Susan McClafferty: A Life Cut Short

Irish immigrants on board ship

Susan McClafferty came to Sydney with her brother Michael on board the ship Nile half-way across the world in 1861 to start a new life in Australia. Her sister Mary was already here having come on an earlier ship the Caribou in 1859. Their brother Edward would soon join them. Having buried their parents Charles and Margaret ‘Peggy’, the four young McClaffertys had left poverty stricken Donegal for a better life in a new land. You can read more about the scheme that brought them to Australia here.

On board the Caribou with Mary McClafferty had been the man Susan would soon marry, John Gorman.

Civil marriage certificate of John Gorman and Susan McClafferty

Susan McClafferty and John Gorman were married in Rockhampton on 1 June 1862 by Father Patrick Duhig who had arrived not long before them to commence pastoral duties for the people of Rockhampton and its surrounds. The witnesses were Myles Sweeney and Ann McAllister so it is unlikely that any of Susan’s family was present at the ceremony.

Church marriage certificate of
John Gorman and Susan McClafferty

The first official Catholic mass in Rockhampton was held in May 1862 when Bishop James Quinn of Brisbane sent two young priests on a pastoral visit. Bishop Quinn had arrived in Brisbane as the first Bishop of the city in May 1861. Father James Scully and Father Patrick Duhig arrived in Rockhampton aboard the Clarence and celebrated the first mass in the local Court House with about 50 attendees.

As there was no Catholic church at the time it was customary to marry in someone else’s premises and Susan and John were married in the ‘house of William James’. Of the three couples on the register preceding John and Susan’s entry, two were married in the ‘house of Rev P Duhig’ and one in the home of the groom. In 1859 Mr William James had built the Golden Fleece Hotel on the corner of Quay and William streets where the Heritage Hotel now stands. John gave his occupation as ‘labourer’ on the civil registration but for the Catholic marriage certificate both John and Susan gave their occupations as ‘servant’. Were they living at the Golden Fleece Hotel? Might they have been working for William James?

What attracted this young couple to Rockhampton? What induced them to travel 1,400kms to an unknown place? And how did they get there?

Ships docked at Quay St wharf Rockhampton 1864

The town of Rockhampton was proclaimed in 1858 with the first land sale held on 17 November of that year. The settlement of the Archers had brought a number of graziers to Central Queensland and runs were taken up in all directions. The squatters had a need for supplies and to get their produce to market, and it was quickly recognised that Rockhampton with it easy access to the back country and situated on a large navigable river was a perfect port.

Fitzroy River bridge Rockhampton 1864

In 1859 the colony of Queensland was proclaimed and from the start the people of Rockhampton were convinced that their town should be the capital given that it was centrally located within the state. 1861 saw a surge in development with the discovery of copper and gold on Peak Downs. The population at this stage was 698 of whom 439 were males and 259 females. In 1862 the Queensland Shipping Company, with its steamer Queensland, went into competition with the Australian Steam Navigation Company. The SS Queensland was the first of their ships to arrive in Rockhampton in that year. This led to fares and freight costs being considerably reduced.

There was a need for labour to support the fast growing community. John and his new bride were clearly pioneers ready to take on the challenge of a new frontier, and the steamers their way of getting there.

Susan and John welcomed their first child, a daughter, on 27 March 1863 and in accordance with the traditional Irish naming convention they named her Margaret after Susan’s mother. Margaret was born in Rockhampton and was delivered by Dr Callaghan who had arrived in the town in 1861. Dr Callaghan immediately built a successful practice and was to remain working in Rockhampton for 41 years until his death.

Birth certificate of Margaret Gorman

Margaret was baptised by Fr Charles Murlay, a young French priest, who had arrived in the same year to take care of the newly formed Rockhampton parish to which over 3,000 Irish immigrants came between 1862-1865. The baptism was conducted in the new church dedicated to St Joseph on the spot that would later become St Joseph’s Cathedral. Fr Murlay was a much loved priest who remained in Rockhampton for many years. Susan’s sister Mary was the godmother so it is likely that Mary was already living there.

A drayman

On the birth certificate John gave his occupation as ‘drayman’, a driver of a large flatbed wagon pulled by horses to transport goods and often used for deliveries of ale and beer. From other articles in the newspaper of the time it is likely that he was in the employ of another as a drayman to transport goods to and from the wharf around town or even to and from the goldfields.

By 1865 Susan’s siblings had joined them in Rockhampton and the year brought many joys. Her sister Mary married Frank Chardon in February of that year. Susan’s brother Michael married Catherine Fox in the October with their brother Edward being a witness. How wonderful it must have been to have all of her family around her.

Birth certificate of Mary Gorman

On 23 November 1865 Susan and John were greeted with the birth of their second child, another daughter, whom they named Mary after John’s mother. Mary was delivered in Rockhampton by the same Dr Callaghan. Susan made her mark ‘X’ on the certificate indicating she was still not able to sign her name. John was now a ‘carter’, a general term for a driver of any horse-drawn vehicle for transporting goods, but perhaps indicating that he had his own horse and cart. At any rate he was still making his living transporting goods around town or further afield.

Four days after Mary Gorman was born, Susan’s sister Mary Chardon nee McClafferty gave birth to her first-born Frank. Fr Murlay performed the baptism and Edward McClafferty and Susan were the godparents.

Life seemed to be full of promise in Rockhampton. The next we know of John and Susan is that they are living in Bowral, New South Wales, some 1500 kilometres south of Rockhampton in 1867. John’s sister Mary was now married and living in the neighbouring town of Berrima. On 11 July 1865 Mary had paid a deposit of £8, £4 as the required proportion to be applied towards the passage and £4 as the required proportion to be applied towards the outfit for the voyage, for her sister Margaret to join them in Australia. Margaret should have arrived some time in 1866. So we can only assume that Susan and John travelled south to spend some time with John’s sisters. And in early 1867 Susan and John were expecting their third child.

But then their world was turned upside down as tragedy struck the little family! On 13 December 1867 Susan died in childbirth after a labour of 22 hours leaving a grieving husband with two little girls of 4 and 2. Fortunately John’s sister Mary stepped in to look after the children. Susan is buried along with their baby in the Lower Mittagong Marist Brothers Catholic Cemetery. Church records indicate Susan’s burial although no grave markings are to be found and there is no information available as to the whereabouts of their grave. It is thought that they are buried near the fence with others of that time.

Lower Mittagong Cemetery

Section where it is thought Susan is buried

By the time she was 25 Susan McClafferty had already achieved so much. From poverty in Donegal Ireland she had braved a voyage of many months risking life on the open seas. She travelled half way across the country to start a life in a fledgling town with her new husband-to-be. She had married and together with her husband had created two little girls. With her family around her she had a happy life ahead of her. But that was not to be. Although Susan McClafferty’s life was cut so cruelly short, her name lived on in the next generation with each of her brothers Michael and Edward naming one of their girls after her.

Postscript:

Susan McClafferty is not my ancestor. I am descended from John Gorman and his second wife but that story is for another day.

This story is dedicated to the memory of Sheila Margaret Gorman 1937-2020. Sheila sent me a note circa 1993 ‘I know Susan McClafferty is not our ancestor but I feel I almost know her! S.’ Thank you Sheila for inspiring me to look into this young woman's story. I know what you mean.

I also wish to acknowledge the fine work of Noeleen Margaret Watt 1927-2010, another distant cousin and descendant of Susan McClafferty and John Gorman. Noeleen's excellent book is called ‘Who’s Who? And What’s Watt?’

The Gheas: Our Eurasian Family

Ghea Family c1930
Standing (left to right): Dick, Tilly, Liza, Maud, Dotsie
Seated: Flo, Emily, Great-Great-Grandma Annie, Minnie, Fanny
In front: Bunny

My Aunty Daph died on the 4^th November 1990. She was my paternal grandmother’s sister. It was only then as a result of a conversation with some in my family soon after her death that I discovered that we were Chinese. That was the catalyst for starting my family history journey.

The Gheas have always fascinated me ... probably because of the Chinese and even the German. I would have expected English, Irish and Scottish ... but German and Chinese? How exotic!

I can still remember how delighted I was when I was first given a copy of this beautiful photo above of the whole Ghea family ... well not quite the whole family. Where was Great-Great-Grandfather Ghea? This photo is one of two taken on the same occasion. The other photo is taken with hats on. The dress would date the photos to the late 1920s or early 1930s and the hats would likely indicate a family wedding. Great-Great-Grandfather Ghea had died in 1918.

Photo taken same day with hats on
(colorized courtesy of My Heritage website)

The head of the Ghea family was William Gee from Canton (Guangdong Province) China. Unlike Europeans the first Chinese weren’t recorded, or even regularly counted, as entering the Australian colonies so we don’t know exactly when he arrived. The first record we have for him is his marriage certificate.

Marriage certificate of William Gee and Anna Elise Wieckhorst

What a surprise I got when I found the marriage! Not only was the spelling of Ghea different but the bride was the wrong person! By this stage I already knew that William had married Anna Elise ‘Annie Elizabeth’ Wieckhorst so was more than a little perplexed to see a different person on the certificate.

William and Annie were married on 28 April 1870 in Maryborough Queensland. William gave his details as being a bachelor from Canton China, his occupation as cook, his age as 28, his current address as Maryborough, his parents’ names as John Wong Sing and Ah Houn, and his father’s occupation as merchant. Annie gave her name as Katie Sharp and her details as being a spinster from Hamburg Germany, her occupation as domestic, her age as 19, her current address as Maryborough, her parents’ names as Peter Sharp (in reality Peter Wieckhorst) and Annie Wickhorst (in reality Annie Reinfahrt), and her father’s occupation as carpenter. Annie could sign her name but William could not sign his name in English. Witnesses were George Ernest Macrae and John Patrick Furey.

Annie was 16 at the time of the marriage and not 19 as she claimed. William’s age varies enormously across the different records that exist so we don't know his exact age. He may well have put his age down at the time of his marriage to appear closer in age to his bride. 

Not only did Annie give her name as Katie Sharp for the marriage but she recorded it for the birth of her first 10 children. It was only for the birth of her 11^th child did she give her correct name. What would make her change her name? And why Katie Sharp?

One of the stories I heard when first beginning my search was that ‘Grandfather Ghea had to buy her (Annie)’. When I asked if that meant a dowry, the reply was that ‘No one wanted to marry a Chinese. They had to buy them (brides).’ I wondered if Annie had changed her name to disassociate herself from her father who had given her away as a 16 year old bride to a much older man.

In recent years another distant cousin revealed that their family story was that William and Annie had eloped. We know that Annie put her age up by 3 years for the marriage. At 16 she was too young to marry without written permission from a parent. This, together with the fact that no family member was a witness at the marriage, would point to the absence of family at the ceremony. The fact that Annie put her age up would indicate her consent to marrying William.  Additionally her mother had died a year prior to the marriage. It’s highly likely that Annie was in the role of housekeeper for her father and her two older brothers as well as the younger children. Was the prospect of running the household for years too much?

And where did the name Katie Sharp come from? I searched the passenger list from the ship that carried the Wieckhorsts to Australia and many other records but could not find any clue.

At any rate it is fair to assume that the marriage was a happy one. They had a large family and the marriage endured.

Children of William Gee and Anna Elise Wieckhorst

Ancestry ethnicity 7% Chinese

Nothing is complete in the world of family history these days until you have proven your DNA link to your forebears. I am happy to report that not only do I have 7% Chinese ethnicity but I have identified DNA matches with descendants of three of the 10 Ghea children as well as with a number of descendants of Annie Ghea nee Wieckhorst's grandparents. I can therefore claim the Gheas as part of my genetic family.

Note: Family history is a never ending story. If you find an error on this page or have anything new to contribute to this topic I would love to hear from you.

Please email me on Kathryn.Barrett02 at gmail.com

Jack Barrett's Will: How the Thackerays got the Barrett money

John Barrett 1849-1923
reproduced with permission
©B Bywater

Growing up we knew a lot about our Nana’s side of the family. We knew her sisters and their families. There were photos. We heard lots of family stories. But when I came to think of it I hadn’t met any of my grandfather’s family. I hadn’t seen any photos, heard any names or any stories. I didn’t even know how many brothers or sisters he had.

Midgee property with cemetery now in the middle of a quarry

The one thing I did remember was Midgee. Whenever we were driving south out of Rockhampton past Midgee Dad would point out the property where his father had grown up. And he would point to the family grave where Grandad’s little sister was buried up on the hill. She had died in a fire.

When I started the family history 30 years ago I asked many questions of the family to try to unravel the story of Midgee and our Barretts.

I heard that Grandad’s father used to whip the boys if the cattle got out and that my grandfather ran away from home as a teenager. I also heard that Grandad’s mother left his father as soon as the children grew up. I heard that Grandad’s father married the housekeeper Nina Thackeray after his wife died. And I heard that the Thackerays ‘got all the money’.

Grandad’s father was John Barrett who had come to Australia from Manchester England as an 14 year old with his parents Benjamin and Mary Ann and his three sisters and two brothers on the ship Hannah More arriving at Keppel Bay in 12 October 1863.

John ‘Jack’ Barrett at 17 years of age married Ellen Scully in 1866 in Rockhampton. Ellen had arrived with her sisters Bridget and Honora on the ship Landsborough also at Keppel Bay in 23 January 1865.

Jack and Ellen had 10 children: Joseph, Mary Ann ‘Polly’, Catherine ‘Kate’, Elizabeth, Edith ‘Eda’, Nora, John ‘Jack’, Ellen or Helen ‘Nell’, Sarah and Margaret. Poor little Margaret was the toddler who was only 15 months old when she died in the fire and was buried in the family graveyard up on the hill at Midgee.

John and Nina Barrett South Rockhampton cemetery

As we all do when we start our family history I looked for the graves. I found the graves in the South Rockhampton cemetery. My great-grandfather was buried with Nina, his second wife, in the Anglican section and my great-grandmother was buried with two of her daughters Elizabeth and Edith who had predeceased her, in the Catholic section, almost as an afterthought it seemed with her inscription on the side of Edith’s headstone.

Ellen Barrett nee Scully
South Rockhampton cemetery

Death certificate of John Barrett 

When I received John Barrett's death certificate the first surprise I got was that my grandfather J. F. Barrett was the informant. Somehow I had formed the impression that he had fled his father never to return. But that clearly wasn’t so. He must have reconnected with his father and Nina at some stage.

So off to Queensland State Archives I went and found the will and probate details.

The will was three pages long, quite detailed and clearly not a simple matter of gifting everything to his second wife Nina.

 

The estate was divided up in the following manner:

·       Nina (wife)
o   “Midgee Cottage” in Kent Street
o   North Street property
o   store on the corner of Archer and West Streets
o   £300
o   War Peace bonds £850
o   life estate over “Fariview” including contents in Cambridge and Talford Street

·       John Stanley Burns (grandson)
o   “Fairview” on the death of Nina
o   “Roundbay” in Cambridge Street

·       Thomas Howard Burns (grandson)
o   Two properties in Oxford Road

·       James Patrick Burns (grandson)
o   £420 owing on West Street property
o   West Street house and land

·       John Fitzroy Barrett (son)
o   “Kensington” in George Street

·       Mary Portus (daughter) 
o   House and land Talford and Archer Streets

·       Sarah Barrett (daughter) £200

Probate application p1

·       John Edwin Fitzroy Barrett, Rowley David Winsall Barrett and Gordon Vivian Barrett (grandsons) £100 each

·       Ellen Pearson (sister) £100

·       Nora Burns (daughter) Approx. £1,100 rest and residue of the estate

The executors of the will were Henry Barrett, son of his brother Benjamin, and Benjamin John Adams, son of his sister Sarah Adams.

The will was signed 10 weeks before his death.

(To put the gifts into some perspective, in 1922 the minimum wage was £4.10.0)

Probate application p2

Jack Barrett's will summary showing all grandchildren alive at the time of the signing of the will

Some of Jack Barrett’s children and grandchildren would have become quite wealthy as a result of this will and some missed out completely.

What was his thinking in drawing up this will? Why was there no provision for two of his daughters? Did he think they were well catered for by their husbands? Had they sided with their mother and cut him out of their lives? Why did he cut out one of his two sons? Why was the provision for most of his grandchildren so disproportionate to what others received?

It would appear that some were in favour and others completely out of favour. On the face of it, it certainly paints a picture of a fractured family.

While it isn’t completely accurate to say that the Thackerays ‘got all the money’ it must have been galling for his children and grandchildren when some 20 years later Nina’s large portion of the Barrett estate passed to unrelated people, particularly when five of the nine children, or their offspring, were disinherited.

John Gorman: Donegal Relief Fund

John Gorman 1839-1912

John Gorman was my Great Great Grandfather.

During my search I found him arriving in Sydney on board the ship Caribou (1065 tons) on the 4^th October in 1859 from Liverpool England after a voyage of 92 days.

Caribou

The ship landed 388 passengers comprising 174 men, 168 women, 19 young boys and 27 young girls. They included 45 married couples. There had been three deaths (two boys and a man) and six births during the voyage.

I wondered if he came to Australia as a result of the Great Famine. But as I was to discover it was more complicated than that.

Passenger list for Caribou

John was listed  on the passenger list as being 20 years old, occupation a ploughman (meaning he owned a plough and hired himself out to the farmer who had the horse), native place as Donegal, a Catholic, able to both read and write, and sponsored by the Donegal Relief Fund. Looking at the ship manifest of the Caribou about 3 quarters of the passengers had Donegal Relief Fund next to their names. I was intrigued as to what this Donegal Relief Fund was and so began my search into conditions which led my Great Great Grandfather to come to Australia.

During the 16^th and 17^th Centuries the British government had confiscated a great deal of land in Ireland owned by Catholics and enacted penal laws restricting land-ownership to Protestants. This created a system of servitude for the Irish that was to continue for many generations. The majority of the population had little or no access to land and lived in appalling conditions. 40% of Irish houses in 1841 were one room mud cabins with natural earth floors, no windows and no chimneys.[1] 

Famine family [Sean Sexton collection]

Famine in Ireland was not uncommon during the first half of the 19^th Century but none was as devastating as the ‘Great Hunger’, Great Famine 1848-1852, when it is estimated that one million died of starvation or related disease. And it was during this time that there was a mass exodus of people to Great Britain and America.

An indication of the scale of the disaster is reflected in the census figures. The 1841 census recorded an Irish population of 8.2 million. By 1851 this figure had been reduced to 6.5 million.

Even during the good times many small tenant farmers had to rely on access to income from elsewhere, such as peat-digging or using waste-land for common grazing, kelp collecting, fishing or seasonal work on large farms.

Northwest Donegal was perhaps the bleakest and poorest part of Ireland where land was often infertile bog.

For centuries the peasants’ stock had been allowed to graze on the mountains with any increase in stock helping to pay the rents. But all of this changed in Donegal in 1857 when landlords withdrew the grazing rights and imposed other financial hardships.

Turf hut Gweedore [National Library of Ireland]

In January 1858 ten Priests from the Gweedore/Cloughaneely area of Northwest Donegal formulated a letter[2] appealing to the Irish people to help. The districts of Gweedore and Cloughaneely were in a state of extreme distress. The priests talked of 800 families starving, living on seaweed, with scant clothing and no bedding.

Soon afterwards, this letter turned up in Sydney and so began what was to become the Donegal Relief Fund.

The architect of the fund was Archdeacon McEncroe of Sydney. There was a public meeting in May 1858 with more than 800 attending. Their practical resolution was that monies should be raised to help people from Gweedore and Cloughaneely immigrate to Australia. £200 was collected at this initial meeting at a time when the annual wage of a labourer was £32.

During the 1850s there was a shortage of labour in NSW caused by an exodus of people to the Victorian goldfields. The NSW government was encouraging people already in the colony to bring out friends and relations from their home countries. The scheme provided that the Government supplied the bulk of the cost of passage leaving the balance for the relative to pay. The Donegal Relief Fund was given permission by the Government to use this scheme.

Donegal Relief Fund

With a total of £4000 the organisers procured an Immigration Agent to work with the priests who had written the letter to firm up a list of names of people wishing to emigrate. Before the end of the year 1858, the agent had a list of 1200 names.

Although the original fund was established for the people of Gweedore and Cloughaneely its scope was widened to include other districts in the Northwest of Donegal including Letterkenny, the home of John Gorman.

Nile

John married Susan McClafferty in 1862 in Rockhampton Queensland.

Susan had arrived on the ship Nile on 4 May 1861 in Sydney and within 8 months they would wed some 1,400 kms away. Had John known Susan in Donegal? Or was there some other way they could have crossed paths?

Passenger list for Nile

On the passenger list Susan was listed as 19 years of age, occupation a general servant, from Mevagh (a parish 30 kms north of Letterkenny) in Donegal, Catholic, able to read but not write, and also sponsored by the Donegal Relief Fund. I knew that family writings had the McClaffertys as being from Carrygrath which I soon discovered was Carrickart in the parish of Mevagh in Donegal.

Further discovery revealed that Susan’s sister Mary had been on board the ship Caribou with John Gorman and it appears that Susan’s brother Michael (Mark) arrived on the Nile with her. Both Mary and Michael were also sponsored by the Donegal Relief Fund.

The Donegal Relief Fund supplied passage for 1,384 passengers to emigrate from Ireland to Australia between May 1859 and June 1864.[3] All of the eight ships landed in Sydney.

Read more

http://donegalgenealogy.com/fiveshiploads.htm 

https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/9153/8/06Chs7-8_Reid.pdf

http://www.historyhome.co.uk/peel/ireland/famine.htm

Granny Winsall: Triumph from adversity

Mary Gee 1872-1948

Granny Winsall has always intrigued me. I'm told she always wore black; always wore long beads; and always kept the hotel keys on her person hanging from her belt. And she ran a tight ship at the hotel!

Granny Winsall was born Mary Gee in 1872 in Gympie Queensland, the second child to William Gee from Canton China and Anna Elise Wieckhorst who came as an 11 year old with her parents and siblings from Schleswig Holstein in Germany.

Australia in the latter half of the 19th Century wasn't very kind to people of Chinese origin so Mary had the cards stacked against her right from the beginning.

She grew up in Maryborough Queensland with her 7 sisters and 2 brothers. The family then moved to Rockhampton. 

It was after this move to Rockhampton that the family changed the surname from GEE to GHEA. And Mary changed her name to Marion. So Mary Gee became Marion Ghea.

Dave Winsall 1871-1914

Marion marries the very handsome Dave Winsall, a miner from Northhampton England.

Over the next 11 years they have a number of children in Mount Morgan, just south of Rockhampton, where Dave continues as a miner.

In 1909 Dave got his first hotel licence and purchased the Railway Hotel in Yeppoon. And so began a life in hotels.

However after only 2 and half years the hotel, together with the nearby residence and all its contents, is sold.

So back to Rockhampton for the Winsalls and this time with Dave as licensee of the Supreme Court Hotel where life seemed to go well.

But then disaster struck! In September 1914, only 2 years later, Dave Winsall dies of Miners’ Pthisis, an occupational lung disease from years of inhaling the crystalline silica dust in the mines.

Now a widow, Marion was left alone with a pub to run and with 3 teenagers and an 8 year old to support.

15 months later she leaves Rockhampton for Aramac some 650 kms west of Rockhampton and takes up the licence of the Marathon Hotel. Also living with her are her son Alf, her sister Maud and her husband a dentist in Aramac. 

Marion and her sister Maud on the verandah of the Marathon Hotel Aramac

On the first anniversary of being the Licensed Victualler of the Marathon, disaster strikes for a second time and the pub is burnt to the ground.

Marathon Hotel fire 1916

The hotel is eventually rebuilt and reopens. But in 1921 Granny Winsall moves back to Rockhampton when her sister Tilly transfers the licence of the Crown Hotel into her name. And she remains as the Licensed Victualler there for the next 16 years.

There are many references in the newspaper of sponsoring various sporting groups and events. The hotel is the venue for many functions such as weddings and twenty-firsts. And Marion becomes a significant business woman in the town.

Finally in 1936 Marion purchases the freehold of the Excelsior Hotel opposite the Wintergarden and Earls Court cinemas in Rockhampton. She immediately makes plans to demolish it and build her own hotel ... and renames it Winsalls Hotel.

Winsalls Hotel Rockhampton 1980s

Granny Winsall died in 1948 just before her 76^th birthday but the hotel continued as a landmark in Rockhampton until it was demolished in recent years.

Little Mary Gee had triumphed both personally and in business. She was known as a tough business woman and well-known and respected around town. She built lucrative businesses and built her own hotel.  She was the matriarch of the family, provided for her parents, and financially supported her children and their families throughout the years during tough times.