TAILOR
SHIPWRIGHT
ROBERT WESTPHAL
First published in 2019 by Impact Press
an imprint of Ventura Press
PO Box 780, Edgecliff NSW 2027 Australia
www.impactpress.com.au
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Copyright © Robert Westphal 2019
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any other information storage retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.
ISBN: 978-1-920727-38-3 (paperback)
ISBN: 978-1-920727-37-6 (ebook)
Cover and internal design: Deborah Parry Graphics
Cover image: Joseph Lycett, approximately 1775-1828, View of the south end of Schouten's Island, Van Diemens Land, National Library of Australia, nla.obj-135711592.
Contents
Maps
Author’s Note
Principal Families
1. Thomas O’Neil
2. Voyage of the Friendship
3. King’s Tailor
4. Elizabeth Foster
5. The Trial
6. The Overseer
7. Captain John Davison
8. Voyage of the Perseus
9. The Dockyard Apprentice
10. Upper Pitt’s Row
11. Miss Thompson
12. Anne Kennedy
13. Finding a Girl in Hobart Town
14. Exploration of Middle Harbour
15. O’Neil’s Dilemma
16. William and Maria Foster
17. Middle Harbour Farm
18. Tragedy
19. Barney Kearns Returns
20. Hunters Meadows Farm
21. Separation
22. Shell Cove
23. George Atherden
24. The O’Neil Daughters
25. The O’Neil Women
26. Anastasia
27. The Unwelcome Visitor
28. The Great Fire
29. Paterson’s Plains
30. Anastasia and William Tie the Knot
31. Poor Terence Rooney
32. Surveyor Meehan’s Past Deeds Come Home to Haunt
33. The Shell Cove Ferry Service
34. The Brown Family
35. William Foster and the Court of Claims
36. Margaret Kearns
37. The Nerneys
38. Charles Beilby and Hunters Meadows
39. Barney Kearns’s ‘Nieces’ Seek Shell Cove Assets
40. Epidemics and Diseases
41. The Will
Epilogue
End notes
Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Sydney Cove 1810—1820 with Governor Macquarie’s development of new construction. Map courtesy of the Mitchell Library.
Shell Cove and Balmoral Beach circa 1832 depicting the location of Barney Kearns’s Boat House and Thomas O’Neil’s Hunters Meadows farm. Map courtesy of the Mitchell Library.
Hunters Meadows farm circa 1835 following Charles Beilby’s purchase of 30 acres of Hunters Meadows from Tom and Mary Ann Brown (nee O’Neil). Map courtesy of the Mitchell Library.
Author’s Note
This book grew out of the exploration of my family’s history. As anyone who has begun such an exploration knows, the discoveries you make can be very exciting and surprising. Digging back through your genealogy is like doing a jigsaw puzzle, with the shape and picture on the box a blank. This is particularly so as you work back to older generations beyond living memories.
As I worked back through the records on my mother’s side of the family, I came across the principal people that form the basis of this book; William and Anastasia Foster being my thrice great-grandparents and Thomas and Anne O’Neil my four-times great-grandparents. Another significant couple in this narrative bear no blood relation to me, and that is George and Harriet Atherden, who raised my twice great-grandmother Harriet Foster and her brothers and sisters.
The O’Neils and William Foster did not arrive and live in Sydney by choice. Prior to their arrival at the very start of the 1800s, they had survived months of incarceration in British and Irish prisons, Portsmouth hulks and below decks on convict transport ships. They subsequently led fruitful and successful lives in the developing colony of New South Wales.
Those people mentioned by name in this book lived at the time and in the places mentioned. Surviving documents show how they came to the Great Southern Land, how they lived and how their families evolved. The vast majority of events are factual. However, where details are not specifically known, some circumstances have been embellished to enhance the story and link events and people together.
European settlement in Australia, or as it was then known, New South Wales, began with the arrival of English convict ships, the so-called First Fleet, on 18 January 1788. After finding the landing site of Botany Bay unsuitable, the fleet moved on 26 January to the perfect harbour just north, which they named Sydney Cove. They were surprised to find the place as fully inhabited as it was but settled there nonetheless, fairly peacefully in the first instance.
Twelve years later, at the turn of the century, Sydney was the hub of all colonial activity. About 2,500 mostly British settlers lived within its environs. Other centres had been established, including Parramatta and Windsor, with fertile alluvial soils which became farming areas that helped feed the growing population. Coal Town, now Newcastle, was also an important centre, and Norfolk Island had been settled with convicts to harvest its flax and timber.
The Indigenous population around the harbour, collectively known as the Eora, had suffered extreme loss of life in the first years after European arrival, primarily due to smallpox, chicken pox and measles to which they had no prior exposure. The smallpox was almost certainly deliberately spread by one or more of the settlers. The epidemic first broke out among the Aboriginal population on the northern side of the harbour a little over a year after the First Fleet’s arrival, although the settlers themselves were free of the disease. It was estimated these diseases took somewhere between half and ninety per cent of the local population. A battle led by the Eora warrior Pemulwuy raged against the settlers for many of the early years until he was shot dead in June 1802. The remaining Eora moved further away from the towns, although by the time my ancestor Thomas O’Neil arrived in 1800 there were Indigenous people living and trading around the harbour foreshore.
By 1800, the colony had seen the appointment of two governors. Captain (Admiral) Arthur Phillip RN served from the First Fleet’s arrival in 1788 until 10 December 1792, when he returned to England for health reasons. This left the officers of the New South Wales Corps filling the vacuum until another governor arrived. Major Francis Grose was Commandant of the New South Wales Corps at this time. The Corps was a military force whose primary function was to defend the colony and prevent uprisings, not to manage and supervise prisoners. Grose set out to secure the authority of the Corps and the colony was re-established under military rule with military courts.
The English Government had viewed the settlement at Sydney as little more than a remote prison and thus saw no need for currency. However, a form of currency became necessary to pay for labour and goods. A system of barter began and the medium of exchange was rum and distilled liquor. The Corps controlled the importation of alcohol and thereby effectively controlled the prices for all goods and services.
The government stores became the centre of the colony in its early years. Government food and clothing were distributed from, and all locally grown produce delivered to, these warehouses. Members of the Corps received generou
s grants of land, complete with convict labour fed and clothed from these government stores. Power really lay with the military.
It would be three years before Governor Phillip’s replacement arrived. Captain John Hunter RN had first visited with the First Fleet in 1788 and returned in 1795 to take up the post. He found it difficult to manage the army officers, who by then had established complete control of lands, stores, labour and trade. Governor Hunter was recalled in 1800.
Captain Philip King RN arrived in Sydney in April 1800 to replace Hunter as governor, and officially took up the role in September. He had governed the penal settlement of Norfolk Island and was very capable of taking firm action. His main task was to clean up the corruption that permeated every class of people in the colony.
By General Order, in October 1800, King changed the system for assigned convicts, devising it to reduce costs and appease Home Office. He instigated a system that placed the onus on the landowner to feed and clothe their labour force rather than have the convict workers dependent on stores.
King also realised that the issuance of pardons would be advantageous.
Convicts were sent to the colony with terms of seven or fourteen years but others had sentences ranging from ten years to life. Those with life sentences were prohibited from returning to the ‘Old Country’. At the end of their sentences convicts were eligible for land grants, designed to encourage them to remain in the colony and to also become independent of government assistance.
During these early years there was no gaol to confine the convicts. The harsh and unfamiliar bush and its understandably suspicious inhabitants, and the vast oceans they had just crossed, were the fences surrounding them. Convicts were required to work five and a half days a week on government jobs or were assigned to settlers, officers of the corps or pardoned convicts. However, outside of these times convicts were entitled to get paid work or have the time to themselves.
From 1795 all convicts were subject to an annual muster or census. They were physically counted and identified by name, location and their status as to whether they were dependent on government stores. Various other details were often noted. Soldiers, officials and free settlers and their families were also recorded. Very few of these records have survived, and by 1828, the annual muster ceased to be effective when free settlers and emancipated convicts realised they were not obliged to attend.
My ancestor Irish-born Thomas O’Neil arrived as a convict to this fledgling community just twelve years after the First Fleet and another of my ancestors, English-born William Foster, and also a convict, arrived on these shores two years later. Their wives, friends, children and employers all had major roles in shaping their futures. Sydney gave these two men and families opportunities that they grasped with both hands.
This is their story.
Principal Families
O’NEILS
Thomas (Tommy) O’Neil, the tailor, is the patriarch of the O’Neil’s.
Thomas’s first wife, Elizabeth, passed away prior to Thomas’s incarceration and transport to New South Wales.
Thomas and Elizabeth had three daughters born in Ireland – Eliza and Mary Ann Bridget, who migrated to Australia, and what became of the third daughter is unknown.
Thomas married Anne Kennedy in New South Wales and they had one daughter, Anastasia (known as Hanna). Anastasia married William Foster (see below).
Eliza had a son born in Ireland named Thomas Arthur O’Neil. Subsequently Eliza O’Neil married Nicholas Nerney after.
Mary Ann Bridget married Thomas Brown.
Catherine O’Neil is a niece of Thomas O’Neil.
FOSTERS
William Foster, the shipwright, is the patriarch of the Foster family. His parents are William and Elizabeth.
William Foster married Maria Thompson and they had a son, William Foster junior.
William Foster subsequently married Anastasia O’Neil and they had seven children – Elizabeth, Ann, John, Sarah, Thomas, Harriet and George William.
ATHERDENS
George Atherden, shipwright, married Harriet Ann Connor, nee Parker. They had no children. The Atherdens were the godparents of the Foster children and ultimately raised the children following the premature deaths of William and Anastasia Foster.
KEARNS
Barney (Barnard or Bryan) Kearns is a comrade of Thomas O’Neil. Barney married Margaret Robinson. Margaret is sometimes called Mary, Margaret Robertson, Margaret Shortly or Margaret Kearns.
Catherine Kearns is a niece of Barney Kearns.
Mary Ann Kirwin (Rourke) and Catherine Kirwin (Quinlan), ‘nieces’ of Barney Kearns.
THOMPSONS
William Thompson and Maria Hamilton were First Fleeters who married in March 1788. They had four children – Nicholas, Elizabeth, William and Maria.
Maria married William Foster and they had one son, William Foster.
NERNEYS
Nicholas Nerney arrived in the colony in 1819. He married Eliza O’Neil and adopted her Irish born son, Thomas Arthur O’Neil. They also had three daughters – Elizabeth, Margaret and Mary.
BROWNS
Thomas Brown was the son of free settlers. He married Mary Ann Bridget O’Neil. They had three daughters – Sarah, Charlotte and Amelia.
1.
Thomas O’Neil
DUBLIN, FEBRUARY 1799
The prisoner’s wagon bumped and jolted along the cobbled road.
Convicted of what?
Was it his involvement in the United Irishmen or his involvement in a fraudulent bank draft? There was no trial for those considered to be United Irishmen – transportation for life was the sentence.
Thomas O’Neil, known as Tommy, was in the horse-drawn gaoler’s wagon on his way to Waterford. English troopers had apprehended him in his Dublin tailor shop. There had been no time to say goodbye to his sister or daughters. He had been dragged out of his shop and frogmarched down the street.
As the wagon made its way along the cobbled roads, he silently tried to make sense of all that had happened. His thoughts turned to events of the past, his life and his associations.
Dublin, and all of Ireland, was embroiled in a long fight for independence from England. These were dangerous and uncertain times. Tommy had tried to be vigilant, cautious and alert but still his name had appeared in reports.
Previous generations of O’Neils had lived about ten miles west of Dublin in the hinterland town of Clondalkin but in recent times had moved closer to the city centre. Tommy had lived all of his forty-five years in Dublin. He was a resident of Francis Street, near the centre of the city. It was part of the commercial district, with such stores as brogue and shoemakers, tailors, wholesale grocers, wine and spirit merchants, woollen drapers and pipe makers. Most of the buildings on the street were well built, double storey dwellings to accommodate the shopkeeper on the second floor, made of brick with tiled roofs, and close to St Patrick’s Catholic Cathedral, where Thomas and his late wife and young daughters had attended mass each Sunday.
Their faith and the church community had supported Thomas and his daughters in their grief following his wife’s recent death. Tommy had managed to coax his sister to live with them to help run the household.
His surviving daughters were very young. What was to become of them? There was Eliza, who was two, and her younger sister Mary Ann, who was only one year old. Tommy’s eldest daughter had passed away at the time of her mother’s death.
Following Tommy’s arrest, Eliza and Mary Ann would be dependent on his sister for their upbringing.
Tommy blamed himself for this turn of events. There was little he could now do to improve his daughters’ situation. He would not forget them.
Tommy had worked long hours, from 6 am to 8 pm, with just an hour for dinner and half an hour for breakfast. He had usually been solely responsible for the making of the entire garment or suit. He dealt directly with the client, measuring precisely, cutting, sewing and fitting until he was satisfied with each piece.
/> From time to time Tommy would employ a journeyman tailor when busy or for larger orders. This qualified tailor would take over the tasks of padding, sewing in interlining, pockets, sleeves and collars, leaving Thomas to deal with the client and the important task of cutting the fabric to the precise measurements. Thomas was known for his trousers, fancy waistcoats and jackets. He was particularly adept at working with woollen fabric that he shaped and sculpted, using steam and a heavy iron.
In the middle of the shop floor was a large, long cutting table where Thomas would sit, cross-legged, to sew. One end of the table was frequently covered with orders in progress, receipts and other paperwork. A large window at the front allowed for a good source of light and Tommy now pictured himself adjusting his gaze from his work, as he did from time to time to rest his eyes, to the tall spire of the Cathedral towering above the buildings opposite.
On one side of the shop was a fitting room with mirrors and on the other were shelves of cotton bales and swatches, pin cushions covered with pins, needles and threads, containers of French chalk used for marking cutting lines and easily brushed off, thimbles, scissors and shears. Two headless, wooden mannequins stood in the corner clothed in suits he had made. Beside the open fireplace a padded armchair for waiting customers completed the décor.
Thomas’s business was doing well and he had a good reputation among his peers. He knew most of his customers by name as many returned when their needs required it.
The wagon continued to bump and jolt along the cobbled roads.
Behind Francis Street was Back Lane. In this street he pictured the two-storey red brick building, set behind a high wall with an ornate gateway, that was the Tailors’ Guild Hall, which had been running for almost a hundred years, and where Thomas had attended regular meetings of Dublin’s Merchant Tailors.
During the early 1790s a series of meetings, organised by a group called the Catholic Committee and later known as the Back Lane Parliament, whose aim was to improve rights for the Catholic majority in Ireland, took place in this hall. As a result of their efforts, Catholics regained the right to own a franchise, which in turn gave them the right as freeholders to vote, to again serve as jurors, go to college and obtain degrees, and the higher classes could carry arms.
The Tailor and the Shipwright Page 1