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Enrol in a course in Australian History at the University of New England in northern NSW and you will probably hear a whole lecture on my McGreavy ancestors (great-great-great grandparents) to illustrate how disreputable convicts could and did redeem themselves. The course shows how their offspring could play a significant role in the creation of a new and productive society – best reflected, in the McGreavys’ case, in their grandson James Brunker. As a leading politician, at times Acting Premier of the colony, he was a key figure in the uniting, in 1901, of the various colonies in Australia into a unified nation under the one Federal Government .

James McGreavy, born in Co. Roscommon in 1784, had served seven years in the Leitrim Militia before moving to the southern counties. Marriage to Margaret Tynan in Waterford in 1815 produced a daughter , Mary Anne. The newly-weds made their living by dealing in clothing – but this proved their downfall when ,in 1816, James was incarcerated in Kilkenny City gaol on a charge of ‘burglary and felony’ involving stolen clothes ( Margaret claimed that these had been bought in Waterford). Sentenced to seven years’ transportation, James found himself aboard the ‘Chapman’, bound for servitude in the colony of New South Wales. In August of the same year, Margaret also was sentenced in Cork City to seven years’ transportation : with her baby daughter, she arrived in Sydney on the “Elizabeth’ at the end of 1818.

Rather surprisingly, by 1820 the family was in residence in a reasonably substantial dwelling in the centre of Sydney. This is intriguing in that, as convicts, they would be expected either to be engaged in government works or be assigned as servants for private individuals. We are left wondering what was their source of income for rent etc. The answer may lie, in part, with what ensued in December, 1820.

Just before Christmas, their house was raided by the police of the day to retrieve a large amount of stolen property – mainly clothing ! It was ‘discovered in all parts and corners of the house and some was found even in the sacking of the bedstead’. The large number of items ( more than sixty) led to its being compared to ‘an auctioner’s catalogue’ with the addendum ‘such an extensive robbery, so concerted and so executed, was never before (we believe) perpetrated in the colony’. James had ‘evinced every readiness in delivering up the ill-gotten spoil, and even directed his wife, who was somewhat reluctant to render up all to the peace officers’. James appears to have been quite innocent – but implicated because of the assumption in law, at that period, that a married woman acted in such situations under the control of her husband.

At their trial in 1821, the McGreavys had their original sentences doubled and were sent a hundred miles north to Newcastle. Soon after, they were sent on to a newly establishment settlement more than two hundred miles away at Port Macquarie, accessible only by ship – a place selected by the Governor for convicts deemed incorrigible, ‘the present place of banishment (Newcastle} being too near to Sydney as it enables criminals sent thither to effect their escape back to this place (Sydney).
ADDITION TO ‘ FULTON LINEAGE’ ( To follow; ‘Whyte’ material )
Attending a lecture at UNE, my niece, Mary Anne Krone {JTF}, was agreeably surprised to find that its subject matter was her ancestors, the McGreavys, as an example of how seemingly incorrigible convicts could nonetheless turn their lives around – leading, in their case, to grandson John Nixon Brunker’s becoming a leading politician and one of the ‘Fathers of Federation).

See : UNE, Topic 4 : Convict Families – ‘The McGreavys – a Family Saga’ and ‘Push from the Bush’ –
A Journal of Early Australian Social History’, No.28, 1990, pp. 99-127
McGREAVY
N.B. Colonial records have ‘McGreevy, McGrady, McGravy, McGready, McGreery, McGea ry …
JTF pts: FBJF, CSB gpts : TBF,MMW gt gpts : WHW, CEB, gt gt gpts: WHW, Mary Anne McG
N.B. Tread (or, at least read ) warily: we have ‘a parliament of owls’, ‘a murder of crows’, etc. Lets add the collective noun, ‘a muddle of Mary Annes’ :
Mary Ann Thompson ( 1700s – ) mother of Margaret McGreavy nee Tynan/ Ward) Mary Anne Brunker / Whyte nee McGreavy (1815-1877), Mary Anne Bond nee Brunker (aka ‘Polly’), Mary Ann Elizabeth Sherbon nee Brunker (1857-1945) Mary Anne Krone (1954- )

Mary Anne McGreavy ( 1815-1877) was born to James McGreavy and Margaret Tynan, probably in Waterford, Ire. Arrived Sydney (free), 19.11.1818, aboard the ‘Elizabeth’ with mother Margaret (convict). Following her parents’ further conviction in the Sydney Court of Criminal Jurisdiction, 1821 (See below), she was confined with her mother in Newcastle, 1821-1823, and then relocated to Port Macquarie. In 1822, she was the victim of rape. There is the extraordinary judgement from the magistrate, reflecting early 19C mores :

‘ It does not appear from the evidence … that there was any attempt at rape as it seems it was perfectly with the child’s consent, yet, as the girl is under ten years of age, I suspect it is amenable as an assault ‘ (Suzanne Davies, ed. David Philips, ‘A Nation of Rogues’). Mary Anne was just seven !

In Port Macquarie, Mary Anne knew further vicissitude with the deaths of three brothers in infancy (possibly triplets) and separation from her mother when the latter was confined to the Female Factory at Port Macquarie for her ‘disgraceful conduct’ with Chief Constable John Walsh and others (See below). Further drama ensued when, at age 15 in 1830, she was married, in St Thomas’, Port Macquarie, to forty-one-year old convict John Nixon Brunker : The Reading of the Banns was challenged by convict William Wright, a native Jamaican. He was found guilty of dishonesty and sentenced to ‘working in irons’ for six months. 

He was actually the victim of a practical joke, perpetrated by other convicts who would write letters to him, pretending that they had been written by Mary Anne. He had also threatened to kill the ‘old man’ (J.N.Brunker). In the same year, John obtained his ticket of leave and, two years later, was appointed to a responsible position in the Newcastle gaol. As well, he was soon trading from his residence in Watt St as a wine and spirits merchant. At this time too, Margaret, her mother, was transferred to Newcastle, in the custody of her daughter ! James, her father, was to follow in 1833. (See below for how soon and how well he proved himself a successful entrepreneur, very much the mainstay of Mary Anne in the turbulent years just ahead). John and Mary Anne had three children – James Nixon Brunker (1832-1910) m. Elizabeth Weiss, Margaret ( 1834-1869) m. William Philips, Mary Anne (1836-1857) m. Edward Bond. (She was known as ‘Polly’, probably to avoid confusion with her mother). 

On three occasions in 1835, more worry for Mary Anne : baby Margaret suffered burns because of the negligence of the assigned servant, Elizabeth Deuchan, resulting in the latter’s being sentenced to fourteen days in the cells. ( Elizabeth had set fire to the child’s clothes, had dropped a hot piece of coal on the child’s head and, on a third occasion, had burnt her leg with the fire shovel ). She was to endure yet more distress with the death of her husband at Cockfighters Creek ( Wollombi Ck, near Maitland) in 1837. Her father proved a great support in the next few years, setting aside money for her children’s education ( e.g. James was sent to Sydney College, in the hope he could become a lawyer. After four years as an articled clerk with a Sydney law firm, ill health forced his return to Newcastle where he worked for his step-father (WH Whyte) in the latter’s butcher-shop. 

He progressed to his own butcher’s shop in Maitland, pnd the – to stock & station agent – to MLA – to Lands Minister – to Deputy Premier – to ‘Founding Fathers of Federation ‘ … ) James also set Mary Anne up in a small store. This was one of seven small buildings that James caused to be erected in Watt St, the others being available as lodgings, the rent from which was passed on to Mary Anne. Even so, Mary Anne could not make a success of her store : it was burgled twice (1842 & 1843) and attracted little custom. Furthermore, she fell victim to a number of people defaulting on debts. Thus it was that, in the depression years of the early 1840s, Mary Anne was forced into insolvency, with money owing to a number of creditors for goods sent up from Sydney. 

It was a stressful l time for Mary Anne on another front: the prospect of marriage to a would-be suitor fell through when the latter realised that, according to a provision stipulated by James, he would have no rights to the landed property conveyed to Mary Anne. In 1842, the Australian Chronicle erroneously report ed : ‘ Married… by the Rev. Mr Dowling : Mr James Cunningham, clerk of the colonial hospital … to Mrs M.A.Brunker …’ This led to James’s highly indignant rebuttal in a letter to the Sydney Morning Herald :

‘Having observed in the Australian Chronicle of the 1(1h inst. The name of Mrs MA.Brunker as having been married to a person named Cunningham, I beg you will have the goodness to give such a report the most positive contradiction by the insertion of this letter in your paper which will counteract the effect intended …by the malicious writer of the report referred to, which plainly evinces a maligning of disposition only to be gratified by attempting injury to others. I sincerely pity those who permit themselves to be so far overcome by their envious and malicious feelings as to be compelled by them to the assertion of a falsehood for grat ification . I can assure the party their vain and fruitless attempts are pitied and forgiven and from motives of charity alone I will point out the way in which they mat find some relief for their wretched and depraved minds. Let them make all the atonement in their power for the past by seeking in the future some more worthy and less disgraceful occupation than that of inserting lies in the Australian Chronicle. James McGreevy (sic) Newcastle, 20th August.

The spelling ‘McGreevy’ may be an error on the part of James’s ghost writer (James was illiterate, signing various documents with the conventional ‘ X – his mark’ ).

But remarry she did – 1846 or 1847, either before or soon after her father ‘ s death (21.9.1846), to William Henry Whyte (1809-1876). William had arrived in the colony just a few years before (c. 1840) and in no time had established himself with a butcher ‘ s shop in Watt St with the Brunker family (and McGreavys) as neighbours . In only a short while, he would become quite prominent in Newcastle society. William and Mary Anne had three sons: William Henry ( 1849-1901), christened Presbyterian ), George Alexander (1851-1896) and Edward James Bond (1854 -1887 ), christened Congregational. Joy at the birth of Edward on 3.12.1854 no doubt tempered the heartbreak she was feeling, following the death, seven months previously (10.5.1854) ‘ of her first grandchild, daughter Mary Anne’s (Polly’s) own four-month’s old daughter Susanna. (Mary Anne’ husband of little more than a year was Captain Edward Bond – perhaps the naming of ‘Edward James Bond Whyte’ was a tribute to, and recognition of Mary Anne Bond’s loss.) 

Much greater sorrow was to follow with the death of Mary Anne Bond herself, just twenty years old. On 20.2.1857, she died of erysipelas ( scarlet fever) aboard her husband’s barque Elizabeth Thomson at the entrance to Port Phillip. Her body was brought to Newcastle for burial in Christ Church (now Cathedral) Cemetery . The relocated tabletop tablet headstone is to be found on the eastern perimeter of the parkland to which the cemetery has been convert ed. Excellent photos of the tablet (and that of the McGreavys) in their original position are to be seen (I am told) in ‘Hunter Photo Bank’, nee.gov.au, Nos 103 000651 and 103 000652. 

The death of her other daughter Margaret (dilation of the heart, dropsy) in 1869 was yet another tragedy for the long-suffering mother. Margaret, wife of William Philips and mother of James Angus, was buried in the same grave as her sister Mary Anne. Mary Anne Whyte did not long survive her husband William Henry Whyte (d.1876) : her death the following year, on 29 June, elicited a very touching obituary in the Maitland Mercury, originally in the Newcastle Herald (which no doubt accounts for the anomaly ‘yesterday’) :

‘It is our painful duty to record the decease of Mrs Whyte, relict of our late respected townsman, Mr William Henry Whyte, and mother of James Nixon Brunker of West Maitland, which occurred at her late residence, Watt St, yesterday afternoon. Up to the death of her husband, Mrs Whyte we may say enjoyed very good health, but on losing him she grieved a great deal, and though she suffered a severe illness, there is no doubt that grief at the loss of her life’s partner hastened the termination of her existence. By the death of Mrs Whyte there has departed from amongst us a most estimable woman; one whose amiable and benevolent disposition endeared her to all who knew her. Her unostentatious mode of life rendered her comparatively unknown to the many but among those who knew her well, these generous traits of character were fully recognized and admired. Many who have gone before her, had they survived, could have testified to her many deeds of charity, manifested in such a manner as to impart to her acts of mercy that spirit of grace which alleviates while it relieves human suffering. Among many left behind and beyond the family circle, her loss will be felt and sincerely deplored, where pressing wants have to be supplied and consolation needed. In the exercise of pure and simple charity but few were her compeers in spirit and in truth and the lively hopes of the bereft are that she has now gone to reap that reward vouchsafed to those who trust and believe, as she did, in the verities of a future life in the world to come. The funeral of Mrs W.H.Whyte took place on Sunday afternoon and moved from her late residence, Watt St, shortly after 2 p.m., and the large number of our most influential citizens who joined the cortege testified to the respect in which Mrs Whyte was held. The internment took place in Christ Church Cemetery, the remains being deposited in the Family vault. (MM, 3 July, 1877). With the conversion of cemetery to parkland, the headstone bearing her and William’s names is now to be found towards the bottom of sloping ground tn the NE corner of the fence on the eastern side. Her name – with an ‘e’ – suggests a better alternative to the ‘Ann’ found in various other documents.

Poor Mary Anne ! I doubt any of our forbears have known anywhere nearly as much trauma and tribulation as she endured ! Buffeted on the high seas from Ireland to Australia at age three, raped at age seven, losing three siblings in the 1820s, enduring in the same period the nefarious behaviour of her dissolute mother, married in the aftermath of a very stressful court case at age fifteen, widowed at age twenty-three, disappointment in the failed prospect of marriage – and malicious gossip – at age twenty-seven, difficulties in running a business that led to bankruptcy at age twenty¬nine, the untimely deaths of granddaughter Susanna Bond and, soon after, daughter Mary Ann in the 1850s, and death of her other daughter in 1869 … Poor Mary Anne ! May she rest in peace ! (JTF)

Brunker connection : intriguingly, William Henry Whyte (1809-1876) overlooked his three sons in his will by leaving the bulk of his estate to his wife’s son, James Nixon Brunker. Even so, harmony between the ‘Brunker’ line and the ‘Whyte’ does not appear to have suffered, as evidenced by visits made on occasion to Major William Sherbon and his wife, Mary Ann Elizabeth nee Brunker, at Bare Island, by my father (Francis B.J.Fulton – son of MM Whyte) and his siblings. Major Sherbon was in charge of the Veterans Home there (connected by a footbridge to La Perouse) until they lost their residence by fire. The Fort had been built in the late 19th century to defend Botany Bay, was converted for a time to provide accommodation for World War 1 veterans and is now a museum of sorts. I have benefitted from communication with Brunker descendant Margaret Taylor (Ringwood, Margaret Taylor (Ringwood, Victoria) and delightful lady , Pat Brunker (Petersham Sydney) both only too ready to share information.

How to Win Friends and Influence People : Become a would-be genealogist ! (JTF)
JTF pts : FBJF,CSB gpts : TBF,MMW
gt gt gpts James McGreavy, MT
gt gpts : WHW, CEB gt gt gpts : MAB/McG

James McGreavy ( 1784? – 1846) was born in Roscommon, Ire. ( There is a large concentration of McGreavys in the Lecarrow area, off Lough Ree, north of Athlone ). In the early 1800s, he served seven years in the Leitrim Militia, after which he is shown (Calendars of Prisoners’ Petitions, 1776- 1836, PRO Dublin, 1.4.1816… No.1378) as servant and dealer (clothing). In 1815, he married Margaret Tynan in Waterford. They soon had a daughter, Mary Anne ( named after Margaret’s mother, Mary Ann Tynan nee Thompson ). March,1816, found him in Kilkenny Gaol, convicted of ‘burglary & felony – ‘stolen cloths (i.e. clothes ? perhaps manchester in general …). Sentenced to seven years, he was transported from Cork on the ‘Chapman’, 14.3.1817, to arrive in Sydney, 26.7.1817. 

Surprisingly, in a very short time he was the tenant in a reasonably substantial two-storey dwelling in or near Castlereagh St. Where most convicts were ‘on stores’, working for the government or else assigned as servants to free settlers, James’ situation is intriguing : what was his source of income? He was shortly to be joined by wife and daughter, transported on the ‘Elizabeth’ ( 26.7. – 19.11.1818) Margaret had also been convicted of theft. Having earlier unsuccessfully petitioned Charles Earl Whitworth ( Lt Gen & Genl Govr of Ireland) to be sent with her husband to Botany Bay, Margaret may well have offended deliberately in order to join her husband. Such, at any rate, was the result : they were reunited, soon to embark, in 1820, upon ‘such an extensive robbery, so concerted and so executed, (as} was never before …perpetrated in the Colony ‘ (Gazette Sydney, 28.7.1821 ). It certainly was an ‘extensive robbery’, involving their receiving from a neighbour, Anne Kennedy, and concealing for their own use more than 60 items such as yards ( & yards !) of crepe, muslin, bombazine, calico, silk etc . as well as sundry items – shoes, scissors, shawls, hose, gloves etc.. repeating the Ireland experience, but on a wider scale ! 

It was urged on James’s behalf that ‘he evinced every readiness in delivering up the ill-gotten spoil and even directed his wife , who was somewhat reluctant to the act, to immediately render up all to the peace officers , a mandate she obeyed ‘ . On the other hand, he was fully implicated in the original offence because of the assumption in law that a married woman acted in such situations under the control of her husband. It is significant also that , on one occasion, a thirteen year old girl, acting for Anne Kennedy, had brought a large parcel (gowns, corsets and gloves) to Mrs McGreavy. The latter told her to be careful not to let Mr McGreavy be aware of what was happening for ‘he would murder her’ if he knew. 

The pair were convicted as recidivists and sentenced to fourteen years. They were initially sent to Newcastle for a year or so, -. 1823 saw them at Port Macquarie . It would appear that the three sons shown on Margaret’s death certificate as ‘deceased’ were born in the course of the next few years. James’s conduct at Port Macquarie must have been quite satisfactory : the only black marks on record are ‘ sleeping … while nightwatchman (April, 1825)’e,.,,,.ev_;,My 1829, absent from work in going for a fowl for his wife’ (Police Office, Port Macquarie, 4.12.1832) . W.Wilson, Supt of Convicts wrote : … for nine years … his conduct has been universally good’ {3.12.1832) (The same cannot be said for wife Margaret … juicy bits later). Shortly after, he was reunited with Margaret, Mary Anne and John Brunker. 

James was soon trading in Watt St as a grocer (the land in Watt St, just up from the former railway station, would today be worth millions). In the late 1830s, he gave£ 500 to the recently widowed Mary Anne for the purchase of an allotment and the building of two houses. Later he paid for the erection of five smaller weatherboard houses (one room each) to be rented out. In 1839, he became the licensee of ‘The Victoria Inn’ which, at times, was also known as ‘Queen Victoria Inn’ . It appears (more research required …) that Margaret retained the licence for the inn until her death but passed the bulk of the day-to-day running to managers (Croft, Farquharson). In Jen Willetts’s Free Settler or Felon ?, there is the account of Margaret, as landlady of the ‘Queen Victoria Inn’ victim of a robbery in April, 1847, ‘by a prisoner of the crown attached to the steam dredge, Stephen Jarvis. Margaret had returned to her bedroom from the bar to get change for a note when she observed the window open. When she saw the shadow of a man against the wall she called out. Her servant girl Sarah Hill, a ‘bouncing good tempered Irish girl’, heard her mistress ‘screech’ and grabbed hold of Jarvis as he climbed from the window and stuck to him ‘tooth and nail’. Jarvis was found to have stolen a brooch and papers and was later sentenced to 12 months in irons.’ 

When the colony’s tenth Governor, Sir Charles Fitzroy, was making his first visit to Newcastle, a dinner was organised to take place in the ‘ large banqueting room that had recently been erected’ at the hotel. Another report has ‘ In addition to the drawing, sitting and bedrooms, there is a magnificent ballroom in which the citizens had the honor (sic) of entertaining his excellency Sir Charles Fitzroy, the governor of the colony on his visit to this the first watering place in the colony’ (‘first watering place’ ? JTF). It is also referred to as the venue for auctioneering by son-in-law W.H.Whyte and the locale from which the cortege for the burial of Mary Anne Bond began its sad journey (i.e. 1850s). ( More research is called for on a possible link with the ‘Star and Garter’ hotel. Certainly, its licensee William McGreevy (sic}, son of Donald & Mary McGreevy, died there in 1892. He may have been a nephew of James. ) It is interesting to note the provision for running the hotel that appears in James’s will : ‘ my wife shall continue to carry on … the Inn … conjointly with my daughter … for their joint and mutual profit and support so long as they mutually agree … but in case (they) cannot agree … lawful for my said daughter to take the whole of the business allowing my said wife an annuity of £50 per annum …’ James knew his feisty wife only too well ( from sad experience ). 

Worth noting in his will also is reference to ‘a son of each of my Brothers John and Patrick McGreavy {who) are expected to arrive in the Colony … each of them … twenty head of Cattle and one Horse’. To date (2016) it has not been possible to confirm their arrival – yet again more research required ! What is worth noting is that James had obviously invested well in livestockand perhaps land to carry same. In the 1840s, we find him prominent in politics, with strong support for John Dunmore Lang and Major Wentworth and also in racing, with moderate success with his horses at the recently inaugurated Broadmeadows course. These years too were marked by the stress involved in supporting Mary Anne in her personal relationship with a suitor who reneged, a false report of marriage ( which James indignantly refuted at great length in a letter to the editors of the Sydney Morning Herald – See above) and her financial woes, leading to bankruptcy. James died in his early sixties on 21.9.1846 and was buried in the Christ Church Cemetery. Now almost illegible, the tablet tombstone for himself and Margaret is to be found, at ground-level, at the top of the rise on the eastern side of what is now parkland : some of the headstones have been re-erected along the fenceline.
Siblings : John, Patrick – possibly Donald.

Margaret Tynan : shades of ‘the skeleton in the cupboard’ ? ( c.1795-1865) was born in Waterford, Ire., to James Tynan and Mary Ann Thompson (formerly Ward ?). In 1815, she married Jarnes M cGreavy. Shortly after, they had a daughter, named Mary Anne ( ‘e’ appears as part of her name on the burial stone, Newcastle). When James was to be transported for robbery, Margaret filed a petition, 1.4.1816, pleading for mitigation of the sentence to a gaol-term on the grounds that loss of her husband would mean that she and her child would sta rve . Alternatively, she asked to ‘go with petitioner’s (i.e/ h er) husband to Botany Bay. She claimed that the ‘stolen cloths’, the cause of James’s conviction, had1in fact been purchased by her in Waterford. (PPC 1378, National Archives, Dublin). In August, 1817 she herself was sentenced in Cork City to seven years transportation, her crime also involving theft . 

On Nov.19, 1818, she arrived on the all-female-convict ship, ‘Elizabeth’, with Mary Anne. She was soon re-united with James (See above). Any rekindling of wedded bliss was soon blighted by the drama that began on !8.12.1820 when their dwelling was raided by police to recover a large amount of stolen property ‘lately imported on the Surry’ . It was ‘discovered in all parts and corners of the house and some was even found in the sacking of the bedstead’. The large number of it ems led to its being compared in court to ‘an auctioneer’s catalogue’. (more detail : See James, above) The pair were sentenced to fourteen years’ transportation to Port Macquarie ( estab li shed by Gov. Macquarie as the place, as far from Sydney as possible, for incorrigible s). 

Initially they were sent to Newcastle and a short time later to Port Macquarie. Margaret has the dubious dist inction of being the first female sent there ( See laen Mclachlan, Place of Banishment, 1988, p.104. ), arriving on 15.3.1823. Margaret suffered the tragic loss of three sons as infants, in all probability at Port Macquarie, and drama attending her daughter’s marriage to John Nixon Brunker (See : Mary Anne McGreavy, above) Just one year before, she was involved in drama of her own making. One source {Google ‘Royal Colonial Boy’) sees her in this affair as victim of gang rape, as a one-off incident, but I take a negative view, siding with the Command ant, Capt. Henry Smyth : In 1829, a prisoner, James McGreevy (sic) accused Chief Constable John Walsh of seducing his wife, Margaret. Walsh was subsequently dismissed for what Henry Smyth described as ‘a disgraceful connection with her’. 

After the incident Margaret McGreavy was confined to the Factory but Walsh continued to see her. The gaoler was then removed after having been ‘privy to further illicit intercourse’ Capt. Smyth’s report said that the woman had long been notorious for infamous conduct ‘involving constables and others in disgrace’ . Place of Banishment, p.109 Oh my! Oh my! my gt gt gt grandmother … but, there again ‘Let he who is …’ With her husband again a free man, caretaker of the gaol in Newcastle and residing in Watt St, Mary Anne applied for her mother to be assigned to her for the remainder of her sentence. This was grant ed, with a ticket of leave for Margaret, 10.9.1833. In the 1830s, things were looking up for Margaret : roles were reversed with convict girls now assigned to her as servants (see reference to Elizabeth Deuchan, above) and her assisting Mary Anne as a doting grandmother. Her status in the community over the next couple of decades was a vast improvement on the 1820s. She knew tragedy in the 1850s with the untimely loss of Mary Anne’s two daughters and one grandchild, with the additional loss in the early 1860s of Mary Anne’s son in law Edward Bond. BOYD JTF pt s : FBJF, CSB gpts : TBF, M M W, gt gpts : WHW, Catherine Elizabeth Boyd Catherine Elizabeth Boyd (18 45-1915) ‘Kate’) was born on 9.5.1845, eldest daughter of James Boyd and Margaret Goo ley and baptised on 29.6.1845 in West Maitland. Nothing is known of her early years, apart from her self-employment as a dressmaker. She married William Henry Whyte (1849- 1901) on 29.1.1872 at St Mary’s, Newcastle. 

Their first child, an unnamed son, died shortly after his birth. James and Kate had a further nine children : Mary Margaret (1870-1940) (my grandmother – JTF), William Henry {1876-1912) n.m., Violet Imelda {1878-1927) m. William Craven, James Brunker (1881-1944) m. Lucy Rochaix, Evyleen ( aka ‘Elizabeth’ & ‘Bessie’) (1882-1938) professed as Sr Joseph Barbara RSJ, Esmond Alfred m (1) Sarah Gallagher (2) Isabel Thomas, Amy Clare {1885-1982) m. Stanhope Sullivan, John Arthur (1889-1889) d.inf., Alice Kathleen (1890-1937) m. Elliot Reid. William and Kate appear to have raised their family in Newcastle {e.g. 83 Wolfe St, where William died, 14.1.1901. ). Kate and some of her family are recorded on the electoral roll for Newcastle in 1906 – at some point after this, she moved to the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney. She was apparently a stickler for etiquette e.g. her adherence to the Victorian era practice of ‘calling cards’ and specific times for receiving visitors . She died, 28.8.1915, at Randwick and was buried in the Waverley Cemetery. Siblings : Frances Mary (aka Frances Agnes) (1847-1941) m. (1) James Grogan (7 chn) (2) William Tucker {no issue); Margaret Jane {1854-1943) n.m., and the enigmatic’ Mrs Kenna’, recorded as a sister of Mesdames Whyte & Tucker and Miss Margaret Boyd in the newspaper notice re their mother’s death (See below – Margaret Boyd nee Gooley) but for whom I can find nothing definitive. {JTF) JTF : pts FBJF, CSB gpts :TBF, MMW gt gt gpts : WHW, CEB gt gt gt gpts James Boyd, MG James Boyd : No evidence so far located, other than his being married, 2.8.1842, to Margaret Gooley in the Anglican church, St Philip’s, Sydney, the Rev.J.C.Grylls officiating. Was it because Margaret – married with consent of her father – was deemed too young by the local RC clergy ? Their first child, Catherine (see above ) was baptised by Fr J. Lynch, West Maitland, their second {Frances Mary) by Rev.Fr W.Roche in Sydney, their third { Margaret Jane) by Fr J.Maher in Sydney. In the years 1847- 1854, when the latter two were baptised, the young family appear to be living in Harrington St, Sydney . near Church Hill and the present-day approach to the Sydney Harbour Bridge. On his daughter Kate’s marriage certificate, 29.1.1872, James is listed as deceased and the Newcastle Morning Herald, reporting the wedding, refers to ‘daughter of the late James Boyd’ . Was the ‘James Boyd’ who died 1869 (Pts William, Agnes) ‘our’ James? Gooley : JTF pts FBJF, CSB gpts : TBF, MMW gt gpts : WHW, CEB gt gt gpts : JB, Margaret Gooley Margaret Gooley : (c.1823-1914) was born, Cashel, Tipperary, to Philip & Margaret nee Ryan. She arrived in Sydney on the Cadet on 9.8.1841 with her parents, siblings and others (probably related) from Cashel (See Philip Gooley below). In the ship’s notes, Margaret is described as ‘ children’s maid, nursemaid … age 18 … can read’. Just under a year later (2.8.1842), she married James Boyd in Sydney. Their first daughter was born in Maitland (See above), the next two in Sydney. From the late 1850s, they appear to have settled in the Hunter region. With her husband dead prior to 1872, Margaret and her daughters established themselves (possibly as seamstresses ) in the Horse Shoe Bend (Maitland) where the electoral rolls show them at times living in Robin, Carrington and Russell Sts. It was in Russell St that Margaret died, 1914. She was interred in the Campbells Hill cemetery, a little west of Maitland’s Long Bridge, leading from the CBD. ( Grave C8, No.17). 

Nephew Tim Fulton & Katie Edmondson kindly – and painstakingly – searched the cemetery for her headstone, without success, finding sections quite dilapidated – nonetheless, they were able to photograph headstones of more distant rellies. I think it was the Maitland Mercury that carried this report : Mrs Boyd, a very old and respected resident of Maitland, died on Friday morning at the residence of her daughter, Miss M.Boyd, Russell St, Horse Shoe Bend. She was born in Tipperary, Ireland, over 90 years ago and came to Maitland in the forties. During her long illness, she was attended by Rev.Fr,rde who administered the Last Sacraments . She leaves four daughters – Mesdames Tucker, White ;c), Kenna and Miss Boyd – and several grandchildren; also a sister, Mrs Darcy of the Horse Shoe md. Her funeral took place on Saturday morning. The remains were first taken to St John’s 1t hedral where the usual prayers were sai d, thence to the cemetery, Campbells Hill.’ l believe ‘four daughters’ to be inaccurate. The Mrs Kenna appears to be erroneous r eport ing : there ·e various references t o a Marrickville family with Kenna / Darcy connections, which leads me to believe that at the ‘Mrs Kenna’ of the funeral notice could have been , say, a sister-in-law of Margaret Boyd’s sister Sa r ah – the Mrs Darcy of the Ho rse Shoe Bend. ( Continuing – frustrating! – research ). II F pts : FBJF, CSB gpts : TBF, MMW t gt gt gpts : Philip Gooley, MR gt gpts : WHW, CEB gt gt gpts : JB, MG Philip Gooley (c.1803-18 77) was born in Tipperary, with parents William & Margaret. He married Margaret Ryan, early 1820s He arrived in Sydney aboard the Cadet on 9.8.1841, as a Bounty n migrant, sponsored by A.B.Smith & Co. The ship’s report describes him as shepherd & butcher, aged 37-39 . Appears aged, but states himself to be in good health and strong . Has not a good memory. Married at age 21. Can neither read nor write’. There were quite a number of passengers from Tipperary, predominantly Gooleys & Ryans – probably interrelated. 

At some stage, Philip and family moved to West Maitland – his 1872 address is ‘Free Church St’ (wit h his daughter . Margaret Boyd living in the same street before moving a few streets away to Horse Shoe Bend (where her sister , Sarah Darcy, & family were living). All the houses on the western side of Free Church St were later Demolished, to be replaced by classrooms for the Marist Brothers High School. Later still, a number )f houses on the eastern side also gave way to more school buildings. It is quite possible that I, as Bro.Redmond, was teaching in the early 1970s in classrooms on the site of my ancestors’ earlier dwellings ! Philip’s wife Margaret ( my gt gt gt grandmother) died in 1856 and Philip in 1877. Sibling: Robert (c.1811- ), Farm servant. Arrived Cadet with wife Judith & two children, . Offspring Margaret (c.1823-1914), Catherine (c. 1827-1857 ?) m. Patrick Wade?, Sarah ( c. 1829- 1918) m. Michael Darcy (not sure if he was related to famous boxer, Les Darcy … ) William Gooley born late 18C. Herdsman. He and wife Margaret both shown as deceased in Cadet notes on passengers. Ryan JTF pts : FBJF, CSB gpts: TBF, MMW gt gt gt gpts : PG, Margaret Ryan gt gpts WHW, CEB gt gt gpts : JB, MG Margaret Ryan (c.1804 – 1856) was the daughter of Daniel and Mary, ,,,, both shown as deceased by 1841 when Philip and Margaret arrived with their daughters. Margaret get s pretty poor press in the Cadet notes: ‘Age -does not know; 38 on certificate. Dairywoman . Old and infirm, not likely to be useful. Can neither read nor write’. She died in 1856.

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