A Little Bit of Irish - My Mother's People in Australia

A Little Bit of Irish My Mother’s People in Australia

A Little Bit of Irish

My Mother’s People in Australia

William Skyvington

GAMONE PRESS

Typescript created on a Macintosh using Pages.

Charts created using FreeHand and GraphicConverter.

Published by

GAMONE PRESS Gamone, 38680 Choranche, France e-mail sky.william@orange.fr

Š William Skyvington 2014 ISBN 978-2-919427-01-7

Home is where one starts from. As we grow older The world becomes stranger, the pattern more complicated Of dead and living. Not the intense moment Isolated, with no before and after, But a lifetime burning in every moment And not the lifetime of one man only But of old stones that cannot be deciphered.

There is a time for the evening under starlight, A time for the evening under lamplight (The evening with the photograph album).

Love is most nearly itself When here and now cease to matter.   — T S Eliot, Four Quartets (East Coker)

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Contents Preface.................................................................................................................................. 11 1 Overview ....................................................................................................................... 15 2 Charles Walker and the Hickey family...................................................................... 23 3 Braidwood gold and bushrangers .............................................................................. 99 4 Mary Kearney, Michael O’Keefe and Catherine Dixon......................................... 129 5 Isaac Kennedy and Mary Cranston ......................................................................... 185 6 Charles Walker and Mary Kennedy......................................................................... 218 Index................................................................................................................................... 254

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10

Preface

Preface This monograph presents ancestors and relatives of my mother, Enid Kathleen Walker. “Kath�, as she was generally called, was born in South Grafton on 19 January 1918, and she died in Coffs Harbour at the age of 85 on 20 May 2003.

I started research into my maternal ancestors during a visit to Australia in the third quarter of 1980, accompanied by my two children, when my mother (who had become a widow two years earlier) was still living at Yamba. I obtained my first elements of data by visiting the Victorian Court House in Grafton and consulting the registers.

In the course of writing this monograph, the emerging typescript went through two crisis periods, both of which blocked the creation process for a while and obliged me to rethink what I was doing.

The first crisis concerned possible links between my Braidwood ancestors and bushrangers. This was a grave but obscure theme, and I felt it necessary to get the facts as straight as possible before writing anything at all in this domain. Today, I believe that chapter 3 of my monograph presents all we are ever likely to know on this subject, but I have to admit that fuzzy zones and unaswered questions still exist.

The second crisis was of a fanciful kind inspired, less by facts, than by a personal feeling that I acquired while pursuing my research into the identity of our Braidwood patriarch Charles Walker. In family circles, this ancestor has always been considered unquestionably as an Irish Catholic from Cork... and that is how I present him in the early stages of my monograph. Recently, however, I started to envisage the heretical hypothesis that our Charles may have been neither Irish-born nor even Catholic. In particular, I wondered whether he might have been rather a Scottish Protestant. For the moment, I have not been able to answer this fundamental question in a convincing manner. In the highly Irish environment of Reidsdale, on the outskirts of Braidwood, our ancestor certainly gave the impression that he was an Irish settler, but I end up wondering whether our Charles Walker might not have been leading the chameleon existence of a make-believe Catholic from Cork.

Readers of my monograph will be able to make up their own minds on this interesting mystery.

These doubts concerning the identity of Charles Walker explain my 11

choice of a mildly facetious title for this monograph: A Little Bit of Irish. If indeed Charles Walker were truly an Irishman, then it could be affirmed objectively that all my mother’s people in Australia were of pure Irish origins (whatever that expression might mean). My title is meant to suggest, on the other hand, that I am no longer totally convinced that my ancestor was a genuine son of Erin, and that all I can say with confidence today is that my mother’s people in Australia were characterized by a certain degree of Irishness. There was in them, undeniably, a little bit of Irish.

When I started to examine family-history data about my maternal ancestors in Australia, I was struck by the fact that no individual (as far as I could ascertain at that time) had ever married a person who was not, like himself or herself, of Irish origins. For the coast that he claimed for George III on 21 August 1770, Captain James Cook had chosen a clumsy and curious name: New South Wales. Maybe my mother’s people would have been happier if their adopted homeplace had been called New Ireland. In any case, the neighborhood on the outskirts of Braidwood where my ancestor Charles Walker set up a tavern was known as Irish Corner.

It was not until the mid 20th century, by which time some of my ancestral families had been present for three generations (a hundred years) in the land now named Australia, that my mother Kath became the first of my ancestors to wed a non-Irish spouse. In 1940, in Grafton’s Anglican cathedral, she married an Australian-born man, King Mepham (“Bill”) Skyvington, whose genealogical background was largely English.

!

My monograph is composed of six chapters, described as follows: Chapter 1 — Overview This initial chapter presents the principal surnames encountered within the monograph: Walker, O’Keefe, Kennedy, Cranston, etc.

Chapter 2 — Charles Walker and the Hickey family My great-great-grandfather Charles Walker [1807-1860] came to New South Wales as a crew member aboard a ship, and married Ann Hickey [1822-1898], daughter of a Tipperary convict.

Chapter 3 — Braidwood gold and bushrangers I am not certain that all the individuals who appear in this chapter were indeed closely and directly associated with my mother’s people.

12

Preface

Chapter 4 — Mary Kearney, Michael O’Keefe and Catherine Dixon Michael O’Keefe [1831-1910] and Catherine Dixon [1833-1885] were Roman Catholic natives of Ireland, from Co Clare, who migrated to NSW with their children. Michael’s mother, Mary Kearney, joined them soon after.

They were the first of my mother’s people to settle on the Clarence River.

Charles Walker [1851-1918], son of Charles Walker and Ann Hickey of Braidwood (see chapter 2), married Mary O’Keefe [1859-1933], daughter of Michael O’Keefe and Catherine Dixon.

Chapter 5 — Isaac Kennedy and Mary Cranston Isaac Kennedy [1844-1934] and Mary Cranston [1858-1926] were Protestant natives of Fermanagh and Cavan. They migrated separately to New South Wales and married in South Grafton.

Chapter 6 — Charles Walker and Mary Kennedy My grandfather Charles Walker [1882-1937]—the third of my ancestors to bear that name—was a son of Charles Walker II and Mary O'Keefe (see chapter 4). My grandmother Mary Kennedy [1888-1966] was a daughter of Isaac Kennedy and Mary Cranston (see chapter 5). My grandparents' dairy farm was located at Waterview, on the western outskirts of South Grafton, where I grew up.

Gamone, Choranche 19 January 2014

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Chapter 1

14

Overview

1 Overview My mother and her known ancestors are presented in the following figure, which is a so-called pedigree chart. In this kind of genealogical diagram, we start at the bottom of the chart with a specific individual, and move backwards in time (upwards in the diagram) by stating no more than the names of the father and mother of each person. So, the chart indicates every known surname among our ancestors. The word “pedigree� (more familiar in animal breeding than in genealogy) comes from the French expression pied de grue, crane’s foot, evoking the Y-shape of the graphic representation of a father, a mother and their offspring (which is drawn rather as a T-shape in my figure).

Item 1-1: Pedigree chart for my mother, Enid Walker.

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Chapter 1

Chart information At the bottom of the above chart, I start with my mother, referred to as Enid Walker. The chart indicates the identity of 26 of my mother’s ancestors.

It mentions 13 surnames that occur among my mother’s people: Adams, Baillie, Bell, Brerton, Cranston, Dancey, Dixon, Frawely, Hickey, Kearney, Kennedy, O’Keefe and Walker.

The chart comprises six generations of my mother’s people: Generation #1 (top white zone) — her great-great-great-grandparents.

Generation #2 (upper gray zone) — her great-great-grandparents.

Generation #3 (middle white zone) — her great-grandparents.

Generation #4 (lower gray zone) — her grandparents.

Generation #5 — her parents.

Generation #6 (at the bottom) — my mother.

In 12 cases, an ancestor’s name is backed by a green rectangle. This means two things: • That individual was born in Ireland.

• He or she left Ireland to live in New South Wales.

In the upper region of the chart, 11 names not backed by green rectangles indicate ancestors who never left their native Ireland.

In the lower region of the chart, 4 names not backed by green rectangles indicate people born in New South Wales.

16

Overview

Naming conventions Nobody ever referred to my mother as Enid Walker. She was always called Kathleen or Kath. Her name as it appears in item 1-1 therefore calls for a few explanations.

• Need for a unique identifier.

In a genealogical document such as this book, the author must be capable of identifying each individual by means of a unique reference. The starting point is the pair formed by the individual’s first given name and his/her surname. Often, of course, this identifier is not unique. Several people might have the same surname and given name. For example, in my mother’s pedigree, three of her paternal ancestors were named Charles Walker. In such cases, the author is obliged to qualify the basic reference by additional information such as dates of birth or death.

• Maiden names are used for married females.

In real life, a married woman usually adopts her husband’s surname. In genealogical documents, on the contrary, authors generally refer to a woman by her maiden name, regardless of whether she has been married once or several times. This convention enables us to recognize immediately the woman’s identity and pedigree. At a practical level, genealogical research often consists of looking for civil and church records. To find the birth certificate of a female individual, you need to know her maiden name.

• Familiar names and nicknames are insignificant.

Although they might be mentioned in family-history documents, familiar given names and nicknames are inappropriate as references, since they are of little help when we are searching for records. For example, my mother had a brother who earned the nickname “Cyclone” because he was a champion track cyclist. His fans in South Grafton knew him as Cyclone Johnny Walker, whereas we children referred to our uncle as Jack or Jacky. At the registry office in Grafton, the official name of the baby born on 1 July 1913 was John Kennedy Walker, and he appears in my charts as John Walker.

• Second names are usually extraneous.

Second names are not particularly relevant in genealogical research. They take up a lot of space if you attempt to include all of them in charts, and they rarely add any essential information to the situation that is being examined or presented. So, I have adopted the habit of refraining from mentioning second names in charts. In certain cases, a second name evokes an anecdote.

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Chapter 1

For example, my grandmother’s full name was Mary Jane Kennedy, and it is a fact that she was often referred to by the pair of given names, as if they were hyphenated (as in a French Christian name such as Marie-Jeanne). In the case of my grandmother, this second name was a posthumous homage to the previous child, Jane Kennedy, who died shortly after her birth. Another anecdote concerns my mother’s oldest brother, Eric Walker. He received Sydney as a second name because his parents had eloped to the capital of New South Wales for their marriage and the birth of their first child. In certain cases, an individual can go through life without even being aware of his correct second name. My mother’s father was often referred to as Charles Henry Walker, to distinguish him from his father named Charles. In fact, the correct second name, as it appears on Charles Walker’s birth certificate, was not Henry but Herbert.

A month after her birth in South Grafton on 19 January 1918, my mother was registered in Grafton as Enid Kathleen Walker. Eighty-five years later, at her funeral in Christ Church Cathedral, Grafton, on 26 May 2003, she was called Kath Skyvington. But, for the reasons I have just stated, I refer to her in this monograph as Enid Walker.

18

Overview

Birthplaces in Ireland For most of the Irish-born individuals whose names appear in item 1-1, we know roughly where they came from, as indicated in this map of Ireland:

Item 1-2: Birthplaces of my mother’s ancestors in Ireland.

Southerners were Roman Catholics. Northerners were Protestants. Even in the Antipodes, it was not easy for Irish immigrants to marry across religious boundaries. Members of my mother’s people had been settled in NSW for some 80 years before the first marriage between a Catholic and a Protestant. The innovators were my future grandparents Charles Walker (Catholic) and Mary Kennedy (Protestant). To get married in 1910, these brave young lovers had to elope from South Grafton to Sydney on a sea-going vessel that they boarded in the Clarence River near the estuary at Yamba. At the time of this escapade, 22-year-old Mary was eight months pregnant with the child (my future eldest uncle) who would be named Eric Sydney Walker.

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Chapter 1

Geographical contexts During the century that followed the first arrival of my mother’s people in NSW, there was a remarkable stability in the geographical zones in which they settled. They remained essentially in two regions, one alongside Braidwood, and the other on the Clarence River, in the vicinity of Grafton.

Item 1-3: Two focal points in NSW: Braidwood and Grafton.

In fact, the Braidwood settlement was brief, and it concerned only one family group: that of the patriarch Charles Walker and his wife Ann Hickey.

But it can no doubt be thought of as the most spectacular phase in the history of my mother’s people.

20

Overview

Family groups When I look back over the various elements of my mother’s people in Australia, and attempt to get a global view of their relationships, I detect three big groups of people. I refer to them as dimensions.

Item 1-4: Three dimensions of my mother’s people.

A certain Charles Walker can be associated with each dimension: • At the bottom of the diagram, the Braidwood dimension is quite clearcut, both geographically and timewise, since it lasted for a mere generation.

When Ann Hickey, the widow of Charles Walker I, died towards the end of the 19th century, it could be said that the last traces of my mother’s people disappeared from Braidwood. It had been a short but spectacular era, dominated by three massive themes: the convict system, the Braidwood goldfields and the bushranger phenomenon.

• In the middle of the diagram, I refer to the next phase of my mother’s people as the Grafton dimension, because that town was the center of many of the lives and events of that epoch. A key individual is my greatgrandfather Charles Walker, a son of the Charles Walker of Braidwood.

Two other families of Irish emigrants appear on the scene at this point: the O’Keefes and Dixons from Co Clare. I would imagine that they left Ireland because of the famine. Then, to earn their way out to the Antipodes, they worked in the cotton mills of Lancaster. In South Grafton, the major creation of the O’Keefe patriarch was a splendid hotel, on the banks of the Clarence, which ended up bearing the surname of his sonin-law from Braidwood: Walker’s Hotel.

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Chapter 1

• At the top of the diagram, I refer to the third group of my mother’s people as the Protestant dimension. As I explained in the preface, my Catholic grandfather, Charles Walker III, married into a context defined by two sturdy Protestant families from Ulster: the Kennedys and the Cranstons.

The base of this third dimension of my mother’s people was the Kennedy property at Seelands, on the banks of the Clarence above Grafton.

Vantage point I am writing about my mother’s people in the New World from a remote place, far away from Australia: my old stone house on the edge of the French Alps. And much of my research has been carried out through the Internet.

Today, there is a continuity of sorts in our family story in the sense that Grafton and the Clarence River area still remain a pole of attraction—of a somewhat legendary nature nowadays—for my sisters and me.

Finally, in the context of this monograph entitled A Little Bit of Irish, I might point out that there is one spot on Earth that nobody in our family, funnily enough, seems to have ever visited. I am referring to Ireland. The destiny of my mother’s people consisted of creating a new homeland, which pushed the original Erin into oblivion.

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Charles Walker and the Hickey family

2 Charles Walker and the Hickey family This chapter is divided into six parts: • I start with the arrival in NSW of my great-great-grandfather Charles Walker [1807-1860]. He was allegedly born in Cork, but I know nothing of his background.

• Our earliest patriarch in NSW was Charles’s father-in-law: Patrick Hickey [1786-1858], tried in Tipperary in 1828 for cattle stealing and transported for life in 1829. Eight years later, in 1837, his wife Elizabeth Brerton [1784-1850] joined up with her husband, taking their children with her.

One of these children was Charles Walker’s future wife, my great-greatgrandmother Ann Hickey [1822-1898].

• The third part of this chapter describes the existence of the Walker family on the outskirts of Braidwood, at a place in Reidsdale known as the Irish Corner.

• Many people named Hickey lived in the Braidwood area at that time. This fourth part attempts to determine which local Hickey individuals might have been related to Ann. • The fifth part presents the families of the offspring of Charles and Ann. They had eleven children, and we have some data on nearly all of them.

• Finally, I examine the hypothesis that our Braidwood patriarch Charles Walker might not have been a Catholic Irishman.

At the start of my research on Charles Walker, I received precious help from Margaret Frances McGee [1923-1995], married name Lochhead, whose great-grandfather John Walker [1840-1928] was Charles’s eldest son.

The story of Charles Walker’s family is continued in the next chapter of this document, where I examine links to the Braidwood bushrangers.

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Chapter 2

part I — Arrival of Charles Walker aboard the Caroline Charles Walker, 26, came to New South Wales as a steward aboard the barque Caroline, which had left Cork on Monday, 15 April 1833. The vessel reached Sydney over three and a half months later, on 6 August 1833. Here are the references of the Caroline’s arrival record in the NSW Archives:

Item 2-1: References of the arrival of the Caroline in NSW in 1833.

The arrival of the Caroline was mentioned in a local newspaper.

Item 2-2: Sydney newspaper dated 8 August 1833.

Item 2-3: Article announcing the arrival of the Caroline.

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Charles Walker and the Hickey family

Barque Caroline A typical barque has two tall masts with rectangular sails (like a brig) then a third mast with triangular sails.

Item 2-4: Drawing of a typical barque.

The barque Caroline was built at Cochin in India by John Crookenden and registered at the port of Calcutta on 21 November 1825. The stern of the Caroline was different to that of the vessel in the above illustration because she had a raised poop deck where people could stroll around in the fresh air.

Her stern was square, which meant that the ship was roomy in this area. The vessel was elegant, with easy access to the high space between decks.

The owners of the Caroline were a Newcastle-upon-Tyne banker, William Chapman, and a Calcutta man, Eliot MacNaughten. Four years before the voyage that took Charles Walker to NSW, the Caroline had carried Thomas Henty’s sons James, Stephen and John (and their prize Spanish merinos) to Western Australia: a voyage described by Marney Bassett in her book, The Hentys. In the Mitchell Library in Sydney, there is a set of letters written by a cabin passenger on the Caroline, Henry Camfield.

The Caroline was wrecked in New Zealand at Invercargill on 1 April 1860.

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Chapter 2

List of crew aboard the Caroline in 1833

Item 2-5: Crew list of the Caroline, on which Charles Walker reached NSW in 1833.

26

Charles Walker and the Hickey family

The Caroline was described at the top of the crew list as a “female convict ship”. On this voyage, however, there were no convicts, merely the families of convicts in NSW and free settlers. The steward Charles Walker was the sixth of the 26 crew members, after the master, three mates and the carpenter, and just before the cook and the sailmaker.

News from Ireland The Caroline brought to the remote colony a tiny but ominous fragment of news, which was promptly inserted into the same Sydney newspaper that had announced the arrival of the vessel:

Item 2-6: Martial law proclaimed in Limerick in 1833.

The land that the Caroline had left was in a state of civil disobedience due to England’s enforcement of the payment of so-called tithes for the upkeep of the Anglican Church of Ireland, in a largely Catholic society. The people’s hero was Daniel O'Connell [1775–1847], “the Liberator”, who fought for the emancipation of Catholics and their right to become members of parliament.

Item 2-7: Romantic depiction of Daniel O’Connell.

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Chapter 2

part II — Hickey family in Tipperary Patrick Hickey, Elizabeth Brerton and their seven children lived in the civil parish of Borrisleigh in North Tipperary.

Item 2-8: Borrisleigh, barony of Eliogarty, North Tipperary.

This is an extract from an Atlas, comprising the Counties of Ireland, Lewis (1837). Borrisleigh, also known as Burris Leath or simply Borris, must not be confused with the bigger town of Borrisoleagh or Burrisoleagh whose name appears on left-hand side of the above map. The townland of Borris/ Borrisleigh lies to the east of Thurles. Known today as Two Mile Borris, it lies alongside the main Dublin-Cork highway.

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Charles Walker and the Hickey family

Hickey family in Borrisleigh, Tipperary The Hickey family in Ireland was probably composed as follows:

Item 2-9: Hickey family in Borrisleigh, Tipperary.

Much of this data is fuzzy, since dates vary from one record to another.

However, unless more precise elements were to be found, I believe we should accept the dates in this chart, which are probably more-or-less valid.

Patrick Hickey transported for cattle stealing When Ann Hickey was a child, her father was arrested for cattle stealing.

He was tried in the assize court of Clonmel on 7 April 1828, and sentenced to transportation to New South Wales for life. No record of Patrick Hickey’s trial exists in Ireland, since transportation registers compiled before 1836 were destroyed in the Four Courts fire of June 1922.

Towards the end of 1828, Patrick Hickey left Cork aboard the Governor Ready, and he arrived in NSW on 16 January 1829. In February of that same year, he was assigned to a Braidwood pioneer, Captain John Coghill, who was no doubt the first person to purchase land in the Braidwood region from the colonial government, as distinct from the system of free grants. The dates at which Coghill purchased his properties are known. So, we have a good idea of the places where Patrick Hickey lived and worked during his first seven or eight years in NSW. In Coghill’s bookkeeping concerning a property he bought in 1827, he speaks of Gillamatong, an isolated and clearly visible mountain south-east of Braidwood. The convict Patrick Hickey probably worked in that vicinity.

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Chapter 2

Application for Patrick Hickey’s wife and children On 17 September 1836, Patrick Hickey lodged an application requesting that his wife and children be brought out to New South Wales at the expense of the British government. The application was signed by John Coghill, who stated that he had been employing Hickey since February 1829. Coghill added: I am satisfied that he is both able and willing to maintain his family.

In July 2005, a fellow-researcher, Pamela Punch (descendant of the Mullumbimby Walkers), succeeded in finding the application at the NSW State Archives, and she has informed me that Patrick Hickey indicated the names and ages of his seven children, in 1836, as follows: • Mary 19

b 1817

• Margaret 17

b 1819

• Michael 14

b 1822

• William 13

b 1823

• Nancy 11

b 1825

• John 9

b 1827

• Elizabeth 7

b 1829

I have inserted the birth year of each child according to the ages supplied by their father. Although I was influenced by this list when I was compiling item 2-9, I consider that Patrick Hickey’s data contains errors, since it often differs greatly from information in later records. For example, Patrick Hickey referred to a daughter named Nancy, born in 1825, who was probably Ann, born in 1822. The date of birth he suggested for William was probably four or five years too late. I believe too that Elizabeth was born, not in 1829, but eight years earlier. As a convict who may not have had a good recollection of family dates back in Ireland, Patrick Hickey was no doubt ill-equipped to draw up a precise list of the names and ages of the seven children he had not seen for seven years. Besides, Hickey was almost certainly illiterate, which would account for the approximate nature of his family data submitted, through Coghill, to NSW authorities.

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Charles Walker and the Hickey family

Ticket of leave In February 1837 (five months after the above-mentioned application was made), the Bungonia Bench recommended the granting of a ticket of leave to Patrick Hickey.

Bungonia is located a few dozen miles to the north of Braidwood, not far from Goulburn. The pioneer Dr David Reid resided with his wife and four children at Inverary Park near Bungonia. As early as 1828 (before the arrival in NSW of Patrick Hickey and Charles Walker), Reid employed assigned convicts down at his second sheep property, on Jembaicumbene Creek, at a place that would later be known as Reidsdale (future homeplace of the Walker family). David Reid was a typical case of an absentee landlord, who called upon overseers to look after his flocks. He was also a kind of judge.

There was no proper court house in Braidwood until 1837. Before this date, cases involving free men and convicts accused of serious or repeated offences were taken to the nearest court at Inverary, Dr Reid’s home near Bungonia, a journey of 50 miles.

— Sue Murray and Netta Ellis, Early Days in the Braidwood District 1822-51

Patrick Hickey’s ticket-of-leave (next page), dated 3 June 1837, stipulated that he should remain in the County of St Vincent, which is the vast zone surrounding the Braidwood area. This document provides us with a physical description of Patrick Hickey: 5 feet 8 inches in height, fair complexion, light brown hair mixed with grey, and grey eyes. We learn too that he had a scar over his left eye.

Patrick Hickey was a free man, awaiting the arrival of his family. I suspect that Elizabeth Brerton and her children reached Sydney on 9 October 1837 aboard the Charles Kerr, but I have not been able to verify this hypothesis.

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Chapter 2

Item 2-10: Ticket of leave granted to Patrick Hickey in 1837.

32

Charles Walker and the Hickey family

part III — Walker/Hickey family As early as 1838, Charles Walker was apparently starting to think about the idea of purchasing his own property in the Braidwood region, for his name occurs in the list of men who sent off a petition on this question, described as follows: The letter, addressed to the Honorable The Colonial Secretary, on 18th October, 1838, asking that His Excellency the Governor may be pleased to cause the township to be surveyed, was signed by Andrew Badgery, James Coutts, Patrick Goulding, William Bennison, David Williams, J. L. Wallace, Alfred Watts, William Watts, James Liddell, Thomas Cowper, John Burke Josh, Linde Jones, James Dunn, A. W. Kinlay, Samuel Rawson, Charles Townshend, Charles Walker, Joseph Dalbs and John Lambie.

At that time, Charles Walker was probably learning the art of sheepgrazing as a casual employee (or jackeroo, as they would be called later on) on one of the big properties in the Braidwood district. As a former steward on a convict ship, Walker would have surely been well received by British landowners, many of whom—like the Englishman Captain John Coghill who had employed Patrick Hickey—were retired seafarers. Maybe Walker was even working on one of the sheep properties of David Reid, the Bungonia grazier who had signed Patrick Hickey’s ticket-of-leave.

Marriage of Charles Walker and Ann Hickey In what circumstances did Charles Walker meet up and fall in love with 16-year-old Ann, daughter of the ex-convict Patrick Hickey? Maybe he met her through Coghill, who had played a role in bringing the Hickeys to NSW. Coghill owned the Strathallan property, north-east of Braidwood, where he had been residing during the construction of a fine brick cottage on a farm slightly south-east of Braidwood, called Bedervale.

The Walker/Hickey marriage took place on 8 July 1839 at Lake Bathurst, north of Braidwood in the direction of Goulburn. Here is a transcription of the church document:

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Chapter 2

Item 2-11: Church record of the Walker/Hickey marriage in 1839.

Charles Walker and Ann Hickey would have been aged respectively about 32 and 17. Their addresses were indicated simply as County St Vincent, and they both said they were Catholics. There were two witnesses: Thomas Woods and Catherine Nolan.

Less than a fortnight after Ann’s marriage, her sister Mary married John Salmon at Lake Bathurst on 17 July 1839.

Patrick Hickey sent to Norfolk Island In November 1839 (just a few months after the marriage of his daughters Ann and Mary), Patrick Hickey was charged at the quarter sessions in Campbelltown with receiving stolen goods. On 16 December 1839, he was sent to Norfolk Island. The authorities added an obliquely-written note on his ticket of leave [item 2-10] that says "N Island Transported".

Census of 1841 Before his death in 1840, David Reid was dividing his Jembaicumbene property into 40-acre allotments, which he put up for sale. Charles Walker became a landed proprietor by purchasing some of this land, near the place that would come to be called Irish Corner.

The 1841 census data on Charles Walker’s household at Reidsdale can be found at the State Archives of NSW [location X946, page 71, film 2129]:

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Charles Walker and the Hickey family

Item 2-12: Census of 1841 concerning Charles Walker at Reidsdale.

Here is my interpretation of this data: • Obviously, the “landed proprietor” is Charles Walker, who is one of the two males who arrived free in NSW. • In the “others” category, one of the two is Ann Hickey, wife of Charles Walker, who is the female who arrived free.

• In the “others” category, the “male born in colony” was John Walker, the first child of Charles and Ann, born on 22 July 1840 in Braidwood.

• The other “male arrived free” is one of Ann Hickey’s brothers: Michael, William or John. He is one of the “shepherds and others in care of sheep”.

• There are two ex-convicts with tickets-of-leave working as shepherds, one of whom declared himself to be a member of the Church of England.

Few households in Reidsdale appear to have returned data for that 1841 census. A search for the argument Braidwood in the State Archives reveals only 63 households. So, we are lucky to find this data about our ancestor Charles Walker. Apparently there is data, too, about Charles Walker’s brother-in-law and neighbor, John Salmon.

35

Chapter 2

Prosperity followed by depression We know nothing about the exploits of Charles Walker as a sheep farmer.

Braidwood’s pastoral prosperity had ended in 1837 because of a terrible drought that endured for six or seven years. The monetary value of a sheep dropped from sixteen shillings a head in 1837 to half a shilling in 1843. An Irish settler named Henry O’Brien invented a simple method for boiling down sheep carcasses for tallow, for the production of candles and soap, and this process set a bottom value, once production and transport costs were deducted, of six shillings a head, even for sheep that were about to die of starvation. So, smelly boiling-down vats went into operation throughout the sheep country around Braidwood.

A victim of the crisis was Dr Thomas Braidwood Wilson, the man behind Braidwood: a former surgeon superintendent on convict ships. In 1836, with his wife and two children, he had settled on a property that came to be called Braidwood Farm. He strived to encourage good relationships between free settlers, convicts and Aborigines, and he attempted to introduce productive agricultural techniques. One of his amusing innovations was ploughing competitions between local farmers. Well, in November 1843, Dr Wilson died suddenly and prematurely of apoplexy, a ruined man.

Fate of Patrick Hickey Meanwhile, a second-offender such as Patrick Hickey could not have chosen a more favorable moment to spend time on Norfolk Island, since his imprisonment coincided with in-depth reforms of the convict colony made by an exceptional Scotsman named Alexander Maconochie, whose work is presented at length in The Fatal Shore by Robert Hughes.

In 1844, 62-year-old Patrick Hickey, described as a "steady elderly man", was released from Norfolk Island. He returned to Braidwood and received a second ticket of leave in 1846, shown in the following figure. A note was added to the first ticket of leave stating that it had been "restored".

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Charles Walker and the Hickey family

Item 2-13: Second ticket-of-leave granted to Patrick Hickey in 1846.

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Gold A neighbor of the Walkers at Irish Corner, Mrs Baxter, discovered gold on 5 October 1851 at Major’s Creek, near a small bridge on the road to Braidwood. This map shows the road links between Braidwood, Reidsdale, Major’s Creek and Araluen.

Item 2-14: Road links to the south of Braidwood.

Rapidly, thousands of miners flocked to the region. Mrs Baxter used the money she made out of gold to buy a farm at Irish Corner. A year or so later, her horse-drawn cart, full of vegetables, capsized and killed her. Mrs Baxter’s farm at Irish Corner was taken over by Marcus Lyons, whose daughter Anne would later marry one of the Walker sons.

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In a newspaper article on the goldfields written by the miner Richard Kennedy in 1852, he states that both Charles Walker and John Salmon had claims (mining licenses) at a place named Bell’s Paddock, ... which at this time was fenced in and used as a horse paddock by Dr Bell, and in this paddock he had a water hole sunk in the early part of the 1840s by government men, of whom he had a considerable number assigned to him, for the purpose of storing water for his horses.

A digger named Jack Elward, who was working out his claim there, went up to the paddock and took a dish of stuff out of the heap of heath, thrown up from the hole, which had been lying on the surface for some years. Out of this dish, he repanned over an ounce of gold.

I do not know whether Charles Walker and John Salmon were successful gold-miners.

Farmers’ Home tavern It is not unlikely that Charles Walker was able to set up his tavern, The Farmers’ Home, with money made on the goldfields. This establishment is mentioned by Richard Kennedy: Charlie Walker afterwards kept a pub at Irish Corner,

Kennedy (who writes in a rambling fashion) mentions music, without affirming that The Farmers’ Home employed musicians: ... the first musician that came on the fields was Joe Lee, better known as Joe the Fiddler and at Wilson’s pub he would play two nights a week and the diggers would muster up in good numbers for a dance. There were no professional dancing girls in those days and the amusement was always carried on most respectfully.

I would imagine that Charles Walker created his tavern on land he had purchased initially for sheep farming. The name of the tavern is intriguing. I suppose it is intended to suggest that farmers should feel at home there. In Australia: Her Story, Kylie Tennant gives the impression that this name was common in sheep-farming environments: In the inn-yards of the Farmer’s Home, the Square and Compass, the Woolpack, they [wool-buyers] argued and shouted and drank the bargain through.

But why would Charles Walker have chosen such a name at a time when sheep-farming had become, for the moment, a thing of the past in the Braidwood region?

Charles Walker’s publican’s license for 1857 is shown here:

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Item 2-15: Charles Walker’s publican’s license (1857).

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Charles Walker and the Hickey family

Here is my transcription of this document:

Item 2-16: Transcription of the license shown in the previous figure.

This license is one of three that can be seen at the State Archives. The other two are for the periods July 1858 to June 1859, and July 1860 to June 1861. In the final license, signed on 17 April 1860, a month before Walker’s death, his sureties are George Baxter and John Salmon (the husband of Ann Hickey’s sister Mary), both of Reidsdale. Would George Baxter be related to the woman of that name who discovered gold at Major’s Creek?

Here are the references of these three documents at State Archives: • License signed 21 April 1857 for the period 1857/58: location 7/1508, reel 1239 #34.

• License signed 20 April 1858 for the period 1858/59: location 7/1509, reel 1240 #332.

• License signed 17 April 1860 for the period 1860/61: location 7/1513, reel 1242 #983.

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Location of Charles Walker’s property and inn The property on which the Farmers’ Home was located ended up passing into the hands of Marcus Lyons, who called it Gleneally (the name of his birthplace in Ireland). As seen in a chart later on in this chapter [item 2-79], Marcus Lyons was in fact the father-in-law of Michael Walker, the third child of Charles Walker and Ann Hickey. I am unaware of the transactions by which the property ceased to be owned by Walker inheritors and came into the possession of Marcus Lyons. Later, Elizabeth Lyons, probably a granddaughter of Marcus Lyons, became the owner of Gleneally. She married a William Maher in 1896. The property was inherited by Maurice Maher [born 1905 in Braidwood] and his wife Marge. The Farmers’ Home no longer exists, but today’s owner of the land, Ian Maher, sent me this map:

Item 2-17: Modern map of Reidsdale.

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Charles Walker and the Hickey family

Here is a satellite view of Gleneally:

Item 2-18: Satellite view of Gleneally at Reidsdale.

The old village of Reidsdale lies to the south of Monga Lane:

Item 2-19: Center of 19th-century Reidsdale.

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Above the top edge of the satellite photo, in the vicinity of the spot where the track branches off to the Fairview house, the old Reidsdale cemetery was located to the west of Reidsdale Road.

This Google map indicates the place where the tavern used to stand:

Item 2-20: Modern map of Reidsdale.

To get there, you leave Braidwood by the south-west along the Captains Flat Road, then turn left onto Araluen Road and continue to the south. You can turn off to the left either at Reidsdale Road, or further on, at Munga Lane.

Here is a photo of an old white wooden house at Fairview [see items 2-17 and 2-19], which once belonged to an unidentified Kennedy/Hickey family:

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Charles Walker and the Hickey family

Item 2-21: House at Fairview, old Reidsdale.

Here is Saint Bernard’s RC church (date of construction unknown):

Item 2-22: Saint Bernard’s RC church, old Reidsdale.

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David Reid’s sale of his Jembaicumbene estate I pointed out earlier on that David Reid, before his death in 1840, was dividing up his Jembaicumbene estate into 40-acre blocks, and that Charles Walker became a landed proprietor by purchasing some of this land. I have received (from Ian Maher of Reidsdale) a photocopy of a map that appears to indicate the identity of purchasers of Reid’s land.

Item 2-23 shows the blocks in the northern part of Reid’s former estate, just below the Jembaicumbene Swamp. I have the impression that Charles Walker and his brother-in-law John Salmon were joint buyers of some four or so 40-acre blocks in the north-eastern corner, alongside the track called Monga Lane, representing a total area of 176 acres and 26 or 28 perches. In item 2-23, the location of the Farmers’ Home was indicated by Ian Maher.

Their neighbors were Lloyd, Wisby, F McMahon, J McMahon and Higgins.

The other two-thirds of Reid’s former estate, south of the section shown in item 2-23, are presented in a north to south order in items 2-24, 2-25 and 2-26. The following names of purchasers are indicated: J Barrett, Burnell, J & S Birch, Dempsey, W & T Hickey, R Harens, Cannon, Manning and Tyler.

Some of these names are associated with more than one property division, but I do not know if they are the same individuals or rather two people with the same name.

Elsewhere in this map, it is stated that the land to the west of the Reid estate belonged to a certain Captain Hawker. This individual was a personal friend of Dr Reid, and that is how he became the proprietor of land on the edge of Reidsdale. Another friend of Reid who obtained land in this fashion was a certain Sir Michael Seymour. Alas, neither of these two distinguished Braidwood land-owners ever had an opportunity of rearing sheep or fossicking for gold, for the simple reason that they never even set foot in the colony of New South Wales!

Units of square measure In the map of David Reid’s former estate, it is amusing to discover the old-fashioned units of square measure named roods and perches. The basis of this system is a linear unit of 5.5 yards known variously as a pole, a rod or a perch. So, a square whose side is one pole long has an area that is generally referred to as a square perch, or simply (as in the Reidsdale map) a perch.

This area is equivalent to 5.5 x 5.5 = 30.25 square yards. Forty square perches constitute an area referred to as a rood, and four roods are an acre. In other 46

Charles Walker and the Hickey family

words, there are 160 square perches in an acre.

These quaint old units are simple to manipulate... provided that you use a computer!

Item 2-23: Northern blocks of Reid’s former estate.

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Item 2-24: Blocks of Reid’s former estate located south of those in item 2-23.

Later on in this chapter, I shall refer often to the landowners whose names appear at the bottom of this chart. I believe that "W Hickey" in the middle designates William Hickey, a brother of my ancestor Ann Hickey, wife of Charles Walker. I am unable to identify the neighbors referred to as "W & T Hickey" (probably William and Thomas Hickey).

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Item 2-25: Blocks of Reid’s former estate located south of those in item 2-24.

Item 2-26: Southernmost blocks of Reid’s former estate.

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Irish Corner Ian Maher informs me that Irish Corner was the neighborhood to the right of the north/south road (today’s Reidsdale Road) that is indicated in items 2-17, 2-18, 2-19 and 2-20. So, from the viewpoint of Charles Walker at the Farmers’ Home, located between the Jembaicumbene Swamp to the north and Monga Lane to the south, Irish Corner was in fact a neighborhood on the opposite (eastern) side of the road. However the area designated by this expression may have varied over the years.

The following figure shows a map, sent to me by a fellow-researcher, Peter Mayberry. This map is said to represent Irish Corner in 1859.

Item 2-27: Irish Corner in 1859.

For the moment, I am unable to orient this map with respect to other Reidsdale maps I have seen. At the outset, I cannot determine whether this map is oriented in a north-south or an east-west sense. The map includes references to individuals and entities. It mentions Captain John Coghill (the first settler to buy land in the region, and the purchaser of Braidwood Farm after Wilson’s death) and his son-in-law and inheritor Robert Maddrell (one of the justices of the peace who signed Charles Walker’s pub license in 1857, and the patriarch of a Braidwood dynasty). The name of the absentee landowner Captain Hawker also appears at the top of the map. Here are the graphic details as I see them: • A road or track (represented by a narrow pair of parallel lines) enters the map in the middle of the lefthand side, and extends horizontally to the center of the map.

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• The road then turns upwards through a 45° angle and separates at a Yshaped junction into two roads that disappear at the upper edge of the map.

• Another road runs down from the place where Captain Hawker’s name appear, and joins the main road in the vicinity of the Catholic church.

• A creek runs down from the upper edge of the map, and its branches cross the roads.

The following figure provides an enlarged view of the lefthand half of this map.

Item 2-28: Enlarged view of the lefthand half of the previous figure.

On the lefthand side, a Phillip Mahar is mentioned. We should no doubt read this name as Maher. Would that be the home place of the Phillip Maher of Reidsdale who was one of Charles Walker’s sureties for his license in 1857?

The map indicates the location of a Roman Catholic church and school, alongside what appears to be an Anglican church and school. Would the RC church be St Bernard’s, seen in item 2-22?

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Early 20th-century map of an area north of Reidsdale Peter Mayberry gave me this copy of a more recent map:

Item 2-29: Area to the north of the Jembaicumbene Swamp.

Elsewhere on this map, I noticed explicit references to relatively recent dates: 1914, 1916 and 1918. But it mentions landowners of a much earlier epoch: D F Coghill (no doubt David Coghill, who died in 1847), Robert Maddrell, Henry Lees (surety for Charles Walker’s 1857 license) and Michael Walker (third son of Charles Walker and Ann Hickey).

This map shows Jembaicumbene Creek, the swamp, Monga Lane coming up from Elrington and curving to the east, and the Reidsdale Road running up in a north-westerly direction and crossing Bedding Ground Creek.

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Postal service conducted by Charles Walker A big book has been compiled at Braidwood by Roslyn Maddrell on the subject of the mail service between 1835 and 1900. It contains all kinds of press cuttings, some of which are reproduced in the present document.

The following mail contract is mentioned for 1856: Charles Walker; on horse back from and to Braidwood, Mullenderee and Moruya via Araluen; once a week; ÂŁ150.

Children of Charles Walker and Ann Hickey Charles Walker and Ann Hickey had eleven children:

Item 2-30: Offspring of Charles Walker and Ann Hickey.

The Roman Catholic parish registers for Goulburn (copies held at the Genealogy Society in Sydney) contain records for the births of John, Mary, Michael, Patrick, Johannah and Margaret. The record for Charles Walker came from Moruya, while the records for the last four children came from St Bede’s Church in Braidwood.

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Child #1 — John Walker

Item 2-31: Child #1, John Walker, born 22 July 1840.

The records for John and Mary Walker, and also the record for Margaret Salmon (daughter of Ann Hickey’s sister Mary), are dated 22 September 1841. In registers of the RC parish of Goulburn, these records are numbered respectively 193, 191 and 190. The parents’ residence is Braidwood. I do not recognize the names of the godparents.

Child #2 — Mary Walker

Item 2-32: Child #2, Mary Walker, born 1 August 1841.

Child #3 — Michael Walker

Item 2-33: Child #3, Michael Walker, born 8 April 1843.

The date of baptism is 20 May 1843. The record number in the register is 175. The abode of the parents is indicated as Jembaicumbene. The godfather, John Hickey, is probably Ann’s brother. Catherine McMahon is probably a member of a neighboring family at Reidsdale [item 2-23]. The final item in the record (not visible in the above figure) is the name of Michael Brennan, the priest.

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Child #4 — Patrick Walker

Item 2-34: Child #4, Patrick Walker, born 29 May 1845.

The date of baptism is 14 September (1845), and the record number in the register is 719. The godmother, Eliza Hickey, is probably Ann’s sister.

Child #5 — Johannah Walker

Item 2-35: Child #5, Johannah Walker, born 1 August 1846.

The date of baptism is 5 November (1846), and the record number is 1102. The family abode is indicated as Irish Corner. We encounter the name Brunton, which will be present in several ways in the life of the Hickey and Walker families of Reidsdale. The initials at the end of the record (not visible in the above figure) are those of R Walsh, no doubt the priest.

Child #6 — Margaret Walker

Item 2-36: Child #6, Margaret Walker, born 4 November 1849.

The date of baptism is 27 January 1850.

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Child #7 — Charles Walker

Item 2-37: Child #7, Charles Walker, born 20 June 1851.

This document, dated 4 August 1981, was sent to Margaret Lochhead by the parish priest. The godfather is a neighbor [item 2-23]. The godmother is another member of the Brunton family, whose name appeared at the baptism of Johannah Walker [item 2-35].

Child #8, Elizabeth Walker

Item 2-38: Child #8, Elizabeth Walker, born 13 December 1853.

The records concerning the last four Walker children were obtained by Margaret Lochhead at the Braidwood RC church in 1981. The baptismal date is 6 January 1854. I do not recognize the male sponsor. The female sponsor 56

Charles Walker and the Hickey family

could be Catherine Brunton, wife of Ann Hickey’s brother William. The priest was Edward O’Brien.

Child #9, James Walker

Item 2-39: Child #9, James Walker, born 21 September 1855.

The baptismal date is 14 October 1855., and the sponsors are neighbors [item 2-23].

Child #10, Catherine Walker

Item 2-40: Child #10, Catherine Walker, born 10 October 1857.

The baptismal date is 8 November 1857. The male sponsor, Philip Maher, was mentioned in Charles Walker’s 1857 pub license [items 2-15 and 2-16].

Child #11, Teresa Walker

Item 2-41: Child #11, Teresa Walker, born 13 December 1859.

The baptismal date is 22 December 1859. The male sponsors are members of the Maher family, mentioned already. The female sponsor was Catherine Brunton, wife of Ann Hickey’s brother William, present at the baptism of Johannah Walker [item 2-35].

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Death of Ann Hickey’s mother Ann Hickey’s mother, Elizabeth Brerton, died in 1850, and her grave is located in Braidwood cemetery:

Item 2-42: Tombstone in Braidwood Cemetery.

Here is the inscription (top four lines on the tombstone) concerning Elizabeth Brerton: Sacred to the memory of ELIZABETH HICKEY died 30th October 1850 aged 66 years.

I have never seen a death record for Elizabeth Brerton. There are two vague references in the NSW online indexes:

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Item 2-43: Death records for Eliza Hickey.

I found a copy of the first record at State Archives in the Rocks, but it is irrelevant. I have never requested the second record from NSW BMD. There might be a church record at Goulburn or Braidwood.

Death of Ann Hickey’s father Ann’s father, the ex-convict Patrick Hickey, died in Braidwood on 5 April 1858. Here (in four parts) is a copy of his death certificate:

Item 2-44: Death certificate of Patrick Hickey (part 1/4).

The death occurred at Reidsdale (described as "near Braidwood"), and Patrick Hickey is designated as a farmer. Where exactly was he living in Reidsdale, and what land was he farming? Was he living on his own, or with members of his family?

His age is given as 76, which means that Patrick Hickey was born in 1782.

This is why I indicated that year in the chart of item 2-9, rather than the year of 1786 mentioned in Patrick’s ticket of leave [item 2-10].

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Item 2-45: Death certificate of Patrick Hickey (part 2/4).

We learn that the 76-year-old ex-convict had been suffering from asthma for 18 months and not receiving any medical assistance.

The data in the central column is incomprehensible. Maybe the person who filled in the document simply interchanged inadvertently the second and third items, in which case that person intended to state that the father of the deceased was also named Patrick Hickey, that the father’s occupation was unknown, and that the mother of the deceased was named Elizabeth Brer(e)ton. But it is more likely that the person who filled in the document was confusing the wife and the mother of the deceased.

The informant was a Braidwood bricklayer named James Dunn. Why was this task not performed by a member of the family of the deceased? Maybe, by this time, the old ex-convict had been abandoned by his family.

Item 2-46: Death certificate of Patrick Hickey (part 3/4).

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The record was established by a certain Isaac Archibald.

In the third column, we discover that the informant, James Dunn, was also a witness of Patrick Hickey’s Catholic burial on 6 April 1858. This strengthens the impression that the deceased might have been abandoned by family members.

Item 2-47: Death certificate of Patrick Hickey (part 4/4).

The time spent in NSW, 28 years, indicates that Hickey arrived in 1830.

As stated in his first ticket of leave [item 2-10], he came on the Governor Ready, which reached NSW on 16 January 1829.

The absence of data concerning Hickey’s marriage and children suggests that no family members contributed to this registration.

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Death of Charles Walker Charles Walker died at Reidsdale on 21 May 1860, aged 53. Here (in four parts) is a copy of Charles Walker’s death certificate:

Item 2-48: Death certificate of Charles Walker (part 1/4).

Item 2-49: Death certificate of Charles Walker (part 2/4).

Death at such an early age after six days of delirium tremens suggests that Charles Walker might have been an alcoholic. It is strange, on the other hand, that a publican’s license would have been delivered to an individual who was known to be an alcoholic.

It is surprising to see that the informant for this death registration was James Maher—the neighbor who had been a sponsor at the baptism of Teresa Walker [item 2-41]—rather than a member of the family.

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Item 2-50: Death certificate of Charles Walker (part 3/4).

Item 2-51: Death certificate of Charles Walker (part 4/4).

Notice the curious mistake concerning the given name of Charles’s wife, and the missing place of marriage. Would Ann Hickey have been absent from their home when Charles went on his fatal drinking spree?

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Obituary of Charles Walker An obituary of Charles Walker appeared in The Braidwood Observer a few days after his death:

Item 2-52: Obituary of Charles Walker.

The presence of many people at his funeral suggests that Charles Walker was a well-known local figure.

In a publication entitled Back to Braidwood, an article on the origins of the GUOOF (Grand United Order of Oddfellows) in Braidwood states that the local lodge was founded in 1856.

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Remarriage of Ann Hickey After her husband’s death, Ann Hickey continued to run the Farmers’ Home, as seen in this newspaper advertisement:

Item 2-53: Advertisement for the Farmers’ Home.

On 2 September 1862, the widow Ann Walker married Thomas Peter Gleeson at St Bede’s Catholic Church in Braidwood. Their witnesses were John O’Brien and Caroline Lyons.

Their son Thomas Peter Gleeson was born on 6 October 1863. At that time, the father stated that he was a carpenter, and the family lived at Tudor Valley, Braidwood. Like Ann Hickey, Thomas Gleeson came from Tipperary.

Born around 1829, Gleeson was six years younger than his wife.

Ann’s husband died on 7 March 1898, making her a widow for the second time.

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Death of Ann Hickey Ann Hickey died on 9 August 1898. Here is her death certificate:

Item 2-54: Death certificate of Ann Hickey (part 1/4).

The registrar Hyde has inserted a note on the stub of the record stating that the expression “married woman” in column 3 should be replaced by “widow”.

The age of the deceased is stated as 76, indicating that she was born in 1822.

Item 2-55: Death certificate of Ann Hickey (part 2/4).

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The informant, the deceased’s nephew William McCarthy (who signed with an X mark, witnessed by the registrar Hyde), was the son of Ann’s sister Elizabeth [item 2-72].

Item 2-56: Death certificate of Ann Hickey (part 3/4).

The second witness, Michael Joseph O’Connell, was a son-in-law of the deceased, the husband of Catherine Walker.

Item 2-57: Death certificate of Ann Hickey (part 4/4).

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The period of 61 years in NSW confirms that Elizabeth Brerton and her children arrived in 1837.

The deceased son was James Walker, the South Grafton publican, who had died in 1894.

Walker/Hickey tomb in Braidwood cemetry Charles Walker and Ann Hickey are buried in Braidwood cemetery.

Item 2-58: Braidwood tomb of Charles Walker and his wife Ann. 68

Charles Walker and the Hickey family

Item 2-59: Footstone attached to the tomb shown in the previous figure.

Here is a transcription of the text: Gloria in excelsis deo Of your charity pray for the soul of CHARLES WALKER who departed this life 22nd May 1860 aged 53 years.

Requiescat in pace.

Also his beloved wife ANN who died 9th August 1898 aged 76 years.

May her soul rest in peace.

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part IV — Reidsdale Hickey context In this fourth part of the chapter, I attempt to identify the relatives of our Ann Hickey.

Family context of Ann Hickey The following chart indicates the structure of the family of Patrick Hickey and Elizabeth Brerton in New South Wales:

Item 2-60: Family of Patrick Hickey and Elizabeth Brerton in NSW.

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Charles Walker and the Hickey family

Family of Ann’s sister Mary Hickey Mary Hickey married John Salmon shortly after the marriage of her sister Ann and Charles Walker, and the Salmon family lived alongside the Walkers at Reidsdale.

Item 2-61: Family of Ann Hickey’s sister Mary.

I obtained the data concerning Mary’s death from a microfilmed record I examined at the NSW State Archives in the Rocks. The age of the deceased was indicated as 30, which does not agree with her birth date suggested in Patrick Hickey’s application of 1836. Her abode is indicated by an illegible name that looks like Saferindy.

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Family of Ann’s brother William Hickey Here is the family of William Hickey and Catherine Brunton:

Item 2-62: Family of William Hickey and Catherine Brunton.

As indicated earlier on [item 2-35], William Hickey’s future wife was a witness at the christening of Johannah Walker in 1846.

At the State Archives in the Rocks (Sydney), a microfilmed copy of a church record indicates that William Hickey and Catherine Brunton were married at Bungendore by a priest, Michael Kavanagh, from Queanbeyan.

This record states that William Hickey came from Reidsdale, and Catherine Brunton from Bungendore. The witnesses were Patrick Hofferman of Reidsdale and Mary Ann Quigley of Sand Hills.

William and Catherine had eight children. On several early birth records at the State Archives, William Hickey is designated as a farmer living at Reidsdale. Of the eight children, four died while their parents were still alive.

William and Catherine lived until they were respectively 83 and 81, and they died within eight days of each other. They were buried in the same tomb as William’s mother [item 2-42] and their infant daughter Mary.

Here is the text concerning their daughter:

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Also MARY HICKEY died 8th December 1855 aged 3 years & 6 months.

And here is the text concerning the Hickey parents: Also CATHERIN HICKEY died 10th September 1900 aged 82 years.

Also WILLIAM HICKEY died 18th September 1900 aged 84 years.

This text on the tombstone contains errors. Besides the missing "e" at the end of Catherine’s given name, the year of death of William and Catherine should be 1901, not 1900.

The second daughter, Elizabeth, married James Cahill in 1875. She died in 1886. Her grave, erected by her brother John, imitates a tree trunk. It is located alongside that of her parents.

Item 2-63: Tombstone of William Hickey’s daughter Elizabeth.

Here is the transcription:

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Gloria in excelsis deo In memory of ELIZABETH CAHILL youngest daughter of WILLIAM and CATHERINE HICKEY of Reidsdale who died June 23 1886 aged 36 years.

Erected by her affectionate brother JOHN HICKEY Requiescat in pace.

The tomb of Charles Walker and Ann can be seen in the background.

Death certificate of Catherine Brunton Here is the death certificate of Catherine Brunton:

Item 2-64: Death certificate of Catherine Brunton (part 1/4).

Since Catherine was 81 when she died in 1901, we can conclude that she was born in 1820.

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Item 2-65: Death certificate of Catherine Brunton (part 2/4).

Catherine’s father, Thomas Brunton, was a blacksmith.

Item 2-66: Death certificate of Catherine Brunton (part 3/4).

Witnesses at Catherine’s burial were Donald Grant and Edward Torpy.

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Item 2-67: Death certificate of Catherine Brunton (part 4/4).

Catherine Brunton’s birthplace was Naas, county Kildare, located midway between Dublin and the town of Kildare. She arrived in NSW around 1838, at about the age of 18.

Death certificate of William Hickey William Hickey died on 18 September 1901. Here is his death certificate:

Item 2-68: Death certificate of William Hickey (part 1/4).

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William Hickey is described as a farmer settled in Reidsdale. Since he was 83 when he died in 1901, we can conclude that William Hickey was born in 1818.

William Hickey’s farm was no doubt the property indicated at the bottom of item 2-24, in the middle, whose owner is designated as W Hickey.

Item 2-69: Death certificate of William Hickey (part 2/4).

William’s father is designated as Michael Hickey, which seems to be an error. And he is described as a laborer. William’s true father, the ex-convict Patrick Hickey, had been dead for 43 years, and his last occupation (stated on his death certificate) was a farmer. So, it is possible that the informant, George Higgs, was mistaken concerning the true identity of the deceased’s father. William had a deceased brother named Michael [item 2-60] and maybe Higgs imagined that this Michael had been William’s father.

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Item 2-70: Death certificate of William Hickey (part 3/4).

The witnesses of William Hickey’s burial were George M Styles and George Higgins. The latter name appeared already in item 2-23, indicating that he was a Reidsdale neighbor.

Item 2-71: Death certificate of William Hickey (part 4/4).

William Hickey’s birthplace was Borrisleigh in Tipperary. If he had been in NSW for 65 years, he would have arrived in 1836. The convict Patrick Hickey lodged an application on 17 September 1836 requesting that his wife and family join him in NSW. It was probably in 1837 that William Hickey set foot here.

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Family of Ann’s sister Elizabeth Hickey Elizabeth Hickey married James McCarthy in 1846:

Item 2-72: Family of Ann Hickey’s sister Elizabeth.

Data used to create the above chart came from a fellow-researcher: my fourth cousin Michael Toohey, descendant of William McCarthy.

The McCarthy/Hickey marriage record indicates that the groom and the bride lived at Reidsdale, but there is no indication of the groom’s occupation.

The witnesses were Patrick Riley and Eliza Hickey, both of Reidsdale. The latter witness was no doubt the bride’s mother, Elizabeth Brerton. The groom, the bride and the witnesses all signed by X marks.

The baptismal record for William McCarthy indicates that his father was a farmer at Reidsdale. Later on, settled at Nelligen, William McCarthy was the informant [item 2-55] for the death of his aunt Ann Hickey in 1898.

The baptismal record for Charles McCarthy suggests that his father James, still a farmer at Reidsdale, would have been born in Limerick in 1822.

This record also suggests that the child’s mother, Elizabeth Hickey, would have been born in Limerick in 1828. I consider this data as erroneous, and prefer to retain the information proposed by other records.

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The death record of James McCarthy indicates that he was born in Cork in 1820 (the data I have used in the above figure) and that he reached NSW in 1846. Witnesses were E Torpy [item 2-66] and W Gardiner.

The death record of Elizabeth Hickey, who was 97 when she died, states that she was born in 1821, and reached NSW in 1838.

Other Reidsdale Hickey-Quigley-Brunton people Peter Mayberry sent me the following data (source not indicated): Michael Hickey b Limerick aged 34 Living at Reidsdale father John Hickey (living) & mother Mary Dwyer (dead) married 21 Aug 1868 Braidwood Mrs Mary Ann Brunton [Widow in 1854] b Donegal age 34 Living Sand Hills near Bungendore father James Quigley (dead) & mother Sarah McPhelon (living)

Here is an expanded graphical transcription of this data:

Item 2-73: Reidsdale Hickey-Quigley-Brunton people.

John Brunton senior, who died in the same year (1854) that his fourth child was born, was possibly a brother of Catherine Brunton, who married William Hickey in 1847.

As noted earlier on, Mary Ann Quigley of Sand Hills was a witness at the 80

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marriage of William Hickey and Catherine Brunton [item 2-62]. At that time, Mary Ann Quigley would have been an adolescent, not yet married to her first husband.

Catherine Brunton was a witness at the christening of Johannah Walker in 1846 [item 2-35]. The other witness was a James Brunton, but this could not be the man of that name in item 2-73.

I am unable to identify the Hickeys whose names appear in the above chart: John and his son Michael. They may have been relatives of the W & T Hickey designated in item 2-24 as owners of land in Reidsdale.

More Reidsdale Hickey people I drew up the following chart using miscellaneous data:

Item 2-74: More Reidsdale Hickey people.

Thomas Hickey could be one of the landowners mentioned in item 2-24.

In 2009, an e-mail from a David Egan provided me with elements of data that I have inserted into the above chart. Apparently the marriage certificate for Patrick Egan and Catherine Hickey spelt the surname as "Hegan".

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Reidsdale petition of 1869 In 1869, many Reidsdale citizens signed a petition concerning a problem of the local postal service. Here are several Hickey signatures:

Item 2-75: Five Hickey individuals signed a Reidsdale petition in 1869.

It appears that, at Reidsdale in 1869, there were at least two William Hickeys, two John Hickeys and a James Hickey. Handwriting in the petition suggests that a single individual may have signed on behalf of others. The various signatures might be identified as follows: • One of the Williams would be the husband of Catherine Brunton.

• The other William might be the neighbor whose property [item 2-24] is said to belong to W & T Hickey & R Havens. But there is no proof that this individual was still alive at the time of the petition, in 1869.

• One of the John Hickeys would be Ann’s brother, aged 42.

• The other John Hickey could be the 37-year-old son of the late Thomas Hickey [item 2-74].

• As for the James Hickey in the petition, did somebody sign on behalf of the 3-year-old son of William and Catherine? If so, we should then admit the possibility that the second William represents somebody signing on behalf of the 8-year-old son of William and Catherine.

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part V — Braidwood Walker offspring This fifth part of the chapter presents a family chart for each of the eleven children of Charles Walker and Ann Hickey.

Child n° 1 of Charles and Ann: John Walker

Item 2-76: John, first offspring of Charles Walker and Ann Hickey.

Note • John Walker’s eldest son, Charles Vincent Walker [1865-1899] married Julia Frances Bohringer at Orange in 1892. Their daughter Anna Marie Walker [1897-1992] was the mother of Margaret McGee [1923-1995], married name Lochhead, who gave me copies of precious documents that enabled me to start my genealogical research on the Walkers in 1981. It saddens me to think that Margaret Lochhead did not live long enough to learn that our Braidwood patriarch came to NSW in 1833 as a free settler.

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Maher family References to the Maher family (John Walker's wife) reoccur often in our family history. Today (as I pointed out earlier on), the former property of Charles Walker belongs to a person named Ian Maher. So, I thought it might be useful to include the following chart concerning this family:

Item 2-77: Maher family.

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Child n° 2 of Charles and Ann: Mary Walker

Item 2-78: Mary, second offspring of Charles Walker and Ann Hickey.

Notes • Isaiah Rowland was a surveyor.

• According to Margaret Lochhead, this was the second marriage of Isaiah Rowland.

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Child n° 3 of Charles and Ann: Michael Walker

Item 2-79: Michael, third offspring of Charles Walker and Ann Hickey.

Notes • Mary Bone is a descendant of offspring n° 8, James.

• The fifth child, Ellen, is named Marcella by Mary Bone and Marcellina by Peter Mayberry.

• Peter Mayberry indicates the birthplace of George as Merricumbene, and that of Ellen/Marcellina and William as Brooman.

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Child n° 4 of Charles and Ann: Patrick Walker

Item 2-80: Patrick, fourth offspring of Charles Walker and Ann Hickey.

Notes • The marriage certificate indicates Broulee rather than Moruya.

• The graves of Patrick Walker, his wife and their son Thomas (who died at the age of 17) are in Maclean. Some members of the family are buried in Mullumbimby.

• John Walker married Emily Tarlinton at Bega in 1907. Their son was Len Walker in Billinudgel. I once exchanged letters with Len’s wife Doreen.

• I see in the NSW BMD files that a James Walker married Nora Tarlinton at Bega in 1901, and a Charles Walker married Mary Tarlinton at Bega in 1911. Is it conceivable that three brothers married three sisters?

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Reidsdale Catholic School The following short article in a Braidwood newspaper probably dates from January 1859, when prize-winning "Master Patrick Walker" was 13 years old:

Item 2-81: Article on Reidsdale Catholic School.

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Child n째 5 of Charles and Ann: Johannah Walker

Item 2-82: Johannah, fifth offspring of Charles Walker and Ann Hickey.

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Child n째 7 of Charles and Ann: Charles Walker

Item 2-83: Charles, seventh offspring of Charles Walker and Ann Hickey.

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Child n° 8 of Charles and Ann: Elizabeth Walker

Item 2-84: Elizabeth, eighth offspring of Charles Walker and Ann Hickey.

Notes • Hillgrove, the place where Elizabeth Walker is buried, is a mining town between Armidale and Ebor. There are old black-and-white photos of the mines on the web.

• It is possible that offspring n° 7, James, married Lillie Layton in 1915 in Hillgrove.

• Data from Colin Borrott-Maloney suggests that Elizabeth, in 1898, was linked to a man named Guy Fawkes, described as her second husband, but a note then states that they never married. Near Armidale, there is a river called Guy Fawkes.

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Child n째 9 of Charles and Ann: James Walker

Item 2-85: James, ninth offspring of Charles Walker and Ann Hickey.

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Child n° 10 of Charles and Ann: Catherine Walker

Item 2-86: Catherine, tenth offspring of Charles Walker and Ann Hickey.

Note • The O’Connell name is spelled with an O in NSW BMD certificates. This is the same family whose bushranger relatives were named Connell. I shall use the “Connell” spelling for the bushrangers and “O’Connell” for individuals with BMD certificates.

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Child n° 11 of Charles and Ann: Teresa Walker

Item 2-87: Teresa, eleventh offspring of Charles Walker and Ann Hickey.

Note • Should this child’s given name be spelt as Theresa?

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part VI — Questionable Irishness of Charles Walker I have always been surprised by the small amount of information we have concerning the patriarchal Charles Walker of Braidwood. Four items in the archives give the impression that he might have been a significant resident of the Braidwood region: • His inclusion in the list of 19 men who had sent a letter to the Colonial Secretary in 1838 requesting that the township be surveyed.

• His census data in 1841, depicting Charles Walker as a landed proprietor employing a couple of ex-convicts as shepherds.

• His obtention of a publican’s license for the Farmers’ Home.

• Finally, his obituary in The Braidwood Observer.

But none of these elements told us anything whatsoever about the man himself or his origins, supposedly in Ireland. In 2004, Colin BorrottMaloney unearthed a major element of information: the fact that Charles Walker had reached NSW in 1833 as a steward aboard the barque Caroline.

I was always intrigued by the age disparity between Charles Walker and Ann Hickey. When they married in 1839, he was 32 and she was only 17.

More recently, two other fellow-researchers, Elizabeth Cook and Pamela Punch, discovered that Charles Walker’s future wife, Ann Hickey, was the daughter of an ex-convict from Tipperary, Patrick Hickey.

Doubts Was Charles Walker really a Roman Catholic Irishman? My initial doubts concerning this question stem from the obvious fact that Walker is not a typically Irish family name, and that the given name Charles is even less typical. In the British Isles, at the start of the 19th century, the name Charles might have been associated with the recent episode of the Stuart descendant Charles Edward, the Young Pretender [1720-1788]. Charles was also the given name of Cornwallis, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, who had sent General Joseph Holt [1756-1826], leader of the 1798 rebellion in Wicklow, to exile in Australia. In Cork, in 1807, it is hard to imagine an Irish Catholic mother calling her son Charles.

Having learned that Charles Walker had worked his way to NSW as a steward aboard a “female convict ship” (as the Caroline is described at the 95

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top of the crew list, item 2-5), I wondered how a young Irishman from Cork could have obtained such a job. As I indicated earlier on, the owner of the Caroline was a Newcastle-upon-Tyne banker, William Chapman, and a man from Calcutta, Eliot MacNaughten, and the name of the master was Alex McDonald. Would it be normal for such individuals to hire a native of Cork as a steward aboard a convict vessel, in 1833, when Ireland was in a constant state of unrest, bordering on civil war, and the English were sending shiploads of Irish political prisoners to NSW?

Family legend The first concrete suggestion that Charles Walker may not have been an Irishman was contained in a letter, dated 24 November 1980, that I received from Len and Doreen Walker of Billinudgel: ... there is a story Len’s father used to tell about two Walker brothers. One, named John, went to Scotland, was the founder of Johnnie Walker whisky, who, he said, was an ancestor of this family of Walker. The other man, a great grandfather, possibly a Charles.

This anecdote was unexpected and exciting. Could our Charles Walker [1807-1860] have been a brother of the famous John Walker [1805-1857] of Kilmarnock, inventor of whisky? Here are the individuals evoked by Doreen:

Item 2-88: Individuals concerned by the Scottish hypothesis.

Doreen’s letter of 1980 states that the story of the Scottish hypothesis used to be told by Len’s father: John Albert (Jack) Walker [1880-1958], fourth son of the Brunswick Valley pioneer Patrick Walker [1845-1941]. According to Doreen, Jack’s story affirmed that the whisky inventor was our ancestor, and that the other brother, “possibly a Charles”, was “a great grandfather” (of Len). Doreen says that the whisky inventor “went to Scotland”, but does not say from where. There is no mention of Ireland in Doreen’s anecdote.

Jack Walker had ample time to talk about family history with his father, for they both lived in the Mullumbimby district. The Scottish hypothesis was 96

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therefore an orally-transmitted family legend that young Patrick Walker probably heard for the first time from his widowed mother in the setting of The Farmers’ Home in Reidsdale.

Research Since we have no Irish records concerning our ancestor Charles Walker, I attempted to evaluate the plausibility of the Scottish hypothesis through the known genealogy of Johnnie Walker. The authorities in Kilmarnock let me know, however, that there was no evidence suggesting that the inventor of whisky might have had siblings. This negative conclusion was confirmed by a descendant of Johnnie Walker, Elizabeth Sheila Taylor (married name Betty Heath), living in Thurso (Caithness), who kindly sent me a chart of Johnnie Walker's known descendants.

Scottish hypothesis The Scottish hypothesis implies that Charles Walker was in fact a native of Scotland and probably, like the whisky inventor, a Protestant. His hiring as a steward by Alex McDonald would have probably taken place in England or Scotland, and Charles Walker’s only link with Cork was the fact that this was the port of departure for the voyage to New South Wales. But why would Charles Walker have lied about being an Irish Catholic? An obvious motive is the likelihood that the parents of Ann Hickey might not have accepted the marriage of their young daughter with a Scottish Protestant. Charles may not have been particularly concerned about religion, which would have made it a simple matter to tell the priest that he was a confirmed Catholic from Cork.

Criterion of embarrassment Consequently, our Scottish hypothesis implies a negative evaluation of the behavior of Charles Walker, since we are suggesting that he was a liar.

Now, many researchers consider that a family legend of a negative kind probably reflects the truth, because descendants of the deceased person would rapidly squash such a legend if its derogatory content were fictitious.

In other words, the fact that the Scottish hypothesis has survived for well over a century, in spite of its implication that our ancestor was a liar, suggests that Charles Walker’s descendants were incapable of eradicating this legend, which is therefore probably true. To eliminate the Scottish hypothesis, if it were fictitious, all they had to do was to obtain proof of the fact that Charles 97

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Walker was born in Ireland and brought up as a Catholic. That element of proof would have dispelled forever the notion that Charles Walker might have been a liar. But nobody ever obtained such a proof... maybe because it did not exist. Conclusion: The Scottish hypothesis is probably not fictitious.

This style of reasoning, invented by the prolific US historian Will Durant [1885–1981], has an amusing name: the criterion of embarrassment. Faced with a dubious historical item, we should ask the question: "Can we consider this item of data as somewhat embarrassing for the people who were writing the history in question?" If so, then the item is probably valid, because data that was both embarrassing and false would have been discarded rapidly.

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3 Braidwood bushrangers When I started to write this monograph about my mother’s people, I never imagined that it would include a chapter on bushrangers. But things changed unexpectedly in August 2001 when I received an Internet message from an Australian historian, Peter Mayberry, asking me rhetorically: Ever thought of reading about the bushranging days around Braidwood from 1863 to 1867?

Peter Mayberry went on to imply that links existed between my Walker ancestors of Braidwood and the Clarke/Connell bushrangers. Needless to say, I was somewhat incredulous, because nobody in our family had ever evoked relationships between our Reidsdale ancestors and bushrangers. But I took up Peter’s challenge and started to investigate this domain.

Today, I know that, while we do not descend directly from bushrangers, our Walkers and Hickeys lived in close proximity to certain offenders, and even established marital relationships with them. Does this mean that the Walker family members with whom I grew up in South Grafton ignored that such links existed, or did they deliberately refrain from alluding to them? I cannot answer that question, but I suspect that simple unawareness explains this silence, rather than devious intentions to hide our past. Besides, as my findings make clear, we do not really have a lot to hide!

I have not written this chapter with the aim of simply repeating tales about Braidwood bushrangers, because those stories have been told already by at least two excellent authors (Martin Brennan and John O’Sullivan) and I have little to add to their accounts. My main purpose is to present various connections between my mother’s people and these delinquents.

The word “bushranger” has romantic connotations that are often makebelieve. Although some of the Braidwood bandits were fine horsemen with a profound knowledge of the bush where they had been brought up, they did not spend their time roaming around the backwoods on horseback in the gentlemanly style of movie highwaymen, waiting for coaches to rob. They were uncouth delinquents, lacking many normal human qualities, who often operated instinctively in a brutish fashion. But before judging them hastily (as I have just done), we might ask whether these fellows were the inevitable 99

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by-products of a system whose purpose was the exploitation of Australia as a vast prison. In the case of the Clarke/Connell lads, we are nevertheless a generation down the line from the stereotype of ex-convicts who had turned to bushranging in an expiatory spirit, seeking revenge for former undeserved punishment. The Braidwood criminals had suffered nothing. Their acts did not seek to right wrongs. The greatest failing of these mindless fellows was their lack of a civilized upbringing and basic education. We might start out by blaming their parents who failed to prevent their offspring from turning into louts.

Structure of this chapter This chapter is composed of three parts: • An introductory section sketches three infamous bushrangers—Frank Gardiner, Ben Hall and John Gilbert—who appear fleetingly at the start of the Braidwood era.

• The Clarke brothers and their Connell uncles interest us primarily in that their story unfolds in the same geographical territory as the home of Charles Walker (who had been dead for several years when the Clarke/ Connell fellows arrived on the Braidwood scene). One of our ancestral relatives, Ann Hickey’s brother William, was an actor in this domain.

Another, Ann Hickey’s sister Elizabeth, was married to a suspect in this domain. And yet another indirect relative, Ann Hickey’s second husband, was accused of playing a role in the escape from jail of Tommy Clarke.

• The chapter ends with a short presentation of other Connell folk. I evoke the marriage between Michael O’Connell [1858-1920] and Catherine Walker [1857-1939], daughter of Charles Walker and Ann Hickey.

Many of the images that I have used to illustrate this chapter were made available by Peter Mayberry. Besides, I am most grateful for the constant help provided by Peter in guiding me towards a better understanding of the subject of the Braidwood bushrangers.

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part I — Patriarchs In the above title, I use the term “patriarchs” facetiously to designate three infamous bushrangers who may well have been role models for the Clarkes and Connells of Braidwood. In any case, the names of these earlier criminals reappear in accounts of the early exploits of the Clarke/Connell bushrangers. The three men—collaborators at times—were Frank Gardiner [1829-1904], Benjamin Hall [1837-1865] and John Gilbert [1842-1865].

Bushrangers can be divided roughly into two so-called generations: • Those of the first generation were ex-convicts who had become, as it were, feral.

• Second-generation bushrangers, on the other hand, were ordinary lads, sons of free settlers, who had chosen this lifestyle in much the same way that a normal law-abiding adolescent might decide upon such-and-such a trade or a profession.

In this sense, Gardiner, Hall and Gilbert were all second-generation bushrangers.

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Frank Gardiner [1829-1904]

Item 3-1: Francis Christie, alias Frank Gardiner.

Francis Christie was born in Scotland in 1829, and his family arrived in NSW in 1834. In 1850, he was convicted in Victoria of horse stealing and jailed, but he escaped from Pentridge in 1851 and headed to Goulburn in NSW. In March 1854, calling himelf Clarke, Christie was arrested again for stealing horses and jailed on Cockatoo Island. Released in 1859 with a ticket of leave, he moved to the Kiandra gold diggings, and became a butcher at Lambing Flat. He then became a highwayman and attempted to murder two police officers.

In June 1862, Frank Gardiner organized an attack of the gold escort at Eugowra Rock, which turned out to be the biggest robbery in Australian bushranging history. The booty of 2700 ounces of gold and cash amounted to 14 thousand pounds. Gardiner then disappeared with Kitty Walsh, sisterin-law of Ben Hall. In 1864, Frank Gardiner was captured in Rockhampton and jailed. He served only ten years before being exiled and passing into oblivion.

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Benjamin Hall [1837-1865]

Item 3-2: Ben Hall.

Ben Hall was born on 9 May 1837 in Murrurundi. In 1856, he married Bridget Walsh, called Biddy. Like his father, Ben acquired a reputation as a horse and cattle thief. Biddy left him in 1862, and Ben moved into the bushranging circle of Frank Gardiner. Having played a role in the Eugowra Rocks gold escort robbery, Hall was arrested as a suspect, then acquitted.

Meanwhile, Gardiner had disappeared and his gang was taken over by Hall and Gilbert.

By the time the police shot him dead on 5 May 1865, Benjamin Hall had committed hundreds of holdups and other crimes. His grave at Forbes lies near that of Kate Foster, sister of Ned Kelly. Ben Hall’s death certificate is shown in the following two figures:

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Item 3-3: Death certificate of Ben Hall (part 1 of 2).

Item 3-4: Death certificate of Ben Hall (part 2 of 2).

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John Gilbert [1842-1865]

Item 3-5: John Gilbert.

John Gilbert was born in Canada in 1842, the youngest son of Englishborn parents. In 1852, learning that gold had been found in NSW, the family decided to emigrate.

In 1862, John Gilbert was a member of Frank Gardiner’s gang at the Eugowra Rock holdup. He escaped arrest and fled for a time to New Zealand.

Back in NSW, Gilbert killed a mounted policeman and was proclaimed an outlaw. The most-wanted criminal in NSW, involved in hundreds of holdups, John Gilbert was finally shot dead by the police on 13 May 1865, a week after the death of his accomplice Ben Hall.

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part II — Clarke/Connell gang From 1864 until 1867, the Braidwood region was troubled by the bushranging activities of a gang composed primarily of two Australian-born brothers and their two Irish-born uncles. The brothers were Thomas and John Clarke, in their twenties, and their uncles were Thomas and Patrick Connell, in their early thirties. The following chart shows places associated with the operations of this gang:

Item 3-6: Territory of the Braidwood bushrangers.

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Chief of the gang: Tommy Clarke This undated photo shows Tommy Clarke on his horse Boomerang:

Item 3-7: Thomas Clarke [1840-1867] on Boomerang.

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Clarke family The following chart presents the genealogy of Tom Clarke and his brother John, who were executed by hanging at Darlinghurst Jail in Sydney on 25 June 1867:

Item 3-8: Clarke family.

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Connell family The Connell family is presented in the following chart:

Item 3-9: Connell family.

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Documentary sources A unique source of information on the Clarke/Connell bushrangers is a typed manuscript in the Mitchell Library: • Brennan, Martin. Police History of the Notorious Bushrangers of New South Wales and Victoria, A2030.

More recently, a monograph on this subject has been published: • O’Sullivan, John. The Bloodiest Bushrangers, New English Library, London, 1975.

Besides these two detailed works, brief police notes have come into the hands of researchers. This document interests me greatly in that it mentions our Hickeys: • Braidwood Police, Notes on Five Suspects, 1867.

Throughout this chapter, I shall refer to these three basic documentary sources, respectively, as [Brennan], [O’Sullivan] and [Suspects].

Early Braidwood bushranger named William Hickey Much has been written about Frank Gardiner, John Gilbert, Ben Hall, the Clarke brothers and their Connell uncles. But the [Brennan] and [Suspects] documents reveal that there was a lesser-known Braidwood bushranger, slightly older than the above-mentioned individuals, who had started his misdeeds in 1863, a year before the Clarke/Connell gang acquired notoriety.

That senior Braidwood delinquent was none other than our ancestral relative William Hickey [1818-1901], brother of my great-great-grandmother Ann Hickey [item 2-60].

The following excerpt from [Suspects] shows how the Braidwood police spoke of Hickey around early 1867, at the height of their pursuit of the Clarke/Connell gang: William Hickey age about 45 years, farmer, residing at Reidsdale. Has been an associate of bushrangers and is still suspected of harbouring and assisting them.

Was arrested in 1863 for highway robbery, acquitted by the Bench. His father, an Imperial Convict, was tried for house robbery about the year 1852 and sentenced to 14 years roads, which sentence was afterwards mitigated on memorial.

This alleged information merits several remarks: Upon reading these mysterious notes for the first time, I supposed that 110

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there must be some kind of misunderstanding, or a case of homonymy, for nobody in my family had ever suggested that we might have had an ancestral relative in Braidwood who was “arrested in 1863 for highway robbery”. I imagined that the William Hickey targeted by the Braidwood police must have been an homonymous Reidsdale resident. It took me a while to believe that the described suspect was almost certainly our William Hickey.

If our birthdate of William Hickey is correct [item 2-62], he would have been closer to 50 than to 45 when the police wrote the above description.

The suspect is described as a farmer residing at Reidsdale. True enough, as I said in the previous chapter when talking about the family of William Hickey and Catherine Brunton, birth records of their children state that the father was a Reidsdale farmer.

Concerning the police claim that William Hickey “has been an associate of the bushrangers and is still suspected of harbouring and assisting them”, I can add nothing. The allegation that William Hickey “was arrested in 1863 for highway robbery, acquitted by the Bench” is more startling still, but I have no further data on this affair. Police allegations concerning William Hickey’s father find a certain echo in my archives, but I had never before (prior to my encounter with Peter Mayberry) come across data affirming that we had a bushranger in the family. Meanwhile, a few terms need to be explained: • The expression “imperial convict” means that the convicted individual had been brought to trial in the Old World, which was indeed the case for Patrick Hickey.

• The expression “sentenced to 14 years roads” means that the convict had to serve his sentence in road gangs, repairing or constructing roads in various districts.

• A convict’s sentence is said to be “mitigated on memorial” when it is reduced on appeal on the basis of a letter from a character witness, an upstanding citizen or a religious minister, maybe drawing attention to unusual circumstances. Such a letter to the authorities was called a memorial and the author was known as a memorialist. Patrick Hickey’s memorialist was Captain John Coghill, who had signed the application requesting that Hickey’s wife and children be brought out to NSW at government expense.

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Assault of Chinamen at Major’s Creek An assault upon three Chinamen at Major’s Creek by three vaguelyidentified "bushmen" is described on page 28 of [O’Sullivan]: At 10 pm on 12 November 1864, Ah Fatt, Ah Sam and Ah Lin had been riding to Majors Creek when they were accosted by three armed men. Two of the Chinese galloped off to Majors Creek. The assailants fired two shots at Ah Fatt, dragged him off his horse and beat him up whenthey found that he had nothing of value on his person. No adequate description was given of the three men except that they were bushmen, and that one of them was about five feet eleven inches tall and of a sallow complexion, with black whiskers. This description tallied with that of William Berriman, a friend of Tom Clarke. Charged on the basis of what seemed rather inadequate proof, Tom, admitted to bail, showed no inclination to appear for trial when the appointed day arrived.

[Brennan] identifies the assailants as Thomas Clarke, William Berriman and "an offender named Hickey": In June 1864, warrants were issued by the Braidwood and Goulburn benches for Tommy Clarke’s arrest for highway robbery, shooting at three Chinamen and horse stealing, in the commission of which there were associated with him William Berriman and an offender named Hickey.

Clearly, [Brennan] has made a mistake in the date, which should no doubt read 1865.

The [Suspects] document, too, identifies explicitly the three assailants: William Hickey was present when the outlaw Clarke and William Berriman assaulted, with intent to rob, a number of Chinamen at Majors Creek in November 1864 and for which offence Clarke was under committal for trial when he effected his escape from Braidwood Gaol.

Accomplices The three extracts that I have just quoted all mention William Berriman, described as follows in the [Suspects] document: William Berriman was at that time living with Hickey and he lent Berriman a horse for the purpose of joining Clarke to rob the Cooma and Queanbeyan Mails which they did at Brooke’s Hill near Bungendore in December 1864 and after the robbery both offenders took refuge with the plunder at Hickey’s house and at which place Berriman gave Annie Clarke, sister of the outlaw, 100 pounds in notes, a portion of the proceeds of the robbery in question. In the latter end of December 1864 Berriman took his departure from Hickeys house for

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Queensland where he was arrested in the latter end of 1866. Hickey is still suspected of aiding the bushrangers.

Here we learn of another criminal act, which took place towards the end of December 1864, a month after the assault of the Chinamen, involving William Hickey, William Berriman and Thomas Clarke: a holdup of the Cooma and Queanbeyan Mails at a place near Bungendore (where Hickey had been married to Catherine Brunton by a Catholic priest in 1847). The abode of William Hickey in Reidsdale was apparently being used as a clearing-house for sharing out the spoils of their bushranging operations.

The above description mentions the arrest of William Berriman “in the latter end of 1866”. On the other hand, the description refers to “the outlaw Thomas Clarke” in such a way that we can suppose that he has not yet been captured (an event that took place in April 1867). These two clues enable us to conclude that the [Suspects] document was probably written during the first few months of 1867.

In the [O’Sullivan] extract at the top of this section, William Berriman is described as “a friend of Tom Clarke”. The chart of item 3-9 also reveals that Berriman was a relative of the Connells, for his sister Ellen had married John Connell in 1854.

William Hickey’s name reappears in the description of another individual in the [Suspects] document: Michael McCarthy age about 40 years, farmer, Reidsdale. Imperial Convict from Ireland. Suspected cattle stealer and harbourer of thieves, Clarke the outlaw and his gang. McCarthy is married to a sister of Billy Hickey.

In the previous chapter, we saw that William Hickey’s sister Elizabeth was indeed married to a man named McCarthy [item 2-72] but his given name was James, not Michael. So, the Braidwood police probably made a trivial mistake when naming him. Besides, when the [Suspects] document was written, probably in early 1867, Elizabeth Hickey’s husband James McCarthy would have been closer to 47 than 40.

Another individual mentioned in the [Suspects] document was residing at William Hickey’s place in Reidsdale, along with Hickey’s wife Catherine Brunton and their eight children: Andrew McCann age 30 years, bullock driver, a native of Reidsdale, residing at Billy Hickeys, Reidsdale. Suspected of aiding and assisting the outlaw Thomas Clarke and gang. McCann was arrested at Braidwood 20th April 1865 for using obscene language. Fine 20 shillings or 3 weeks gaol.

Clearly, the Braidwood bushranging scene was very much an affair of relatives and friends.

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William Hickey’s name disappears from archives After the affair of the assault upon the three Chinamen in November 1864, I am unaware of any further derogatory references to William Hickey in the archives. So, I assume that he mended his ways at about the same time that the most notorious exploits of his Clarke/Connell friends were about to be enacted. In any case, there is no trace of William Hickey ever having been arrested or jailed.

As I indicated in the previous chapter, William Hickey and his wife died in 1901, within a week of each other. This minor member of the bushranging fraternity was buried alongside his mother and his wife in a grave that lies, ironically, not far away from an obelisk erected in memory of police officers murdered by the Clarke/Connell bushrangers.

John Hickey in jail There is a record (found on the Internet) of a jailed Hickey in Braidwood:

Item 3-10: Details of an inmate named John Hickey at Braidwood Jail.

This was probably Ann Hickey’s youngest brother John, born in 1827, described here as a farmer. The arrival date of 1838 corresponds to the time at which Elizabeth Brerton and her seven offspring would have reached NSW. The State Archives inform us, more precisely, that the Charles Kerr arrived in Sydney on 9 October 1837. This record is fuzzy as far as dates are concerned. There is no indication of the year in which John Hickey was said to be 24 years old. The meaning of the final line, mentioning a period of 1856-60, is not clear. It cannot refer to the years of Hickey’s imprisonment, because Braidwood Jail was only built in 1861-62.

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Clarke/Connell exploits Let us return to the mainstream story of the Clarke/Connell gang. On 13 March 1865, four bushrangers attempted unsuccessfully to rob the Araluen gold escort near Major’s Creek, whose location with respect to Reidsdale was indicated in item 2-14. Here is an old engraving of the Araluen Valley:

Item 3-11: Araluen Valley.

Police identified three of the assailants as Ben Hall, John Gilbert and their young associate John Dunn, who had shot dead a policeman in January. As for the fourth assailant, masked, the police concluded that he must surely be a local lad, capable of describing the Braidwood region to Hall and Gilbert.

Their suspicions fell naturally upon Thomas Clarke. Two months later, this 24-year-old delinquent became the de facto chief of the local bushrangers when Hall and Gilbert were cut down by police bullets. As for 19-year-old Dunn, he was hanged in March 1866.

On 20 June 1865, two armed men—one wearing a mask, while the other had his face blackened—stole cash and stores from the home of a squatter named Simon Coady. Then they stole goods from the dray of a hawker named Turban. Thomas Clarke was suspected of being one of the assailants, but there was insufficient evidence to convict him. Surprisingly, in July 1865, Thomas Clarke alighted from his horse at Braidwood police station and gave 115

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himself up, imagining that he would be merely charged with the theft of a horse. An attempt was made to accuse Clarke of the 1864 assault of the three Chinamen but, once again, there was insufficient evidence. A little later, the police finally noticed that Charlotte Hart, Tommy Clarke’s wife, was wearing an elegant feathered hat that corresponded to an item stolen from Turban’s dray. And this, at last, was the kind of evidence they needed to put Thomas Clarke behind bars, on three charges of armed highway robbery.

Thomas Clarke’s escape from jail On 3 October 1865, while strolling around the yard of Braidwood Jail, Tommy Clarke suddenly crawled up onto the shoulders of a fellow-inmate named James Dornan, leapt over the wall and dashed away on a waiting horse. The following engraving reflects a romantic vision of the bushranger exploiting his horsemanship and his intimate knowledge of the countryside to escape from his dull pursuers:

Item 3-12: Tommy Clarke escaping from jail.

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A warder named Thomas Gleeson was subsequently accused of having played a role in helping Clarke to escape, and he was promptly dismissed. He was the man, described as a carpenter, who married the widow Ann Hickey in 1862, two years after the death of Charles Walker.

Family affair Thomas Clarke’s gang soon included his brother John and their uncles Thomas and Patrick Connell. William Berriman and his brother Joseph were also members of the gang.

Their first major exploit, on 29 December 1865, consisted of plundering a station at Foxlow near Queanbeyan. Countless other escapades followed, often of a spectacular or whimsical nature. Periodically, the bushrangers would have the upper hand, then the police would gain control, and so on.

At times, crimes were committed in a jovial pub atmosphere of drinking, eating, singing and dancing. After all, folk were accustomed to living it up in the goldfields environment, as the following scene shows:

Item 3-13: Goldfields ball.

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Murder of a trooper In April 1866, the gang carried out a raid on Nerrigundah, including a robbery of Pollock’s store. This affair culminated in the shooting of a 21year-old bushranger, William Fletcher, and a trooper, Miles O’Grady.

Item 3-14: Raid on Nerrigundah.

Death of a bushranger On 17 July 1866, the police succeeded in ambushing the bushrangers, and Pat Connell was shot dead. In its obituary, the Braidwood Dispatch declared that the dead bushranger presented as fine a form as ever nature endowed mortal man with. When living he stood about five feet ten inches and was a most compact and firmly-knit athletic fellow and one of the best riders in the colony.

It is interesting to step back in time and see the adulatory and flippant style in which this same local newspaper had talked about the deceased some 17 years earlier on, when he was a mere cattle thief. The journalist’s use of the slang term “trap” for policeman is revealing.

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Item 3-15: Press article of 1859 concerning Pat Connell.

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Bloody fiasco The Colonial Secretary Henry Parkes was determined to put an end to the rampage of the bushrangers. In January 1867, however, a terrible fiasco proved that stronger government action would be required. Four so-called “special constables” (mercenaries employed secretly by the government to assist the police in their pursuit of the Clarke/Connell gang)—John Carroll, Eneas McDonnell, Patrick Kennagh and John Phegan—were murdered stealthily in the bush at Jinden. This callous crime—attributed immediately to Tom and John Clarke, aided by William Scott and an unidentified fourth man—created consternation in the colony, and a huge reward was offered for the capture of the culprits.

The following engraving illustrates the discovery of Carroll’s body:

Item 3-16: Discovery of the body of Special Constable Carroll at Jinden.

On his chest, a piece of wood weighed down a one-pound note posed upon a red silk handkerchief. This was a macabre symbol of what might be termed “blood money”: the wages of mercenaries paid to hunt down bush bandits such as the members of the Clarke/Connell gang.

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A procession brought the bodies of the mercenaries back to Braidwood:

Item 3-17: Funeral of the four special constables assassinated at Jinden.

The following commemorative engraving depicts the dead mercenaries:

Item 3-18: Memorial engraving of the victims of Jinden.

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In the wake of this mass assassination, the Connell brother who called himself Michael Nowlan O’Connell, proprietor of the Travellers’ Rest Inn at Stoney Creek, was committed on a charge of murder, along with a relative named James Griffin. But the real bandits were still at large. Besides, the drunken behavior of certain policemen and the apparent collusion of certain magistrates made it difficult to bring justice into the bushranger-ridden Braidwood region.

Final stance The body of the accomplice William Scott—possibly assassinated by the Clarke brothers to prevent him from testifying against them—was found on 9 April 1867.

On the afternoon of 26 April 1867, a six-man police party—composed of Sergeant Wright, troopers and a blacktracker—reached Thomas Berry’s hut at Jinden Creek.

Item 3-19: Troopers attack the Clarke brothers, bailed up in Thomas Berry’s hut.

Thomas Berry was the husband [item 3-9] of Bridget Connell.

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The next morning, after a short exchange of fire, Thomas and John Clarke were captured.

Item 3-20: Arrest of the Clarke brothers.

Sergeant Wright, dressed in civilian clothes, is shown shaking hands with Thomas Clarke: an act that shocked many people who saw this engraving in the press. During the gunfight, John Clarke had been wounded in his right shoulder. The blacktracker had received a bullet in his right wrist, and his lower arm would soon have to be amputated.

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Trial and execution The two bushrangers were brought back to Braidwood, where they were photographed in shackles, as shown in the following two images. John, the younger but taller brother, is recognizable because the righthand sleeve of his light-colored coat is draped over his wounded shoulder. Apparently there were separate sittings for these photos, since the brothers have changed places between the two images.

Item 3-21: Thomas Clarke and John Clarke (wounded) at Braidwood police station.

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Item 3-22: John Clarke (left) and Thomas Clarke (right).

At the conclusion of their trial at Darlinghurst Criminal Court in Sydney, which started on 28 May 1867, the Clarke brothers were sentenced to death, and they were hanged in Darlinghurst Jail on 25 June 1867.

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part III — Other Connell individuals I conclude this chapter with sketches of a few other Connell people.

Thomas Farrell and Ellen Connell In July 1866, after Constable Thomas Kelly had shot dead Pat Connell in the wild bush country of the Krawarree Range, the police sewed the corpse in blankets and carried it back to Braidwood. At that point, conveniently, the deceased had a brother-in-law named Thomas Farrell who happened to be an undertaker. In death as in life, the affairs of the Braidwood bushrangers could be handled in a family fashion.

Item 3-23: Thomas Farrell and his wife Ellen Connell [1824-1902].

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Craftsmen such as Farrell had the habit of advertising their services:

Item 3-24: Advertisement in the local newspaper.

No advertising was necessary to make Farrell known to the Braidwood police, who sketched his biography in their [Suspects] document: Thomas Farrell age about 60 years, 5ft. 9 inches high, medium build, an Irishman, trade carpenter. An imperial convict served his time with Major Nicholson of Mount Elrington near Braidwood. Is married to a sister of the late outlaw, Pat Connell and the aunt of the outlaw Thomas Clarke [Ellen Connell]. Farrell has resided several years in Braidwood. Has four adult sons, teamsters and are suspected telegraphs for Clarke and his gang and are otherwise questionable characters. Farrell was convicted of picking pockets in Dublin.

Michael Nowlan O’Connell The third child of Michael Connell and Margaret Nowlan [item 3-9] had the habit of referring to himself as Michael Nowlan O’Connell.

Item 3-25: . Michael Nowlan O’Connell [1821-1903].

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The name of this apparently law-abiding gentleman (a registered innkeeper, like Charles Walker, handling postal services) is cited constantly in the documentation concerning the Clarke/Connell gang, and he even found himself charged with murder. We shall probably never learn the exact role played by this well-known Braidwood citizen in the context of the Clarke/ Connell gang. O’Connell’s family is outlined in the following chart:

Item 3-26: O’Connell family.

In chapter 2, we saw [item 2-86] that our ancestral relative Catherine Walker [1857-1939] married Michael Joseph O’Connell [1858-1920], who worked as a blacksmith.

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4 Mary Kearney, Michael O’Keefe and Catherine Dixon This second dimension of the history of my mother’s people in Australia differs greatly from the situations described in the preceding chapters. The people encountered here were not transported to NSW as convicts, nor did they undertake the harsh voyage to the Antipodes to seek gold or adventure.

They moved to the New World for a down-to-earth reason: it had become difficult to survive in Ireland.

Much has been written about the dramatic problems of 19th-century Ireland, which caused huge numbers of people to flee to the USA and Australia.

In 1845, the potato crops of Ireland were attacked by an unknown fungus, which would be identified much later on as Phytophthora infestans. If this potato blight were to appear today in a backyard vegetable patch, the home gardener would simply spray the plants with a copper compound. But this remedy was unknown at the time of our Irish ancestors, and the destruction of potato crops was catastrophic for rural folk.

Item 4-1: The daughter of the Poor Law Inspector distributes clothing at Kilrush, County Clare, 1849. (Illustrated London News) 129

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O’Keefe family in Co Clare Throughout this chapter, I use the spelling O’Keefe, rather than O’Keeffe, because the name was spelt with a single “f ” in the earliest document I have found: the marriage certificate of my great-great-grandparents Michael O’Keefe and Catherine Dixon.

This chart presents the O’Keefe family in Co Clare, Ireland.

Item 4-2: O’Keefe family in Co Clare.

I have no data concerning John O’Keefe senior or his two daughters. We shall see in a moment that his wife, Mary Kearney, ended up living out in Australia, like their four sons.

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Place names The following map of Ireland shows the location of Co Clare, in the north of the province of Munster. It is separated from the counties of Kerry and Limerick by the River Shannon.

Item 4-3: Map of Ireland, indicating location of Co Clare.

Mary Kearney was born and married at a place named Cross of Spancill Hill (also spelled as Spancil Hill or Spancilhill). It is located roughly 5 km east of the central town of Ennis on the R352 road to Tulla.

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Item 4-4: Map of Co Clare.

Kilrush, birthplace of three O’Keefe sons, lies down on the shores of the Shannon Estuary, opposite Co Kerry. The birthplace of Michael O’Keefe, Kilmichael, is known today as Kilmihill, and lies midway, as can be seen in item 4-4, between Ennis and Kilrush.

Spancill Hill Mary Kearney’s birthplace is evoked in a nostalgic 19th-century ballad, Spancill Hill, that is still sung regularly in Irish pubs throughout the world.

Long ago, no doubt at the time of young Mary Kearney, there used to be a famous horse fair at Spancill Hill every 23rd of June. The author of the song, Michael Considine, was born in Spancill Hill in 1850. He was therefore a couple of generations younger than our Mary Kearney. In 1870, Considine left for America, where he hoped to earn enough money to bring over his teenage sweetheart, Mary McNamara. Illness prevented him from pursuing this goal. Michael Considine composed his sentimental ballad in California shortly before he died at the age of 23.

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Here is a shortened version of the original lyrics from a group called Straight Furrow, whose version of the song is available on the Internet:

Spancill Hill Last night as I lay dreaming of pleasant days gone by My mind being bent on rambling, to Ireland I did fly I stepped on board a vision and followed with a will Till next I came to anchor at the cross near Spancill Hill To amuse a passing fancy I lay down on the ground And all my school companions, they shortly gathered round When we were home returning, we danced with bright good will To Martin Moynihan’s music at the cross at Spancill Hill I paid a flying visit to my first and only love She’s as fair as any lily and as gentle as a dove She threw her arms around me crying: Johnny I love you still She was a farmer’s daughter, the pride of Spancill Hill Well I dreamt I hugged and kissed her as in the days of yore She said: Johnny you’re only joking as many times before The cock crew in the morning, he crew both loud and shrill I awoke in California, many miles from Spancill Hill

Move to England I have little precise information about the life of the O’Keefe family in Ireland. Later on in this chapter, I include a copy of an article in a 1930 issue of Grafton’s Daily Examiner : an encounter with the aging widow of the youngest son mentioned in item 4-2, James O’Keefe [1845-1888]. The old lady, Bridget Mulligan [1845-1936], born in Co Longford, suggested that her husband’s people probably worked in kelp burning. She then provides us with some essential information concerning the O’Keefe family: The father having died in Ireland, the mother and four sons decided to emigrate to Australia. With that end in view, they crossed to England and labored in the Manchester cotton works until they had saved sufficient money to pay their passage out.

What is interesting in this statement is the fact that the O’Keefe sons and their mother apparently moved to England, not merely to escape from the hardships of Irish life, but with a grand project in mind: earning the financial means enabling them to immigrate to Australia. Seeing this plan today, I am admirative of my ancestors’ determination and intrigued by their round133

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about two-step scheme for reaching their antipodean El Dorado. It reminds me, in more recent times, of young Mediterranean men who spend time working in the New World in order to return to their home places one day as wealthy wife-seeking citizens. But the O’Keefe lads intended to make money in England, not with a view to returning to their native Ireland with cash in their pockets, but in order to move permanently to the Antipodes. Besides, in the context of this big plan, I wonder what happened to the O’Keefe sisters Susan and Mary...

The following fragment of a map shows the proximity of Dublin and Manchester:

Item 4-5: Dublin (Ireland) on the left, and Manchester (England) on the right.

I do not know the exact date when the O’Keefes left Ireland for England. I have no data confirming that they might have worked in Manchester, as Bridget Mulligan suggested. On the other hand, we know that, in 1858 and 1859, Michael O’Keefe was residing and working near Preston, to the north of Manchester and Liverpool.

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Marriage of an Irish couple in England On 4 September 1858, in Walton-le-Dale (a suburb of Preston), Michael O’Keefe married Catherine Dixon. She came from Killofin, Co Clare, which is a peninsula to the east of Kilrush jutting out into the Shannon [item 4-4].

Here is the O’Keefe/Dixon marriage certificate.

Item 4-6: Marriage certificate of Michael O’Keefe and Catherine Dixon [left half].

Item 4-7: Marriage certificate of Michael O’Keefe and Catherine Dixon [right half].

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This certificate provides us with several significant bits of information: • John O’Keefe, the deceased patriarch, was a “hand loom lin(n)en weaver”.

Maybe the family worked simulatenously in weaving and kelp burning on the banks of the Shannon.

• Both Michael O’Keefe and Catherine Dixon were employed in Walton-leDale as card room hands: that is, as laborers in the carding section of a cotton mill. Carding consisted of combing the raw material in order to produce strands that could then be spun into thread. In a cotton mill, as in a cottage-industry linen-weaving context based upon spinning wheels and hand looms, carding was a required initial phase of the production process. But carding bales of raw cotton on big machines had little to do with using manual carders on flax fibers. Consequently, even if Michael O’Keefe happened to be skilled in manipulating flax, it is understandable that he would reap no benefits from such know-how in the industrial world of Lancashire. If Michael O’Keefe, who knew how to read and write (as we shall see later on), was employed in Walton-le-Dale as a laborer, this suggests that he had only recently arrived in England. As we shall see soon, when the first child of Catherine and Michael was born nearly nine months later on, Michael had already been promoted to the the job of cotton grinder, which involved operating a mill machine.

• In Walton-le-Dale, Michael and Catherine resided at the same address: School Lane. I would imagine that they were engaged back in Ireland.

• One of the marriage witnesses was Catherine’s brother Michael Dixon.

• The marriage, conducted by Father Thomas Walker, took place in the Roman Catholic Chapel of St Mary in the Brownedge quarter of Waltonle-Dale. Today, the old chapel has been aborbed into a church of the same name, located in Brownedge Lane.

Maps of Walton-le-Dale Google Maps reveals the layout of Walton-le-Dale [item 4-8]. Preston and Walton-le-Dale are separated by the River Ribble, which flows into the Irish Sea to the south of Blackpool. A tributary, the River Darwen, flows in an east-west direction through Walton-le-Dale before running into the Ribble to the west of the town.

In item 4-8, a mauve dot indicates the location of School Lane, and a green dot, that of the church of St Mary’s. At the top of the map, the blue and red rectangles refer respectively to 19th-century maps reproduced in items 136

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4-9 and 4-10. The blue area included a cotton mill named the Flats Mill, and the red area, the Walton Mill.

Item 4-8: Layout of Walton-le-Dale.

Item 4-9: Upper map of Walton-le-Dale, to the south of the River Ribble.

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Item 4-10: Lower map of Walton-le-Dale, around the River Darwen.

Michael O’Keefe and Catherine Dixon probably worked in one of these two mills. Since their residence in School Lane is closer to Walton Mill [item 4-10], I would imagine that they were employed there.

We shall see that they probably resided at 86 School Lane. So, to reach their work at Walton Mill, they would have simply walked a mile or so up Chorley Road. After the intersection with Hennel Lane, at a place designated in item 4-10 as Hennel End, and just before reaching the Darwen, they would have walked past Walton Green, on the left, seen in this old photo:

Item 4-11: Walton Green.

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Then they would have crossed over Darwen Bridge, seen here:

Item 4-12: Darwen Bridge at Walton-le-Dale.

Google satellite photos show us the area where Walton Mill once stood.

In item 4-13, Chorley Road curves over Darwen Bridge on the left, before intersecting with Higher Walton Road. In the lower righthand corner (red dot), water from the Darwen flowed along a canal to the mill pond (blue dot). Today, the pond seems to have disappeared. The present factory, seen from the sky in the closeup image of item 4-14, appears to be modern. The entrance on Chorley Road is still named Mill Lane.

Item 4-13: Area where Walton Mill was located.

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Item 4-14: Closeup of location of Walton Mill.

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Birth of an O’Keefe daughter in England Mary O’Keefe (my great-grandmother) was born in Walton-le-Dale on 26 May 1859. Here is her birth certificate:

Item 4-15: Birth certificate of Mary O’Keefe [left half].

Item 4-16: Birth certificate of Mary O’Keefe [right half].

At the mill, Michael O’Keefe has been promoted to a job as a cotton grinder. This activity consisted of operating a machine that carded cotton in order to prepare it for spinning. This machine used a grinding action to rip into the raw cotton and comb it into strands, which were then spun using a so-called water frame.

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Dixon family in Co Clare The following chart presents the structure of Catherine Dixon’s family:

Item 4-17: Dixon family from Ireland.

Voyage to Sydney On 9 May 1860, Michael O’Keefe, his wife Catherine and their baby daughter Mary left the Old World from Birkenhead (port on the west bank of the River Mersey, opposite Liverpool) and set sail for the Antipodes on a ship named the Tudor, built in Québec. The vessel’s burthen tonnage was 1786 tons. The master, Frederick Wherland, was accompanied by his wife, their two children and servants. On board, there were 54 crewmen and 397 passengers, composed of 164 males, 172 females and 61 children. The arrival record can be found in the NSW State Archives, location 4/4796, microfilm reel 2139. Here is the O’Keefe data: ship = Tudor date of departure from Birkenhead = 9 May 1860 date of arrival in Sydney = 17 August 1860 (voyage of 100 days)

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name = Michael O'Keefe age = 29 occupation = labourer birthplace = Kilmichael, Co Clare parents = John and Mary O'Keefe (mother still at Preston, Lancashire) religion = Roman Catholic skills = reading and writing sponsor = brother-in-law Patrick Dixon at Kiama health = good payment = 8 pounds name = Catherine O'Keefe relationship = wife of Michael O'Keefe age = 26 birthplace = Killofin, Co Clare parents = John and Mary Dixon (both deceased) religion = Roman Catholic skills = cannot read or write health = suitably confined birth to attend name = Mary O'Keefe relationship = daughter of Michael and Catherine O'Keefe age = 1 birthplace = Preston, Lancashire parents = aboard ship religion = Roman Catholic health = good name = [male infant] relationship = son of Michael and Catherine O'Keefe date of birth = 17 August 1860 birthplace = aboard the Tudor in Sydney Harbour

New member of the family As the Tudor sailed into Sydney Harbor, a baby glided into the world: John Edward O’Keefe. John was the given name of both Michael O’Keefe’s father and Catherine Dixon’s father, who were both deceased. The baby born on the day of arrival of the O’Keefes in Sydney might be considered as a marvelous symbol for a young family in a new land. But what a ghastly sea trip it must have been for Catherine Dixon.

Bad news, alas, was awaiting Catherine and her husband...

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Nobody to meet the family Michael O’Keefe’s sponsor for his immigration to NSW was Catherine’s elder brother Patrick Dixon [item 4-17], settled at Kiama. After working in Preston, Patrick Dixon had reached NSW two years earlier, on 21 December 1858, aboard the Forest Monarch, with his wife and daughter.

Well, the terrible truth of the matter was that Patrick would not be there to welcome his sister, her husband and their two babies... for he had been dead for three months, drowned in the Minnamurra River while shooting ducks! Here is a transcription concerning this accident that appeared in The Examiner of Kiama dated Saturday, 19 May 1860: INQUEST An inquest was held on Wednesday at Mr Alexander Ritchie’s, Riversdale, before the Coroner, R Perrott, Esq, when the following evidence was adduced: Alexander Ritchie, sworn, said: The deceased Patrick Dixon was in my employ as a milkman. I went out on my farm with my gun along the bank of the Minnamurra River. I shot a couple of ducks. I called to the deceased who was standing on a hill above where I was, and asked him if he would get them out for me, meaning the ducks. He said he would, and at once went in and brought them both out. We then went down the river to the crossing place going to Shellharbor, about two miles. We went into the creek to get a drink. I left him there lighting his pipe, and also left the gun with him, and then came home. I was in sight of my house, and waiting for the deceased to come up, when I heard the report of a gun, and then immediately a cooey [call].

I saw him go acros the stream, then wade partly back, and throw the two ducks he had shot to the side he went in at. He then struck out to swim back again.

When nearly within a rod and a half of the bank [seven to eight meters] he appeared to sink, and struggled a great deal, but did not call out before he went down. I threw a log into the creek, to try and reach him, but it went down with me, and I narrowly escaped being drowned. I cannot swim, and saved myself by catching hold of the grass and weeds growing on the side of the bank. The deceased had his clothes off, and seemed to swim very well until the cramp seized him. The deceased had been on the farm nearly ten months, and was an industrious man. He has left a wife and two children.

By the Jury: I remained near the bank until the body was recovered. The tide was on the ebb at the time of the accident.

John McNeily, sworn, said: I am a laborer in the employ of Mr Alexander Ritchie.

Yesterday, about one o’clock in the afternoon, I heard Mr Ritchie screaming for assistance. I ran down in the direction I heard the cries from, and met Mr Ritchie, who said Patrick was drowned. I went back to the house for more help, and Mr Ritchie went back to the river. When I came back to the river with an144

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other man, I found Mr Ritchie standing on the bank. Mr Ritchie asked me if I could swim. I told him I could not. I then went for a person to get the body out of the water. Thomas Henry, the person I went to, came and got the body out with grappling irons. It must have been more than an hour, perhaps nearly two hours, from the time I heard the cries of Mr Ritchie for assistance and the recovery of the body. I believe the deceased was perfectly sober. He was a very steady man.

The Coroner summed up and the Jury, without the slightest hesitation, returned a verdict that the deceased, Patrick Dixon, was accidently drowned in the Minnamurra River, on Tuesday the 15th instant, and that no blame can be attached to anyone.

Item 4-18 is a map of the Kiama district. I would imagine, according to geographical indications in the above document, that Patrick’s employer lived up around the Jamberoo region. Maybe Dixon researchers have found the exact location of Mr Ritchie’s place. Meanwhile, in the following map, I have indicated what I believe to be the zone (red circle) in which Patrick Dixon drowned.

Item 4-18: Kiama district, showing the Minnamurra River.

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After this tragedy, Patrick’s widow married Patrick Leonard in Kiama, on 11 July 1862, and they had eight children:

Item 4-19: Remarriage of Patrick Dixon’s widow.

Margaret married Dan Dwyer, and Elizabeth, Kyran Dolan.

UK census of 1861 Let us move back to England for a moment, where a few members of the O’Keefe family were still waiting to leave for Australia.

The UK census of 1861 speaks of three O’Keefe individuals (incorrectly spelt O’Keath) residing at 86 School Lane in Walton-le-Dale: • Mary O’Keefe, 60, housekeeper • her son John O’Keefe, 20, cotton factory worker • her son James O’Keefe, 18, cotton factory worker They had a 20-year-old Irish boarder living with them: Michael Milligan, an agricultural laborer.

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Michael O’Keefe’s family in NSW I do not know where the O’Keefe family lived during their first two years in NSW. Did they spend any time in Kiama? This is possible, because we shall see later on that Michael operated a hotel in that region. Before then, they had settled at Paterson, located 175 km north of Sydney and 18 km north of Maitland. Within five years, they had moved up to Grafton. Here is a chart of the future family:

Item 4-20: Family of Michael O’Keefe and Catherine Dixon.

In 1862, a child was born in Paterson: Elizabeth. We shall meet up with her later on in this chapter in the context of Walker’s Hotel in South Grafton.

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Arrival in NSW of the remaining three O’Keefes In 1863, while they were still living at Paterson, Michael O’Keefe and Catherine welcomed the arrival of Mary Kearney, the matriarch of Spancill Hill, and the O’Keefe brothers John and James. Here is their arrival data: ship = Fairlie date of departure from Plymouth = 8 December 1862 date of arrival in Sydney = 29 April 1863 name = Mary O'Keefe age = 45 (probably erroneous) occupation = housekeeper birthplace = Innes, Co Clare parents = Michael and Mary Carney (better spelt as Kearney) religion = Roman Catholic skills = cannot read or write relations in colony = son Michael O'Keefe at Paterson health = good complaints = none name = John O'Keefe relationship = son of Mary O'Keefe age = 21 (probably erroneous) occupation = farm labourer birthplace = Innes, Co Clare religion = Roman Catholic skills = cannot read or write health = good complaints = none name = James O'Keefe relationship = son of Mary O'Keefe age = 18 occupation = farm labourer birthplace = Innes, Co Clare religion = Roman Catholic skills = cannot read or write health = good complaints = none

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O’Keefe/Dixon evolution in NSW From this point on, we need to examine the O’Keefes and the Dixons in parallel, as they move from Paterson up to Grafton. Today, I cannot claim to understand exactly how this movement took place, but I have the impression that, after the shock of Patrick Dixon’s drowning, the two related families from Clare sought to combine their moral energy and resources, as it were, by residing in the same region.

In item 4-17, we saw that Catherine Dixon had three younger brothers: Daniel, Michael and James. They too had immigrated to NSW, but I do not have their arrival data. I know nothing about Daniel Dixon, apart from the fact that he died at Lismore in 1903. Concerning the youngest brother, James, it is possible that, at the age of 16, he had accompanied his brother Patrick and his family aboard the Forest Monarch in 1858, and lived with them in Kiama. I say this because of an advertisement that appeared in Kiama’s The Examiner just a week after the drowning of Patrick Dixon.

Item 4-21: Advertisement in The Examiner dated 23 May 1860.

For the moment, I am merely guessing that this might be our 18-year-old James Dixon, whom we shall discover much later, in 1873, at Grafton.

As for Michael Dixon (the brother who had been a witness at his sister’s marriage at Walton-le-Dale in 1858), he married Mary Griffin in Preston, in 1859. Their first child was born there, then they seem to have immigrated to NSW just after the death of Patrick Dixon at Kiama. Michael’s future family is shown in item 4-22.

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Item 4-22: Family of Michael Dixon and Mary Griffin.

It would appear that Michael Dixon and his wife lived in Paterson for some 7 years, from 1861 until 1867, whereas Michael O’Keefe and his wife only lived there for 3 years, from 1862 until 1864. Did the O’Keefes go there first, to be joined later by the Dixons, or vice versa? Maybe, in the wake of the drowning of Patrick Dixon, the two families decided to go there together.

What were their activities in Paterson? I do not know.

A detail in Michael O’Keefe’s death certificate might be useful for further research. The place of birth of his daughter Alice in 1864 is designated as Nessif on the Paterson River.

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Initial contact of Michael O’Keefe with Grafton As far as I can ascertain, the first mention of an O’Keefe in Grafton is in item 4-20: the birth of James O’Keefe in 1865. I do not know what might have brought Michael O’Keefe and his family up to the northern coast of NSW, and I have no information concerning Michael’s activities at Grafton in 1865. As a plausible guess, though, I would suppose that Michael O’Keefe, during the five years since his arrival in NSW, had worked in the hotel world, learning the trade and seeking business opportunities.

Sutton Forest in the Berrima district It was back down in the region where Patrick Dixon had drowned that we find Michael O’Keefe registered officially, as a publican, for the first time. He was the publican at the Sutton Forest Inn for 3 successive years, from 1866 to 1869. I have not seen his licenses, so I know no more about this initial phase of Michael O’Keefe’s career as a publican.

Today, there is still a hotel named the Sutton Forest Inn. As indicated in the following map, this place is located alongside the Illawarra Highway near Berrima and Moss Vale.

Item 4-23: Sutton Forest, near Berrima and Moss Vale.

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John O’Keefe appears in Grafton Item 4-2 indicated that Michael O’Keefe had a younger brother named John, who would arrive in NSW on the Fairlie in 1863 at the age of 25 (rather than 21, as stated in the arrival data). Five years later, in 1868 (while his brother Michael was still down at Sutton Forest), we find John O’Keefe getting married in Grafton. Here is a chart of his future family:

Item 4-24: Family of John O’Keefe and Hannah Duggan.

The ship arrival data stated that John O’Keefe had been a farm laborer back in Ireland. Some of the children of John O’Keefe and Hannah Duggan were born in Waterview: the rural neighborhood on the outskirts of South Grafton where I myself grew up in 1940-1952.

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Michael O’Keefe returns to Grafton Item 4-20 indicates that, in 1869, Michael O’Keefe and Catherine Dixon returned from Sutton Forest to Grafton, where their daughter Susannah was born. I have no information concerning the professional activities of Michael O’Keefe from that date up until 1876. I do not even know whether the family remained in Grafton during that period of 6 or 7 years.

Michael Dixon appears in Grafton Item 4-22 indicates that Michael Dixon and Mary Griffin had several children while residing in Paterson. In 1869, their sixth child, John, was born in Grafton. From that event on, the Dixon family resided permanently in Grafton, where 4 more children were born. I know nothing of the activities of Michael Dixon.

I have the impression, through examining the relevant places and dates, that Michael Dixon and Mary Griffin were following in the footsteps, as it were, of the senior couple, Michael O’Keefe and Catherine Dixon. Or was it maybe the other way round?

James O’Keefe appears in Grafton Item 4-2 indicated that Michael O’Keefe had a younger brother named James, who would arrive in NSW on the Fairlie in 1863 at the age of 18.

Seven years later, in 1870, we find James O’Keefe getting married in Grafton to an Irish girl, Bridget Mulligan, from Co Longford. Here is a chart of their future family:

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Item 4-25: Family of James O’Keefe and Bridget Mulligan.

James O’Keefe suffered from a plow accident, probably in about 1876, which was indirectly responsible for his premature death.

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Newspaper article An article about James O’Keefe and Bridget Mulligan appeared in Grafton’s Daily Examiner dated Tuesday, 11 March 1930.

OLD TIMES RECALLED — Early School Days A Remarkable Old Lady — Mrs B O’Keefe Article by H W Ramsay In the little village of "Wooli by the Sea", in a neat little cottage that overlooks the beautiful Wooli River, Mrs Bridget O'Keefe, widow of the late James O'Keefe, is spending the evening of her days. She is a remarkable old lady. Kindness and tenderness are stamped upon her features, and are in the tones of her voice.

There is little in the countenance to denote the long years of incessant labor and anxiety which were inseparable from the lot of a mother who reared a large and respectable family in the hard days of old. But such as she is do not count them hard. The difficulties she met with and the hardships endured were such as were common to most of the womenfolk in those days, and it is a consolation and pleasure in the evening of one's days to be able to look back with satisfaction on a life that has been well spent. But she has known it all; has been through "the days of hardship and nights of doubt", this kindly Irish mother.

Parentage — Early Days in South Grafton Her maiden name was Bridget Mulligan. She was born in County Longford, Ireland, and is eighty-five years of age. The only other surviving member of the family is Mr J. Mulligan, of Brushgrove, who was born in South Grafton. The late Mrs Chisholm, of Brushgrove, was a sister.

Mrs O'Keefe was about six years of age when the family arrived in Australia by the ship Talavera. They came direct to the Clarence. This was about 1850. For some time she attended a private school at South Grafton conducted by the Rev Robert Miller, a Presbyterian minister, who died in 1855. This gentleman's tombstone was discovered recently on a property owned by Mr C. T. Schwinghammer, of South Grafton. Several of his children had died at South Grafton during the parents' short period of residence there. The cause of death was uncertain, but some thought their end was the result of drinking impure water which had to be obtained from a water-hole or creek nearby. Mrs O'Keefe was well acquainted with the graves, and frequently visited them.

A Providential Escape Later Mrs O'Keefe attended school at North Grafton, the teacher being Mr James Page, grandfather of Dr Page. This gentleman was the first Town Clerk of Grafton. The school was located in Prince Street, or near it. It was adjoined by dense scrub, in which wild fig and other scrub trees grew in abundance. As the children had to cross to south side in a ferry boat, Mr Page was accustomed to send one of his sons to see them safely dispatched. One afternoon they had just left school when a terrific storm arose, and the building was blown down before

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they reached home. The boat in which they were was blown down the river a considerable distance before they could land on the other side.

Among her school mates were Mrs J. T. McKittrick and Mr W. J. Hawthorne.

Among other acquaintances of those days were the Weatherstones and the Cowans. Mr Cowan kept a store about opposite the Australian Hotel in South Grafton. The Mulligans lived on Wilson's Hill, and Commissioner Bligh, of the Crown Lands Department, was their next neighbor.

There were some big floods in those years, and their home sheltered five or six other families in such periods of distress.

Only sailing vessels traded to the river then, and quite a number of passengers from Sydney would stay at their place.

Aborigines at South Grafton There were many Aborigines about South Grafton, and quarrels and fights were numerous. Often their ludicrous squabbles were "more entertaining than going to the football". Corroborees frequently followed on or preceded such fights, and next morning numbers would be bruised or otherwise hurt, but seldom seriously. They had then but little acquaintance with firearms. Mr Ryan, of Waterview, lost a loaded gun. They found it, and a large number gathered in curiosity to examine it. They at last put it in the fire, and it went off with such a report that they fled in all directions. They ran well that day.

Mr O'Keefe — Kelp Burning in Ireland Mr James O'Keefe was also a native of the Emerald Isle, being born at Kilrush, in County Clare. This is just where the stately Shannon, well known in Irish lore and song, empties into the sea. This is the longest river in Ireland, rising in County Cavan and flowing through Longford, where Mrs O'Keefe was born. And we can easily imagine it was of one like her that the poet sang: "There's not a colleen sweeter where the River Shannon flows."

And thus these two people, born one at the head and the other at the mouth of the Shannon, came separately and as strangers to Australia, and passed the greater part of their lives together on the Clarence River.

At New Year time, Mr John O'Keefe, one of the sons who lives with the mother at Wooli, received a picture from a relative in Ireland. It is that of kelp burning on the shores of Kerry. The Shannon just separates between Kerry and his father's birthplace. As kelp burning is a common industry there, his father's people were well acquainted with the industry, and, no doubt, many of them at times engaged in it. Kelp is the alkaline substance obtained from seaweeds. They are dried in the sun, and burned in shallow excavations on the shore. About twenty to twentyfour tons of seaweed will yield one ton of kelp. This is in dark grey or bluish lumps. From a ton of good kelp may be obtained about eight pounds of iodine, eight or ten gallons of volatile oil, four gallons of naptha, ten gallons of paraffin oil, two to four cwts of sulphate of ammonia, and a large quantity of chloride of potassium. It was worth from £7 to £10 per ton, and its procuring gave employ156

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ment to a large number of people. The kelp above high-water mark belongs by law to the owner of the adjoining land. The right to gather the kelp was often leased apart from the lease of the land.

The father having died in Ireland, the mother and four sons decided to emigrate to Australia. With that end in view, they crossed to England and labored in the Manchester cotton works until they had saved sufficient money to pay their passage out. After reaching Australia, they soon made their way to the Clarence.

James secured his first position at what was called the Circular Vineyard. The land was trenched very deeply, and all the timber and rubbish on the ground were buried in the earth.

After some time, he went to Harwood and engaged in clearing a farm with another man.

Married Life Then Mr O'Keefe married, and the young couple settled on Waterview Estate, then owned by Mr E. M. Ryan. There most of the family were born. Mr O'Keefe afterwards opened a store in South Grafton, opposite McGuren's hotel. From there he went for a short time into the Harp of Erin Hotel, in Grafton. This was in Prince Street, near to where Whitford's chemist's shop was then. But the '76 flood came. This flood is said to have been almost unparalleled in regard to the rapidity with which the waters rose in Grafton. They suffered heavy loss through the flood, so decided to leave. They went back to Waterview until 1887. Then another flood did them a deal of harm, and they removed to the back of South Grafton, to where Isaac Kennedy now lives. The place was then owned by Mr John Cowan.

But Mr O'Keefe was not the man he had formerly been. In those days, the ground was new. Most of the stumps and the roots of trees were in the soil. The ploughs were mostly drawn by bullocks. And in breaking up a piece of new ground, he had been severely hit in the pit of the stomach by the handle of the plough. This came heavily against him. He sought treatment in Sydney as well as locally, and spent almost all his means in seeking recovery of his health, but all was in vain. Mrs O'Keefe accompanied him to Sydney, and they returned on the Agnes Irving. This was the last trip before she was wrecked, which occurred in the latter part of 1880. He lived until 1888, but died as the result of that injury.

While living at Waterview they grew wheat, and it was ground at a mill where Fraser's sawmill was subsequently. They also butchered their own cattle, and Mrs O'Keefe made the candles and soap they used. All the men's working clothes were also made by her.

Later Days After her husband's death, Mrs O'Keefe resided for some years at Palmer's Island, and about three years ago removed to Wooli, where she lives with two of her sons.

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The worthy couple reared a family of eight sons and one daughter. All these are splendid specimens of manhood. The west coast of Ireland is renowned for its men of fine frame and vigor. But their descendants as manifested in the O'Keefe family appear to be equally as fine. Quite recently the good mother was sick, and her condition caused the family much alarm. It was a splendid sight to see all those big men and the daughter gathered from far and near to watch at her bedside. A man is never too old nor too big to honor his mother, and he who honors her honors himself.

The O'Keefe family are attached to that church to which the great majority of Erin's sons and daughters belong. Mrs O'Keefe was confirmed under the hands of Bishop Polding and united in wedlock by the Rev Father Ryan.

She still, though eighty-five years of age, attends to all the duties of the home, for it is her will to do so; and while God spares her in health and strength, to look after "the boys". And the boys, let it be said, appreciate their mother very highly, and are naturally very proud of her. So is the daughter. This is as it should be, for she deserves it all.

Kind, hospitable, thoughtful of everyone, the good Irish mother whose heart is so large has a warm welcome for all her friends, and her eyes will sparkle and her cheeks glow as she tells of the long ago. Of the days when the children were small, and of the husking in the barn at night, and the popping of the popcorn on the hearth, and the many pleasures and happiness of the pioneering life. And to those who are admitted to the inner circle of intimacy, other things may be spoken too, for she has had her times of sorrow also, but she does not dwell on these. We know that no mother could rear a family in these early days without experiencing many an anxious hour and sleepless night.

And in leaving her for the present we can do no less than pray: "Oh, God bless you and keep you, Mother Machree." ("Mother Macree" is Gaelic for "Mother of my heart".)

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James Dixon appears in Grafton Item 4-17 mentioned James Dixon, who may have been a shopkeeper in Kiama. In 1873, in Grafton, he married Maria O’Gorman.

Item 4-26: Family of James Dixon and Maria O’Gorman.

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Patrick O’Keefe appears in the Grafton region In the original O'Keefe family in Co Clare [item 4-2], there was a brother named Patrick, born in 1833, who did not travel out to NSW in the same way as his three brothers and their mother. Instead, he went to the USA, where he married an Irish girl from Kilkenny named Mary Cody. In 1876, we find them appearing, with their four American-born children, at Ramornie. The following chart describes their family:

Item 4-27: Family of Patrick O’Keefe and Mary Cody.

Ramornie is located on the Orara River, west of Grafton [item 4-28]. It was the property of the cattle-breeder Charles Grant Tindal [1823-1914], who set up a canned meat factory there, in 1865, known as the Australian Meat Company, which prospered up until the end of the First World War. 160

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Item 4-28: Ramornie, where today’s Gwydir Highway crosses the Orara River.

Michael O’Keefe becomes a publican in South Grafton For three years, from 1876 until 1880, Michael O’Keefe was the publican at the Grafton and New England Hotel: a weatherboard building in Skinner Street, South Grafton. For a long time, the site has been occupied by a red brick building that housed Lane’s pharmacy when I was a boy. Today, it houses a computer store and a hairdressers’ shop.

Item 4-29: Site of the Grafton and New England Hotel.

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James O’Keefe becomes a publican in Grafton For a year, from 1876 to 1877, James O’Keefe was the publican at the Harp of Erin Hotel in Prince Street, Grafton. During the two years from 1874 to 1876, the publican had been Tim Hawthorne. At one stage, a temporary licence was granted to William Peoples. Then, after James O’Keefe’s presence, the licence reverted to Tim Hawthorne. Today, the site at 54 Prince Street is occupied by a jewelry shop.

Up until this short stint as a publican, James O’Keefe had lived at Waterview in South Grafton, where he had been the victim of a plow accident. It is likely that the consequences of this accident were responsible for his decision to leave the land and work as a publican. But he seems to have moved back to Waterview, where his premature death was no doubt brought on by the plow accident.

Marriage of Michael O’Keefe’s eldest child We now reach the event that linked my O’Keefe ancestors to my Walker/ Hickey ancestors from Braidwood. This was the marriage in South Grafton, on 1 April 1877, between 25-year-old Charles Walker and Mary O’Keefe, born in Lancaster, who would be turning 18 in two months’ time.

Why did this young Braidwood man move up to the Clarence River?

Well, his older brother Patrick Walker had been living there with his wife Bridget Murphy since 1874 [item 2-80]. Their younger sister Elizabeth had also moved up there, where she married George Rolls in 1877 [item 2-84].

Observing events that had taken place in the Braidwood district over the preceding decade or so, following the death of the patriarch Charles Walker in 1860, one can well imagine why his children might have felt like moving on towards greener pastures, elsewhere in NSW. Their mother had remarried just two years after the death of their father, and a baby was born in 1863. In the same year—in a context outlined in chapter 3—their Reidsdale uncle William Hickey was apparently arrested for highway robbery. Later, he rode with the Clarke brothers, who were captured and hanged in 1867. Although I have no tangible evidence confirming that the children of Charles Walker and Ann Hickey were affected by the Braidwood atmosphere, I can well imagine that the sunny Clarence River appeared, to four of the eleven, as a calmer environment in which to live on the land and raise families.

Charles Walker worked as a teamster: that is, he was in charge of a team of bullocks. The unidentified individual in the following photograph shows 162

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the kind of context in which Charles Walker worked:

Item 4-30: Teamster (anonymous) photographed in 1908.

My Walker uncles told me that their grandfather was referred to, in rural jargon, as a boy. He drove a bullock team belonging to an unmarried Irish Protestant land-owner, 8 years older than his "boy". In the next chapter, we shall see that this employer, named Isaac Kennedy, would also become—like Teamster Charles Walker—one of my future great-grandfathers. But I am jumping ahead too quickly.

Before returning to the O’Keefes, I take this opportunity of indicating a case of homonymy. Clarence River history researchers are likely to hear of prominent early 19th-century graziers named Charles Walker and his brother Robert, associated with a huge cattle station named Newbold Grange. They were English squatters, unconnected to my own Walkers.

Michael O’Keefe takes over the Steam Ferry Hotel We now reach one of the most spectacular phases of the O’Keefe presence on the banks of the Clarence: Michael O’Keefe’s purchase of the Steam Ferry Hotel in South Grafton in 1881. This was the start of a family affair that would last for 82 years. Since it is an interesting story, I shall now examine the evolution of this hotel right up to the present time, before returning to other aspects of my maternal genealogy. I should make it clear that, while I am a descendant of Michael O’Keefe, I am not a descendant of the Walker people who inherited and ran this hotel after Michael’s death. But I knew them well when I was a child, and I have always felt myself attached to this landmark hotel in South Grafton.

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Item 4-31: Steam ferry between Grafton and South Grafton.

The steam ferry—or punt, as it is labeled in this photo—berthed just in front of Michael O’Keefe’s pub, which was ideally located. It would attract rural clients from the southern shores of the Clarence, waiting for the ferry, along with those returning from a trip to the city.

Second Walker/O’Keefe marriage A moment ago, I described the marriage in 1877 of Mary O’Keefe and Charles Walker. Five years later, in 1882, Mary’s younger sister, 20-year-old Elizabeth O’Keefe, born in Paterson, married a younger brother of Charles, 27-year-old James Walker.

Although I do not have firm facts on this question, I seem to recall that my mother once drove me to a hotel in Lawrence (on the left bank of the Clarence, opposite Woodford Island) where James Walker was the publican.

In any case, the first child of James and Elizabeth, Charles Lawrence Walker, was born in Maclean in 1884, and his second given name apparently reflects his home place.

In 1885, Catherine Dixon died in South Grafton. Her widower Michael O’Keefe transferred the publican’s license of the Steam Ferry Hotel to his sonin-law James Walker.

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Destruction of the hotel by fire From this point on, most of my information concerning the Steam Ferry Hotel comes from Tony Morley’s book entitled Grafton Pubs and Publicans, published privately in 2001.

The hotel was totally destroyed by fire on 8 November 1886. Morley’s notes indicate explicitly that, when this accident occurred, the hotel was owned by Michael O’Keefe. After the fire, business was conducted for a few months in temporary premises, then the hotel was rebuilt in 1887 by a man named Schaeffer. Would that be the celebrated architect F W C Schaeffer, who was particularly active at the turn of the century?

The new single-story building was similar in construction to the old pub.

Made out of wood with an iron roof, it contained 30 rooms. The following photo, in which the sign reads Steam Ferry Hotel, J Walker, probably shows the newly-constructed pub:

Item 4-32: Steam Ferry Hotel, licensed to James Walker, around 1887 to 1894.

Tony Morley’s book states that the hotel allotment extended for 172 feet in Skinner Street and 66 feet in Through Street (respectively to the left and to the right in the photo).

In Morley’s book, a curious note dated 10 January 1891 says: For sale, Steam Ferry. Possession 1 July. M O’Keefe.

I do not understand the meaning of this statement. At some time well before her father’s death in 1910, Elizabeth O’Keefe became the proprietor of the hotel, but I do not know the details of this transaction. Is it possible that the above note refers to a sale of the hotel by Michael O’Keefe to his daughter and/or her husband?

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Death of the publican James Walker James Walker, 37, died on 8 June 1894. His widow Elizabeth became the licensee of the Steam Ferry Hotel. She would maintain this role for 46 years!

In January 1905, Elizabeth Walker put out tenders for a new two-story block in Through Street, to the right of the existing hotel. Here is the result:

Item 4-33: New two-story block in Through Street, built in 1905.

This description of the new block, dated 2 September 1905, is taken from Tony Morley’s book: The enterprising proprietress of the Steam Ferry Hotel has greatly improved the appearance of her popular hostelry, besides adding considerably to its accommodation. A two-story addition has been erected on the Through Street frontage which contains over 20 rooms. The enlargement has a frontage of45 feet, by depth of about 75 feet, and has three separate connections with the old hotel. The front has an ornate appearance, the large rooms on either side of the vestibule being provided with double bay windows of fanciful glass design.

Notice that the licensee Elizabeth Walker is described as if she were also the owner. This could be a trivial reporting error. It is highly likely that the proprietor of the Steam Ferry Hotel was still 74-year-old Michael O’Keefe.

The question, in any case, is of little importance.

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New name: Walker's Hotel In 1906, a dozen years after the death of James Walker, the Steam Ferry Hotel changed its name. From now on, for over 60 years, it would be known as Walker's Hotel. I have often wondered why this curious name change was made. It was unexpected in that there seemed to be no obvious reason to drop the time-honored name: the Steam Ferry Hotel. After all, no bridge would be built over the Clarence at Grafton until a quarter of a century later.

And why not O’Keefe’s Hotel, since the patriarch developer Michael O’Keefe was still well and truly alive? The only plausible explanation that comes to my mind is that Elizabeth O’Keefe, through this name change, wished to perpetuate the memory of her prematurely-departed husband.

New hotel In 1908, the architects Eaton and Bates built a new hotel on the corner allotment where a single-story wood building had existed for 21 years.

Item 4-34: Luxurious new hotel built in 1908.

Here is the description, dated 28 November 1908, from Morley’s book: This building is to be erected entirely of brick and concrete. The architects have been given a free hand and the structure will be up-to-date in every way. Special features are being made of the vestibule and grand entrance hall, also the commercial room, dining room, lavatories, etc. There are 80 rooms in the building and the sanitary arrangements are on the most modern methods. The building is also to have a large flat roof and promenade, and when complete, owing to its unique position, will be a prominent landmark in South Grafton.

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Act of bravery In the same year in which Elizabeth O'Keefe built her new hotel in South Grafton, this article appeared in the Clarence and Richmond Examiner :

Item 4-35: Article in The Daily Examiner of 1 August 1908.

The chart in item 4-20 reveals that the brave man in question was James O'Keefe [1865-1915]. The author of the article mentioned the existence of a Mrs Walker in South Grafton. In fact, at that time, James had two sisters in South Grafton who could be designated as "Mrs Walker": Elizabeth O'Keefe at the hotel, and my great-grandmother Mary O'Keefe.

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Death of Michael O’Keefe Two years after the opening of the grand hotel, owned and run by his daughter, on 8 September 1910, Michael O'Keefe died. In 1981, when I was visiting Grafton, I saw the original record of his death at the registry office in the Court House in Victoria Street.

Item 4-36: Court House in Victoria Street, Grafton.

He had been a widower for a quarter of a century. His 95-year-old mother from Spancill Hill, Mary Kearney, had died 10 years earlier, at the start of the new century. In the record (whose facts, supplied by Michael’s son John, are rather flimsy), after the heading “rank or profession”, there is a single word: Gentleman.

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Walker’s Hotel: home of a widow and her niece Elizabeth O’Keefe, known as Mrs Walker, presided over the pub for three decades: no doubt its finest years. She had the reputation of being a most pious Catholic lady, who was dismayed to realize that the alcoholic beverages dispensed in her establishment were capable of inebriating good Christian husbands and fathers, maybe leading to the disintegration of their families.

Consequently, whenever she noticed that such-and-such a patron (as regular customers used to be called in Australian pubs) seemed to be intent upon pursuing an evening of intense drinking, she would plead with him to leave her pub and return home immediately to his unfortunate but loving wife and kids. In such cases, Mrs Walker’s righteous behavior was greatly appreciated by her fellow publicans in South Grafton, since big-spending drinkers evicted from Walker’s Hotel, instead of wandering off home, would merely stagger down the street to another pub.

The widow Elizabeth O’Keefe had two sons, the younger of whom was born with deficiencies. Maybe she regretted the absence of a larger family, including daughters. Be that as it may, she took a bright young niece under her wing, and brought her up as if the girl were her own daughter. The niece in question was Catherine Veronika Walker, born on 9 November 1886: the fifth child of Charles “Teamster” Walker and Mary O’Keefe. Referred to by everybody as Miss Kitty Walker, this young lady was at ease in the relatively cosmopolitan atmosphere of Walker’s Hotel, where she soon achieved fame as a talented soprano in the popular music domain.

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Item 4-37: Kitty Walker, dressed as an army nurse.

Kitty Walker’s singing career blossomed at the time of the Great War, when unsuspecting young Australians were being shipped across to terrible places of human butchery on the other side of the planet such as Gallipoli and the Western Front in France. Throughout Australia, so-called patriotic concerts were organized, to raise funds for the welfare of families whose heads had left home, maybe to never return. In this context, Kitty Walker’s theme song was a rousing poem entitled The Absent-Minded Beggar, penned

by Rudyard Kipling during the recent Boer War and set to martial music by Arthur Sullivan (collaborator of the librettist William Gilbert). The leitmotif of this popular parlor song was a recurring imperative, “Pay! Pay! Pay! ”.

These words were meant to arouse listeners into donating to the war effort.

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Here is a newspaper account of concerts in Grafton in January 1915: Miss K V Walker created enthusiasm by her singing of a revised and localised version of The Absent-Minded Beggar. Showers of coins were thrown on the stage, of both theatres, and collections were made by nurses [...] who went amongst the audiences. The total collections from this source amounted to 11 pounds, 2 shillings and 6 pence [...] and Miss Walker is to be congratulated upon the happy idea of introducing the song, and upon her pluck in standing up to the silver shower.

Kitty Walker dressed up as a nurse because the money collected at these patriotic concerts was transferred to an agency called the Red Cross Fund. A newspaper remark reveals that Kitty, at the end of her song, stepped down into the audience and used her tambourine to collect extra donations.

Local statesman In 1919, Kitty Walker became a militant in the movement that brought a South Grafton surgeon, Earle Page, to the federal parliament of Australia.

Item 4-38: Sir Earle Page [1880-1961].

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A year earlier, on 19 January 1918, that same doctor—who happened to be the mayor of South Grafton—had brought my mother into the world in his private clinic named Clarence House, just down the road from Walker’s Hotel. Twenty years later, at the outbreak of World War II, Sir Earle Page would become the prime minister of Australia.

Item 4-39: Clarence House, dilapidated, in August 2006.

Item 4-40: Glass door panel.

My mother Kath Walker [1919-2005] was Kitty’s niece. After her brief singing career, Kitty Walker was a victim of alcoholism. She moved down to Sydney, where she led an obscure existence. A few years ago, I learned that she married in 1932, and has a granddaughter living in Queensland.

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John O’Keefe’s business in Skinner Street Around 1915, when Kitty Walker was at the height of her glory as a singer, John E O’Keefe—the son of Michael O’Keefe and Catherine Dixon who was born aboard the Tudor in Sydney Harbour in 1860—was running a business in South Grafton, probably located near the river end of Skinner Street, in the vicinity of his father’s former Grafton and New England Hotel [item 4-29].

Item 4-41: Advertisement for John O’Keefe’s business.

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Old photos of Walker’s Hotel The Clarence River Historical Society probably houses many old photos of Walker’s Hotel. Here are a few specimens that I have found:

Item 4-42: Touristic excursion from Walker’s Hotel.

Item 4-43: A big flood hit Grafton in July 1921, during the horse-racing season.

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My school friend Lynn Pollack sent me the following photo of her father:

Item 4-44: South Grafton solicitor Colin Pollack. Flood year unknown, maybe 1945.

Walker’s Hotel since World War II When Elizabeth O’Keefe died in 1942, her 58-year-old son Charles took over the pub license. His mother appeared to have so little trust in the hotel management skills of her son that, in her will, she had named the Catholic bishop Farrelly of Lismore as a legatee of sorts. For ages afterwards, her son “Charlie” (whom I got to know quite well) complained that he could not even repaint the toilets of Walker’s Hotel without a written authorization from the Catholic diocese.

Meanwhile, Charles and his wife “Olly” lived down the road in Through Street. Apparently, in their house, there was not even a kitchen (an anecdote revealed to me in 2006), because it was understood that the Walkers would always be served their meals in the nearby pub.

I visited the hotel in August 2006 and stayed there in a tiny $25 room for a couple of unpleasant nights. The premises were still more or less intact and recognizable, but they had become a sad carcass of their former glory. The grand pub had lost its soul. Having slept in mediocre hotels in many corners of the globe, I was sad to conclude that Walker’s Hotel was surely one of the worst places I had encountered. The hotel was housing boarders who erred on the verandahs like patients in a hospital. The atmosphere was sinister. It was no longer a pub, but a corpse.

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Item 4-45: Walker’s Hotel in 2006.

Only the red-cedar staircase provided a hint of the hotel’s past glories:

Item 4-46: Red cedar staircase at Walkers’ Hotel in 2006.

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Old map of South Grafton A hand-drawn map presents South Grafton in the final decades of the 19th century when my great-great-grandfather Michael O’Keefe had just acquired the original Steam Ferry Hotel. It is probably inaccurate, but this old map provides precious data concerning my native town.

Item 4-47: Old map of South Grafton.

This map appeared in a booklet to commemorate the centenary in 1967 of South Grafton's Anglican church. Based upon information supplied at that time by a 90-year-old man named Allan Friar, it was said that the map represented South Grafton in the 1880s. Here are some aspects of the map that caught my attention:

_ There is a big accent on bullock teams.

• “Bullock teams took supplies from boats to the Tablelands...”

• “Bullock teams rested here”.

• The road towards the future bridge is described as a bullock track.

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_ There is a big accent on river activities.

• Punt approach.

• Ferry boats at the end of Skinner Street. There is a distinction between punts and ferry boats.

• McKittrick's wharf (and nearby bulk store) and traces of a government wharf (and nearby police station), no doubt for coastal vessels.

• Boat shed (Morrow) in Wharf Street.

_ There is a big accent on activities involving horses.

• Blacksmiths: P Roberts (Spring Street), Morrissey (Skinner Street) and Onslow (Wharf Street, also a wheelwright).

• Livery stables: Gole and J O'Keefe.

• Saddlery shop: Lowe (Skinner Street).

_ Wharf Street (not Skinner Street) seems to be the main street of the town. _ Five

hotels: Royal, Walker's, Tattersalls, Australian and Post Office.

(Walker’s and Tattersalls were named otherwise at the time of the map.)

Who were the clients supporting this hotel infrastructure in a small town?

_ Three butchers: Tom Hutching, Kelly and Bratson. _ Three churches: Roman Catholic, Church of England and Presbyterian. _ Two private schools: Nelson and Miss Morrow. _ The existence of Cowan's Creek necessitated a bridge in Skinner Street. _ Inside the township, the environment is rural. Hawthorne's saleyards are located in the middle of town. A vast south-east zone is labelled “scrub”.

_ Properties/residences of only three citizens are indicated: Bawden's estate, J T McKittrick and Adam Hawthorne.

_ The barber named Inglis was the father of Margaret Inglis, who married

John Vincent Walker [1892-1966], a son of Charles Walker. His shop was located in the original structure called Clarence Chambers, now replaced by a red-brick building.

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Old South Grafton images When I was in South Grafton in August 2006, a friend told me I could find interesting images on the wall of a shop in Skinner Street. I found the images, but they were not easy to copy.

Item 4-48: Looking towards the river from the Skinner/Spring intersection.

Item 4-49: Looking down Skinner Street from around Walker’s Hotel.

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Item 4-50: Looking down Skinner Street from around Walker’s Hotel.

Item 4-51: Post Office Hotel, Skinner Street, licensee Arthur Durrington.

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Item 4-52: Same hotel, licensee John Flaherty, during the 1921 flood.

Item 4-53: Probably the same flood as in Colin Pollack’s canoe photo.

There are no doubt more flood photos of this kind in the archives of the Clarence River Historical Society.

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Photos of Skinner Street in 2006 When I was a youth in South Grafton, there was still a series of so-called garden plots running down the middle of Skinner Street. A curious decision was made to remove them, ostensibly to improve parking. Overnight, the main street of the small town lost all its charm. Fortunately, since then, new trees have been planted in Skinner Street.

Item 4-54: Skinner Street, South Grafton, August 2006.

I took the above photo from the first-floor balcony of Walker’s Hotel. The garish shelter with a canvas tarpaulin roof attached to rough poles is one of similar specimens in Skinner Street today. These structures are questionable works of art, with a vaguely Aboriginal flavor. The once-stately little township of South Grafton, many of whose elegant façades still stand, has been transformed considerably since my childhood.

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Item 4-55: River end of Skinner Street, named The Settlement (August 2006).

Local authorities, realizing that this was the site of the initial settlement at Grafton, erected garish concrete walls. Personally, I don’t recall anybody ever pointing out to me, when I was a child in South Grafton, that the area bounded by, and including, Walker’s Hotel and the Tattersalls Hotel (on the diagonally opposite corner of the Skinner and Through Streets intersection, now demolished) bore this name. This item of history had existed explicitly, nevertheless, ever since Bawden’s public lectures of 1886.

Item 4-56: Recent wall painting at The Settlement.

The pub was Cowan’s Family Hotel, later renamed Tattersalls. The white building behind the horse was the original Clarence Chambers. Notice, too, the bridge in Skinner Street straddling Cowan’s Creek.

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5 Isaac Kennedy and Mary Cranston The individuals whom I present in this chapter, named Kennedy and Cranston, were descendants of Scottish and English families who came to Ireland as colonists—so-called "planters"—at the start of the 17th century.

They differ primarily from my other Irish ancestors described in previous chapters (with a question mark hanging over the alleged Irishness of Charles Walker, presented in chapter 2) in that the Kennedy and Cranston families were Protestant.

Provinces of Ireland In ancient times, Ireland was composed of four so-called provinces, of which Ulster—not to be confused with the much smaller modern political entity called Northern Ireland—was no doubt the most Gaelic in spirit.

In the beginning, the concept of counties did not exist. It only came into existence after the Norman invasion of William the Conqueror. Ulster included the counties of Northern Ireland (Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry and Tyrone) along with three counties that belong today to the Republic of Ireland (Cavan, Donegal and Monaghan).

Item 5-1: Ancient provinces of Ireland.

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Kennedy and Cranston origins in Ireland The origins of our Kennedy and Cranston ancestors are indicated in the following map of Ireland:

Item 5-2: Origins of the Kennedys and Cranstons.

The orange county (Fermanagh) and the five pink counties surrounding the vast freshwater lake of Lough Neagh are part of Northern Ireland, whereas green counties (including Cavan) belong to the Republic of Ireland. • The Kennedys came from the village of Brookeborough (Fermanagh). • The Cranstons came from the town of Bailieborough (Cavan).

Formerly, both Fermanagh and Cavan were included in the province of Ulster. Regardless of modern frontiers, the Kennedy and Cranston families were descendants of Anglo-Scottish Protestant colonists in Ulster. But they could hardly be thought of as new settlers in Ireland, since the colonization in question had taken place in 1609. In other words, their ancestors had been living in Ireland for a far greater length of time than my own ancestors have been settled in Australia.

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Birds Before getting involved with the history of the Kennedys and Cranstons, let me start with an amusing anecdote. Brookeborough was in the hands of the Maguire clan until a rebellion in 1641, when it was given to the Brooke family. Lady Maguire loved blackbirds, and the ancient name of the village was Aghalun, which means field of the blackbirds.

Item 5-3: Isaac Kennedy, Mary Eliza Cranston and two daughters.

This photo, taken in Grafton around 1895, shows my great-grandparents Isaac Kennedy [1844-1934] and Mary Eliza Cranston [1858-1926] with two of their six surviving daughters. The prim little girl seated on the right is the eldest daughter, Henrietta Kennedy. In her bedroom at Riverstone on the banks of the Clarence, Henrietta had three pet magpies that roosted at night on the foot of her bed. I like to think of that behavior as a resurgence of the spirit of Lady Maguire of Aghalun...

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Kennedys The following chart describes our Kennedys:

Item 5-4: Kennedy family from Co Fermanagh.

I have not been able to obtain ship-arrival data, but it appears likely that the eldest son, William Kennedy, reached South Australia in 1858. What brought him to a place such as Yankalilla? Apparently there was a mine there, named Talisker, near Cape Jervis. In 1862, William married a Scottish girl, Catherine McMaster, and they moved up to NSW a year later.

The second brother, John Kennedy, arrived in South Australia in 1861, and followed his brother up to NSW in 1868. As for the third brother, my ancestor Isaac Kennedy, we are told that he arrived in NSW around 1866.

Before then, had he too spent some time down in South Australia? I have no data enabling me to answer that question.

Before continuing the Kennedy story in Australia, let return to Ireland for a moment, to see if we can get a better understanding of their native land: Fermanagh.

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Early Kennedy history A woman named Heather Wisener, living in Northern Ireland, contacted me in 2004 saying that she too was researching Kennedys of Fermanagh and Derry. Her own grandfather was a William Kennedy from Fermanagh. She was also in contact with a Canadian researcher whose grandfather Thomas Kennedy left Fermanagh in 1841. It is interesting to learn that this Thomas had a son named Isaac. Heather explained to me: I don't know how much you know about Ireland's troubled history, but there was widespread dispersal for various reasons, so families tended to become parted.

About 1604 two Kennedy brothers came over from Scotland - plantation time one, William, to Strabane, Co Tyrone and the other, Thomas, to Coleraine - then a county. I have a hunch that all those in our areas may have descended from that William and became scattered as a result of harsh landlords when they couldn't afford to pay rents and the demise of the cottage industries (many were involved in spinning and weaving, which disappeared with the Industrial Revolution).

Interestingly, most of the Kennedys in the Coleraine area are Presbyterian whereas my Kennedys from Claudy on the Tyrone border, yours and the other Fermanagh Kennedy originally from Irvinestown are, or were at that time, Church of Ireland. So that, at least, is a common denominator.

As you may know, our records are not complete due to the Troubles in the 1920s when they were burnt in Dublin. Researchers with Church of Ireland ancestors are luckier, since many churches kept their own records, and those still exist, albeit many illegible. There are still Church of Ireland Kennedys in Lisnaskea.

Heather Wisener thought that our Fermanagh Kennedys were members of the Church of Ireland, maybe in the region around Lisnaskea. She was close to the truth. My Kennedy ancestors came from nearby Brookeborough.

To look up Irish church records, you need to know the name of the parish in which the events took place. Brookeborough used to be called Aghalun, and it lies in the parish of Aghalurcher. A website contains the following baptismal records for this parish:

Item 5-5: Baptisms, Lisnaskea district of the parish of Aghalurcher in Fermanagh.

I believe that these records concern our patriarch, William Kennedy, and maybe his two sisters.

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Here is a map of the region around Brookeborough:

Item 5-6: Central region of Fermanagh.

Brookeborough is located on the main highway (Belfast Road) between Enniskillen, the county town of Fermanagh, and Fivemiletown (Tyrone).

Lords of the land Earlier on, I indicated that, after the English chased away the Maguires from this part of Fermanagh, in the middle of the 17th century, the Brooke family received their extensive lands. The demesne of the Brookes, near Fivemiletown, was named Colebrooke. On 7 January 1822, a descendant of the family, Henry Brooke [1770-1834], was named Baronet of Colebrooke in the English peerage. His collected transactions with local folk are referred to, today, as the Brooke Deeds. Here is a copy of one of these transactions, dated 16 September 1823: Lease from Henry Brooke, Colebrooke, Co. Fermanagh, to James McManus, Tattenabuddagh, Co. Fermanagh, of 11a. 2r. 31p. of Tattenabuddagh, Co. Fermanagh, for the lives of James McManus and Wm Kennedy: (1) Reserves right to make a road; (2) Rent ÂŁ5; (3) Five days work of man and horse and five hens or fifteen pence in lieu of each days work and sixpence in lieu of each hen; and, (4) Corn, etc, to be ground at mill of Henry Brooke, payment for not doing so ÂŁ5.

The William Kennedy mentioned in this transaction would have been the grandfather of our Kennedy patriarchs in Australia.

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Those who stayed in Brookeborough After the departure of the three sons for Australia, their father—still in the prime of life—carried on working as a farmer in Brookeborough. So, it is normal that we should find him listed in the famous Griffith’s Valuation, which was a survey of Irish properties completed in 1868. The reference to William Kennedy’s two plots of land at Brookeborough was published in the Griffith’s Valuation in 1862, by which time at least the two older sons were settled in Australia.

Item 5-7: Entry for William Kennedy, Griffith’s Valuation (1862).

We learn that William Kennedy rented his land from Sir Victor Brooke [1843-1891], who was the 3rd Baronet of Colebrooke. His grandson was the first Viscount Brookeborough, the third prime minister of Northern Ireland.

William Kennedy’s entry in the Griffith’s Valuation provides us with the name of his townland. This is a very old and specifically Irish concept, which often puzzles newcomers to family history in Ireland. A townland is the smallest officially-defined geographical unit of land, and can be thought of as a subdivision of a parish. We saw that the village of Brookeborough, once called Aghalun, is located in a parish called Aghalurcher. This parish lies within a barony called Magherastephana, which is one of the eight baronies 191

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of the county of Fermanagh. Brookeborough and the agricultural land around the village corresponded roughly, at the time of William Kennedy, to an ancient townland named Tattenabuddagh. Besides, the Griffith’s Valuation for 1862 mentions no less than four other Kennedy householders in this townland: Thomas, James, John and Ninian. So, Tattenabuddagh might be thought of as Kennedy territory. But the lord of the land was Brooke.

Using the references at the bottom of the above entry, a website entitled Ask about Ireland enables us to track down William Kennedy’s two plots of land, separated by a wood, just to the east of the village. With such a small surface, I would imagine that William Kennedy was a flax grower.

Item 5-8: Old map of Brookeborough showing William Kennedy’s land.

Here is a modern map indicating roughly the location of the two plots:

Item 5-9: Modern map of Brookeborough, with the location of the plots 17 and 18.

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Brookeborough today This photo show the main street of the village of Brookeborough today:

Item 5-10: Main street of Brookeborough.

The village is still associated with the viscountcy, whose present holder is Alan Brooke, born in 1952, a great-great-grandson of William Kennedy’s landlord. Their family mansion at Colebrooke Park, midway between Brookeborough and Fivemiletown, is set in an estate of a thousand acres.

Item 5-11: Mansion of the Viscount Brookeborough: Colebrooke Park.

Let us now leave the Old World and return to our Kennedys in Australia.

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Family of William Kennedy and Catherine McMaster Here is the family of William Kennedy and Catherine McMaster:

Item 5-12: Family of William Kennedy and Catherine McMaster.

The above chart mentions names of places in NSW—Wellingrove, Kings Plains and Emmaville—that are far away from South Australia. An obvious question arises: Why did William Kennedy and Catherine McMaster, soon after their marriage at Yankalilla, make this long and no doubt expensive journey? I have no definite answer to that question. Maybe they went to such places to meet up with relatives who happened to be settled there.

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Wellingrove, Kings Plains and Emmaville This map shows places mentioned in the previous chart:

Item 5-13: Location of Glen Innes, Wellingrove, Kings Plains and Emmaville.

Catherine’s first two babies were born in Wellingrove, but it appears that the elder child did not survive. Here is a brief description of Wellingrove that appeared in Bailliere’s New South Wales Gazetteer and Road Guide for 1866: Wellingrove (Co Gough) is a postal township in the parish of Wellingrove, electoral district of Tenterfield, and police district of Wellingrove. It is situated on the Wellingrove creek, the Beardy river being twelve, and the Severn river twenty miles distant. The district is solely pastoral, the nearest diggings (the Bingara) being 77 miles distant SW. The nearest places are Glen Innes, 13 miles SE, and Inverell, 32 miles SW, the communication with both places being by horse and dray only. With Sydney, 385 miles S, the communication is via Glen Innes, to Armidale by horse or dray, thence by coach to Singleton, thence by rail to Newcastle, and thence by steamer. There is one hotel, the Woolpack, and there are two carrying offices in the township. The surrounding district is mountainous, with good plains intervening. The geological formation is trap rock and sandstone, and the population numbers about 50 persons.

Clearly, transport is not yet a simple affair, necessitating a mixture of horses, drays, coaches, trains and coastal steamers. So, there is no doubt that the young Kennedy couple did not end up in this tiny township by chance.

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They were surely intent upon reaching this place up on the highlands. There is a quite plausible reason for Catherine’s arrival in Wellingrove. Over three decades, Scottish people named McMaster had made Wellingrove and its surroundings their home. Maybe they were relatives of Catherine. This chart presents these earlier McMasters:

Item 5-14: McMaster families with members settled in or around Wellingrove.

There are three McMaster generations, born in the parish of Kilmonivaig in the Highlands region of Fort William, and each generation is headed by a John. In 1837, the family of ten individuals at the bottom of the chart moved to NSW and settled in Wellingrove. In 1841, John’s young sister Margaret, wife of Alexander McMillan, went to NSW, where she died aged 30. At the end of 1854, a final wave of migration took place when John’s other sister, Una McMaster, left for Wellingrove with her husband Henry McDonald and their seven children. Only the four individuals at the top the above chart—

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the elder McMaster couple and their sons Donald and Ewen—had remained in Scotland.

Unfortunately, that McDonald wave of emigration was marked by two catastrophes. When the McDonalds boarded the Derry Castle in Liverpool on 1 October 1854, Una knew that her brother John McMaster would not be waiting for them out in NSW, for he had drowned in Wellingrove Creek on 24 May 1854. Maybe the McDonalds were motivated to emigrate in the hope of consoling Jean Morrison and her seven children on the other side of the planet, at Wellingrove. However disaster then struck the Derry Castle in the form of a crew’s mutiny, which obliged the passengers to disembark on 26 February 1855 at a remote place called Portland in Western Victoria. How and when the nine McDonalds reached Wellingrove remains a mystery.

The puzzle of Catherine McMaster In spite of all these emigrants and all these events, we seem to be no closer to solving the mystery of the identity of the wife of William Kennedy, and understanding why they might have made their way up from Yankalilla in South Australia to Wellingrove. The birth certificate of Isaiah Kennedy in 1867 indicates that his mother was 34 years old, meaning that her birth in Scotland took place in about 1833. For the moment, I have not actually seen the death certificate of a Catherine Kennedy in 1893 that mentions parents named John and Sarah.

Initially, I had imagined that it would be easy to formulate hypotheses that fit Catherine into the global McMaster picture of the chart of item 5-14, but I was unable to do so. I decided therefore to examine Scottish census data. This approach was successful, in that the censuses of both 1841 and 1851 revealed the existence of a Catherine whose father was indeed a crofter (tenant of a small sheep farm) named John McMaster, living in the town of Murlaggan located in the same Kilmonivaig parish as the other McMasters we have seen. Here is an outline of the family based upon the 1851 census, whose age figures appear to be more precise than those in the earlier census:

Item 5-15: Family of Catherine McMaster.

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The mother’s name is not Sarah, but Ann. Besides, it is hard to imagine that John’s wife could have given birth to their youngest son, Alexander, at the age of 53. The 1841 census, before the birth of Alexander, indicates an age difference between John and his wife (with the annoying rounding) of 20 years! My conclusion is that the biological mother of the first five children was probably a relatively young woman, maybe named Sarah, who was no longer alive by 1841. In other words, Ann would be Catherine’s step-mother.

Catherine’s trip to Australia At a date between the censuses of 1851 and 1861, Catherine McMaster traveled to South Australia. She may have traveled with her Kilmonivaig relative Una McMaster. Maybe Catherine’s father John (born in 1783) was a nephew of Una’s father John (born in 1762). If indeed Catherine now had a step-mother, it is perfectly plausible that she may have been tempted to abandon Scotland and participate in the grand voyage to the Antipodes with the McDonalds... since she would be able to help Una with the children.

The terrible news about the drowning of Una’s brother in Wellingrove was followed by the mutiny on the Derry Castle. The voyage had been much longer than planned, and passengers were probably in a state of confusion.

In these circumstances, Catherine must have accepted a proposal of local employment in Victoria from the Portland Immigration Depot, leaving the McDonalds to continue their journey up to Wellingrove without her. From Portland, Catherine crossed the nearby border into South Australia and made her way up to Jervis Bay... where she would marry William Kennedy.

Passengers on the Derry Castle The passengers on the Derry Castle included 68 married couples, 34 unmarried male adults, 77 unmarried females, 49 male children (under 14) and 55 female children. A website that lists emigrants assisted by the Highland and Island Emigration Society mentions the McDonalds. But there is no mention of Catherine McMaster.

Maybe we should try to obtain a copy of the passenger list apparently compiled when the Derry Castle reached Portland: Victoria, Public Record Office, 1988, microfiche 72, book 10, page 462.

For the moment, therefore, my account of Catherine McMaster’s arrival in Australia must be considered as plausible speculation.

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Isaac Kennedy's wife: Mary Eliza Cranston Isaac Kennedy married Mary Eliza Cranston from Co Cavan. This chart mentions Mary's parents and grandparents:

Item 5-16: Cranston family from Co Cavan.

Item 5-17: Mary Eliza Cranston as a child in Ireland.

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Cranston bandits in Scotland For several centuries, particularly in Tudor times, the border between England and Scotland was a lawless land because of mounted robbers from both sides known as reivers, raiders or riders. These bandits would plunder farms across the border, then return to their home side. In his historical novel The Steel Bonnets, George MacDonald Fraser [1925-2008] suggests that reivers named Cranston operated on the Scottish side of the border.

In 1603, when James Stuart [1566-1625] became King James I of England, he attempted to clean up this disorder. He placed Sir William Cranston at the head of a detachment of troopers whose mission was to pacify the Dumfries region. Cranston did so by pursuing raiders, thrashing those who were caught and, for good measure, hanging many without trials. This ruthless dispenser of a certain kind of justice operated in the spirit of his family motto: Ere I want, thou shalt want. In the cleanup operations, some of the Scottish reivers named Cranston were transported to Ireland as planters.

Cranston farmers in Ireland In 1796, a list of Bailieborough flax growers published by the Irish Linen Board mentioned James Cranston. The unit employed to indicate a grower’s acreage was the spinning wheel, which represented a quarter of an acre.

Cranston's value was two wheels, meaning that he grew half an acre of flax.

Australian researchers named Harry Freeman (Wollstonecraft, NSW) and Harry Belcher (Wavell Heights, Qld) supplied me with fragments of data concerning early Cranstons in Cavan. They evoke a William Cranston, of the Corwillis townland, with a son of the same name who died in 1834.

Item 5-18: Descendants of a William Cranston of Corwillis.

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Corwillis was a townland in the Cavan parish of Ashfield (also known as Killersherdiny, Kilsherdany or Kildrumsherdan), located a few miles SW of Cootehill. Thomas Cranston of Lisgar seems to have been the ancestor of my Bailieborough Cranstons. Apparently the second William of Corwillis left a will (which I have not yet found) bequeathing land in Bailieborough to sons named James, Obadiah and John.

This document refers to Thomas Cranston, described as a farmer with a property in the Rakeevan townland, in the Cootehill electoral division of the barony of Clankee:

Item 5-19: Landowner named Thomas Cranston at Rakeevan.

The Mormon website mentions a Cranston family in Bailieborough:

Item 5-20: Cranstons in Bailieborough.

Maybe the above James is the same individual mentioned in item 5-18, who inherited land from his father, William Cranston of Corwillis.

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Dancey family Genealogical research in Ireland makes constant use of the Griffith's Valuation. Another fundamental database is the set of Tithe Applotment Books of 1823-1838, available today on CD, indicating the tax to be paid to the Church of Ireland by landholders. A researcher named Thomas J Barron in Virginia (Cavan) once told me that he had seen the surnames of my two Cavan families, Cranston and Dancey, occurring together in a tithe list dated circa 1826 referring to several Bailieborough townlands: Killan, Rakeevan, Curkish and Drumlon. One tenant was a James Cranston, and his neighbors were Richard Dancey and John Dancey. That researcher informed me of a marriage in 1850 of a Bailieborough girl named Sarah Dancey, who was probably a young sister of my great-great-grandmother, as indicated here:

Item 5-21: Marriage of Sarah Dancey of Bailieborough.

We have here a firm suggestion that the Danceys were Presbyterians. And it is highly likely that the Cranstons, too, were members of this Scottish church. Incidentally, it is interesting to note that Sarah Dancey married at the height of the Great Famine.

The Griffith’s Valuation of 1856 mentions tenants named Edward Dancey and Annie Dancey in the Bailieborough townlands of Rakeevan, Corraghy and Corkish. They were almost certainly siblings of Eliza and Sarah Dancey.

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Earlier Dancey generation In 2011, an English person, Roz Roberts, sent me information about the parents and siblings of Walter Dancey, born in 1796.

Item 5-22: Parents and siblings of Walter Dancey.

Walter Dancey was a publican on Market Street in Bailieborough.

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Home of Henry Cranston and his wife in Bailieborough The Griffith’s Valuation has entries for Henry Cranston in Bailieborough.

Item 5-23: Griffith’s Valuation for Henry Cranston, parish of Bailieborough.

The first entry is associated with a rural townland named Drumbannan:

Item 5-24: First entry for Henry Cranston in the Griffith’s Valuation (1856).

The above place was a field north-east of the village of Bailieborough.

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The following entry, on the other hand, refers to the urban residence of the Cranstons, at 41 Market Street in the village of Bailieborough:

Item 5-25: Second entry for Henry Cranston in the Griffith’s Valuation (1856).

The village of Bailieborough is looked upon as a townland with a strange name: Tanderagee.

The Cranstons’ landlord (of both their urban residence and the field at Drumbannan) was a celebrated man, Sir John Young. At one time, he was chief secretary for Ireland and, later, governor of Canada. He was elevated to the title of Baron Lisgar.

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The third entry reveals that the Cranstons occupied two adjoining buildings in Market Street, owned by different landlords.

Item 5-26: Third entry for Henry Cranston in the Griffith’s Valuation (1856).

We shall see, in a moment, that the main residence seems to be located at number 41, on the corner of Market Street, whereas the number 40 appears to be a smaller building, maybe stables.

Notice the name of the landlord of the above property, and compare it with item 5-21. The landlord James H Wilson was probably the father-in-law of Sarah Dancey.

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Here is the fourth and final entry for Henry Cranston in the parish of Bailieborough:

Item 5-27: Fourth entry for Henry Cranston in the Griffith’s Valuation (1856).

This piece of land, located at the other end of the village, was a triangular plot, maybe a vegetable garden. The exact location of the plot can be seen in a later map of the village. Once again, the landlord was Baron Lisgar.

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Maps of Bailieborough village The following old map provides us with a global view of the village:

Item 5-28: Global view of the village of Bailieborough.

I have placed a green circle around the Cranstons’ pair of houses numbered 40 and 41, at the north-western end of Market Street, and a blue circle around their triangular plot outside the village.

From their front door, the Cranstons must have had a clear view across to the Union Workhouse, built in 1841 to house 600 paupers. During the Great Famine of 1845 to 1852, the workhouse often housed 1500 starving men, women and children, many of whom caught fever, died and were buried in mass graves.

Item 5-29: Irish people afflicted by the Great Famine.

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Isaac Kennedy and Mary Cranston

Here is an enlarged fragment of the central zone of the map:

Item 5-30: Closeup of the north-western end of Market Street.

The Cranston residence stood alongside the Bailieborough courthouse, on the corner of Adelaide Road, which leads to nearby Coote Hill. Built in 1817, this courthouse is the oldest building in the village. In 1833, it was equipped with a so-called bridewell, which was a short-term prison with cells at ground level, and the jailer’s flat on the upper floor. (The term came from a London prison near a holy well dedicated to Saint Bride.)

Here is another map, dated 1913, of the workhouse and its surroundings:

Item 5-31: Map of Bailieborough village dated 1913.

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The following map shows the exact layout of Cranston’s double residence in the village:

Item 5-32: Residence of the family of Henry Cranston at 41 and 40 Market Street.

I do not know the relative age of this map with respect to the one we have just seen. Notice the inclusion of the name of the townland, usually written Tandragee. A lane separates the Cranstons’ main residence from the Bailieborough courthouse.

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Isaac Kennedy and Mary Cranston

Here is an enlarged view of their neighborhood, near the corner of Coote Hill Road (called Adelaide Road in the other maps):

Item 5-33: Cranston residence at 41 and 40 Market Street, Bailieborough village.

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Here is a Google map of Bailieborough today:

Item 5-34: Modern map of the central area of Bailieborough.

And here is a modern photo of Main Street, Bailieborough:

Item 5-35: Main street of Bailieborough.

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Isaac Kennedy and Mary Cranston

Emigration of the Cranstons to Australia All my information concerning the family of Henry Cranston and Eliza Dancey, and their arrival in Australia, came from a 4-page document written by an Australian researcher whom I mentioned earlier on: Harry Belcher (Wavell Heights, Queensland). The following chart summarizes the situation:

Item 5-36: Summarized description of the Cranston family in Australia.

According to Harry Belcher, the family emigrated to NSW in stages. The father and his eldest son had arrived by 1869. About a decade later, by 1878, the entire family had arrived. The mother and the younger children were the last to reach Australia, by which time the father had become a share farmer, who had been able to prepare a home for them in South Grafton.

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Marriage of Isaac Kennedy and Mary Eliza Cranston This studio portrait of Eliza Dancey and her daughter Mary Cranston was probably taken shortly before Mary's marriage with Isaac Kennedy.

Item 5-37: Eliza Dancey and her daughter Mary Cranston.

On 28 June 1881, Isaac Kennedy, 37, married Mary Eliza Cranston, 22, in the Baptist church in South Grafton. The bride's young sister, Henrietta Cranston, 15, was one of two witnesses. The other witness was a prominent

214

Isaac Kennedy and Mary Cranston

member of the business community of the thriving settlement of South Grafton (which would not become an official municipality until 15 years later): the Dublin-born John Thomas McKittrick [1848-1934], who would later become the first mayor of South Grafton.

Item 5-38: Isaac Kennedy and Mary Cranston.

I shall be looking into the lives of some of these individuals in the final chapter of this document. Meanwhile, I terminate the present chapter with an anecdote involving one of Mary Cranston's brothers in Grafton.

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Doll in the Anglican cathedral Mary's young brother William Cranston [1862-1934] had become a bricklayer in Grafton and, in 1883, he was working on the construction of the front wall of the new Anglican cathedral, designed by John Horbury Hunt [1838-1904].

Item 5-39: Construction of the east end, 1883.

The bricklaying was watched by two little girls, Bella Greenaway (14) and her sister May (6), who were waiting to meet their father, George Greenaway [1843-1915], captain of the coastal ship First Favourite, about to tie up at the wharf at the end of Oliver Street, after a voyage up from Sydney. The smaller child had with her a tiny porcelain doll. In the course of their conversation with 21-year-old William Cranston, the bricklayer was invited to place the china doll in a recess up in the wall.: an offering to the emerging cathedral.

In the above photo, five adults can be seen on top of the eastern wall of the emerging cathedral. It is quite likely that one of these individuals was William Cranston.

Within a year, the cathedral was completed. In the following photo, we see the western wall, which contained Bella Greenaway's porcelain doll. In the initial version of the edifice, there was not yet any kind of western porch.

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Isaac Kennedy and Mary Cranston

Item 5-40: Completed cathedral in 1884.

Over half-a-century later, in 1937, Cranston's brickwork was demolished, and replaced by a new western wall in which the tiny porcelain doll was given a central setting, where it can still be seen today. [Some of my data concerning this story comes from an article by Don Peck in the newsletter #116 of the Clarence River Historical Society, dated 27 July 2010. I have taken the liberty of modifying certain dates, to render the account plausible.]

Item 5-41: Christ Church Cathedral as it appears these days.

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6 Charles Walker and Mary Kennedy Many of the people evoked in this final chapter were individuals whom I encountered regularly when I was a boy in South Grafton and Grafton. So, much of this short chapter is autobiographical. A major ancestral element was missing, however, from my childhood context. My grandfather Charles Walker had died on 11 November 1937, three years before my birth.

Family of Charles Walker and Mary O'Keefe I spoke earlier on of the marriage of my great-grandparents Charles Walker and Mary O'Keefe. This chart shows their offspring:

Item 6-1: Family of Charles Walker and Mary O'Keefe.

My future grandfather was the third child.

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Charles Walker and Mary Kennedy

Family of Isaac Kennedy and Mary Eliza Cranston In the previous chapter, I spoke too of the marriage of my other greatgrandparents. The marriage certificate states that 37-year-old Isaac Kennedy was a farmer, residing on a property named Riverstone on the banks of the Clarence above Grafton, at a place known as Seelands. The following chart describes the Kennedy family:

Item 6-2: Family of Isaac Kennedy and Mary Eliza Cranston.

Notice how the name of the deceased baby Jane was given to two later daughters. My future grandmother was the sixth child.

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Six Kennedy daughters Of the seven surviving offspring of Isaac Kennedy and Mary Cranston, six were females. Living in the secluded Riverstone property at Seelands—on the right bank of the Clarence, about 20 km upstream of Grafton—the young Kennedy ladies probably did not have many opportunities of meeting up with potential suitors. That seems to be the gist of a trivial anecdote related to me by an unlikely observer: my paternal grandfather Ernest Skyvington [1891-1985]. Since the time setting of the anecdote was the first decade of the 20th century, whereas the Skyvingtons only arrived in Grafton around 1920, this means that Pop had no doubt picked up this anecdote by hearsay.

The setting of the story was the bar of the Steam Ferry Hotel in South Grafton: the celebrated establishment (later to be known as Walker's Hotel) that I spoke about at length in chapter 4. Isaac Kennedy, in his early sixties, was drinking beer and talking with graziers and local businessmen, while waiting for the river boat that would take him back up to Riverstone. The light-hearted conversation got around to the question of Kennedy's six daughters, none of whom had yet married. A few hours earlier, Isaac had received a substantial cash payment for a large quantity of cedar logs that he had delivered to McKittrick's wharf, just across the road from the hotel. So, his coat pockets were weighed down with golden coins. No doubt a little inebriated, by both the beer and the joy of his lucrative timber transactions, Isaac suddenly took a handful of glittering gold sovereigns out of his pocket and set them down on the bar. He startled bystanders by calling for silence and delivering a short speech, in the style of a town crier: "I have six beautiful daughters, each of whom deserves to marry a fine young gentleman and raise a family. Money must not be an obstacle. For every young man who takes one of my six daughters as his wife, there'll be a pile of golden sovereigns to help them get started."

The occasion was too good to be missed for a rough but sharp-witted grazier in the back of the bar, accustomed to dealing in livestock: "Give me a global sum, Isaac, and I'll take all six of your daughters!"

Pop and I shared the grazier's sense of humor. As for Isaac, I do not know.

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Charles Walker and Mary Kennedy

Walker's Hotel: a focal point My future grandfather was said to be Catholic, whereas my future grandmother was theoretically Protestant. Their common denominator was surely “a little bit of Irish” in their respective backgrounds. I hasten to add that Grandma (as we called our maternal grandmother) never said a word to me about remote Erin. It was not until I arrived in Europe, as an adult, that I even got around to learning a few basic facts concerning the legendary land of my maternal ancestors. And sadly, since then, I have never been tempted to set foot there, since it is preferable that this land should remain forever mythical in my mind. But back to South Grafton...

As I explained in chapter 4, the first Braidwood son to move to northern NSW was Patrick Walker [1845-1941]. His presence then encouraged the arrival on the Clarence of my great-grandfather Charles Walker [1851-1918] and of his young brother James Walker [1855-1894]. Charles Walker married Mary O'Keefe [1859-1933] in 1877. Five years later, in 1882, Charles's young brother James Walker [1855-1894] married Mary's young sister Elizabeth O'Keefe [1862-1942]. And, as I explained in chapter 4, this second O'Keefe daughter ended up running her father's iconic South Grafton establishment, still known as the Steam Ferry Hotel, later to be renamed Walker's Hotel.

I see three explicit links between the prosperous Riverstone landowner Isaac Kennedy and the Walkers from Braidwood: • Isaac employed Charles Walker as his teamster at Riverstone.

• As indicated in the old South Grafton map [item 4-47], the wharf of Isaac's Irish-born Protestant friend John Thomas McKittrick was just across the road from the Steam Ferry Hotel, whose owner, Michael O'Keefe, was the father-in-law of Isaac's teamster.

• It is probable that Isaac had got into the habit of using the Steam Ferry Hotel as his base whenever he came down from Riverstone.

I am incapable of determining the respective roles of these various factors in the encounter between my future grandparents Charles Walker and Mary Kennedy. And I do not know in what chronological order the factors arose.

For example: Did Isaac discover the hotel through his teamster, or did he hire his teamster through contacts at the hotel? It is likely, however, that the iconic hotel in South Grafton was the focal point of events and encounters that led to the romantic affair involving my future grandparents.

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River boat photo The following photo shows a group of a couple of dozen people posing aboard the river boat Atalanta berthed at Riverstone.

Item 6-3: River boat Atalanta at Riverstone.

On the back of the photo, somebody (my mother?) has written: “Mary Jane Kennedy in sailor dress”. Two arrows have been inscribed on the photo.

One points to a tall bearded man: Isaac Kennedy. The other points to the young woman “in sailor dress”.

I have tried to imagine the circumstances in which this photo was taken, and to guess the identity of some of the individuals in the photo. I have the impression that Isaac Kennedy had organized a get-together at Riverstone for guests who had come up from South Grafton on the Atalanta. Maybe it was a birthday party for Mary Jane Kennedy, who turned 21 on 31 August 1909. If that were the case, then we might expect that the guests included members of the Kennedy, Cranston, O'Keefe and Walker families.

Let us examine enlarged views of the various groups of people in the photo. I shall indicate ages of individuals [enclosed in square brackets] as if the photo were indeed taken around August 1909. That will enable readers to judge whether or not some of my attempted identifications are plausible.

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Charles Walker and Mary Kennedy

Group comprising Isaac Kennedy First, there is the group comprising Isaac Kennedy [65].

Item 6-4: Group with Isaac Kennedy and the Walkers (father and son).

I believe that the bearded man alongside Isaac Kennedy was his teamster Charles Walker [58], and that the young man wearing a whitish hat was the teamster's son Charles Herbert Walker [26]. Then the old man seated on the boat's railing would be Michael O'Keefe [78]. On the other side of Isaac, the young man in a cloth cap was probably Isaac's son James Kennedy [26]. I have no idea of the possible identity of the elegantly-attired fellow in the lower left-hand corner.

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John Thomas McKittrick In chapter 5, I indicated that a witness at the marriage of Isaac Kennedy and Mary Cranston in 1881 was the prominent South Grafton businessman John Thomas McKittrick [1848-1934]. Judging from an existing portrait of this man, I believe that he was the person standing further up towards the prow of the boat.

Item 6-5: John Thomas McKittrick.

The undated portrait on the left comes from the book Grafton, Jacaranda City on the Clarence by Terry Kass, published in 2009. The individual on the Atalanta certainly appears to be McKittrick [61], without a beard.

Apparently John McKittrick had once owned and operated the Atalanta before he sold his shipping business to Captain Pullen.

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Charles Walker and Mary Kennedy

McKittrick publicity featuring the photo of a teamster John McKittrick produced a publicity document that includes an undated photo of a teamster standing in front of a warehouse at the McKittrick wharf in South Grafton.

Item 6-6: McKittrick wharf in South Grafton.

I have the impression that this is a photo of the teamster Charles Walker.

We can compare this man's posture with Walker's image in item 6-4.

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Portrait of Charles Herbert Walker The image of the young man in a pale-colored hat in item 6-4 can be compared with this undated studio portrait of Charles Herbert Walker.

Item 6-7: Charles Herbert Walker.

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Charles Walker and Mary Kennedy

Kennedy daughters The six Kennedy sisters were grouped together at the rear of the boat.

Item 6-8: Six Kennedy sisters.

On the left, my future grandmother Mary Kennedy [21] was bedecked in her “sailor dress”. I would guess that the next girl was Isabella [22], whom we would later know as “Maggy”, whereas the smaller girl at the far right would be Essie [17]. To the left of Essie, the girl wearing a dark coat over a white blouse would be Henrietta [27], the eldest sister, who would be known to us as “Ettie”. The shorter girl standing behind the lifebuoy would be Kate [19].

The tall thin girl between Kate and Henrietta, with her head leaning slightly to the right, would be Annie [25]. Two years later, in 1911, she would marry James Manson in Sydney, only to die (for unknown reasons) before the end of the same year.

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Isaac's wife Mary Cranston The round-faced woman in the middle of the photo would be Mary Eliza Cranston [51].

Item 6-9: Mary Cranston, wife of Isaac Kennedy.

Her facial features can be compared with earlier studio portraits of Isaac's young wife [items 5-37 and 5-38].

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Charles Walker and Mary Kennedy

Other people on the boat Among the other people on the boat, there were surely various Cranston individuals, but I would be incapable of identifying them. Finally, the young woman on the lower deck, wearing a voluminous white blouse, might well be Kitty Walker [22], the young sister of Charles Herbert Walker.

Item 6-10: Possibly Kitty Walker.

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Walker/Kennedy marriage A year or so after the river boat photo (if my speculations concerning the date of August 1909 are correct), Mary Jane Kennedy apparently eloped from the Kennedy homestead on the banks of the Clarence River and took a coastal boat to join up with her lover, Charles Herbert Walker, in the big city of Sydney! There, they were married on 22 October 1910. Their son Eric was born in Sydney a month later, on 23 November 1910, and the proud parents gave him Sydney as a second name.

As a child, I never heard anybody refer to this elopement affair. I would imagine that certain members of the family were opposed to the idea of a “mixed marriage� between a Catholic and a Protestant. My guess is that this opposition would have been expressed, most likely, by the Catholic O'Keefe sisters. But nobody ever told me what exactly had happened. In fact, it was not the kind of family in which adults went out of their way to explain things calmly to curious kids...

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Charles Walker and Mary Kennedy

Walker family in Waterview After their Sydney escapade, Charles Walker and Mary Kennedy returned to the Clarence River with their baby. They settled down on a dairy farm in Waterview, to the west of South Grafton, and raised a family of 8 children.

Item 6-11: Family of Charles Herbert Walker and Mary Jane Kennedy.

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Eric Walker [1910-1992] Here's a studio portrait of their eldest son, Eric, born in the Sydney elopement context:

Item 6-12: Eric Sydney Walker [1910-1992].

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Charles Walker and Mary Kennedy

Stan Walker [1912-1984] Here's a similar studio portrait of their second son, Stan:

Item 6-13: Stanley Charles Walker [1912-1984].

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Brothers Eric and Stan Here's a delightful studio image of the two eldest sons:

Item 6-14: Eric Walker [1910-1992] and Stan Walker [1912-1984].

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Charles Walker and Mary Kennedy

John Walker [1913-1989] Meanwhile, a third son, John, had been born:

Item 6-15: John Kennedy Walker [1913-1989].

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Colin Walker [1914-1990] A fourth son, Colin, was born on the eve of the Great War:

Item 6-16: Colin Victor Walker [1914-1990].

236

Charles Walker and Mary Kennedy

Ken Walker [1916-2010] A fifth son, Isaac Kennedy (known as “Ken”), was born in 1916:

Item 6-17: Isaac Kennedy Walker [1916-2010].

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Kath Walker [1918-2003] The first daughter in the Walker family was my mother, always known as “Kath�. In the following studio portrait, she was 2 years old:

Item 6-18: Enid Kathleen Walker [1918-2003].

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Charles Walker and Mary Kennedy

Charles Walker [1919-1991] After Kathleen, a sixth son, Charles Bertram, was born in 1919:

Item 6-19: Charles Bertram Walker [1919-1991].

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Nancy Walker Finally, Nancy Joan Walker was born in 1932.

Item 6-20: Nancy Joan Walker.

This photo was taken in the vicinity of the old Walker house, which was located a few hundred yards to the west of the new Walker house that I knew as a child, which had been built in the mid to late 1930s. In the photo, the constructions in the background were the house and dairy installations of the Walkers' neighbor Jim Roche. The new Walker house, dairy and barn would occupy the vacant land up beyond the field of corn behind Nancy.

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Charles Walker and Mary Kennedy

The grandfather I never knew My maternal grandfather Charles Herbert Walker died three years before my birth. My aunt Nancy told me that her mother had remained constantly enraptured by her husband, claiming that Charles Walker was "far more handsome than any of our sons".

Item 6-21: Charles Herbert Walker [1882-1937].

He had been suffering from pneumonia for over a year, and he finally died at Clarence House Hospital on 11 November 1937.

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Final years of Isaac Kennedy Isaac Kennedy and Mary Cranston moved to 46 Spring Street, South Grafton. Mary died on 4 August 1926, and Isaac on 7 August 1934.

Item 6-22: Isaac Kennedy at his home in Spring Street, South Grafton.

My uncle Ken Walker inherited Isaac Kennedy's gold signet ring, which he later gave to me.

Item 6-23: Signet ring.

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Charles Walker and Mary Kennedy

Walker house in Waterview This image corresponds to my childhood vision of the Walker house in Waterview:

Item 6-24: Walker house in Waterview.

Here's a photo of the house as it appears today:

Item 6-25: Walker house in Waterview, as it appears today.

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Competitive track cycling I recall my uncles Stan and Colin when they returned home, in the mid40s, after participating in the military efforts of World War II in the Pacific.

Meanwhile, two other Walker brothers, John and Charles, had achieved local success in competitive track cycling.

Item 6-26: John, Charles and Ken Walker.

Two Malvern Star track bikes are leaned up against the fence. The elder brother, nicknamed “Cyclone” Johnny Walker, was a champion sprinter, whereas Charley's claim to fame was motor-paced track racing. In both cases, the terrain of their exploits was a dirt track at South Grafton bearing the name of an Irish friend of their maternal grandfather: McKittrick Park.

My entire childhood at Waterview was enchanted by the former cycling exploits of my uncles. For many local folk, young “Billy” Skyvington was above all the nephew of “Cyclone” Johnny Walker... and I was obsessed by a passion for this destiny. I used to peruse a giant scrapbook of press cuttings concerning his victories... which sadly disappeared under floodwaters in the 1950s at the home of my friend Noel Skennar, who had borrowed it.

In the background of the above photo, you can see the Walkers' first automobile: a 1937 Pontiac.

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Charles Walker and Mary Kennedy

I later learnt that “Cyclone” was an exceptionally emotion-based athlete, capable of either succeeding or failing according to the psychic assistance of his brothers.

Item 6-27: “Cyclone” Johnny Walker, held up by his brother Stan.

Johnny used to work periodically cutting sugar cane, both in the Clarence River district and up in Queensland. The youngest uncle, Charles, had lost a leg through slipping under a Sydney tram, and he therefore decided to earn his living as a barber, since this meant that he did not have to move around too much on his artificial leg.

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When “Cyclone” Johnny Walker died in 1989, this obituary appeared in Grafton's Daily Examiner:

Item 6-28: Obituary of “Cyclone” Johnny Walker in Grafton's Daily Examiner.

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Charles Walker and Mary Kennedy

Images of my grandmother In the following montage, the photo of my grandmother on the left dates from 1938 (not long after the death of her husband), and the other two from 1946 and a little later:

Item 6-29: Mary Kennedy in 1938 (left), 1946 (middle) and around 1947.

The following photo is the image I have of my grandmother between my move to Sydney (1957) and my departure for Europe (1962):

Item 6-30: Mary Kennedy in the late 1950s.

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A lovely cousin The Waterview Walkers were not particularly enthusiastic about meeting up with relatives. A notable exception was a lovely lady from Brisbane whose married name was May Wingham. Her periodic presence would illuminate the otherwise dull atmosphere of the Walkers' Waterview house. I would be incapable of saying what it was about this woman that created such fond memories, but her image still resonates in me today.

In the preceding chapter, item 5-4 indicated that my ancestor Isaac Kennedy had an elder brother named William. Then item 5-12 indicated that this William Kennedy had a son named Isaiah. His daughter Mabel, known as “May�, born in the mining village of Emmaville near Glen Innes, was therefore my mother's second cousin. This studio portrait of Mabel Kennedy reveals her Botticelli-like beauty as a young lady:

Item 6-31: Mabel Kennedy.

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Charles Walker and Mary Kennedy

Childless couple with a secret As a boy, I often met up with my great-aunt Isabella Kennedy and her husband Frank Everingham, who lived in Coffs Harbour.

Item 6-32: Frank Everingham and Isabella Kennedy.

The couple were childless. Long after their deaths, we were surprised to learn that “Aunt Maggie� had been the mother of an out-of-wedlock son.

Item 6-33: Isabella Kennedy's son Archibald.

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This is a photo of Archbibald on his wedding day in 1943:

Item 6-34: Archibald Dunstan on his wedding day.

And here's a photo of Archibald with his wife, taken 40 years later:

Item 6-35: Archibald Dunstan and his wife Madeline, 1983.

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Charles Walker and Mary Kennedy

Two old houses in Grafton Today, in Grafton, two houses associated with my earliest Clarence River ancestors still exist. As a youth in Grafton, I was not aware of the existence of these old houses. A few years ago, my sister Susan Skyvington succeeded in tracking them down when she was employed for a while in Grafton.

Here is the family home of the teamster Charles Walker [1851-1918], his wife Mary O’Keefe [1859-1933] and their 7 children [item 6-1]:

Item 6-36: Walker house in Fry Street, Grafton.

This house is just around the corner from my adolescent home in Kent Street. It was inherited by his son John Vincent Walker [1892-1966]. Today, I'm amazed to realize that my mother never pointed out to me the proximity of this ancestral property and our living relatives.

The other house that Susan found, on the corner of Pound and Mary Streets, was the home of an O’Keefe family, but I do not know which one.

Item 6-37: O'Keefe house on the corner of Pound and Mary Streets, Grafton.

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Skyvington family My parents were known as “Bill” Skyvington and “Kath” Walker. Within the narrow world of the Clarence River, the respective social contexts of my parents differed superficially. My paternal grandfather, born in London, had become a businessman in Grafton, whereas my maternal ancestors were long-time residents of rural Australia. But all my ancestors hailed from the British Isles, and their common fate consisted of settling in Australia.

The following chart indicates the structure of my family:

Item 6-38: My family.

The first four children were born while our parents were renting a house in Waterview, just beyond the western end of Ryan Street in South Grafton.

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Charles Walker and Mary Kennedy

Skyvington houses My childhood house in Waterview still exists.

Item 6-39: Skyvington house in Waterview (Google maps 2013).

Our sister Jillian was born after we moved to 48 Kent Street in Grafton.

Item 6-40: Skyvington house in Kent Street, Grafton (photo taken in 2003).

That image brings me to the end of the story of my mother's people in Australia... whose descendants continue to thrive today both in Australia and elsewhere.

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Index

Index

A

Borrisleigh (Tipperary), 28-29, 78

Adams, Mary, 15, 199, 202

Borrott-Maloney, Colin, 91, 95

Aghalun (Ireland), 187

Bradley, Jane, 109

Aliquis (ship), 109 Araluen (NSW), 38, 44, 53, 115

Braidwood (NSW), 20, 23, 29, 31, 33, 35-36, 38, 58, 64-65, 68-69, 72-73, 99, 106, 114-116, 124

Atalanta (boat), 222-224, 227-229

Braidwood Farm, 36

B Bailieborough (Ireland), 186, 199, 201-213 Baillie, Ann, 15, 188 Ballababa (Braidwood), 106, 108 bandits, 99-100, 112, 120, 200

Brennan, Martin, 99, 110 Brerton, Elizabeth [1784-1850], 15, 23, 28-29, 58-59, 68 Brookeborough (Ireland), 186, 190-193 Brunton, Angela [1850- ], 80 Brunton, Bridget, 56

Bassett, Marney, 25

Brunton, Catherine [1820-1901], 55-57, 70, 72-76, 81

Baxter, George, 41

Brunton, James [1849- ], 80

Baxter, Mrs, 38

Brunton, James, 55

Bedervale, 33

Brunton, John [ -1854], 80

Belcher, Harry, 200, 213

Brunton, John [1854- ], 80

Bell, Margaret, 15, 203

Brunton, Sarah [1852- ], 80

Berriman, Ellen, 109 Berriman, Joseph, 117

Brunton, Thomas [~1783-1860], 70, 72, 75

Berriman, William, 112-113, 117

Bungendore (NSW), 72, 80, 112-113

Berry, Thomas, 109, 122

Bungonia (NSW), 31, 33

Billinudgel (NSW), 87, 96

Burris Leath, see Borrisleigh

Bone, Mary, 86

bushrangers, see bandits

Borris, see Borrisleigh 254

Index

C

Clonmel (Ireland), 29

Cahill, James, 72-73

Cody, Mary [ -1919], 160

Camfield, Henry, 25

Coghill, David [ -1857], 52

Campbelltown, 34

Coghill, John, 29-30, 33, 50, 111

Carey, Patrick, 55

Coles, Thomas, 108-109

Caroline (ship), 24-27, 95-96

Connell, Bridget [~1819-1868], 109, 122

census (NSW 1841), 34-35 Chapman, William, 25, 96

Connell, Catherine [~1829-1916], 109

Charles Kerr (ship), 31, 114

Connell, Ellen [~1824-1902], 109, 126-127

Christ Church Cathedral, 216-217

Connell, James [~1815-1839], 109

Christie, Francis, see Gardiner, Frank [1829-1904]

Connell, John [~1827-1882], 109

Clarence House (South Grafton), 173 Clarke brothers, arrest, 122-123 execution, 124-125 Clarke, Anne [1842-1929], 108, 112 Clarke, Catherine [1864-1929], 108 Clarke, Elizabeth [1852-1922], 108 Clarke, James [1845-1891], 108

Connell, Mary [~1822-1905], 108-109 Connell, Michael [~1790-1862], 109 Connell, Michael Nowlan [~1821-1903], 109, 122, 127-128 Connell, Michael, 109 Connell, Patrick [~1835-1866], 109, 117-119

Clarke, Jane [1861-1925], 108

Connell, Thomas [~1832-1907], 109, 117

Clarke, John [~1808-1866], 108

Connolley, John, 71

Clarke, John [1844-1867], 100, 106, 108, 123-125

Cook, Elizabeth, 95

Clarke, John [1864-1942], 108

Cork (Ireland), 23-24, 28-29

Clarke, Letitia [1859-1926], 108

Corwillis (Ireland), 200-201

Clarke, Margaret [1849-1910], 108

Cox, Bridget [1835- ], 142

Clarke, Mary [1854-1913], 108

Cranston, Edward [~1860- ], 213

Clarke, Mary [1867-1948], 108

Cranston, Henrietta [1866-1946], 213-214

Clarke, Sarah [1857- ], 108 Clarke, Thomas [1840-1867], 100, 106-108, 112-113, 115-117, 120, 123-125

Cooke, Mary Anne [1870-1959], 194

Cranston, Henry [~1820-1909], 199, 204-206, 213

255

Index

Cranston, Mary Eliza [1858-1926], 187-188, 199, 213-215, 219, 228

Dixon, Catherine [1833-1885], 142-144, 147

Cranston, Richard [1864-1944], 213

Dixon, Catherine [1871- ], 150

Cranston, Thomas, 199

Dixon, Catherine [1879- ], 159

Cranston, Thomas [~1856-1935], 213

Dixon, Daniel [1840- ], 142

Cranston, Walter [~1853-1929], 213

Dixon, Elizabeth [1881- ], 159

Cranston, William, 200

Dixon, Ellen [1861- ], 150

Cranston, William [ -1834], 200

Dixon, James [1842-1908], 142, 159

Cranston, William [~1862-1934], 213, 216-217

Dixon, James [1869- ], 150

criterion of embarrassment, 97-98

D Dancey, Benjamin, 203 Dancey, Edward [1800- ], 203 Dancey, Eliza [1821-1904], 15, 199, 202, 213-214

Dixon, James [1877-1942], 159 Dixon, John, 142 Dixon, John [1859-1890], 142 Dixon, John [1875-1964], 159 Dixon, John Thomas [1859-1901], 150 Dixon, Josephine [1873- ], 150 Dixon, Margaret [1883- ], 159

Dancey, Jane [1794- ], 203

Dixon, Mary A [1867- ], 150

Dancey, John, 15, 203

Dixon, Mary Ann [1857- ], 142

Dancey, John [1798- ], 203

Dixon, Mary Ann [1874-1957], 159

Dancey, Margaret [1804], 203

Dixon, Michael [1841-1879], 142, 150

Dancey, Sarah [1790-1867], 203

Dixon, Michael [1890- ], 159

Dancey, Sarah [1829- ], 202

Dixon, Patrick [ -1860], 143-146

Dancey, Walter [1796-<1850], 15, 199, 202-203

Dixon, Patrick J [1885- ], 159

Darlinghurst (Sydney), 125 Dempsey, Esther, 109, 128

Dixon, Thomas [1865-1866], 150 Duggan, Hannah [1849-1912], 152

Derry Castle (ship), 197-198

Dunstan, Kenneth, see Kennedy, Archibald Malcolm [1914- ]

Dixon, Agnes Theresa [1876- ], 150

Durant, Will [1885-1981], 98

Dixon, Alice [1874- ], 150

Dwyer, Mary, 80

Dixon, Alice [1886- ], 159

256

E

Index

Egan (family), 81 Eliogarty (Ireland), 28 Elligott, John, 94 Ellis, Netta, 31 Emmaville, 194-195 Everingham, Frank [1878-1962], 219, 249

Goulburn (NSW), 31, 33, 53, 59, 102, 112 Governor Ready (ship), 29, 61 Grady, Catherine, 55 Grafton and New England Hotel (South Grafton), 161 Green, Ruth M, 154 Greenaway (family), 216

F

Griffin, Margaret, 109

Fairlie (ship), 148, 152-153

Griffin, Mary [1843-1921], 150

Fairview (Reidsdale), 42-45

Griffithâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Valuation (document), 202, 204-207

Farmers' Home (inn), 37-41, 46, 48 Farrell, Thomas, 109, 126-127 Fermanagh (Ireland), 13, 185-186, 188-192 Fisher, Emily [1866-1922], 213 flax, 192, 200 Fletcher, William [~1845- ], 118 Forest Monarch (ship), 144 Frawely, Mary, 15, 142 Freeman, Harry, 200

G Gardiner, Frank [1829-1904], 100, 102

H Hall, Benjamin [1837-1865], 100, 103-104, 115 Harman, Anne, 86 Harp of Erin Hotel (Grafton), 162 Hart, Charlotte [1845-1912], 108, 116 Henty (family), 25 Hickey, Ann [1822-1898], 15, 23, 29, 53, 65-70 Hickey, Catherine [~1838-1898], 81 Hickey, Catherine [1848- ], 72

Gilbert, John [1842-1865], 100, 105, 115

Hickey, Elizabeth [1821-1918], 29-30, 70, 79-80

Gillamatong (Braidwood), 29

Hickey, Elizabeth [1850-1886], 72-73

Gilligan, Bridget, 84

Hickey, James [1866- ], 72

Gleeson, Thomas Peter [ -1898], 65

Hickey, John (Limerick), 80

Gleeson, Thomas Peter [1863- ], 65, 117

Hickey, John (Limerick), 81

Gleneally (Braidwood), 42-43

Hickey, John [1827- ], 29-30, 70, 114

gold, 38-39

Hickey, John [~1832-1896], 81 Hickey, John [1856- ], 72-73 257

Index

Hickey, Margaret [1819- ], 29-30, 70

K

Hickey, Mary [1817-1854], 29-30, 70-71

Kane, William, 109

Hickey, Mary [1852-1855], 72

Kass, Terry, 224

Hickey, Michael [~1834- ], 80 Hickey, Michael [1825- ], 29-30

Kearney, Mary [~1805-1900], 15, 130-133, 148, 169

Hickey, Nancy [1825- ], 30

Kearney, Michael, 130

Hickey, Nancy, see Hickey, Ann [18221898]

Kennedy, Allan Isaiah [1895-1964], 194

Hickey, Patrick [1786-1858], 15, 23, 28-34, 36-37, 59-61, 70

Kennedy, Archibald Malcolm [1914- ], 249-250

Hickey, Thomas [~1811-1859], 81

Kennedy, Charles Lancelot [1899-1964], 194

Hickey, Thomas [1862- ], 72 Hickey, William [1818-1901], 29-30, 70, 72-74, 76-78 Hughes, Robert [1938-2012], 36

Kennedy, Annie Eliza [1883-1911], 219

Kennedy, Essie Grace [1891- ], 219 Kennedy, Frank Bernhard [1914-1965], 194

Hurley, Louisa, 109

Kennedy, Henrietta [1881-1952], 187, 219

I

Kennedy, Isaac [1844-1934], 15, 187188

Inverary Park (Braidwood), 31 Invercargill (New Zealand), 25

Kennedy, Isabella Jane [1886-1952], 219, 249

Irish Corner (Braidwood), 12, 23, 34, 38-39, 50-51, 53, 55

Kennedy, Isaiah [1867-1915], 194

J

Kennedy, Jane [1885-1885], 219

Kennedy, James [1882-1923], 219

Jackman, Annie E, 154

Kennedy, John [1866-1922], 194

Jackman, John F, 154

Kennedy, Kate Ethel May [1890-1936], 219

Jembaicumbene (Braidwood), 31, 34, 38, 46, 50, 52-54 Jinden murders, 120-122 Johnnie Walker, see Walker, John [1805-1857] Johnson, Victor, 219

Kennedy, Mabel Catherine [1896-1970], 194, 248 Kennedy, Mary Jane [1888-1966], 15, 219, 230-231, 247 Kennedy, William [~1835-1909], 188, 194 Kennedy, William [1864- ], 194

258

Index

Kennedy, William Cleve [1903-~1962], 194

Maher, William, 42, 55

Kennedy, William, 188

Major's Creek (Braidwood), 38, 41, 106, 112, 115

Kiama (NSW), 144-146

Maloney, Sarah, 57

King, Margaret, 109

Manson, James, 219

Krawarree (Braidwood), 106, 126

Mayberry, Peter, 50, 52, 80, 86, 99-100, 111

L

McCann, Andrew, 113

Lake Bathurst (NSW), 334

McCarthy, Ann [1855-1906], 79

Layton, Ellen, 147

McCarthy, Charles [1869- ], 79

Lees, Henry, 40-41, 52

McCarthy, James [1820-1899], 70, 79, 113

Leonard (family), 146 linen, see flax Lochhead, Margaret, see McGee, Margaret Frances [1923-1995]

McCarthy, John [1857-1932], 79 McCarthy, Joseph [ -1849], 79 McCarthy, Margaret [1860- ], 79

Lyons, Andrew, 86

McCarthy, Mary [1847-1878], 79

Lyons, Anne [~1853-1910], 38, 86

McCarthy, Michael [1866-1949], 79

Lyons, Elizabeth, 42

McCarthy, Michael, see McCarthy, James [1820-1899]

Lyons, Marcus [~1826-1897], 38, 42, 86

M MacNaughten, Eliot, 25, 96 Maconochie, Alexander [1787-1860], 36 Maddrell, Robert, 40-41, 50, 52 Maddrell, Roslyn, 53 Maher (family), 84 Maher, Ian, 42, 46, 50 Maher, James [ -1894], 57, 62, 84 Maher, Margaret [~1839-1921], 83-84 Maher, Maurice [1905- ], 42 Maher, Phillip, 40-41, 57, 83-84

McCarthy, Patrick [1862- ], 79 McCarthy, William [1850-1945], 66-67, 79 McDonald, Alex, 26, 96 McGee, Margaret Frances [1923-1995], 23, 56, 83, 85 McKittrick, John Thomas [1848-1934], 156, 179, 215, 220-221, 224-225 McMahon, Catherine, 54 McMahon, Frank, 46-47 McMahon, John, 46-47 McManus, Susannah, 84 McMaster, Catherine [~1833-1893], 188, 194, 196-198

259

Index

McPhelon, Sarah, 80

O'Connell, Charles [1883-1900], 93

Meigher, Mary B, 154

O'Connell, Cornelius [1889-1933], 93

Monahan, John, 109

Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Connell, Daniel [1775-1847], 27

Morley (ship), 108

O'Connell, David [1857-1923], 128

Moulder, Amy [1876- ], 89

O'Connell, Elizabeth [1888-1888], 93

Moulder, Caroline [1870- ], 89

O'Connell, Esther [1886-~1981], 93

Moulder, Catto [1892- ], 89

O'Connell, James [1879-1884], 93

Moulder, Charles [1887- ], 89

O'Connell, Jane [1893-1971], 93

Moulder, Edith [1881- ], 89

O'Connell, John [1885-1933], 93

Moulder, Edward [1844- ], 89

O'Connell, Margaret [1865- ], 128

Moulder, Eliza [1885- ], 89

O'Connell, Mary [1862- ], 128

Moulder, Henry [1883- ], 89

O'Connell, Michael Joseph [1858-1920], 67, 93, 100, 128

Moulder, Joseph [1868- ], 89 Mulligan, Bridget Mary [1844-1936], 133-134, 155-158 Mulloney, Catherine, 83-84 Murphy, Bridget [1857-1893], 87 Murray, Sue, 31

O'Connell, Michael Nowlan, see Connell, Michael Nowlan [~1821-1903] O'Connell, Patrick [1863- ], 128 O'Connell, Theresa [1891-1932], 93 O'Donohue, Elizabeth J, 154 O'Gorman, Maria [~1857-1936], 159

N

O'Grady, Miles, 118

Nerrigundah (Braidwood), 106, 118

O'Keefe, Alice Catherine [1864-1885], 147

Nolan, Catherine, 34 Nolan, Ellen [1831-1921], 86 Nolan, Mathew, 86 Norfolk Island, 32, 34, 36 Nowlan, James, 109 Nowlan, Margaret [~1796-1874], 109

O O'Brien, Henry, 36 O'Connell, Alice [1876- ], 128

260

O'Keefe, Edward James [1870-1963], 154 O'Keefe, Elizabeth [1862-1942], 92, 147, 164-167, 170, 176, 222 O'Keefe, Elizabeth Lucy [~1867-1926], 160 O'Keefe, Francis Patrick [1873-1949], 154 O'Keefe, James [1845-1888], 130, 133, 153-157 O'Keefe, James [1865-1915], 147, 168

Index

O'Keefe, James [1875-1969], 154

O'Keefe, Thomas J [1879- ], 160

O'Keefe, James [1879- ], 152

O'Keefe, Thomas Joshua [1877-1908], 154

O'Keefe, James V [1887- ], 160 O'Keefe, John, 15, 130 O'Keefe, John [1838-1911], 130, 152 O'Keefe, John [1869- ], 152 O'Keefe, John [1876- ], 160 O'Keefe, John Edward [1860-1921], 147, 174 O'Keefe, John Thomas [1872-1947], 154 O'Keefe, Joseph [1881-1900], 152 O'Keefe, Joseph Michael [1881- ], 154 O'Keefe, Kate [~1870- ], 160 O'Keefe, Mary [1836- ], 130 O'Keefe, Mary [1859-1933], 15, 147, 221 O'Keefe, Mary Ann [1879-1882], 154 O'Keefe, Mary Elizabeth [1884- ], 154 O'Keefe, Maurice [1876- ], 152 O'Keefe, Michael [~1874- ], 160 O'Keefe, Michael [1831-1910], 15, 130, 134-136, 141-147, 150-153, 163-167, 169, 223

O'Keefe, William [1874-1930], 152 O'Sullivan John, 99, 110

P Page, Earle [1880-1961], 172-173 Paterson (NSW), 147-150 planters, 185, 200 Pollock's store (Nerrigundah), 118 Punch, Pamela, 30, 95

Q Queanbeyan (NSW), 72, 112-113, 117 Quigley, James, 80 Quigley, Mary Ann [~1834- ], 72, 80-81

R Ramornie (NSW), 160-161 Reid, David, 31, 33-34, 46-49

O'Keefe, Michael [1873-1939], 152

Reidsdale (Braidwood), 23, 31, 34-35, 38, 41-46, 50-52, 54-55, 59, 62, 70-72, 74, 77-82, 88, 97, 99, 110-111, 113, 115, 162

O'Keefe, Michael Benedict [1887- ], 154

reivers, see planters

O'Keefe, Patrick [~1870- ], 160

Riverstone (NSW), 187, 219-222

O'Keefe, Patrick [1833-1918], 130, 160

Rolls, Alice [1889- ], 91

O'Keefe, Patrick [1871-1933], 152

Rolls, Annie Maria [1880- ], 91

O'Keefe, Patrick Bede [1884- ], 154

Rolls, Catherine [1888- ], 91

O'Keefe, Susan [1829- ], 130

Rolls, Charles [1882- ], 91

O'Keefe, Susannah [1869- ], 147

Rolls, Elizabeth [1894- ], 91

O'Keefe, Sylvester C [1883- ], 160

Rolls, George [1845- ], 91 261

Index

Rolls, George [1878- ], 91

Tindal, Charles Grant [1823-1914], 160

Rolls, James [1892- ], 91

Tipperary (Ireland), 23, 28-29, 65, 78, 95

Rolls, May [1884- ], 91 Rowland, Isaiah [~1826- ], 85 Rowland, Mary [1863-1863], 85 Rowland, Mary [1865- ], 85 Rowland, Milicent [1870- ], 85 Rowland, Susan [1867- ], 85

S Salmon, Johannah Mary, 71 Salmon, John, 34-35, 39, 41, 46-47, 71 Salmon, Margaret [1840- ], 54 Sheehan, Mary Ellen, 109 sheep, 31, 33, 35-36, 39, 46 Skyvington (family), 252-253 Spancill Hill (Ireland), 132-133 St Bernard's (church), 42-43, 45, 51 St Vincent (Braidwood), 31, 34 Steam Ferry Hotel (South Grafton), 163-167, 178, 220-221 Stone, Alacoque â&#x20AC;&#x153;Ollyâ&#x20AC;? Alethea [1897-1963], 92, 176 Stony Creek (Braidwood), 106, 109 Strathallan (Braidwood), 33 Strauss, Anna, 213 Sutton Forest Inn (NSW), 151-153

T

Toohey, Michael, 79 Torpy, Edward, 75, 80 Townsend, Florence, 147 Tudor (ship), 142 Two Mile Borris (Tipperary), 28

U Ulster (Ireland), 185-186

W Walker, "Bully", see Walker, John Vincent [1892-1966] Walker, "Cyclone" Johnny, see Walker, John Kennedy [1913-1989] Walker, "Kitty", see Walker, Catherine Veronika [1886- ] Walker, Agnes, 83 Walker, Alice [1889- ], 90, 218 Walker, Ann [1863-1899], 83 Walker, Ann [1891-1905], 87 Walker, Catherine [1861-1941], 83 Walker, Catherine Mary [1857-1939], 53, 57, 93 Walker, Catherine Veronika [1886- ], 86, 90, 170-172, 218, 229 Walker, Charles [1807-1860], 15, 53, 62-64, 68-69, 95-98

Tarlinton (family), 87

Walker, Charles [1851-1918], 15, 53, 56, 90, 218

Thurles (Ireland), 28

Walker, Charles [1865-1899], 83

ticket-of-leave, 31-37, 59, 61, 102

Walker, Charles [1872- ], 86

262

Index

Walker, Charles [1884- ], 87

Walker, John [1880-1958], 87

Walker, Charles Bertram [1919-1991], 231, 239

Walker, John [1892- ], 86

Walker, Charles Herbert [1882-1937], 15, 90, 218, 226, 231, 241 Walker, Charles Lawrence [1884-1970], 92, 176 Walker, Charles “Teamster”, see Walker, Charles [1851-1918] Walker, Colin Victor [1914-1990], 231, 236

Walker, John Albert [1880-1958], 96 Walker, John Kennedy [1913-1989], 231, 235 Walker, John Vincent [1892-1966], 90, 218, 251 Walker, Joseph [1882-1966], 87 Walker, Kathleen [1890- ], 86 Walker, Len, 87, 96

Walker, Edward [1876- ], 86

Walker, Lucy [1896- ], 86

Walker, Elizabeth [1853-1905], 53, 56, 91

Walker, Marcus [1878- ], 86

Walker, Elizabeth “Betty”, 92 Walker, Ellen [1875- ], 83 Walker, Ellen [1881- ], 86 Walker, Enid Kathleen [1918-2003], 15, 231, 238 Walker, Eric Sydney [1910-1992], 231-232, 234

Walker, Margaret [1849- ], 53, 55 Walker, Margaret, 92 Walker, Mary [1873-1892], 83 Walker, Mary Ann [1841- ], 53-54, 85 Walker, Matthew [1889- ], 86 Walker, Michael [1843-1932], 53-54, 86 Walker, Michael [1879- ], 90, 218

Walker, Florence [1878- ], 90, 218

Walker, Monica [1883- ], 86

Walker, George [1875- ], 86

Walker, Nancy Joan [1932- ], 231, 240

Walker, Isaac Kennedy [1916-2010], 231, 237

Walker, Patrick [1845-1941], 53, 55, 87-88

Walker, James [1855-1894], 53, 57, 92

Walker, Patrick [1886- ], 87

Walker, James [1876-1967], 87

Walker, Philip [1867-1941], 83

Walker, James [1885- ], 90, 218

Walker, Stanislaus [1882-1944], 83

Walker, James [1887- ], 86

Walker, Stanley Charles [1912-1984], 231, 233-234

Walker, Johannah [1846- ], 53, 55, 89 Walker, John [1805-1857], 96-97 Walker, John [1840-1928], 35, 53-54, 83 Walker, John [1877-1928], 83

Walker, Sylvester [1878-1949], 87 Walker, Teresa [1859- ], 53, 57, 94 Walker, Thomas [1874-~1891], 87 Walker, William [1885- ], 86 263

Index

Walker, William [1889-1990], 87 Walker's Hotel (South Grafton), 21, 147, 167, 170, 175-177, 184, 220-221 Wallace, Hugh, 40-41 Walton-le-Dale (England), 135-141, 146, 149 Waterview (South Grafton), 13, 152, 156-157, 162, 231, 243-244, 248, 252-253 Wellingrove (NSW), 194-198 Williams, Edward, 147 Wilson, Madeline, 249-250 Wilson, Thomas Braidwood [ -1843], 36 Wingham, May, see Kennedy, Mabel Catherine [1896-1970] Wisby, Elizabeth, 57 Woods, Thomas, 34

Y Yankalilla (South Australia), 188, 194, 197

264