2. Emigrants from Ireland

Nine Irish families provided emigrants to Australia who form part of the Briggs and Cant ancestries.

These were the Dowd, Moore, Farrell, Ring, Byrne and Doyle families in Clem Briggs’, line and

the Lutton, McBride and Horan families in Gwen's (née Cant) line.

They hailed from different parts of Ireland, and arrived in Australia under varying circumstances:

• a convict (about 12% of convicts were Irish)

• a wife and children following their convict husband and father;

• two “Assisted passage” - Bounty Immigrant - families consisting of mother, father and children,

one family sailing from Liverpool - perhaps part of Liverpool’s rich Irish tradition;

• three single women, at least one of whom was part of an organised “bride trade”.

The men were agricultural labourers, the women domestic servants. They left Ireland in a 32 year

period between November 1821 and 1854.

Shipping records show that all but one had left before the years of the Great Famine (1845-1852),

and one after.

The first to leave Ireland, Laurence Moore, was a convict. He was dead by October 1836. The last

was Bridget Horan in 1854.

Briggs and Cant ancestors' arrival from Ireland

The Cobh - Cork Cove - in 1830s.

Isabella

1822 Laurence Moore, a convict, aged about 38. He departed on 4 Nov 1821 from Cork aboard the Isabella, and arrived in Sydney on 10 March 1822. Picture at right of the Isabella by James Wilson Carmichael, c 1820. National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. 

1826 Mary Moore (nee Farrell), wife of Laurence, aged about 37. She departed on 14 Nov 1825 from Cork, aboard the Thames, and arrived in Sydney on 11 April 1826. Mary was accompanied by sons Daniel, aged about 13 and John aged about 12. 

1830 Michael Moore, another - older - son (aged about 20) of Laurence and Mary departed on 1 Jan 1830 from Cork on the Forth, and arrived on 26 April 1830.

1832 Maria Ring was a single woman aged about 24 who came on the bride ship Red Rover. She departed on 10 April 1832 from Cork on Red Rover and arrived in Sydney on 10 August 1832.

1840* the Byrne family departed from Liverpool on 16 July 1840 on board the Argyleshire, arriving on 12 November 1840. John was aged 36, his wife Sarah (nee Doyle) was 37. Also with them were their children Bridget aged 11, Catherine aged 7 and Thomas aged 4.

* The Byrne Family are a “best guess” based on shipping records and certificates. There is a small chance this could be subject to change.

Catherine Byrne, may have arrived between 1848 and 1855 according to shipping

records showing several Catherine Byrnes.

The evidence for Catherine arriving with her parents in 1840 is that a witness at Catherine’s wedding in 1855 at Penrith was a John Byrne, and he appeared to be literate - he signed his name.  According to the immigration record, the John Byrne who arrived with Catherine was able to read and write. We might speculate that he was Catherine’s father, and according to shipping records they therefore arrived together in 1840, along with other family members.

1841 Bridget Dowd, a single woman aged about 18, dep 28 May 1841 from Liverpool on the Forth,

arriving in Sydney on  29 Aug 1841.

1843 The Lutton family departed from Greenock on 10 Oct 1843 aboard the Herald. They arrived in Sydney 10 January 1844. Charles William and his wife Margaret (née McBride) were both 33 years old. With them were their children Sarah aged 3; Edward aged 2 and Mary Ann aged 8 months.

1854 Bridget Horan, a young single woman aged about 14, departed from Liverpool on 1 March 1854 aboard the Switzerland, arriving in Sydney on 21 June 1854.

Emigration to Australia - background

Bride Ships

More than 1000 young single women came to Sydney and Hobart in the 1830s, a handful from

foundling hospitals in Dublin and Cork but many from 'respectable' but often poor circumstances.

One such young woman was Maria Ring who arrived on the Red Rover. It sailed from Cork on 10 April 1832, arriving in Sydney on 10 August 1832. Maria married Michael Moore, son of the convict Laurence.

Several of the ships arriving from Ireland between1848 and 1850 carried young women from Irish workhouses, where they entered as a result of the famine and abject poverty. They were thrown into the arms of local parishes for poor relief support.

Politicians devised schemes to send able-bodied women to Australia to help alleviate the shortage

of women as wives and servants, and to get them off their hands.

Approximately 18,000-19,000 Irish migrants arrived under some form of government assistance to

Melbourne and Sydney between 1839 and 1842. Of these about half were female.

To read more about the bride ships, click here 

‘Orphan’ Ships

Earl Grey Female Orphan Depot, Hyde Park

The “Earl Grey Famine Orphan Scheme brought Irish women and girls to Sydney, Melbourne and

Adelaide between 1848 and 1850. They were inmates of the recently constructed workhouses,

many orphaned by the famine, although about a quarter of them had one parent still alive. Most

were between 14 and 20 years of age.

"The scheme ended in 1850 because funds had become harder to obtain and authorities were unhappy with the 'type' of women being sent out. While lack of skills and 'morality' was an issue, the major reason for the reduced demand for Irish women was religion." (Shelley Mitchell, Women's Museum of Ireland website.)

For more about the Earl Grey Orphan Scheme click here and here

Assisted Immigration Schemes / Bounty Immigrants

Beginning in 1828, the New South Wales Government organised a program to encourage people to migrate. “Assisted Immigrants” were immigrants whose passage was fully or partially paid for by the

Government as an incentive to settle in NSW.

Another program which ran from 1835 to 1841 was the bounty reward system. “Bounty immigrants”

were selected by colonists who then paid for their passage. When the immigrant arrived, a colonist

would employ the immigrant and the employer would be reimbursed by the government for all

or part of the cost of passage.

The first assisted migration schemes began in 1832 when eight single women and eight mechanics

and their families left England aboard the Mariane. Each single woman received £8 and each

mechanic was advanced £20 against his future wages. From 1832 to 1835 3,074 people received

assistance at a cost to the colony of £31,028/6s/9d. They were selected and ships chartered for them

by the Emigration Commissioners in the UK.

The Bounty Immigration Scheme which operated until 1841 was first suggested by Edward Gibbon Wakefield.  He suggested that:

• The system of free land grants should cease and colonial land should be sold.

• The revenue from these sales should be used to boost emigration from the U.K. and Ireland.

• Certain conditions should apply to the type of emigrant accepted.

This scheme was gradually adopted. The first set of Bounty Regulations was gazetted by Governor

Bourke in October 1835:

• The persons accepted should be mechanics tradesmen, or agricultural labourers.

• They should have references as to their character from responsible persons, such as the

local magistrate or clergyman.

• To prove their age they should have Certificates of Baptism.

Settlers in N.S.W. were allowed to recruit their own workers in the U.K. Most employed agents to

do so. The Government also had an Agent-General in London after 1837, and agents in other

embarkation ports.

Under the bounty scheme the settler who wanted workers paid the emigrants' passages. On

arrival these workers were examined by a Board appointed by the Governor and, if the Board were

satisfied, the settler would be issued with a certificate entitling him or her to claim the bounty money back from the government.

Complaints from the settlers before 1841 were uncommon. The bounty was refused on only about

1% of applications, mostly on grounds of age.

The bounty costs were:

• £30 for a man and wife under 30 years on embarkation;

• £15 for each single female aged 15 to 30, with the approval of the settler or the agent, and under the protection of a married couple or to stay with the family till otherwise provided for;

• £10 for each unmarried male aged 18 to 30. Equal number of males and females, mechanics or agricultural labourers were to be encouraged by the settlers;

• £5  for each child over 1year.

There were several faults in the Bounty Scheme:

• Settlers complained that not all migrants knew the trade they claimed;

• Not many settlers had the money to pay the agents in the UK to act for them and the system soon fell into the hands of the ship owners or of speculators;

• The ship owners sometimes changed the arrangements;

• Discipline aboard ship was often neglected;

• The agents In the UK created false impressions of life in NSW.

A very brief summary of Irish history 

(adapted from information sourced in main from Wikipedia)

It appears that the people of Ireland originated in the Basque country of northern Spain about 10,000 years ago. Christianity was introduced in the 5th century, when Irish recorded history began.

The Vikings and the Normans raided and settled in the period 800 to 1169. After the Norman invasions of 1169 and 1171, Ireland was under an alternating level of control from Norman lords and the King of England.

Previous to that, Ireland had seen intermittent warfare between provincial kingdoms over the position of High King. This situation was transformed by intervention in these conflicts by Norman

mercenaries and later the English crown.

After their successful conquest of England, the Normans turned their attention to Ireland, which was made a Lordship of the King of England and much of its land was seized byNorman barons. With time, Hiberno-Norman rule shrank to a territory known as the Pale.

16th and 17th centuries

The first full conquest of the island by England and its colonisation with Protestant settlers from Britain occurred from 1536 to 1691. This established two central themes in future Irish history – subordination of the country to London based governments and sectarian animosity between Catholics and Protestants.

This period also saw the transformation of Irish society from a locally driven, intertribal, clan-based

Gaelic structure to a centralised, monarchical, state-governed society, more like those found

elsewhere in Europe.

The period begins in 1536, when Henry VIII of England deposed the Fitzgerald dynasty as Lords Deputies of Ireland. The new Kingdom of Ireland was declared by Henry VIII in 1541. In 1691 the Irish Catholic Jacobites surrendered at Limerick, thus confirming British Protestant dominance in Ireland.

In much of Ireland, the Reformation failed, possibly due to the brutal methods used by the English

which engendered heightened resentment of English rule; determined proselytising by anti-

Reformation clergy, many of whom were trained in Catholic Europe, and the late arrival of the

printing press, which played a major role in spreading Protestantism elsewhere.

Protestant colonisation - “Plantations” and Penal Laws

From the mid-16th and into the early 17th century, crown governments carried out a policy of

colonisation known as Plantations. Scottish and English Protestants were sent as colonists to the

provinces of Munster, Ulster and the counties of Laois and Offaly. These colonists, who had a British and Protestant identity, would form the ruling class of future.

British administrations in Ireland

A series of penal laws discriminated against all Christian faiths other than the established

(Anglican) Church of Ireland. The principal victims of these laws were Roman Catholics and also,

from the late 17th century on, adherents of Presbyterianism. From 1607, Catholics were barred

 from public office and from serving in the army.

In 1615, the constituencies of the Irish Parliament were altered so that Protestants might form the majority of 108–102 in any given vote in the Irish House of Commons. The Catholic majority in the Irish House of Lords persisted until the Patriot Parliament of 1689, with the exception of the ten years 1650-1660, known as the Commonwealth period.

Dispossession of the land of the Catholic elite

The fifty years from 1641 to 1691 saw two catastrophic periods of civil war in Ireland 1641–53 and

1689–91. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed, and others left in permanent exile. The

wars, which pitted Irish Catholics against British forces and Protestant colonists, ended in the almost

complete dispossession of the Catholic landed elite.

Restoration of the monarchy in England

An uneasy peace returned with the Restoration of the monarchy in England and Charles II made

some efforts to conciliate Irish Catholics with compensation and land grants. However, tensions

continued, with Catholics disappointed that the land confiscations stood, and Protestants thought

that Charles had been too lenient on Catholics.

The ‘Glorious Revolution’ - 1688

Things worsened again for Catholics after James II was deposed in 1688 by the English parliament

(‘The Glorious Revolution’), and William of Orange was imported. James II had repealed much of

the anti-Catholic legislation, allowed Catholics into the Irish Parliament and the Army and

appointed a Catholic, Richard Talbot, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell, as Lord Deputy of Ireland.

After more warring, the Protestants prevailed, and that victory is still celebrated by the Orange

Order.

The Protestant Ascendancy

This era this really set up and consolidated the conditions for the 18th and 19th centuries. Penal Laws (which had been allowed to lapse somewhat after the English Restoration) were reapplied

with great harshness after this war.

The Protestant elite wanted to ensure that the Irish Catholic landed classes would not be in a position to repeat their rebellions of the 17th century. Many new Penal Laws were introduced, which put restrictions on Catholics inheriting property.

As a result of these laws, Catholic landownership fell from around 14% in 1691 to around 5%

in the course of the next century.

The Eighteenth Century

The majority of the people were Catholic peasants; they were very poor and largely impotent

politically during the eighteenth century, as many of their leaders converted to Protestantism to

avoid severe economic and political penalties. Nevertheless, there was a growing Catholic cultural

awakening underway.

There were two Protestant groups. The Presbyterians in Ulster in the north lived in better economic conditions, but had virtually no political power.

Power was held by a small group of Anglo-Irish families.They owned most of the farmland, where the work was done by the Catholic peasants. Many of these land-owning families lived in England and were absentee landlords whose loyalty was to England.

Ireland was ruled from Britain, with the British Parliament able to make laws binding on Ireland.

Irish patriots  were strengthened by the American Revolution and demanded more self-rule.

The result was a series of new laws which made the Irish Parliament a powerful institution that was

independent of the British Parliament, although still under the supervision of the King and his Privy

Council.

These concessions intensified the demands of the Irish Patriots. The Irish Rebellion of 1798 was instigated by those impatient with the slow pace of reform. The Rebellion was supported by the French. Britain suppressed the separatists, and legislated a complete union with Ireland in 1801,

including the abolition of the Irish Parliament.

The Penal Laws

The Great Parliament of Ireland 1790 by Henry Barraud and John Hayter (Campbell College, Belfast)

The Irish Parliament of this era was almost exclusively Protestant. Catholics had been barred from

holding office in the early 17th century, barred from sitting in Parliament by mid-century and finally

disenfranchised in 1727.

Catholic owned land could not be passed on intact to a single heir. This made many Catholic

landholdings unproductive and caused them to fall out of Catholic hands over several generations.

This period of defeat for Irish Catholics was referred to in Irish language poetry as the long briseadh – or "shipwreck".

Both Catholics and Presbyterians were also barred from certain professions (such as law, the

judiciary and the army). Catholics could not bear arms or exercise their religion publicly.

However, after the demise of the Jacobite cause in Scotland at Culloden in 1746, and the

Papacy’s recognition of the Hanoverian dynasty in 1766, the threat to the Protestant Ascendancy

eased and many Penal Laws were relaxed or lightly enforced. In addition, some Catholic gentry

families got around the Penal Laws by making nominal conversions to Protestantism or by getting

one family member to "convert" to hold land for the rest of his family, or to take a large mortgage

on it.

From 1766 Catholics favoured reform of the existing state in Ireland. Their politics were

represented by the “Catholic Committees” – a moderate organisation of Catholic gentry and Clergy

in each county which advocated repeal of the Penal Laws and emphasised their loyalty. Reforms

on land ownership then started in 1771 and 1778–79.

By the late 18th century, many of the Irish protestant elite had come to see Ireland as their native

country and were angered at the neglect from London. The Patriots agitated for a more favourable

trading relationship with England, in particular abolition of enforced tariffs on Irish goods in English

markets, but no tariffs on English goods coming to Ireland.

Irish parliamentarians campaigned for legislative independence for the Parliament of Ireland.

In 1782 free trade was granted between England and Ireland. It was partly responsible for an economic boom in Ireland in the 1780s.

Corn laws were introduced in 1784 to give a bounty on flour shipped to Dublin; this promoted the

spread of mills and tillage.

Further reforms for Catholics continued to 1793, when they could again vote, sit on grand juries

and buy freehold land. However they could neither enter parliament nor become senior state

officials.

Political movements in the late eighteenth century

Some in Ireland were attracted to the more militant example of the French Revolution of 1789. In

1791 a small group of Protestant radicals, in Belfast initially, formed the Society of United Irishmen 

to campaign for the end to religious discrimination and the widening of the right to vote. However,

the group soon radicalised its aims and sought to overthrow British rule and found a non-sectarian

republic.

The United Irishmen spread quickly throughout the country. Republicanism was particularly attractive to the Ulster Presbyterian community who were also discriminated against for their religion. Many Catholics, particularly the emergent Catholic middle class, were also attracted to the movement, and it claimed over 200,000 members by 1798.

The United Irishmen were banned after Revolutionary France in 1793 declared war on Britain and they developed from a political movement into a military organisation preparing for armed rebellion.

These measures did nothing to calm thesituation in Ireland and these reforms were bitterly opposed by the "ultra-loyalist" Protestant hardliners. Violence and disorder became widespread. Hardening loyalist attitudes led in 1795 to the foundation of the Orange Order, a hardline Protestant grouping.

The United Irishmen, now dedicated to armed revolution, forged links with the militant Catholic

peasant society, the Defenders, who had been raiding farmhouses since 1792. Wolfe Tone, the

United Irish leader, went to France to seek French military support. These efforts bore fruit when

the French launched an expeditionary force of 15,000 troops which arrived off Bantry Bay in

December 1796. They failed to land due to a combination of indecisiveness, poor seamanship, and

storms off the Bantry coast.

The government began a campaign of repression targeted against the United Irishmen, including

executions, routine use of torture, transportation to penal colonies and house burnings. As the

repression began to bite, the United Irishmen decided to go ahead with an insurrection without

French help. Their activity culminated in the Irish Rebellion of 1798. The central core of the plan,

around Dublin, failed, and then it spread elsewhere. The Rebellion lasted 3 months before it was

suppressed, having claimed about 30,000 lives.

Nineteenth Century

Largely in response to the Rebellion, Irish self-government was abolished altogether from 1 January

1801. The Irish Parliament, dominated by the Protestant landed class, was persuaded to vote for

its own abolition for fear of another rebellion and with the aid of bribery by Lord Cornwallis, the

Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. The Catholic Bishops, who had condemned the rebellion, supported the

Union as a step on the road to further Catholic emancipation.

Ireland was part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 1801 to 1922. The British

administration was known as “Dublin Castle” and remained largely dominated by the Anglo-Irish

establishment until its removal from Dublin in 1922.

Ireland faced considerable economic difficulties in the 19th century, including theGreat Famine of

the 1840s.

The Great Famine

Scene at the gate of a workhouse during the Great Famine (Irish Famine Society)

Ireland underwent major highs and lows economically during the 19th century; from economic

booms during the Napoleonic Wars and in the late 19th century, when it experienced a surge in

economic growth unmatched until the ‘Celtic Tiger’ boom of the 1990s, to severe economic

downturns and a series of famines, the last threatening in 1879.

The worst of these was the Great Irish famine of 1845-1849, during which about one million people died and another million emigrated.

The economic problems of most Irish people were in part the result of the small size of their

landholdings and a large increase in the population in the years before the famine. Both the law and social tradition provided for subdivision of land, with all sons inheriting equal shares in a farm, meaning that farms became so small that only one crop, potatoes, could be grown in sufficient amounts to feed a family.

Many estates, from whom the small farmers rented, were poorly run by absentee landlords and in many cases heavily mortgaged.

Enclosures of land since the start of the 19th century had also exacerbated the problem, and the

extensive grazing of cattle had contributed to the decrease in size in the plots of land available to

tenants to raise crops.

When potato blight hit in 1845, much of the rural population was left without food. The Prime

Minister Lord John Russell adhered to a strict laissez-faire economic policy, which maintained that

further state intervention would have the whole country dependent on hand-outs, and that what

was needed was for economic viability to be encouraged.

Despite Ireland producing a net surplus of food, most of it was exported to England and elsewhere.

Public works schemes were set up but proved inadequate, and the situation became catastrophic when epidemics of typhoid, cholera and dysentry took hold.

The inadequacy of the British government’s initiatives led to a problem becoming a catastrophe.

Emigration was not uncommon in Ireland in the years preceding the Famine. Between 1815–1845,

Ireland had already established itself as the major supplier of overseas labour to Great Britain and

North America. However, emigration reached a peak during the famine, particularly in the years

1846–1855. The famine also saw increased emigration to Canada and assisted passages to

Australia.

7. From Ireland: Luttons (Cant lineage)

Charles Lutton and Margaret McBride (3rd great grandparents on Gwen Cant's side)

Charles William Lutton

Charles was born 19 June 1810 in County Down, in Ireland. His wife, Margaret McBride was born about 1819 in Belfast. They married in 1838 and along with three children, Sarah ( 27 May 1840), Edward (6 October 1841) and Mary Ann (6 May 1843), arrived in Sydney aboard the Herald on 10 January 1844. They had sailed from Greenock in Scotland on 10 October 1843.

Margaret Lutton née McBride

County Down 1810

The arrival of Luttons in Ireland

There is a tradition in Ireland that the first Luttons arrived in Ireland towards the end of the 17th century from England. The name is now relatively common in Ireland, especially in the north. Source

Betty Lahiff (1994), provides the following information:

"It has been said that William and Ralph Lutton went to Ireland with William of Orange, remained in the country, and inter-married with the Irish and became Irish. It is however, possible that they were in Ireland before William of Orange invaded the country. Charles William Lutton was descended from Ralph Lutton. 

"The family history has it that in 1692 a family of Luttons were given a land grant in County Armagh after the Battle of the Boyne for “services to the king” (this is very doubtful)."

Charles’ father was John Wesley Lutton. He had a brother, Andrew James, who stayed in Ireland. Their Lutton forebears were:

• William Lutton (9th great-grandfather), born 1620 in Knapton, Yorkshire. At some point (after 1657) he moved from Yorkshire to Ireland; he died in 1688 at Moira, County Down.
• William’s son, William (8th great-grandfather), was born 1657, also born in Knapton, Yorkshire and died in Moira. 
• William Junior had a son named James (7th great-grandfather) born in 1684 in Knapton. He died in Moira.
• James’ son, William (6th great-grandfather), was born in 1709 in Moira. He married a woman named Martha (6th great-grandmother) in 1735. They had nine children, one of whom was
• Anne (5th great-grandmother), born 10 Oct 1751 in Moira. She died 3 March 1816 in Donaghcloney. Anne married her cousin, Ralph Lutton (5th great grandfather) in 1770. Ralph was born in Moira in 1751 (died 8 April 1828). 
• Ralph’s father, Ralph (6th great-grandfather) was born in 1723 in Moira (died 1778). He married Catherine Brown (6th great-grandmother).

Ralph Lutton's house at 65 Main St, Moira. Source

Today the house is a Guest House

The Luttons and the Irish linen industry

Charles’ brother Andrew, and father John had a linen mill in Edenderry, a town in County Down, now on the southern edge of Belfast. Nearly every town and village had a mill or a factory. By 1921 there were almost one million spindles and 37,000 looms, with over 70,000 directly employed, representing 40% of the registered working population, with closer to 100,000 people dependant on the linen industry. At end of the 20th century only 10 significant companies, at most, remained employing 4,000 people.

The Craigavon Historical Society pubished a paper by an S.C. Lutton entitled The Linen Trade in Co Armagh since the turn of the Century. Lutton writes:

"Of the many handkerchief manufacturers in Portadown, Spence, Bryson & Co. Ltd. are the only survivors. Those that have long since gone, were William Cowdy of Edward Street, Thomas Dawson of Corcrain, A. J. Lutton of Edenderry and John Malcolmson of Windsor Terrace. This list is not complete as there were several other small firms operating in Portadown and the surrounding country.

"Edenderry village is situated approximately 4 miles from Belfast City centre on the County Down side of the River Lagan…During the first half of the nineteenth century, the population of Belfast quadrupled to more than 100,000 as commerce and industry expanded, and by 1816 most of the independent weavers had disappeared from the belfast market and were employed by manufacturers int he city. The townland of Edenderry lies in the Parish of Drumbo where there were between 400-500 linen cotton weavers in the 1830s…"

Source

Edenderry

The rector of Drumbo, Rev Maunsell, was one of the people who vouched for Charles and Margaret for the emigration status.

Charles Lutton (source Elizabeth Lahiff, 1994)

"Charles was the elder son of John and Sarah Lutton. Charles was a quick tempered, lively boy, who refused to atttend school regularly, learned to read but not write. Part of his work in the family was to mind the flax. 

"As a young man, he was in some trouble with the authorities, perhaps for some religious disturbance arsing from the bitter conflict betwen the Protestant and Catholic people in Northern Ireland. Together with a family friend, they managed to elude the police. 

"Charles married Margaret McBride, a Roman Catholic born 1818 in Belfast, circa 1839. Her parents, Edward and Mary McBride were dead and she was listed as a house servant and laundress. Margaret was educated, it being unusual in Ireland of those days, for a girl to read and write. Even when an old lady, she read the newsapapaers to her impatient husband. She had one brother, Paddy, who was a Roman Catholic priest. 

"Charles’ father, apparently very concerned about his son, offered to pay the fares to Australia of Charles, his wife and 3 children. Why Australia? This is not known, unless the family had some prior connection with the country. Emigration, under the revised Bounty system was just commencing. The time was just before the Irish famine of the 1840’s. 

"As far as we can determine, Charles’ “crime” was in marrying a Catholic. He was obviously a person of character who defied the rigid conventions of the period and married Margaret McBride. 

Despite Margaret's Catholicism, both Charles and Margaret are listed as Episcopalians on the ship details. It is probable that she converted.

"In 1843 documents were signed for emigration to Australia. By now Charles and his family were living in Ballylough, a village of Bushmills in County Antrim, near Coleraine, some distance from Portadown. The emigration documents were signed in Coleraine. Emigrants were required to have evidence of baptism, health, character and probable usefulness in the colony. Charles’ application form was marked “good”. Religion was shown as “episcopalian”. 

"Details of the family and their fares to Australia were:

Charles Lutton, aged 33 17.17.0 (pounds)

Margaret  “           “    25 17.17.0

Sarah       “           “      3   8.18.0

Edward (Ned)       “    1.5        8.18.0

Mary Anne            “   2 months         under age

Charles and Margaret Lutton come to Australia

HMS Herald

"In 1843, the family left Ireland for Scotland, embarked on the ship Herald, and sailed from Greenock, the port of Glasgow on 10 October, 1843. 500 adult emigrants were on the ship. 

"It was the custom for young women alone to be under the care of a responsible adult. Charles Lutton had two young women in his charge, by decision of the agent. They were Jane Mahon and Anne Ritchie, one a nurse and one a laundress. At the end of the journey it was noted - “They behaved themselves very well”.

"The voyage of the Herald appeared uneventful. It was a crowded ship but very clean, with excellent provisions, and no complaints. 

"The ship arrived in Sydney on 10 January, 1844 and was inspected by the Immigration Board on 11 January before the passengers were let ashore. The report comments on the excellent supervision of Doctor Sullivan, the ship’s Surgeon Superintendent, which ensured the health of the passengers. It states, inter alia, “The orderly, contented, cleanly and healthy state in which (they) arrived, reflect the highest credit upon Doctor Sullivan, the Surgeon Superintendent, who appears, though a strict disciplinarian, to have enjoyed the regard, as well as confidence of those placed under his charge.”

Family history researcher, Ron Lutton, has written this imaginative piece about the emigration of Charles and Margaret Lutton, with their three eldest children.

A FUTURE BEYOND
Ron Lutton
2011
Feelings of exhilaration and trepidation must have swept through the Bounty immigrants
aboard the “Herald” as it entered Sydney’s harbour on that January morning in 1844. For
those old enough to remember the loved ones, friends and homes left behind in Northern
Ireland, their feelings must have been tinged with sadness. Yet all would have found
relief in the thought that they would soon be stepping onto dry land, the first time in three
months since setting sail from Greenock in Scotland. For some, there would have been
the excitement of starting a new life in the far-flung British colony of Sydney, Australia.

Among the immigrants, no doubt with mixed emotions, were my forbears Charles and
Margaret Lutton, and their three young children. After sailing from Belfast in Northern
Ireland, they had joined the ship in Greenock to seek a new life in a far away country.

The “Herald” of 911 tons had sailed from Greenock on 10 October 1843 with 313
immigrants aboard and arrived in Sydney Harbour on 10 January 1844. Being built in
1840 in New Brunswick, Canada, the “Herald” was one of the newer types of the many
sailing vessels contracted to carry immigrants from the United Kingdom to Australia.

The sea journey of over 9300km was accomplished in the very favourable time of 91
days without making landfall until reaching Sydney. The ship’s return records that 313
immigrants arrived under the Bounty System, comprising 56 families with 110 children
under 14 years of age, 21 of these being less than one year old; 47 unmarried males over
14 years of age; and 44 females over 14 years of age. They all arrived in good health
although during the voyage there had been three deaths. There were also five births
during the voyage.

The first sighting of the east coast of Australia must have raised some alarm with the
immigrants when they saw small fires along the coastline. At night the small fires would
glow red along the coastline and during the daytime smoke could be seen rising above the
harsh bushland that lay beyond. The threat of Aborigines would have become more real
as many stories had filtered back to the old country about the danger they could pose to
the new settlers.

As the “Herald” entered Sydney Harbour it was met by the pilot boat with its quarantine
officers aboard to check the health of the crew and passengers. The ship’s return reports
that the ship received a clear bill of health from the harbour authorities and was allowed
to proceed to dock and unload its cargo. The “Herald” docked at Campbell’s Wharf and
the following day started to unload its cargo of glass, confectionery, bales of linen,
leather, soda ash, boxes of apparel and many other items.

The immigrants however, had to wait aboard ship until their sponsor arrived to take them to their place of employment. Some journeyed as far away as Bathurst while others were taken into employment by the Sydney colonists. Charles Lutton had somehow arranged temporary employment with the government prior to commencing the voyage and remained in Sydney.
All of the newcomers found employment within the week.

Importantly the ship brought new immigrants to the colony, but it also brought news from
the outside world. Many in the colony craved for news from back home and the “Herald”
brought them relief in the form of newspapers from London and Scotland, albeit three
months old.

The colony had to rely on the shipping to bring the news from the outside world and
importantly to report back to the world the colony’s progress. The mood in the colony
had been depressed for several years at that time, mainly due to the poor wool prices in
the fledgling wool industry. The Sydney Morning Herald, the day after the “Herald’s”
arrival, reported that the news in the overseas newspapers had been encouraging in that
overseas trade was continuing to improve, especially in wool trade. The Sydney Morning
Herald also reported that the immigrants arrived in a healthy condition giving credit to
the ship’s surgeon superintendent, captain and officers, and the superior ship’s fittings.
These the paper reported were superior to any emigrant vessel that had ever arrived in the
colony having two-tiered berths round the ship and nine feet (2.7m) between decks.
Single males were housed in the fore part of the ship, the single females in the aft section,
and the married couples placed amidships.

But what could have induced the young Lutton family to leave their home and family to
seek a new life in Australia, so far away across the world? Charles was 33 years old,
Margaret 25, and the children, Sarah 3, Edward 2, and Mary Anne 2 months. Charles’s
occupation had been a farm labourer/horse keeper and Margaret a house servant.
Imagine the difficulty of sailing for three months in what nowadays we would consider to
be horrendous conditions. These were times when some people didn’t survive such a sea
journey. The incidence of plague and other incurable diseases were a real threat.
Numbers of ships arriving in the colony had to first unload their sick passengers at the
North Head quarantine station before being allowed to proceed to dock or tie up in the
harbour.

The question as to …“why would they want to do it” …had been posed in my mind for
some time since I first started looking into my family history. It wasn’t until I started
corresponding with Doctor Samuel Lutton living in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1990,
that the answer was revealed to me - religious bigotry!

Charles was a Protestant and he had married Margaret who was a Roman Catholic. A mixed marriage in Northern Ireland back in that time meant the couple, and their young family, would have had no future living there. Samuel Lutton said that such a marriage even in 1990 would have serious consequences. Living in Australia today, it’s hard to imagine that the feelings associated with religious bigotry could be so strong, although one only has to remember the killings in Northern Ireland in recent decades.

After arriving in Sydney, Charles and his family lived for a short time in
Woolloomooloo, later moving the family to the then more prosperous area of Paddington.
The family grew from there and is now spread throughout eastern Australia.

Researched and written by Ron Lutton, 9 May 2011

Employment on arrival

 Betty Lahiff says: 

"“The superiority of the emigrants by the ‘Herald’ is plainly proved by the fact that they have all found employment, notwithstanding that there are said to be 2,000 adult males now unemployed in Sydney, the refuse for the most part of the former immigration.”

Charles Lutton was taken into temporary employment by the Government. Bounty immigrants, whose fares were paid by the British Government were bound to an employer for 12 months. Charles Lutton was free from this obligation as his father had paid the fares of the family. 

Lutton’s name does not appear with the other passengers as having entered an employment agreement. 

Remarks by the Master of the Herald (Missing or illegible words are denoted by [..], guesses by (?))
“ [..] the three men shown in the foregoing list to have been taken into employ by the government, two were unable to proceed up the Country in consequence of the [..] consent of their wives. The third failed to obtain an engagement in consequence of [..] with three young children in addition probably to inferior qualification [..] it [..] all his proof of (writing?) [..] from his arrival. [..] may mention that married men with young and useless children find great difficulty obtaining employment, and that with Mechanics, Artizans and Tradesmen of every description the labour market is at present overstocked & is likely to remain so until the Colony has fully recovered itself.

“The wages given to Labourers and Shepherds will be seen to be considerably lower than those [..] Immigrants who arrived in 1842 but the price of clothing and provisions to have [..]
[Can’t decipher next part]

“I beg to [..] for the [..] information of the [..] a copy of Report of Immigration Board.
“The only defect observed by the Immigration Boar on the ship “Herald…the absence namely of Stern ports was so fully compensated by her [..] her height between decks, and her general suitableness to the service, the mention is scarcely necessary - [..] however observes that the defect was in great measure remedied by a Wingrail which the Surgeon saw to be fitted through a small scuttle on the main deck corresponding with a ship light on the Poop deck immediately before the wheel. By this [..] a current of air [..] was introduced into the female hospital at the after front of the ‘tween decks.

“ The fittings of the ship and the general arrangements on board were unexceptional.
“The provisions proved to have been of excellent quality, and not a single complaint was made by the Immigrants respecting either their quality or their [..]

“The orderly, contented, cleanly and healthy state in which the Immigrants arrrived, reflects the highest merit upon Dr Sullivan, the Surgeon Superintendent who appears, though a strict disciplinarian, to have enjoyed the regard as well as confidence of those placed under his charge. His attention to the interests of Immigrants in making their engagements here has also been most praiseworthy. We need desire no more than that ther emay be found in all cases Gentlemen equally qualified by age, by experience, and by the other usual qualifications requisite for the effecient discharge of the duties of Surgeon Superintendent.

“I have taken the liberty of particularizing age amongst Dr Sullivan’s qualifications, that I may follow it up by an expression of hope that Gentlemen under the middle age may as far as possible be excluded from these appointments.

“The self confidence and self possession necessary to establish his influence (over?) a large heterogeneous body of people, and to enable him to act independently of the Master of the Vessel, will rarely, I fear, be found in a very young man, even though he may have the advantage of some experience in his particular Service.

“ The insertion of this general remark here, I feel requires apology, but it will doubly be excused by the Commissioners when they consider how painful it would be hereafter to point it at some individual whose exertions may have been most praiseworthy and whose success in the Medical department of his duties may have been com[..].

“No disease of consequence occurred during the voyage.

“The quality of the Immigrants generally was highly satisfactory and the [..] between them and those to whom the Colonists had been latterly accustomed did [..] to [..]

“Like the Public as well as the Board

X 9 February 1844 "

The Lutton family grows in Australia

Whatever the fortunes of Charles and Margaret upon arrival, life was very hard. Charles worked as a carpenter (Lahiff)

After their arrival with the three “useless” children, Charles and Margaret went on to have 11 more.

The family, moved around the inner east of Sydney. In the Sands Directories for 1887, 1888 and 1889 their address was 10 Prospect St, Paddington. In 1890 it was 35 Little Underwood St; 1895 - 25 Glenmore Rd. In 1897 and 1898 their address was 152 Forbes St, Woolloomooloo.

Margaret died on 11 June 1898, Charles three days later on 14 June. They are buried at Waverly Cemetery. In the death record index for Charles, it names his parents as Andrew J and Ann, the informant may have mistaken his uncle and aunt for his parents.

Time in Queensland

"After Thomas's birth in 1852, Charles and Margaret and their 6 children travelled to Queensland, lived in Brisbane and possibly Gympie or Port Curtis (near Gladstone). In 1854 Maurice O’Connell (the younger) became Governor resident in Port Curtis and it seems likely that the Luttons were part of the group of people going north with him. Maurice O’Connell was a grandson of Governor Bligh. His mother Mary Putland (nee Bligh), a widow, defied her father and married Colonel Maurice O’Connell who came to Sydney with Governor Macquarie as his adjutant. 

The Luttons lived in Brisbane for a while but lack of work forced ther return to Sydney. Margaret bore one or two children in Queensland, while living in a tent. Food was in extremely short supply and Charles said only the German immigrants growing vegertables saved the people from starvation. 

Sarah, the eldest daughter, about 13 years old, remained in Brisbane in the "household" of Maurice O’Connell. Some years later she married Charles Baldwin the parliamentary caterer, an Englishman of some means. "

Life in Sydney

Cabbage tree hat NSW 1880s (Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences

"Living for people with big families was extremely hard. Margaret helped by making cabbage tree palm hats and each child was given a length of palm to plait each day. Cabbage tree palms grew in abundace in Sydney. 

Paddington National School 1856

"They struggled very hard to educate their children who attended Paddington Public School. The sons learned trades, no small achievement in those days. John became a printer, Charles a watchmaker, William a railway guard and James a draftsman. Thomas, after leaving school, attended evening classes for intelligent boys conducted by Judge Stephens in his home and entered a lawyer’s firm, to train in law. His father was now elderly and could not support Thomas who received no salary. The legal training was abandoned and he turned to other occupations, mainly clerical. 

Paddington 1842 (State Library NSW)

"At one time Charles appealed to his wealthy brother in Belfast for help, only to receive the reply - “You have been in the colony long enough to be driving around in your own carriage with your own coachman.” This so infuriated the family that it was resolved not to ask for help again. However, some contact was maintained and books and poems written by Anne Lutton were received. Anne Lutton (1791-1881) was an intellectual religious figure of her time, deeply religious and regarded as as a saint and poetess. Her Lutton Birthday Book is artistic with her poems and illustrations. Anne moved from Ireland to England and spent much of her life working among the poor people, especially women and children. There is a memorial to her in St Mary’s Church, Bristol. A stained glass window is now in the possession of Dr Abraham Lutton of Oswestry, Shropshire, England." 

"Charles Baldwin, Sarah’s husband, visited the family in Belfast, where he was coldly received until they realised he was prosperous and required no assistance from them. He returned home with some fine linens, no doubt paid for at market prices. 

"Charles Lutton was a sandy-haired quick tempered “tread on the tail of my coat Irishman” and bitterly anti-Catholic. Margaret, his wife, had been a Catholic but apparently changed her religion on marriage. Her photographs show her a good-looking, very strong placid woman, dark-haired, short of stature and plump when she grew older. Her skin was marked from a skin complaint in her youth. 

Charles built a small house at 152 Forbes St, Woolloomooloo and lived there for some years with Margaret and their unmarried children."

Charles and Margaret’s family

Sarah, the eldest child was born in County Down, Ireland on 27 May 1840. She died in Brisbane on 9 January 1878, at the Parliamentary Refreshment Room, of peritonitis.

Sarah’s marriage to Mr Charles Baldwin took place on 4th May, 1867 at St John’s Church, Brisbane. It was announced in the Sydney Mail on 18 May. She is buried in North Brisbane General Cemetery.
Sarah and Charles had seven children, who variously married and had children of their own.

Edward was born on 7 November 1841 in County Down, Ireland.

Edward married Rachel Woodend in St George in Sydney. They had 4 children between 1873 and 1883. None of them lived in to old age. Agnes was 26 (1899), William 17 (1893), Elsie 2 (1885) and Alice 31 (1906). All pre-deceased their parents.

He fought in the Maori War in New Zealand and lost a leg. He brought home a green stone Maori axe, given to him, or taken from a Chief as the Chief was dying. (Lahiff)

Edward died at the Rookwood Asylum, Lidcombe on 27 Feb 1919. In 1913, the Asylum had became known as Rookwood State Hospital and Asylum for the Aged and Infirm. It is possible that he was suffering some kind of dementia. Eventually it evolved into Lidcombe Hospital.

Edward is buried at the Rookwood Cemetery.

Mary Ann was born 2 July 1843 in County Down, died 19 December 1922 in Rochford Private Hospital, Wickham Terrace, Brisbane - age 79.
When sister Sarah died in 1878, Mary Ann went to Brisbane to housekeep and care for her sister’s children, who were aged between 9 months and 10 years of age. She married her widowed brother-in-law, Charles Baldwin, on 4 December 1880, and they subsequently had two daughters - Violet Sarah, born 23 July 1883 in Brisbane, and Ruby Eugenie, born 11 August 1885 in Brisbane.

Violet married Arthur Wesley Fox on 25 March 1911 and had a daughter, Ruth Mary, born 7 March 1914, died 10 March 1914.

Ruby married John Hamilton Beath on 23 May 1907 in Qld. They had a daughter, Mary Hazel, born 21 January 1908, and son Charles Hamilton born 14 April 1909. 



William was born on 16 June 1845, Paddington and died 21 April 1874, Sydney Infirmary, age 29. He was a railway guard, who died in an accident at work. The Inquest into his death found he died of shock and loss of blood and injuries received in a shunting accident at South Creek.

William had married Lydia Hannan (born 18 November 1859) in 1869 in Sydney. They had two children. Edith Louisa, born 1871 died in 1874 and Charles David born 1873, died in 1877.

Jemima was born 11 May 1847 in Paddington, died of tuberculosis on 4 August 1848 in Paddington, aged 15 months.

John Henry, born 15 March 1849, Paddington, died 8 October 1868, in Brisbane - age 19 and is buried in the Church of England cemetery in Brisbane. He died of Phthisis, which is now called tuberculosis. He had been living in Brisbane for 5 weeks prior to his death; he had probably gone to his sister Sarah’s for the warmer climate. [Lahiff says he died of drowning on a Sunday School picnic at Nielsen Park]

Charles was born 6 January 1851 in Paddington and was christened on 9 March 1851 in the Parish of St Mark, Alexandria. He died in Paddington in 1872, Paddington, aged 21.

Thomas (great-great grandfather) was born 16 September 1852 in Paddington. He was christened 7 November 1852 in Parish of St Mark, Alexandria.

Thomas married Elizabeth Susannah Lawrence (great-great grandmother), born 12 December 1849) on 21 December 1876 at Crown St, Ultimo.

Thomas died 24 September 1917 at “Montrose”, 99 Gordon St, Paddington and is buried at Waverley Cemetery in the Church of England section. He died of acute lobar pneumonia and cardiac failure.

?? Agnes, probably born in Queensland. 

Frederick, born 1854, suggested in Queensland, though I can see no record in either NSW or Queensland. Died aged two on 26 March 1856 in Gipps St, Paddington and buried at Camperdown. He was last seen by Surgeon Hoffman, 11th Regiment on 26 March 1856 who diagnosed his 3 month illness as whooping cough.

James, born 1856 in Paddington, died aged 38 on 21 April 1894 in Orange, and buried at Orange Cemetery. His cause of death was Phithisis (TB) and cardiac failure. In 1887 he married Alice F Jay in Paddington. They had children James (stillborn, 1888), Sarah (b 1889 in Orange, m Syd Walter Fowler in 1915), George Stanley (b 1890, m Nelly Fowler in 1915), Robert Andrew (b 1892) who died in Queensland from drinking poisoned water. 




Alexander, born 1858 in Paddington, died 26 April 1859 at Gipps St, Paddington, aged less than one year. He is buried at Camperdown, as is older brother Frederick. Alexander died of inflammation of the lungs, which illness lasted 3 days.

George, born 1859 in Paddington, died 4 April 1872 in Prosepect St, Paddington. Cause of death was typhoid fever, perforation of the intestine, an illness he suffered for 2 weeks.

Fanny, born 1861 in Paddington, died in 1947 in New York. Fanny was a Christian missionary who ministered in Japan and Arabia during her life.

Fanny nursed and cared for her parents at Forbes St, Woolloomooloo. 








Emily Margaret, born 1864 in Paddington, died 13 December 1865, aged one year at Prospect St, Paddington. She suffered from bronchitis for 3 days.

Charles' and Margaret's lives were punctuated by the deaths of nine (or ten?) of their children, in 1848, 1854, 1859, 1865, 1868, 1872, 1874, 1878 and 1894. It is hard to imagine how this would affect you, but just visiting cemeteries of the era attest to the prevalence of early mortality.


Much of the information about the Luttons comes from A Family History of the Freeman, Franklin, Lawrence and Lutton Families by Elizabeth Lahiff, April 1994.