Category Archives: Family History

Mary Jane Casey nee Cushley

Working on the Casey family tree over Easter I came across this wonderful photograph of Mary Jane Cushley who was married to Daniel Casey (see post of 28 December 2015) among a collection of family photographs we had received from an aunt and forgotten about.

The photograph was taken by the L Herbst photographic studio which operated from 28 Oxford Street, Sydney between 1890-1905. My guess is, the photograph would have been taken in the early 1890s.

Now if only we knew why she was dressed like that?

The Show Is In Town

This week I made one of my rare visits to Homebush Bay for the Sydney Royal Easter Show. I say rare, because I still miss the old Moore Park showgrounds!

The Sydney Royal Easter Show is run by the Royal Agricultural Society of New South Wales and for two weeks each year, obviously around Easter, country people descend on Sydney to display and judge rural produce and livestock as well as various competitions for cookery, photography, arts and crafts.

Originating in 1823, the Show had its beginning in Parramatta before first moving to Sydney’s Prince Alfred Park, in 1869 (where it became an annual event), and then moving on to Moore Park in 1881. It would have a final move in 1998, when it became part of the Olympic Park site at Homebush Bay.

For me, as a child growing up, Easter wasn’t all about receiving chocolate from the Easter bunny, it also heralded a much anticipated visit to the Show as well as how many showbags I could talk Mum into buying.

Back then, Mum would take us kids to the Show on its last day, always a Tuesday, and which was then known as Children’s Day. The truth is, being the last day of the show it was the cheapest day to take us. Adults got in for half price, children received free admission and everything was discounted including the rides and, more importantly, the showbags! Back then the showbags were actually sample bags of products from various producers unlike the exhorbitantly priced showbags of today. Of course, Mum always packed our lunch and drinks which meant the only food item that had to be purchased was the fairy floss. And once we were through the gates, the lost children’s room was dramatically pointed out so that we were in such fear of getting separated from mum that, fortunately, that never eventuated.

The day would be spent wandering around the livestock stables where we’d stand in awe at the cattle and horses but hold our noses looking at the pigs and goats. Lunchtime was spent sitting in one of the grandstands to watch whatever was being paraded at the time and no visit to the Easter show was complete unless you had visited the industry halls and, in particular, the district exhibits. Sideshow alley was another “must do” with the main aim being to win a Cupie doll on a stick.

There were rides to be had and strange people walking on stilts to be stared at, and there was a lot of walking. The Moore Park showgrounds covered an area of 40 acres and the buildings were surrounded by a maze of meandering lanes and streets.

At the end of the day we would pile on to a bus, clutching our goodies, to return home totally exhausted.

Captain Henry Edenborough

Henry Edenborough, fifth child of Samuel & Sarah Edenborough (née BOLTON) was born on 14 May 1812 at Bruce Grove, Tottenham, Middlesex. At the age of 15 he was employed by the Honourable East India Company in the Mercantile Marine Branch as a midshipman, per Lord Lowther (1827-28), and Abercrombie Robinson (1829-30).

By late 1833, Henry had left the employ of the HEIC and had made at least one voyage to Sydney as captain of the schooner Emma. Then in 1834, he took up the position of master of a newly-built 380-ton barque part-owned by his father Samuel. This first voyage, as the newly installed master of the Augusta Jessie, was to Tasmania, arriving 22 Jan 1835 with a cargo of 210 male convicts.

Several more voyages to Australia followed before Henry married Margaret Stedman in London in 1836. They eventually travelled to Australia, on board the Elphinstone in 1840, to take up residence at Wollogorang in the Goulburn district of New South Wales. It is believed that the impressive homestead that still stands today was built by Henry in 1846.

The first of Henry and Margaret’s six children, Henry Bolton, was baptised in Sydney shortly after his parents arrival in the colony in 1840; the remaining five children though – Charles Allen (1842), Bishop Reynold (1843), Margaret Annie (1845), Edith Jane (1846) and Spencer Neville(1848) – were all born at Wollogorang. The 1841 census of New South Wales shows that Wollogorang supported four ticket-of-leave men, five shepherds, eight gardeners and stockmen, and four domestic servants.

Wollogorang Homestead as it appeared in 2008

As if running a large sheep and cattle station wasn’t enough, Henry also involved himself in the local community; gave an acre of land for an Anglican church as well as a further acre for a cemetery and became a Justice of the Peace before being appointed a Magistrate of the Territory in 1844.

Henry is often quoted as being a colourful figure who owned a racehorse. But this statement is incorrect. It was, in fact, Henry’s younger brother, Horatio, who spent some time in New South Wales and who was the racehorse owner.

The Goulburn Herald of 17 Jan 1849 stated that Governor Fitzroy, Deas Thompson (the Colonial Secretary) and party “partook of luncheon” at Wollogorang and “were much gratified at the off-handed and unpretending hospitality of Mr Edenborough, for which the gentlemen of the district know him to be so remarkable”.

In 1854, Henry sold Wollogorang and all stock to his neighbour, J W Chisholm, and with his entire family returned to England arriving there at the end of 1854. Henry died at Chesham Lodge, Surrey, on 6 Feb 1855, aged 43 years. Margaret survived her husband by 14 years dying at Sheffield Gardens, Kensington on 26 Oct 1869.

In 1992, Henry was honoured for his participation in the development of Australia by having his name affixed to a plaque located near the Overseas Shipping Terminal on Sydney Harbour.

sydney cove 1

Balmain and Darlington Land Purchases

James Dempsey made his first land purchase in New South Wales, at Balmain, from John and Eliza Nicholson on 7 September 1843 for the sum of £45.¹

Location of James Dempsey’s land
purchase (Lot 11) from Nicholson’s
Balmain subdivision

Dr William Balmain, the Principal Surgeon of the Colony, had been granted 550 acres by Governor Hunter in 1800. The following year the grant, in its entirety, was transferred to Dr John Gilchrist of Calcutta, India. Gilchrist, having bestowed power of attorney to his Sydney agent, Frederick Parbury, eventually had Parbury subdivide the 550 acres into 22 lots in 1833 and between 1836 and 1840 he successfully put the Balmain Estate up for auction.

John Nicholson, who had served a distinguished career in the Royal Navy, and was employed in the Colony by the Crown as Master Attendant and Harbour Master, purchased Lots 15 and 18 of the Balmain Estate in 1836. This gave Nicholson eight acres of waterfront land where he built his residence Durham House.

However, due to a severe economic depression throughout the Colony in the early 1840s, Nicholson was forced, in 1842, to sell off part of the grounds of Durham House in an attempt to stave off his creditors.

Nicholson chose to subdivide the grounds into 26 Lots of land facing Nicholson, Darling and Duke Streets, reserving a wide frontage to Nicholson Street which allowed his home to retain its harbour views and not reduce the value of the house.

This was happening at a time when the Colony was emerging as a free society – distancing itself from its convict origins. Labourers, skilled and unskilled, could now move around freely and, against this backdrop, the population of Balmain was to increase rapidly.

Before 1840, only a few families of well-to-do businessmen had lived in stately homes in Balmain. With the sub-division of Nicholson’s land, the new Balmain residents covered a mixed variety of occupations such as butchers, grocers, blacksmiths, shoemakers. Its location on the harbour would also see Balmain receive an influx of nautical and associated industry tradesmen.

By 1846 Balmain had become the largest residential district of Sydney with 19.6 per cent of the suburban population living there.² Other large residential districts were located at Newtown (17.8% of suburban population), Glebe (15.5 per cent), Redfern (12.7 per cent) and Paddington (12.1 per cent).

Within a year of having purchased Lot 11 of Nicholson’s subdivision, (75-77 Darling St, Balmain), James Dempsey (I) had his son James (II) build a weatherboard cottage and butcher’s shop on the land in 1844.³

Land Titles Office of New South Wales, Deposited Plan 220489
for Lot 11 of Nicholson’s subdivision – No’s. 75-77 Darling Street, Balmain

The City of Sydney Directory, 1844-45, recorded James Dempsey (I) as “butcher, Darling St Balmain”. His wife Jane is recorded as being a “bonnet-maker, Darling St Balmain”.

On 23 January 1857, James Dempsey (I) also purchased land in Rose Street, Darlington, (Lot 17 of Block 5 of the Darling-Nursery Estate), from Benjamin Morris for the sum of £130.⁴ James, and his wife Jane, then made this property their permanent residence. The Rose Street premises contained a brick two-storey semi-detached dwelling known as No.’s 88 and 90 Rose Street.

Lot 17 – Rose Street, Darlington

Land Titles Office of New South Wales Deposited Plan 500 724 of Lot 17 of the Darling-Nursery Estate Division

The Darling-Nursery Estate had originally been land granted to Thomas Shepherd for use as a nursery and was named in honour of Governor Darling. Although Shepherd’s nursery was a pleasant spot its impact on the area was limited as Shepherd catered not for the poor citizens but for the gardens of the wealthy.

Chippendale c1855 from Sydney University – Shepherd’s Darling-Nursery
Estate and house is shown far right

The other large landholder in the immediate district was Robert Cooper who owned the Brisbane Distillery which was taken over by the Colonial Sugar Refining Company in 1855.

The earliest Darlington Valuation and Rate Books date from 1866 and they show that in 1866 James Dempsey was owner/occupier of both semis. The Rate Book for 1867-68, however, shows that James had decided to occupy only one of the buildings and was renting out the other.

The tenant, John Hawthorn, stayed until 1870 when a fellow named John Fewings then took over the rental. Fewings rented the premises until 1878 after which time the premises saw a succession of tenants on a yearly basis.

In 1862, five years after purchasing the Rose Street premises, James, who by now was recording his profession as a landholder, also purchased land in Fotheringham Street, Newtown, for the sum of £45.⁵ He sold this block 11 years later to his son-in-law Charles Cooper for £150.⁶ One year after purchasing the Fotheringham Street property, James sold his premises at Balmain to butcher James Conway for £350.⁷

Following the death of his wife Jane in 1870, James Dempsey (I) did not continue to live at Rose Street, moving instead to 1 Laura Street, Newtown, the residence of his daughter Catherine and son-in-law Matthew Medway. The premises at Rose Street, though, weren’t sold until after James’ death in 1888, allowing James to live off the rents earned from them.

This photo taken in 2011 of 1 Laura Street,
Newtown, is presumed to be the home of
Catherine and Matthew Medway in which
James Dempsey lived out his later years

At the time of Jane’s death, Rose Street could be classified as a fairly well-to-do address compared with many other streets In the area that were falling into a state of disrepair. Of the 49 dwellings recorded in the Assessment Book for Rose Street in 1870, 34 were built of brick and four of stone with only 11 dwellings being built of timber. The street also contained three parcels of vacant land.

James Curry moved into his grandfather’s home in 1873 and remained there until 1878 when the two semis were then rented out on a yearly basis.

It is interesting to note that in October 1870, five months after Jane’s death, the residents of Darlington, along with the residents of Glebe and Chippendale, signed a petition praying for relief from the Colonial Sugar Refining Company’s practice of storing and burning hundreds of tons of bones in every stage of decomposition. The company’s practice of burning the bones was to create charcoal for filtering purposes. The residents complained that:

The effluence, gas and smoke generated by the storing and burning of the said bones are in the highest degree prejudicial to health, obnoxious and offensive in the extreme and detrimental to the social advancement of the district.⁸

Although James Dempsey’s name was not among the residents, his tenant, John Fewings, signed the petition which shows that James’ premises must have been affected by this revolting practice.

While residing at Medway’s home, James Dempsey made out his will on 28 December 1887. He appointed a friend, John Humphries of Darlington, and a grandson, Henry Robinson, as trustees and executors to the will.

As per the terms of his will, any of his estate which did not consist of money was sold and converted to cash and after any debts, funeral and testamentary expenses were covered the remainder was divided as follows:

The trustees were to retain 10 pound each for their trouble, son-in-law Charles Cooper to receive 100 pounds (50 of which had been lent to James), 5 pounds each to the five surviving children of grandson James Curry as a memorial to their deceased sister Lilian; and 25 pounds to be paid to Mrs Annie Duffy of Albion St, Sydney. The remainder of the estate was to be equally divided between James’ three surviving daughters – Catherine Medway, Annie Porteous and Rose Cooper. Catherine though was to receive an extra 100 pounds having been money lent by her to her father.

Following James’ death in 1888, John Humphries and Henry Robinson dutifully carried out the terms of James Dempsey’s will and put the Rose Street premises up for public auction on 12 December 1888. William Jones, proprietor of the Town Hall Coffee Palace in George Street, Sydney, being the highest bidder, was declared the purchaser at a sum of £650 and finalised the transaction on 17 December 1888.⁹

At the time of the sale, the property consisted of a block of land having a 30ft frontage to Rose Street with a depth of 100ft to a lane at the rear, upon which were erected two houses built of brick with slate roofs each containing five rooms and wash-house.¹⁰ Today, the area which housed the Rose Street property is used by the Engineering faculties of the University of Sydney.

————————————————————-

¹Land Titles Office [New South Wales] Old System Register Book 5 No. 7
²Leichhardt Historical Journal No. 5 p3
³Leichhardt Historical Journal No. 13 p19
⁴Land Titles Office [New South Wales] Old System Register Book 47 No. 382
⁵Land Titles Office [New South Wales] Old System Register Book 79 No. 346
⁶Land Titles Office [New South Wales] Old System Register Book 135 No. 445
⁷Land Titles Office [New South Wales] Old System Register Book 90 No. 522
⁸Sydney City Archives Ref CRS 26/106/1044
⁹ Land Titles Office [New South Wales] Old System Register Book 403 No. 819
¹⁰ Stamp Duties Deceased Estate File – Duty Paid AONSW Ref 20/8

Casey Origins Part 1

With genealogy, there are two attributes you need more than anything else … patience and persistence!

Searching one’s family tree is nowhere near as easy as the Who Do You Think You Are? TV series and the many Ancestry.com advertisements depict. Instead, it is only through patience and persistence that you eventually break down the brick walls of your research. And these two attributes are even more important if you are researching Irish ancestors.

As early as 1992 (when I undertook my first trip to Ireland), I knew that the Casey line originated in Cork, Ireland. What I wasn’t able to ascertain was whether it was the city of Cork – or the county of Cork – until my fourth visit there in 2013.

Daniel Casey arrived in Sydney, Australia, in the 1880s per the steamship Potosi. He had paid for his passage in steerage (third class) which meant that, unlike government assistant immigrants, there is no information recorded on the passenger list regarding his birthplace or parentage.

In 1887 Daniel, a pastry cook resident in Pitt Street, Sydney, married the 21-year-old Mary Jane Cushley, a domestic servant living at St Johns Road, Glebe. Daniel recorded his age as 25 years and listed his birthplace as Yorkshire England.¹

After welcoming their only child in 1888, Daniel succumbed to tuberculosis and died on 22 September 1891 at Liverpool Asylum. Asylums were the precursor to today’s hospitals as we know them, and were used for many years to care for destitute and infirm persons.

Liverpool Hospital c1876 – Wikipedia Commons

The Register of Inmates for Liverpool Asylum stated that Daniel Casey was:

[aged] 30 years; a Roman Catholic; born in Bradford; came out 8 years ago on SS Potosi
as a passenger; married with one child; a cook last employed by the Sydney Catering Co.
3 months ago; been living at 277 Liverpool St; suffered from Phthisis [tuberculosis]; had a brother, J Casey (address unknown) living in Australia; and died 22 September 1891.²

Further information gleaned from the hospital register stated he was married with no property, had been in the Sydney Infirmary 22 days prior to admission at Liverpool Asylum, and had worked for the Sydney Catering Co. for 12 months.

Sydney Infirmary, 1870 [attributed to Charles Pickering] the image is from the collections of the State Library of NSW SPF / 176

Tracing backwards, Daniel was born 20 March 1859 at 2 Craven Street, Bradford, Yorkshire – the second son, and fifth of seven children, born to Daniel and Maria Casey (nee Dempsey). His father, Daniel Casey Snr, was recorded on his son’s birth certificate as being a power loom/worsted weaver.³

The first English census held following Daniel’s birth was that for 1861 and the two-year-old Daniel was easily found living with his family at 2 Craven Street. Also enumerated on the census schedule was an elder, married, brother of Daniel Snr named Joseph. This census schedule recorded the first evidence that the Casey family originated in Cork, Ireland.⁴

The 1861 UK Census Schedule showing the 2-year-old Daniel Casey living with his family at 2 Craven Place, Bradford, YKS

Ten years later, the 12-year-old Daniel Casey was recorded in the 1871 census as working as a worsted spinner along with several of his siblings.⁵ The place of birth recorded for the elder Daniel was only listed as Ireland, so a definitive place of origin in Ireland was still not known.

By the 1881 census Daniel Casey was no longer living at home; his father had died, and his widowed mother was recorded as being head of the household.⁶ Maria Casey recorded her place of birth as simply, Ireland.

Daniel was eventually found in the 1881 census, at Weymouth in Dorset where he was recorded as being a private with the 1-14th Regiment.⁷ At some stage, Daniel had obviously decided that a life in the army had to be better than that of a worsted mill worker. More research needs to be done on Daniel’s life in the army, but for his stay at Weymouth we can assume he was housed at the Red Barracks. And perhaps it was from his military life that Daniel learned the occupation of pastry chef.

^{1 New South Wales Registry of Births, Deaths, Marriages: Daniel Casey Marriage Certificate No. 2641/1887}^{2 State Records New South Wales: Health Department, Register of Inmates, Government Asylums for the Infirm & Destitute, 7/3801-3, microfilm 2848}^{3 General Register Office (UK): Daniel Casey Birth Certificate, Bradford Registration District, 1859 Jun Qtr, Vol 9b Pg 56}^{4 The National Archives (UK): 1861 England Census Schedule RG9/3320/72/23

5 The National Archives (UK): 1871 England Census Schedule RG10/4460/58/27

6 The National Archives (UK): 1881 England Census Schedule RG11/4449/107/33

7 The National Archives (UK): 1881 England Census Schedule RG11/2104/19/31}

Christmas’ Past

As another Christmas arrives far too quickly, it is interesting to look back on Christmas’ past and recall the fond memories of my childhood: of my sister, brother and I tearing from our beds to see what Santa had brought, wildly unwrapping our goodies, and, racing next door to our neighbours to compare presents with their four children. Between them and us there would be seven kids riding up and down in front of our houses on an assortment of new bikes, scooters and skateboards – and all before 8am!

Then, of course, there was lunch …

xmas 68 As a child growing up in the 1960s, the cold seafood buffets and barbecued lunches we enjoy today in Australia weren’t even a figment of our imagination back then. Instead, we sat through a variation of the typical English Christmas dinner of a roast and baked vegetables. I say a variation because my stepfather was Italian and this meant that we sat through a MASSIVE Christmas lunch. If it was only our immediate family for lunch it would start with either, soup, or pasta, followed by roast lamb AND chicken with the usual baked vegetables, including at least two types of beans, as well as peas or zucchini. Dessert, if we wanted it, was usually Neapolitan ice-cream.

But if we were having Christmas lunch at Aunty Giovanna’s, or another of my stepfather’s siblings’ homes, there was ALWAYS antipasti first, followed by pasta which would either be lasagne or cannelloni, then the roasts – often veal and chicken (and more often than not, a fish dish too) and a ton of cooked vegies. Eventually, dessert would appear hours after sitting down to eat. I have to admit I don’t really remember the desserts – as kids, my sister, brother and I were always too full to eat our dessert – but I do remember there were always ricotta cannolis, pistachio cakes and Amaretti biscuits to take home.

Needless to say, there wasn’t much running around done in the afternoons/evenings after one of these feasts. In fact, looking back, I expect mum and dad really needed the quiet time to rest up following what must have been only a couple of hours sleep the night before. On Christmas Eve, we always attended Midnight Mass at a small Catholic church located at the end of our street. Following church it must have been a nightmare trying to get us kids to sleep so that they could put out the presents and catch a few zzzz’s before the three of us ran amok with Christmas present excitement.

James Dempsey of Derrykeighan, Co. Antrim

Family lore states that James DEMPSEY was born c1795 near the Giant’s Causeway in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. Bushmills was originally believed to have been his birthplace although emigration papers for James Dempsey, upon arrival in Australia, record him as being a native of the parish of Derrykeighan.

Research into James’s early life has been quite difficult but there is now enough evidence to confirm the location of the family home of James Dempsey and his wife, Jane (née McLOUGHLIN), in the parish of Derrykeighan. Nothing has been found, however, to suggest that James was actually born there. Material researched at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland in 2013 revealed there was also a Dempsey family resident in the Tonduff district of North Antrim. So, could Tonduff, in fact, be the ancestral home of James Dempsey? While both Derrykeighan and Tondruff are in close proximity to Bushmills, the Tonduff district is the closer of the two and would back up the statement that James Dempsey was born “near” the Giant’s Causeway.

The location of Tonduff can be seen
in the 5th square across and 2 down

If James was born in the Tonduff area, and if he was not the eldest son, it would be highly likely then, that upon marrying Jane McLoughlin, he sought out his own residence at Derrykeighan, which would have been leased rather than owned, for them to grow their family.

An 1836 survey map of the Ballydivity Estate, owned by the Stewart-Moores and located in the parish of Derrykeighan, mentions the name Dempsey as leasing one of the fields drawn on the map. Correspondence dated 1838 between James Dempsey and Captain [James] Stewart-Moore of Ballydivity corroborates a connection between the two men.

Drawing supplied by James Stewart-Moore in 2013 matching a survey map of 1836 showing the location of the Dempsey home immediately prior to James Dempsey and his family emigrating to Australia.

While there is no conclusive record having survived that confirms, beyond a shadow of a doubt, correspondence in 2013 between Jennie Fairs and the current owner of Ballydivity, another James Stewart-Moore, discussed and agreed on the likelihood that house ruins located in Ballydivity Lane were that of the Dempsey home marked on the 1836 survey.

Dempsey house ruins, 2013 – the fence line runs parallel to Ballydivity Lane

In a letter dated 1983 from Enid Hardman to her cousin Rene Dempsey, Enid writes that their great-grandfather, James Dempsey, left Ireland because “there was trouble with violence there, the same as is now. He [James] said there would be no peace in Ireland for hundreds of years.” How true his words turned out to be!

In the same letter, Enid also writes that James Dempsey was an accountant. In the 1830s-1840s, the new colony of Australia needed labourers and farmers to work the land (not accountants) and the Bounty Scheme was introduced to acquire these people. The desire to leave Ireland and start a new life with his family must have been strong, as James, to qualify for bounty assistance, deliberately recorded his occupation as ploughman on his Immigration Entitlement Certificate.

The discovery of Enid’s letter stating James’ occupation as an accountant helps to answer the questions of:

1. If James had been a ploughman, why was he able to read and write so well; and
2. How, after only being in the colony for a very short time, was he able to acquire land, something that could not have been done on a ploughman’s wages?

Whatever the reason for their departure, together with their seven children – John, Catherine, Mary, Jane, James, Ann and Roseann – James and his wife Jane boarded the emigrant ship Susan in October 1838 to start a new life in Australia. A copy of a Journal written by the ship’s surgeon, has survived giving us a rare insight into the life of a sea-faring emigrant.

On 10 October 1838, the majority of emigrants came onboard the Susan with their luggage. Once they had been allotted their sleeping quarters and sundry utensils, a pint of tea and biscuits were served to them and at 8pm they were ordered to bed. After four days of strong gales and squally showers with occasional hail, the Susan weighed anchor and headed down to Culmore Bay from Londonderry where for want of water over the flats it was necessary to anchor again. Following a further five days of remaining moored in Culmore Bay the Susan once again got underway only to anchor off Moville due to further strong gales with heavy squalls and rain. By this stage nearly all the passengers were confined to bed with seasickness, and although provisions for the day had been served out as usual, very few were in any condition to take anything.

Moville was the final Irish port where the emigrants could post last-minute letters home. Those who were able did so and among them was James Dempsey who wrote to Captain Stewart Moore Jnr of Ballydivity, “Dervock”, County Antrim.

Honord sir, being conscious that you would be desirous of assertaining some information conserning us, how we are situated, I now inform you as it is with us at present; the ship mooved down from Derry the south of Culmore on Saturday evening and the weather being unfavourable stopped there untill Thursday morning and she is now down the lenth of Movill and intends going off the oppertunity this evening; it is serious to behold in all corn[er]s of the ship the[y] are sick and women feanting but thank God we are all in good health as yet; The first and second day that we went on board there was a great deal of complaints with the emigrants of their rashions being too small and many of them wishing to go ashore and return home but I endeavred to peasify all that I had anny influance with nowing that it was impossible for two hundred and sixty four passingers to be all righted according to there wishes at once; the news reached Captain Ramsys ears and he came on board at Culmore and called all the passingers on deck and gave free liberty to all that pleased to go ashore and there was one man from Newtoun that went home and this is the reason that I write leaft the word would be carried home that we are ill treated and if it does, believe it not. For the hole passingers is put into seventeen messes and there is apointed one man head over each mess and I am appointed over one and it is there business to see the meat eaqually served out according to the number of the mess. We get our breaxfast about eight o’clock of good tea and one day pork with pea soop for our dinner and the next day beef with flour pudding mexed with suat; there is alsow rum, wine, figs and reasons for those that is sick and everything appears to be carried on in a verry judicious manner: there is six men apointed with the doctor for forseing (?) laws and if any is found pilfering from the other or giving insolence the one to the other or refusing to clean their births or sweeping upper or lower decks, the[y] are reported to the doctor and their names enterd in the registers book and when the[y] arive at Sidney, the[y] will be given up to the government and punished in proportion as their crime deservs, therefore I expect good order will be carried on. Now sir be pleased to give my kind love to my master, mistress Miss Ann and Miss Mary and little (?) Stewart and to all the men and let them know that there is no day that the[y] are out of my thoughts and let William Polock know that 1 wish that he would take word to my people to Bushmills and tell them we are all well. I now sir remain your kind and affectionate servant till death.
[Signed] James Dempsey
P.S. Let William Polock know that I forgot my reazor in the house and I wish him to go to John Mckelly as I think he must have it as he was the last I left in the house and keep it for my sake. Sir excuse the bad writing and blotting as the ship was heaving very hard the time I wrote it.

By 27 October, James and Jane Dempsey’s son John was suffering severely from [supposed] seasickness. The surgeon recorded in his journal: “John Dempsey, boy 10 years of age, suffering very much.” Several entries followed describing John’s decline until a final entry reports the sad reality for some emigrants who endured the long voyage to Australia – 6 November 1838, “Departed this life at one o’clock a.m. John Dempsey, 14 years – body served upon his bed and bedding … at 4 o’clock committed to the deep the remains of the deceased. Funeral service read by the Master.” John Dempsey was buried at sea off the coast of the Canary Islands at latitude 28.14N and longitude 19.10W. The temperature that day varied between 67 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit.

By 17 January 1839, whooping cough was also spreading at a mild rate and unfortunately for the Dempsey family, the eldest daughter Mary contracted the disease. Mary’s recovery was to remain slow and, by the time the Susan arrived at Sydney Harbour on 1 February 1839, Mary remained in a convalescent state.

After disembarking, James Dempsey was engaged by the Rev. Henry Carmichael from Williams River, NSW, for a yearly wage of £30 with rations. An emigrant brought out on the Bounty Scheme had to work for a minimum of one year for the person who paid the Bounty. Carmichael had been a schoolmaster and educational theorist who had been employed by the Rev. John Dunmore Lang as a teacher for the Australian College which opened in Sydney sometime after October 1831. In 1833, Carmichael founded the Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts, the first of its kind in the colony. Then upon his appointment as the assistant surveyor for the Hunter district he left Sydney and established the Porphyry vineyard at Seaham on the Williams River. The vineyard, which survived into the early part of the 20th century, stopped production in 1915 and Lindeman’s bought the Porphyry name and trademark.

James Dempsey

Jane Dempsey nee McLoughlin

By 1841 James had obviously fulfilled his commitment to Carmichael as he and Jane were living back in Sydney. Shortly after he purchased land at Balmain being Lot 11 of Nicholson’s subdivision (75-77 Darling St, Balmain), and in 1844 James Dempsey had his son James Jnr build a weatherboard cottage and butcher’s shop on the land. Of strong Christian faith, James also helped establish the Wesleyan Church at Balmain in 1845. In 1857, James purchased land in Rose Street, Darlington which was to became his residence until 1870 when his wife, Jane, aged 75, died on 16 July 1870 following a three-week bout of bronchitis.

It is from the record of Jane’s death that I live in hope that there may still be family back in Northern Ireland. James was the informant for registration of his wife’s death, and it is safe to assume that he would have known how many children they had had. I already knew that the family had left NI with seven children – 2 males and 5 females – and that 1 male and 2 females had predeceased their mother, leaving 1 male and 3 females living at the time of Jane’s death. BUT James recorded on the death certificate that there were in fact 2 males and 2 females that had predeceased their mother AND 2 males and 3 females still living! Who was this extra male still living at the time of Jane’s death that I didn’t know about. The family and their descendants in Australia remained close so surely we would have known about this extra son had he also emigrated. Because no-one knew about the extra son, I believe that he must have remained in NI – possibly already married and settled when James made the decision to emigrate.

When James died on 23 September 1888, also of bronchitis, he was interred with his wife in the Wesleyan section of Rookwood Cemetery.

Grave of James & Jane Dempsey, Rookwood Cemetery, 2013

Throughout his life, James Dempsey remained an active member of the Wesleyan Church. His obituary printed in The Weekly Advocate reported that:

In the recent death of Mr James Dempsey the Newtown circuit has lost its oldest and one of its most respected members … [at Balmain] he was the first to open his house in which to hold services. When the time came for building a church, he not only gave to the utmost extent of his ability, but he spent much time and energy in collecting the necessary funds. The most prominent name connected with the rise of our cause In Balmain is that of Mr Dempsey.

Also included was a colourful description of Dempsey’s conversion to the Wesleyan faith:

In early life he was brought up in connection with the Church of England, and until some time after he arrived at manhood he retained that connection. But, though a strict adherent of the Church, he was not a converted man. His conversion took place in a remarkable manner. His own account, borne out also by his relatives, was to the following effect:

Returning home from the services of the church he usually attended, he passed a house occupied by a Mr Hill, which had been opened for services by the Wesleyan Methodists. It so happened that as he passed, one of the Irish local preachers residing in that neighbourhood was conducting the service. Mr Dempsey listened for a short time to the sermon, and then in a derisive manner called the preacher a “Ranter”, and passed on to his home.

In the early hours of the following morning a strange and startling noise was heard in the room where he slept. Whatever might have been the cause of the noise, it was interpreted as a call from God to his soul, which only a few hours previously vented its wickedness in opposing and deriding a servant of the Lord. His conscience so stung him that he could not rest. Under a deep sense of sin and danger both he and his partner rose to pray. Through the rest of the night they continued pleading with God for mercy. And as the morning light broke on the room it pleased God to set them both at liberty … He at once connected himself with the Wesleyan Church. He became a prayer-leader, and also a leader of a society class, and remained in these useful offices until he left Ireland for this colony.

The obituary then closed with the following words written by the Rev. W.B. Boyce:

I have known the late Mr Dempsey since 1847. His character for Integrity and industry stood high, and his Protestantism was a striking characteristic of the feeling of an Irishman … I do feel the highest respect for his genuine character, and the impression of which was common to all who knew him intimately.

I have been very fortunate that there have been descendants of James and Jane Dempsey in Australia that have kept all manner of family documents and memorabilia. But it is James’s ancestry back in Northern Ireland that is my brick wall. Unfortunately, the parish register for Derrykeighan is among the records destroyed in the 1922 fire at Dublin’s Four Courts. On my 2013 visit to NI I spent 5 days researching at PRONI and came away with what may be a possible lead – a Daniel Dempsey was a churchwarden and sidesman of the parish church of Billy, Co. Antrim and the Billy parish encompasses the town of Bushmills as well as the townland of Tonduff and the Stewart-Moore home of Ballydivity.

Arthur Edenborough

Arthur was the ninth child of Samuel and Sarah EDENBOROUGH nee BOLTON and was born 19 Dec 1820 at 37 Milk Street, London. He was baptised the following month on 19 Jan 1821 in the parish church of the united parishes of St Lawrence Jewry and St Mary Magdalene, London. Also baptised that day was an elder brother, Leopold.

Ancestry.co.uk – London Metropolitan Archives, St Lawrence Jewry, Register of Baptism, Guildhall: DL/T, Item Ms 10442A

Arthur travelled to Sydney, Australia in 1840 per Elphinstone, in the company of his elder married brother, Henry, and sister-in-law, Margaret. Henry had travelled to Australia to assist further brothers, Samuel and Bishop, in the emerging Australian wool market. Continuing on with his travels we next find Arthur in Valparaiso, Chile, where in 1844, he married Jane GRIFFIN, daughter of George Griffin, master mariner.

While Arthur and Jane’s first child Emily was born back in London in 1845, shortly after, Arthur, Jane and the infant Emily travelled to Australia, where their next three children, Claude Dudley, Augusta Jessie and Edwin, were all born.

In January 1851, while in the employ of the Customs Department in Sydney as a tidewaiter, Arthur was placed at a moment’s notice on board the Emerald Isle, an American ship anchored in Sydney Harbour, in an attempt to stop the ship from leaving the port until necessary repairs had been undertaken. Instead, Arthur was “carried off in a piratical manner by the captain”.

Expecting to have been only a few hours on board the Emerald Isle, he had taken “neither bed or extra clothing of any kind with him, and was therefore obliged to sleep on the bare planks of the damp cuddy”.

Arthur was eventually put ashore in Honolulu where he obtained the assistance of the British Consul General to obtain return passage to Sydney, via New Zealand, arriving home in June of 1851.

The ordeal left Arthur in a weakened state and within a few short years he was no longer able to continue employment and was suffering extreme poverty and abject dependence due to the deprivations he experienced from the clandestine departure of the Emerald Isle.

Arthur Edenborough died in 1869 aged 48 years.

Family Leaves and Branches

The leaves and branches of our family history