Full name:
Canning, John and Jane
Canning, John and Jane
John and Jane Canning were in Berrima in 1837. Jane died on the 1st 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
- Back to Residents Full List
- Read more about Berrima in Mitchell’s County Town: Berrima 1831-1841