3. From Ireland: The Moore family (Briggs lineage)

Laurence and Mary Moore - fourth great- grandparents - and their children

In Dublin on 30 October, 1820 a thirty seven year old man, Laurence Moore, was tried and convicted of burglary and robbery. He was sentenced to transportation to New South Wales for life. Moore was the first of Lynelle's ancestors to arrive in Australia.

The trial was reported in the Saunders' News-letter on Thursday 2 Nov 1820:

COMMISSION INTELLIGENCEMonday October 30
   Laurence Moore, otherwise Murphy, and John Lacklin, stood indicted for a burglary and robbery, in the dwelling-house of George Prescott, at Lucan. There was also a second count in the indictment, charging the prisoners with a burglary and robbery , in the dwelling house of George Vesey, Esq. at Lucan. 
   George Prescott sworn - Lives in a cottage in Colonel Vesey's pleasure grounds at Lucan; remembers the night of the 7th July; between 12 and one o'clock heard a pane of glass break, as he lay in bed; slept up stairs; the place had been well secured; after he had heard the glass break, two men came into the room where he lay in bed; they were armed with pistols; they drew the curtains close, and made him remain in the bed; could not identify the men; they remained about an hour in the house, and took away with them a coat, six teaspoons, a pair of shoes, a powder-horn, a gun, and seven gowns; saw the shoes and powder-horn a week after; the prisoner Moore had been twice taken up before and discharged; was afterwards taken near Lucan; the cottage is fitted up as a kind of pleasure-house, where Mrs Vesey used to sit and read; there is a green-house attached to it; witness slept in it; Colonel Vesey's family never did. 
   Thomas Cummer sworn - Took the prisoner into custody on the 13th of July, at Lucan; it was between six and seven in the morning; Moore and Lackin were on a dray near the hill of Lucan; going towards Dublin; Moore beat the horse until he gallopped, and when they found themselves close pursued, they both jumped from the dray, and made off across the fields; Serjeant Ball and Henry McDonough were with witnesses; they took Lackin; witness followed Moore, who presented a pistol at him, and snapped it three times; a man of the name of Toole joined in the pursuit; got a carbine and loaded pistol at a house on the road; they overtook Moore in a corn-field; Tool fired, and Moore was wounded in the legs; Moore had previously thrown off his great coat, and also thrown a pair of shoes and stockings from him; the pistol Moore had when taken was loaded. 
   Colonel Vesey sworn - Did not hold out any promise to the prisoner Moore, except that he said when he (Moore) begun his confession to him in Kilmainham, that it was the best thing he could do to confess all; Moore first said he bought the shoes in Lucan, and subsequently he acknowledged being present at the robbery. 
   Robert Hobbs sworn - Identifies the shoes produced, made them for George Prescott. 
   The pistol found on the prisoner, Moore, was produced in Court, still loaded, as was also the powder-horn, which was identified by Thomas Cummer, as being found on the the prisoner Moore, and by George Prescott, as belonging to him, and being the one taken from him on the night of the robbery.
   Baron Smith charged the Jury, who acquitted Lackin; and returned a verdict of Guilty against Moore. 

Pistols and a powder-horn

Laurence was convicted of burglary and robbery. Both involve theft, but the difference in legal terms is that in a robbery a victim must be present and robbed by way of intimidation, force or threat, and burglaries are often done without a victim present. The centuries old definition of burglary is entering a victim's house at night to commit a crime. There does not have to be any forced entry. A burglary can become a robbery if a victim is present. A robbery must involve the use of force, or threat of force. 

The Irish Prison Registers 1790 - 1924 lists Lawrence Moore as an inmate of Kilmainham Prison on 12 July 1820. His alleged crime is "Attempting to Shoot". His alleged victims' names were Thos Cromer and Den Toole. The Irish land ownership and tenancy record Griffith's Valuation, 1847-1864 shows a Thomas Cromer of Lucan as an occupant of property owned by Mrs Emily Vesey. The allegations are detailed in the newspaper report of the court proceedings above.

Laois/Leix/Queen's County and the Ó'Mórdha/O'Mores/O'Moores/Moores

Laois - dark green

Laurence Moore was born in County Laois - Queen’s County - Ireland in about 1783. It is not known precisely where, but the name Moore has a long association with Portlaoise.
Queen’s County is a former colonial name of County Laois, in the province of Leinster. In the 11th century, its dynastic rulers adopted the Gaelic surname Ua/Ó Mórdha. 'Ó' means descendant of, and 'Mórdha', means great, chief, mighty or proud. The Ó'Mórdha sept were based in County Laois where they were the leading sept of the 'Seven Septs of Laois'. More information about the origin of the Moores - here. 

In 1556, Thomas Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of Sussex dispossessed the O'Moore clan and attempted to replace them with Scottish and English settlers. This led to a long drawn-out guerilla war in the county and left a small Scottish and English community clustered around garrisons. There was a more successful plantation in the county in the 17th century, which expanded the existing Scottish and English settlement with more landowners and tenants from both Scotland and England. Neither plantation was fully successful due to a lack of tenants and because of continuous resistance through raids and attacks by the O’Moores.

From 1175 until about 1325, Normans controlled the best land in the county, while Gaelic society retreated to the bogs, forests and the Slieve Bloom Mountains. The early 14th century saw a Gaelic revival, as a burst of force from the Irish chieftains caused the Normans to withdraw. The Dempseys seized Lea Castle, while Dunamase came into the ownership of the O’Mores.

Ruins of Dumanse castle - seat of the O'Mores
	Farmland and countryside of Laois from Dumanse

In 1548, English warriors confiscated the lands of the O’Mores, and built “Campa,” known as the Fort of Leix, today’s Portlaoise. In 1556, the town was named Maryborough and Laois renamed Queen’s County in honour of the English queen, Mary Tudor. The queen also issued orders for the plantation of Laois with English settlers. Irish chieftains, in particular Owny MacRory O’More, fought the English. But after the Battle of Kinsale in 1601, the power of the Gaelic chieftains was broken and by 1610, most of Laois’s Irish nobility had been transported to Connacht and Munster. Catholic tenants and landless labourers remained behind and served the Protestants who now owned the land.

The county’s name was informally changed to Laois on establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922. It was formerly spelt as Laoighis and Leix. It is still formally known as Queen’s County in the Local Government Act.

To read more about the history of Laois this site is the Laois County Council's. Wikipedia information on Laois.

We can reasonably assume that Laurence Moore is descended from one of the major Irish clans, the O'Mores. There is no documentation to prove it, but he comes from the epicentre of Moore-ism! For further information about the O'Mores- click here and here

Laurence Moore

We know from the newspaper report quoted above that Laurence went by the name Murphy as well as Moore (…’otherwise Murphy…’). We know that his home county was Queen’s County (Laois), but the alleged crime was committed in Lucan, then a village some 13 kms from the centre of Dublin, now a suburb of Dublin, close to the border of County Kildare. 

Laurence was married to Mary (nee Holloway OR Farrell), and the father of three* children at the time of his conviction - Michael, aged 10; Daniel aged 8 and John aged 7. Wife, Mary, and sons Daniel and John followed Laurence to NSW in 1826. Another daughter, Mary, was born in NSW in 1827, and eldest son, Michael arrived from Ireland in 1830.

*Some family history researchers have claimed that there was another, daughter, Margaret, who would have been 13 at the time Laurence was transported. Bob Starling in his section on the Moore Family in his book tracing those who sailed on the Thames (see below), discounts this, saying there is no evidence to support this claim. A Margaret Moore did arrive in 1824 on the Almorah, but in the absence of any records in Ireland it is impossible to claim this as the same Margaret. However, there is some confusion which is dealt with below.

At the time of his transportation in 1821, the convict indent shows that Laurence is a ploughman, aged 40, with dark hair, grey eyes and freckles. His native place was given as Queen’s County (Laois), also stated on an 1836 gaol entry record in Sydney. 

Many people in Ireland who became convicts were faced with the prospect of their own and/or children's deaths as a result of poverty and centuries of oppression. It could also be argued that there was a policy of encouraging ‘crime’ for survival to allow exports of people to Australia, Canada etc for colonisation purposes and/or to allow clearance of non-viable landholdings that had arisen from Penal Law policies specifically intended to bring about destitution of the natives over hundreds of years (thanks to Rory O'Shea for that perspective)

Mary (née Holloway or Farrell)

Mary’s birthplace is more uncertain. In some Ancestry.com family histories her name is given as Mary Holloway Farrrell. Her son Michael’s death certificate lists her maiden name as Holloway. No records for anyone named Mary Holloway that fits her dates have been found. Her son Daniel’s death certificate states her maiden name as Farrell.

We know from various sources that she was born about 1788. There is a record of a Mary Farrell* baptised, aged 0, in Oct 1788 in Mullingar, Westmeath, Ireland.
*Some other ancestry records have a Mary Farrell with birthplace as Athy, County Kildare, in 1789, and that Mary Farrell died a century later in Athy, so it can be discounted. Other Mary Farrells were baptised in Dublin in 1783, 1784, 1785, 1787, 1788, 1789, 1791, 1792 - all around the correct timescale. A fairly common name! Nevertheless, there is no indication in any other records at this time that she was born in Dublin.

We do know that prior to coming to New South Wales, Mary was living at Athy. Athy is about 65kms from Lucan. Whether it was where she lived with Laurence, or somewhere to which she returned after his conviction, we don't know.

Marriage of Laurence and Mary

There is no record of a marriage in the Irish records, however we know that she had been Laurence’s wife for 17 years in 1826, when she petitioned to have her convict husband assigned to her, dating their marriage - whether official or not, recorded or not - to about 1809. She, was about 21 and he about 26.

We can only guess at the circumstances of their life together. He was an agricultural worker/ploughman like so many of his compatriots. It seems that Laurence was a well-behaved prisoner in NSW because he was allowed to have his family join him four years after he was transported. That privilge was allowed to “good’ convicts. Either he had turned a leaf, or he was not a career criminal. So, what were the circumstances of the crime which saw him sent to New South Wales for Life? There are some suspicions that he may have been a political prisoner, perhaps even convicted on trumped-up charges. 

1929 Irish bank note depicting a ploughman

Lucan House and the Veseys

In Irish, 'leamhcán' means 'place of the elm trees'. The name probably comes from a people that travelled by river, as Lucan is the first place that elm trees are encountered if travelling inland from the Liffey River.

In 1566 Sir William Sarsfield acquired Lucan Manor. Sarsfield was an Irish Jacobite leader, granted the title Earl of Lucan by James II. Patrick Sarsfield’s son, James, died without heir in 1718 and the inheritance passed to Patrick’s niece, Charlotte, who married the Rt Hon Agmondisham Vesey. They had two daughters, and then she died. He then married Jane Pottinger, and their son, another Agmondisham, became an MP and Accountant General of Ireland.

In 1772, Agmondisham (Jnr) started the design of a new home, Lucan Manor. He died in 1785 and the house and the demesne (land attached to a manor and retained by the owner for their own use) was inherited by his son, Colonel George Vesey, the owner when Laurence Moore was convicted of robbery

The Vesey name has a long association with Laois where the family seat was Abbeyleix House near Abbeyleix which is 14 kms south of Portlaoise. The Veseys were elevated to a Baronetcy with the name de Vesci. Did Laurence have a history with the Veseys? Was the robbery perhaps an act of revenge for being evicted from Vesey land? Did he have a prior relationship with George Vesey or his family/ancestors? Was he working at the Vesey estate? Sadly none of the details in the court case provide answers. 

Lynelle's friend Rory O'Shea reports that the de Vesci family began developing the Lucan house as a spa resort and quite possibly used tenants in Laois to do the labouring work. The wealth gap between the Irish Roman Catholic peasants and the typical landed gentry in early 19th century was enormous. There are parliamentary reports on parishes where the peasantry did not use coins – they were simply not needed, so intense was the poverty.

Judge Baron Smith, who heard Laurence's case and sentenced him had severe clashes with Daniel O’Connell MP, often referred to as The Liberator or The Emancipator. He campaigned for Catholic emancipation, including the right for Catholics to sit in the Westminster Parliament, denied for over 100 year and for repeal of the Acts of Union which combined Great Britain and Ireland. In 1828 O'Connell also opened the first cemetery in Dublin where Catholics could be buried according to their rites.

Colonel George Vesey did speak with Laurence while the latter was in jail and convinced him to confess. There are a couple of ways of looking at this. One: he was being 'fitted up' and was  possibly a trouble-maker that Vesey was keen to be rid of; or two: confession led to transportation, for a crime which included a weapon, whereas denial may have led to hanging. The prisoner had no means to engage a lawyer, and there was no mitigating evidence reported, if any was even brought to court.



Lucan House about 1785. Drawing by Jonathan Fisher. From "Scenery of Ireland Illustrated in a series of prints by Select Views. Castles and Abbies, Drawn and engraved in aquatint by Jonathan Fisher"

Lucan House - now residence of the Italian Ambassador

More local historical information is available through local history sources from South Dublin Libraries.  Read more about the history of the house here

Transportation on the Isabella - dates, a report of the voyage, and conditions on board

The first ship load of convicts had been sent from Ireland to NSW in April 1791.

Moore was transported aboard the Isabella, which, after some delay, left from Cork Cove on 4 November, 1821.

When a transportation sentence was handed down, the prisoner was normally returned to the local gaol. Southern prisoners were housed in the city gaol at Cork. This gaol was constantly overcrowded and in a shocking state of decay. Prisoners brought to Dublin were mostly placed in Newgate and Kilmainham gaols. Newgate gaol was in a deplorable condition. From 1817, a holding prison was provided in Cork to house the convicts.These convicts often had to wait for up to two years, before they were transported to Australia. Laurence Moore was quite “lucky” in that his sentence was handed down on 30 October 1820, and his ship, Isabella, left Cork on 4 November, 1821.

An account of the voyage is found at this website .

Surgeon Superintendent, William Price kept a Medical Journal from 1st August 1821 to 14 March 1822.
The vessel was moored at Cowes on Thursday 2nd August 1821 when the detachment of the 24th regiment under orders of Lieut. Harvey from Albury Barracks embarked.

There were 28 Privates and Corporals and three women. The following day at noon they weighed anchor and passed through the Needles under light and variable winds. On the next Friday (10th) they arrived at the Cove of Cork after a rough passage when the Guard and women suffered very much from sea sickness. 

They remained at the Cove of Cork for some time during which time several of the guard became unruly and rebellious. A court-martial took place on board and six soldiers were sent back to shore. On October 14th forty-seven convicts were received onto the vessel making the total to 200 men.They were divided into messes and sent on deck during each day in two divisions. This routine continued until nearly the end of October when rain set in and the men were kept below.

The surgeon reported that the prisoners were orderly and well behaved. The bad weather continued and the men were allowed on deck intermittently. By November they had set sail and most of the convicts, guard and women were all experiencing sea sickness in the boisterous weather.

Over the next four months William Price kept a daily record of the position of the vessel and weather experienced as well as the various illness of the convicts.

There were light winds on the 10th March when they came to anchor in Sydney Cove. The convicts were mustered on deck and divine service performed. The following day the Colonial Secretary came on board to muster the men. On the 14th March at daylight the guard and the convicts were all disembarked and at 11am Governor Sir Thomas Brisbane inspected the prisoners in the gaol yard. As well as two hundred convicts, those arriving on the Isabella included 32 people belonging to the guard including the officer; two soldier's wives (one died on the passage); passengers 1 man, wife and two children.

Back on the vessel after everyone had landed, a party of men came on board from the dockyard and dismantled the on-board prison in preparation for the return to England.

Accommodation on board convict transports is described in the 1820s by a Surgeon Superintendent, Peter Cunningham:

“Two rows of sleeping-births, one above the other, extend on each side of the between- decks, each birth being 6 feet square, and calculated to hold four convicts, everyone thus possessing 18 inches of space to sleep in — and ample space too! The hospital is in the fore-part of the ship with a bulkhead across, separating it from the prison, having two doors with locks to keep out intruders; while a separate prison is built for the boys, to cut off all intercourse between them and the men. Strong wooden stanchions, thickly studded with nails, are fixed round the fore and main hatchways, between decks, in each of which is a door with three padlocks, to let the convicts out and in, and secure them at night. The convicts by these means have no access to the hold through the prison, a ladder being placed in each hatchway for them to go up and down by, which is pulled up at night”.

“Commodore Charles Wilkes of the United States Navy was shown over a convict ship in 1839. He wrote:

"Between decks a strong grated barricade, spiked with iron, is built across the ship at the steerage bulkhead. This gives the officers a free view of all that goes on among the prisoners. Bunks for sleeping are placed one each side all the way to the bows. Each of these will accomodate five persons. There is no outlet but through a door in the steerage bulkhead, and this is always guarded by a sentry. Light and air are admitted through the hatches, which are strongly grated... The quarter deck is barricaded near the mainmast, abaft which the arms of the guard are kept.”

John Boyle's description of the Hougoumont, the last transport to sail for Western Australia in 1868:

"The smells were, of course, among the notable feature of life on board. The combination of animal and human excrement, foul water from the bottom of the ship below pump wells which never came out, the remains of old cargoes and the perpetually rotten wooden structure of the vessel herself must between them have produced a dreadful stench, unrelieved by any kind of ventilation system in the ship. People were accustomed to this ashore in towns and villages which stank like an Oriental slum today".

Peter Cunningham summed up the clothing and food provided for the convicts as follows:

" Each is allowed a pair of shoes, three shirts, two pairs of trousers, and other warm clothing on his embarkation, besides a bed, pillow, and blanket---while Bibles, Testaments, prayer- books, and psalters are distributed among the messes.

The rations are both good and abundant, three-quartes of a pound of biscuit being the daily allowance of bread,while each day the convict sits down to dinner of either beef, pork, or plum-pudding, having pea soup four times a week, and a pot of gruel every morning, with sugar and butter in it. Vinegar is issued to the messes weekly; and as soon as the ship has been three weeks at sea, each man is served with one ounce of lime juice and the same of sugar daily, to guard against scurvy: while two gallons of good spanish red wine, and one hundred and forty gallons of water are put on board for issuing to each likewise---three to four gills of wine weekly, and three quarts of water daily, being the general allowance.”

Source

Arrival in Sydney Cove and first assignment 

Sydney Cove, 1820s 

Port Jackson by Major James Taylor, watercolour, 1820. State Lib of NSW

The Isabella arrived at Sydney Cove on 10 March 1822 after a voyage lasting 4 months.

Up until 1840, free settlers in the colony could apply to have convicts assigned to them as workers.

Laurence Moore would probably have initially been housed at the Convict Barracks in Macquarie Street. On Friday 4 June 1819, Lachlan Macquarie's instructions were clear: 'all those convicts who are in the immediate service of the government at Sydney' were to head directly to the newly completed Hyde Park Barracks, where 'they will be admitted, under their respective overseers, and furnished with their rations, ready dressed, at the usual hours of striking off work.' (Karskens, The Colony p 204)

The plan was simple, as far as Macquarie was concerned. Fewer convicts causing a nuisance in town; a more skilled, reliable and better-fed workforce to employ on government projects; more discipline to encourage values off industry and diligence; and more scrutiny and supervision to reward those who conformed. The barracks would bring peace and security to the town and provide convicts with a path to reform.

Macquarie's commanding barracks complex - with its clock, perimeter wall and classical features - symbolised civic progress and gave Sydney a new way of controlling its convict labourers. (Source: Sydney Living Museums)

Convict barrack Sydney. GW Evans (attrib) c 1820. SLNSW

Lachlan Macquarie, after 12 years, left the colony on 15 February 1822 - 23 days before Laurence arrived. His replacement was Sir Thomas Brisbane. Governor Brisbane ushered in a more punitive regime than that over which Macquarie presided. Gone was the emphasis on public works and convicts being employed by government in Sydney Town. Emphasis was placed on hard labour in rural areas, and meeting the needs of the landed gentry.


In Laurence's case, it wasn't long before he was moved to an assignment.

A letter from the Colonial Secretary to J.T Cambell, Provost Marshal, dated 13 March 1822 stated:

“Sir,
I am directed by His Excellency Sir Thomas Brisbane to authorise your discharge of the prisoners undernamed.

I have the Honor to be SirsYour (…?) Hble ServtF. GoulburnCol Secy. “

Following that there is a list of 120 male convicts landed from the convict ships Isabella, Southworth and Shipley who were being forwarded to Parramatta and the Interior Districts.

Laurence Moore was listed with 5 other men from Isabella (and others from the other ships) as being assigned to William Howe Esq at Minto. Howe was one of the a meeting of 'Gentlemen and landholders' who founded the Agricultural Society of NSW on 5 July 1822. It was tasked with encouraging the production of the best of produce and livestock. Source.

Assignment at Harrington Park
At the Convict Muster of 1825, Laurence is listed as being assigned to John Campbell at Minto. When Mary arrived the place named where he was assigned was Harrington Park, which is just west of Minto near Camden, and was owned by Campbell. When she petitioned on 2 June 1826 to have Laurence assigned to her, he had been in the employ of John Campbell for "upwards of four years."

In 1813, 2,000 acres (8.1 km2) in the Cowpastures area were granted to trader Captain William Douglas Campbell as compensation for the loss of his snow (a type of ship) Harrington, which was seized by convicts, from its anchorage in Sydney Harbour, on the evening of 15 May 1808. Campbell called the land Harrington Park in remembrance of his vessel.

The 1828 census noted that 324 hectares (800 acres) of this was cleared and 81 hectares (200 acres) cultivated. No doubt Laurence was involved in this work.

When Captain Campbell died in 1827, he left Harrington Park to his two nephews, Murdock and John from Scotland, both of whom worked on the land. Murdock was killed by a bushranger in 1833.

The estate changed ownership several times between the time Laurence worked there and 1944 when it was bought by Sir Warwick Fairfax. Much of the estate has been sold and subdivided for housing developments, but a portion of the original estate is still owned by the Fairfax family. Lynelle and I visited and were shown around by the resident custodian on 28 February 2018. The current house post-dates Laurence and Mary's time. 

More background to the arrival and assignment system.

Reuniting the family: Mary, John and Daniel emigrate
Family migration to Australia is nothing new.
On 17 January, 1822 a Public Notice from the Colonial Secretary’s Office appeared:

Applications for Wives and Children to be sent out at the Expense of the Crown will be received at the Colonial Secretary’s Office, during the Course of the present Month, from those only who can produce Testimonials of very good Conduct, and the Certainty of their being able to maintain their Families, if they arrive. By Command of His Excellency F. Goulburn, Colonial Secretary.

The process of reuniting the Moores began with Despatch 17 of 1823, from Governor Brisbane to the Right Honourable Earl Bathurst, providing a list of convicts who had applied. The document stated that there were three children, and that Mary was residing at Athy (in County Kildare). She was known to the Reverend Arthur Weldon of Rahan and Mr Edward Grace of Kellen near Athy. The Rev Arthur Jocelyn Weldon was the rector of Killaban, Queens County from 1794 until his death in 1826. The parish of Killaban included Athy. The Weldons were prominent landowners in the district and their seat, Rahan, was at Ballylinan a few miles from Athy. The Graces were also local landowners.

It is not known if Mary lived at Athy during her marriage, or earlier, or whether she returned there to be with family after Laurence’s conviction and transportation. Athy, Kildare, is near the border of Queen’s County, and about 67 kilometres from where the crime for which Laurence was sentenced took place.

Mary, John and Daniel received approval to join Laurence, and sailed on the Thames, leaving Cork on 14 November 1825. The Thames was the first ship to bring wives and children of convicts who had sought permission to bring their families to Sydney. It came via Cape Horn.

The information which follows about the voyage and arrival is from Thames Immigration Ship Cork Ireland to Port Jackson Sydney 1825-1826 by Bob Starling Vol 1 (October 2012):

Patricia McCooey in her book Peaks and Troughs said that the gathering of wives and children of convicts at Cork began many months prior to a ship being allocated. They were accommodated in the Cork Penitentiary while they waited.

After growing impatient with the lack of shipping being made available, Dr Trevor, Superintendent of Convicts at Cork, wrote to the officials on 4 August 1825, with the following request:

I have the honour to acquaint you that it appears by a return I received from Mr Murphy, Keeper of the Penitentiary House at Cork, of the names of wives of Convicts with their children, who have leave to proceed to New South Wales, that there are 83 of those persons assembled at Cork, I therefore beg leave to recommend that application may be made for a ship to take them to the Colony and I also beg leave to observe that 60 female Convicts can be sent by the same ship provided that there may be sufficient accommodation. I mention this circumstance in order that it may be communicated to the Navy Board and that it is of importance this ship should be fitted and sent to the County with as much expedition as possible - there are several women and children who have not as yet appeared in Cork that have been directed to proceed there.

Dr Trevor ends with a list of names of those waiting, which includes Mary Moore, David (sic) 14 and John Moore, 12, from Queen’s County. They arrived in Sydney on 11 July 1825.

The Voyage of the Thames

The Thames was a 3-masted, square rigged first quality 366 ton ship with a single deck. It departed Cork on 14 November 1825.

Below is an extract from the log of the Ship’s Surgeon, Dr Linton. He did not hold a very high opinion of the women, something which was common to many Irish female emigrants - convicts and free. There will be further discussion of that when we turn to Maria Ring, future wife of Laurence and Mary’s son, Michael, and the women who arrived on the Red Rover.

…some whose Husbands had been sent out only a short time before, others whose Husbands had been in the Colony upwards of 14 years. The whole of the Women with the exception of a very few were composed of the poorest and most wretched class of ‘Irish Peasants’ both in appearance and in truth the most degraded of human beings, not to say demoralized as I am firmly persuaded a number were never acquainted with the meaning of morality. Many of these poor Women and their children wretchedly clothed and completely detached of almost every common necessary, had been obliged to travel from their native County at their own expense or by begging to Cork where lodgings had been provided for them in one of the distant and unhealthy parts of a dirty town, until a vessel was provided for their embarkation. 

There is mention of the departure of the Thames was in the shipping column of The Southern Reporter and Cork Commercial Recorder. 

“THAMES, Fuzer, New-South-Wales, convicts”
Fuzer was Frazer, the ship’s captain, and the passengers were not convicts but wives and children of convicts.

Mary and the children's arrival at Sydney Cove

The Thames arrived on 11 April 1825.

Once quarantine requirements had been met, it was not a simple matter of disembarking and finding husbands waiting on the dock. It was the common practice for the Surgeon General of the ship to gather information about the husbands and their whereabouts so that they could be contacted.

Several difficulties arose with illiteracy and the spelling of names. Whatever information the SG could gather was forwarded to the Principal Superintendent of Convicts who would then verify and then notify the husbands of their right to collect their wife and children. All this caused delays, and of course some husbands were at quite a distance from Sydney.

From the Thames, only four families were reunited in the month of their arrival.

By 6 May, nearly a month after arrival, eight families, including the Moores had not been reunited. The Superintendent of Convicts’ office wrote on 6 May to the Colonial Secretary, Alexander McLeary, outlining their names and the fact that they were housed at the Old Orphan School House.

Perry McIntyre, author of Free Passage suggests that the Orphan School was probably Captain Kent’s house in George Street, next to the dockyard. It was acquired by Governor King in 1802 and a Female Orphan School until that was moved to Parramatta in 1818. Betwen about 1819 to 1824-5 it was a Male Orphan School until it moved to Cabramatta. By 1826 it was empty and the women and children of the Thames were housed there.

The women, although allowed to keep their bedding from the voyage (what a pong after 4 months!) had very few possessions, often just their rag clothing.

Location of the Old Orphan School in George St, where Mary, Daniel and John were housed. More info here. 

Reuniting the family

Mary’s petition to have Laurence assigned to her was dated 31 May, 1826 - a month and a half after she and the children arrived.

On 2 June 1826 the petition was for sent to Governor Darling. It reads:

2 June 1826 Mary and Laurence Moore

To his Excellency Lieutenant General Ralph Darling, Captain General and Governor in Chief of the territory of New South Wales and its dependencies and vice admiral of the same.

The Humble Petition of
Mary Moore Most submissively sheweth That your Excellencys Petitioner arrived in this Colony freely with two children per the ship Thames. That petitioner’s husband Laurence Moore to whom she has been married 17 years arrived by the ship Isabella/2/ in the Year 1822 with the sentence of Transportation for life and is now in the service of Mr Campbell of Harrington Park with whom he has lived upwards of four years. That petitioner now humbly beg that your Excellency may grant her the indulgence of having her husband assigned to her, to enable him to support her family, they depending solely on his exertions for subsistence and petitioner will as in duty bound ever pray. Mary Moore
Sydney 31st May, 1826

This was followed up by a letter of 3 June 1826:

“Princip Superintendent of Convicts  3 June 1826 I beg leave herewith to return you the petition of Mary Moore transmitted in yours of the 2nd (…) nothing having appeared on the Records of this Establishment prejudicial to the character of her husband Laurence Moore a crown prisoner by the Ship Isabella2. I have the honour to be Sir your obedient servant (signature)

After being reunited

We don’t know exactly where the family lived after being reunited, until the 1828 Census shows Laurence, 45, Government Servant and Labourer, and Mary Moore, 40 and Mary 11 [months - it says 11 but would be 11 months] living in George St, Sydney. When Michael arrived in 1830 (see below), they were still in Sydney.

Lower George Street, Sydney 1828. Source 

At that Census, Daniel, aged 17 was an apprentice, living in the house of blacksmith James Russell, and Margaret (nee Moore)* Russell. * See discussion below about whether Margaret Russell was a daughter of Laurence and Mary.

John Moore, aged 15, was a baker, living in the household of Richard Ralph in Cambridge St, Sydney.

We do know that eventually they all relocated west again, as Laurence died in 1836 in Mulgoa, Mary in 1852 in Penrith. Daniel died in Ilford in 1868, John in Brewarrina in 1887 and Michael in Ilford in 1872.

Arrival of Michael Moore

Michael Moore arrived as a steerage passenger on the convict transport Forth, leaving Cork on 1 Jan 1830, and reaching Port Jackson on 26 April. On board were 118 prisoners, 31 crew and 3 free settlers including Moore. There were also 27 soldiers of the 17th regiment, 3 women and 2 children.

A letter dated 15 Dec 1829 from Dublin Castle to the Governor of New South Wales states:

I am commanded by the Lord Lieutenant to acquaint you that the three young men named in the margin, who have permission to join their relatives in New South Wales, have been embarked on board the Ship “Forth”. Officials at Sydney were instructed to ascertain the whereabouts of the boys’ parents.

A letter dated 3 May 1830: from the Superintendent of Convicts Office to the Colonial Secretary states:

I have the honour to inform you that the bearer hereof, Laurence Moore per Isabella2nd assigned to his wife Mary who arrived free per Ship Thames and now residing in Sydney, is the father to the boy Moore.

Michael married Maria Ring at St Mary’s Cathedral on 16 March, 1834. He and Maria both died in Ilford in 1872 and 1895 respectively.

The Question of Margaret Moore (possible eldest daughter of Laurence and Mary)

Some family histories on Ancestry.com claim that there was a daughter of Laurence and Mary named Margaret who came to Australia on the ship Almorah in 1824 - which is before Laurence was transported. Bob Starling in his volumes about the passengers on the Thames dismisses this by saying it is “now considered unlikely”. However, he does suggest that indexing by the Irish National Archives of the Chief’s Secretary’s office of 1824 papers may help settle the matter. He says that Perry McIntyre’s book Free Passage says that these records include a list of convicts’ families on that voyage.

It is true that no records relating to Margaret can be found at the moment, although a Margaret Moore did come to Australia on the Almorah. There are other Margaret Moores as well, including at least one convict. The dates available in records do not seem to match.

The main argument in favour of a relationship is that Margaret Moore, a free settler, per Almorah applied to, and received permission, to marry a convict named James Russell in the Catholic Church in Sydney in June 1825. Witnesses were George and Mary Marshall and Ann Connell.

James Russell was a blacksmith, and in the 1828 census, Daniel Moore, Laurence and Mary’s 17 year old son, was apprenticed to Russell and living in his household. There was therefore a relationship between the families. It could have been merely one of employment, or cousinship, or a coincidence. Moore was a common name in Ireland.

The Russell household in 1828 consisted of James aged 31, Margaret, 21 and their 2.5 year old son, James, born 2 June 1826. After that time they had children Elizabeth on 19 June 1830 and John born 2 March 1832.

To add to the uncertainty, Daniel Moore’s death certificate 1868) says he married a woman named Margaret Moore. She could have been the widow of James Russell, who died in 1834, in which case the Margaret Moore who married James Russell was not his older sister! There appears to be no official record of the marriage, but an article in the Sydney Gazette 11 March 1834 says Russell left “a widow and four children in a state of destitution”.

Daniel’s death certificate says he was 21 when he married, which would have been around 1834, so quite possibly not long after James Russell died.

None of this resolves the identity of the mysterious Margaret Moore.

Before she married Russell, Margaret had applied to marry another convict. On 19 December 1824 she applied to marry James Barigan (or Barrigan), per the ship Guildford. That marriage must not have taken place, because on 12 April, 1825, Berrigan was applying to marry Margaret May, a convict from the Almorah. (Colonial Secretary’s papers), and Margaret married Russell in June 1825.

James and Margaret applied to marry on 8 June 1825 according to the rights of the Roman Catholic Church. Permission was conveyed to Rev John Therry, Roman Catholic Chaplain, Sydney. Witnesses were George and Mary Marshall and Ann Connell.

James Russell was a coach harness maker, convicted of a crime on 20 July 1820 at the Staffordshire Assizes and sentences to transportation for seven years. The convict indent describes him as being aged 23, 5ft 91/2 inches tall, with a dark complexion, brown hair and grey eyes.

The Marriage Certificate unfortunately has no information about place of abode or origin, or any other details.

On 26 July 1827, James received a Certificate of Freedom. It doesn’t record his offence, but the other details are similar to the convict indent, although his “dark” complexion is now “sallow” and his grey eyes are now blue. His year of birth was 1797.

On 14 January 1828, a James Russell entered Sydney Gaol charged with “cutting and maiming his wife". No ship was listed, and there was another convict named James Russell, from County Limerick, who arrived on the Earl St Vincent at about the same time, so which James Russell this was, we don't know.

Margaret’s voyage
Information from www.jenwilletts.com/convict_ship_almorah_1824.htm

he Margaret Moore, who married James Russell, and possibly later Daniel Moore, came to Australia aboard the Convict Ship Almorah, as a free woman. The Almorah left Cork on 6 April 1824 and came directly to New South Wales, not stopping anywhere on the way. There were 14 other free women, and 45 children along with the 94 convict women. Some of the children belonged to the convicts, and some were pregnant.

At first the prisoners, free women and children were on deck until six in the evening each day. They weighed anchor on 6 April and by 7 April nearly all the women were ill with sea sickness, and there were outbreaks of measles. The weather was cold and the seas heavy and the women were unable to go on deck. Three days later Dr Price reported that many of the women were suffering from hysteria. On the 16th April he reported that prisoners, free women and children were continually retching.

Dr Price remarked that from time to time many of the prisoners had to be handcuffed for fighting and abusive language and that some of the free women were nearly as bad and he adopted the same plan to them.

He ensured a school was established on board for the children. The women were employed in knitting stockings and sewing when they were well enough., however they continued to quarrel amongst themselves, particularly the free women. A gown was issued to each woman on 30 April.

The Almorah arrived in Port Jackson on 20 August 1824 after a voyage of 136 days.

On Monday 23 August, a muster was held on board by th Colonial Secretary, Frederick Goulburn. One prisoner and one child had died on the way. On 25 August the prosoners were transferred to the Parramatta Female Factory.

The free women were ordered not to disembark until 1 September when the surgeon received correspondence from the Colonial Secretary clearing them to land.

James Russell's voyage aboard the Dick.

The Dick, left England on 4 November 1820. Prior to embarkation on 20 September, many of the adult prisoners had been held on a prison Hulk, the Justitia. The ship’s surgeon, Robert Armstrong, was treating many for excoriation where their irons had rubbed, and minor ailments such as headache and loss of appetite. There were also about fifteen prisoners under sixteen who had been held on another hulk, the Retribution.

Prison hulk Justitia 

It does not appear from the medical journal kept by Anderson that James Russell was treated during the journey.

The Dick arrived at Port Jackson on 12 March 1821, with 140 male passengers in good health - none had died on the voyage. The Sydney Gazette reported on Thursday 15 March that the prisoners had been inspected by Governor Macquarie. “Their appearance was a sufficient testimony independent of their grateful acknowledgement of the kindness and humaity with which they had been treated on the voyage. His Excellency was pleased to direct their distribution in the usual manner. "

The prisoners on the Dick were the last to be inspected by Macquarie. Until his departure in November 1821, Lieutenant Colonel Erskine undertook this duty. 

We do not know where he was assigned on arrival, but as he was a tradesman, his skills would have been in high demand in Sydney. He was granted a Certificate of Freedom on 26 July 1827.

For more information about this voyage, see here