Canning, John and Jane

Canning, John and Jane

John and Jane Canning were in Berrima in 1837. Jane died on the 1^st of April that year, aged 38 and it is the record of her death that provides the information as to John’s trade – he was a stonemason, probably working on the construction of the gaol and courthouse.[1]

John Canning’s descendants suggest he was born in 1779, in County Derry, Ireland.[2] His listing on the ident of the convict ship, Baring, which arrived in Sydney in 1814 says he was tried at Worcester, England and transported for seven years. [3] His crime has not yet been identified.

He married Jane Brown in 1820. She, too was a convict but had been in the colony only a short time, arriving on the Morley lll in 1820. Her certificate of freedom, issued in 1834, says she was a servant from Lancashire who had robbed her master and was sentenced, at Lincoln, to transportation for 14 years. It also confirms she was married to John Connolly.[4] The document seeking permission to marry is dated after the event – April 1821 – and is signed by the Catholic priest Roger Therry with the Catholic ceremony to take place in Parramatta. John is described as free by servitude.[5]

By 1825, if it is the same man, Canning was doing quite well, purchasing a house and land in Front Street Sydney for £36 and in December 1825 he requests to have Thomas Kearns (23 years old and who arrived on the Henry Porcher) assigned to him on the basis that Kearns is a near relative of his wife and that he is able to support a convict.[6] At the time Connolly’s address is given as ‘off Kent Street’.

The Hobson family tree on ancestry call him John Marius Canning and suggest he died in 1847.[7]

[1] Sydney, Australia, Anglican Parish Registers, 1814-2011

[2] Hobson Family Tree – ancestry.com.au

[3] SRNSW Australia Convict Ship Muster Rolls and Related Records, 1790-1849

[4] Certificate of Freedom dated July 1833 – 33/77; The Hobson family tree suggests Jane was originally from Lincolnshire

[5] SRNSW Col. Secs. Papers Series NRS 937; Reels 6004-6016

[6] SRNSW Col. Secs. Papers Series: NRS 897; Reel or Fiche Numbers: Reels 6041-6064, 6071-6072 page 23

[7] NSW Births, Marriages and Deaths Records V18471357 116