Callaghan, Timothy and Mary

Timothy Callaghan was a constable in Berrima in 1841 when he was living alone in premises in Argyle Street.[1]

There are several Timothy Callaghans in the convict register – many of them from Cork – but only one whose records show a connection with Berrima on both their ticket of leave and conditional pardon. This convict is identified on the Irish convict website as arriving on board the convict ship Borodino that sailed from Cork and arrived in Port Jackson in 1828.[2]

There were, however, two Timothy Callaghans on the Borodino. They were father and son: the father aged around 50 and son aged 23 at the time of arrival. Both had been found guilty of housebreaking and sentenced to life in the colony. They were both recorded as being ‘ploughman, shepherd and dairyman’.

Once in the colony they did not stay together. At the time they received their tickets of leave in 1836 Timothy Senior is recorded as living in the Yass district and his son in Sutton Forest. Both are listed as labourers.[3] Their conditional pardons, issued in 1842, also show them in different places – the names of the people making the recommendations differ, with G M (George Meares) Bowen, Berrima’s Chief Magistrate, signing for Timothy Callaghan Jnr.[4]

Records show that Timothy Callaghan Snr applied to have his wife, Bridget Bush, and one child to join him, an application supported at the Irish end by two local priests.[5]

In January 1842 the younger Timothy Callaghan, then aged 37, was granted permission to marry a free immigrant, Mary Maloney. Mary was a dairy maid who had arrived on the Runnymede in August 1841 with many other Irish immigrants and according to the ships ident she was 25 years old and a Roman Catholic from Limerick. They were married in St John’s Church, Campbelltown in 1842.[6]

The last mention of Timothy Callaghan in Berrima is when he subscribed £1 to Catholic Church Fund in 1841.[7]

In his blogspot Matt Hall makes a case for tracing both father and son to Lang’s Creek, Yass.[8] This is based on a Mary Callaghan of Lang’s Creek sponsoring the immigration of a cousin, John Maloney, from Limerick and, when he doesn’t arrive, placing an advert in the Sydney Morning Herald of 25 January 1865 asking for him to contact her.

The Callaghans certainly owned land at Lang’s Creek, one lot of just over 31 acres purchased for £129/3/- in 1854 and another 41 acres for £41/2/6 in 1855.

There is also a Timothy Callaghan (father given as Timothy Callaghan) who died in 1873 and is buried in Burrowa Cemetery.[9] His age there is given as 60 when according to his convict ident, ticket of leave and permission to marry forms he would have been older – between 63 and 68. Is this a significant difference given the times? No record of the death of an older Timothy, the father, has been found

A Mary Callaghan died in 1895.[10] According to the Yass Courier on 5 November 1895 she:

died in gaol on Saturday morning aged 70-80 years, death was hastened by the want of nourishment, gaoled for medical treatment, been in the Colony since 1843 came to Yass aged 27 years.

Again there are some minor inconsistencies in the entry date of Mary into Australia and her age when moving to Yass.

Without further research this link between Berrima’s Timothy Callaghan and the one at Lang’s Creek must remain circumstantial. But it is a pleasant thought that father and son might eventually have been re-united.

[1] Berrima Police Establishment Ledger: Sept 1841 (BDH&FHS files)

[2] http://members.pcug.org.au/~ppmay/cgi-bin/irish/irish.cgi?requestType=Search&ship=Borodino+(1828). Accessed 2016

[3] NSW Convict register [4/4110; Reel 926] and [4/4107; Reel 925]

[4] NSW Convict register [4/4478; Reel 797 Page 196] and [4/4479; Reel 797]

[5] SRNSW Wives and Families of Convicts on Bounty ships 1832-34 4/2188

[6] SRNSW Series: 12212; Item: 4/4513; Page: 276 and NSW BDM Record no V18421322 92/1842

[7] Australasian Chronicle, 21 August 1841

[8] http://thehistoryofmatt.blogspot.com.au/2011/07/john-moloneys-arrival-in-new-south.html. Accessed June 2016

[9] NSW BDM 3604/1873. Also http://members.webone.com.au/~sgrieves/irish_burials.htm also NSW Register of BDM V18421322 92/1842. Accessed July 2016

[10] NSW BDM 14917/1895