical society of Victoria in 1991. And here in this blog I’ve added some “footnotes” relating to the documents about the Earl Grey scandal. But having a digital version of the original available for everyone is a delight.
It is now available on Amazon.com, Apple Books and Kobo books. If there are any royalties, they should go to the charities i was involved setting up with GIFCC members, Tom Power, Marie Tunks and Perry McIntyre at the end of the noughties . See the Irishfaminememorial.org website
Following on from my last blogpost here’s my preliminary search for female orphans by the Subraon, William Stewart andMohamed Shah (note the alternate spellings). It should give you a small taste of what was involved in identifying the original orphans by the ‘Earl Grey scheme’. It’s basically linkage across as many records you can find. Nowadays, in some respects the internet makes things a lot easier. But not everything is digitized. I began by typing ‘Subraon shipping list 1848’ into a search engine, and was directed to https://www.records.nsw.gov.au
This took me to a shipping list for the Subraon, a ship that arrived in Port Jackson on 12 April 1848; and at page 5, among the single females we find the following young women,
Alicia Ashbridge
19
cook
Dublin Orphan Institution
C of E
Both read and write
Ann Brennan
17
House servant
ditto
ditto
read
Ellen Busby
17
do
do
do
do
Augusta Cooper
17
do
do
do
do
Martha Magee
18
nursemaid
do
do
Both
Patience Newcomen
17
do
do
do
read
Dorcas Newman (see report abt her)
19
do
do
do
died on the day after the ship arrived
Mary Preston
18
do
do
do
read
Emma Smith
16
house servant
do
do
both
Mary Sneyd
18
do
do
do
read
Ellen Stephens
17
nursemaid
do
do
both
Readers will know the Subraon appears elsewhere in my blog. By using the search widget at the bottom of any blogpost you will be alerted to exactly where it is mentioned.
But will that widget take you to the conversation I had a couple of years ago in the Comments on my About page? Scroll down to my exchange with a descendant of Ann Brennan (see above). Debbie Horrocks was in Dublin at the time. I opined that the young women were from Dublin and Cork Foundling Hospitals that had closed earlier, or were just about to do so. (Did i get this idea from Joseph Robins’ The Lost Children, Dublin, 1980? Does anyone have copy?) Debbie found reference to a Dublin Foundling House at 52 Cork Street, Dublin, and a mention of a request for eligible ‘girls’ to go to Australia, dated 21 September 1847. Unfortunately the Archives box with the 1847 correspondence that would confirm this, proved to be unavailable. Yet the Sydney Board of Immigration Enquiry and Report does say the young women were accompanied to Plymouth by a ‘Mr Chanut, the Commissioners’ clerk’. Suggesting the Irish Poor Law Commissioners were involved along with the Imperial government in Britain in a subterfuge ‘trial’ of the so-called Earl Grey scheme…yes?
Over the years i managed to preserve my copy of the Minutes and Proceedings of the Immigration Board at Sydney, respecting certain irregularities which occurred on board the ship “Subraon”, Printed for the use of the Government only, 1848, located in what was at the time, the Archives Office of New South Wales. Mea culpa, i have lost the precise reference to where it may be found. Perhaps someone in the State Records can help us find it again?
Readers will see from the following brief extract something of the shocking abuse that the young Subraon orphans suffered. Given recent events and revelations one wonders how deeply embedded such abuse is in Australian culture.
Births, deaths and marriages
My next foray was into birth, death and marriage records for New South Wales. I started by searching for the marriage records of those with a distinctive name, and then moved on to the others, using as terminal dates, 1848 and 1856 or 1857. New South Wales and Victoria have a world leading system of vital registration that started in 1856 and 1853 respectively. Records before that date are usually early church records. I only found two of those eleven young women who arrived by the Subraon; an Augusta Cooper who married Charles Nayler, 1854, and a Mary Sneyd who married Joseph Smith in 1853! Not very promising.
Assuming we don’t have free access to these records (which i was fortunate to have in the 1980s), what should we do next? Make an appeal via social media and genealogical societies for possible descendants? Check online sources such as Trove for any mention of the young women? Check British Parliamentary Papers and available records in State Archives and State Libraries? Did any of the women appear in court? Or in a Benevolent Asylum? Or should we appeal for help via a blogpost? What happened to them? Were they abandoned once they disembarked? Where did they go?
Port Phillip arrivals
This is where my enquiry faltered. It is easy enough to gain access to the shipping lists in NSW State Records but not so the Melbourne records. One needs to be a member of Ancestry.com for that. The NSW records do not identify which of the single females on board the Wiliam Stewart and the Mahomed Shah were from an orphanage. If as i suspect they were from an Anglican orphanage in Cork we might surmise that on board the Mahomed Shah that arrived in Port Phillip on 5 July 1848 were Eliza Green (15) Nursemaid from Cork, Episcopalian, R&R; Mary Hayes (15) ditto; Maria Norton (14) ditto; Jane Travers (15) ditto; Ellen Travers ditto, and Anne Wikinson(15) ditto. Among BDM records (Victoria’s brilliant system of registration began in 1853) there is a marriage of Jane Travers to Henry Perkins in Kilmore in 1853. Her younger sister (?) Ellen had married Robert Charles Crump in 1852. Whereas for Mary Hayes there are 7 possible marriages for the period 1850-56.
Again assuming there were some ‘girls’ from an Anglican orphanage in Cork on board the William Stewart , can we identify them among 51 single females? There were twelve of them, described as Episcopalian or Church of England and include Mary Byrne (17), Mary Clarke(16), Eliza Cook (17), Johanna Daly (16), Jane Donovan (16), Mary Garvan (16), Jane (19) and Mary (17) Green, Anne Hegarty (16), Julia Peel(16), Jane Thompson (17) and Anne Young (16).
An Appeal
Before going any further i think we should confirm the theory that young women from an Anglican Orphanage, or Foundling Hospital, in Cork were sent out on these two ships. I’m hoping someone in the Public Records Office in Victoria might be able to help. Maybe Christine(?) who helped with the excellent wiki entry below.
There is another Appeal I’d like to make. It is to ask anyone working in this area if they have grappled with, and resolved some of the ethical questions involved? The interface between the private and the public can be labyrinthine to negotiate. I’ve touched on this somewhere else in my blog. Now where is it? Scroll down. There were some interesting comments too.
Public historians, family historians and genealogists are well aware of these ethical questions. Here’s a useful diagram from the twittersphere summarising recent online discussion of the kinds of thing we should all recognize. It was put there recently by Julia Laite of Birbeck College, University of London.
Thankyou, public historians.
Finally, may i offer my very best wishes to those students at Macquarie University, PACE interns, currently working on Irish orphan stories. It must be nearing crunch time for your submissions? What do they say in showbiz? Break a leg!
Don’t forget to sign up for the free online mag www.tintean.org.au There is a new issue on the 10th of each month.
Having glanced back over my blog I see what a mish-mash it is. Some of it I’m pleased with. Some of it i’m not.
There is plenty of room for re-thinking what is there. Just a couple of revisions casually spring to mind.
Should i explain in detail the labour intensive background to my orphan family reconstitutions? YeahNah, that’s all water under the bridge.
2. There’s certainly room for more on the 1858-59 New South Wales Parliamentary Reporton Irish female immigration which i wrote about, in the following posts,
One might use that wonderful resource, Trove, to explore for instance what the Freeman’s Journal had to say about that particular kerfuffle. http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper
Redefining our subject?
3. Most important of all, here is something that should be done, don’t you think, viz. let’s widen our subject to include those who are currently on the margins?
Have you seen any official, contemporary reference to ‘The Earl Grey Scheme’? I suspect it is labelof conveniencedreamt up by twentieth century historians. Please correct me if i am wrong.
Should we not add to the database at www.irishfaminememorial.org those young women from the remnants of Dublin Foundling Hospitals who were sent in advanceof the workhouse scheme, in early 1848? I’m thinking of those who came by the Subraon to Sydney, and by the Mahomed Shah andWilliam Stewartto Melbourne.
There are also those single Irish females who went to Hobart in August and November 1851 by the Beulah and the Calcutta, most of them from counties Cork and Clare. Add another 90 or so by the Louisa in January 1853 who were described as being ‘chiefly from the Irish Unions’. The question is, were these young women from Irish workhouses? To say that they came from Irish Poor Law Unions is not to say they were in a workhouse.
In Western Australia we definitely have 33 young women from MountBellew workhouse in Galway who arrived by the Palestine in 1853. They currently have a facebook page, and lots of interest in Galway itself. Were there others?
And finally, the 159 single Irish females who arrived in Port Jackson by the Lady Kennaway in December 1854. They were to become the butt of Immigration Agent Browne’s scorn, and complaint. See https://www.records.nsw.gov.au
Click on the 1850s and scroll down till December 1854, and the shipping list for the Lady Kennaway.
I think that that widening of the net is manageable.
But where my head and my heart is heading, is towards an even larger subject viz. Irish Famine women to Australia. That would include, for example, the ones identified in my 2013 talk, which you can find in my blog here,
Our subject would then include Irish convict women to Hobart 1847-53, the large numbers of single females who arrived in Adelaide in the 1850s, and the many others who came to Australia as single females but as part of a larger family strategy.Anything or anyone else you can think of?
I’m genuinely interested in your views. What should be the limits of our subject for anyone working in this area? How should it be defined? Please add your comments for others to see.
trevo's Irish famine orphans 
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