Patrick John London or John London as he was also known and his wife Sarah London and their infant son, William London, were our first London ancestors in Australia. He and Sarah came to Australia aboard the Ann. On the 25th August 1809 the English ship left England bound for the colonies. Aboard were a motley bunch of convicts (197 men), crew, free settlers and soldiers (along with a limited number of soldiers wives and children). Military officers onboard included Captain Maclean, Lieutenants Purcell and Drury. Assistant Surgeon Martin. All three accompanied by their families. Passengers, Reverend Samuel Marsden, Reverend Cartwrights (both with families.)
The Ann brought no doubt welcome letters and packages from home in Britain for John Harris, Joseph Honess, Rev. James Harold, Richard Winsor, James Wested, James Everand, Ann Halward, John Harris, Thomas Graham, Marain Mason, Mrs. Barrington, John Frenchum, Joseph Allen, Mrs James Wilson, James Metcalf, Ann Lane, Simon Freebody, Benjamin Jones, John Nimmo, David Bell, George Cooper, Patrick White, Ann Uren, Thomas Green, George Salter, Thomas Upton, Sarah Stubbs, Ann Franklin, George Aberham alias Robert Jones.
On the same day that the Ann arrived so did the Venus. Under Captain Bunker from Bengal. Passengers included Mrs Bunker, Mr and Mrs Burton, Mr and Mrs Leigh, John Betheaume, Esq & merchant. Lieutenant Edwards of His Majesty’s 8th Regiment of Royal Irish Dragoons. the two latter men were remarked to be coming for recovery of their health. (Perhaps seeking the drier climate which was often the recommendation for those who had illnesses especially of the chest.)
The Sydney Gazette & New South Wales Advertiser, Sat 3 March 1810
The troops onboard the Ann were from the 73rd regiment, who would serve as reinforcements and replacements for the existing unruly New South Wales Corps – many of whom had taken part in the infamous 1808 “Rum Rebellion” and overthrow of Governor Bligh. The 73rd were made up of British Regular Troops being specially trained for this commission. They would be known as the 73rd regiment on foot. The purpose of this replacement of the New South Wales Corps was to expunge the disproportionate power vacuum that had enabled the Corps members to establish themselves as the rule of law by force in the fledgling colony. This having a disastrous impact on settlers and convicts alike. Two of the ships of the 73rd foot left Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, England on the 8th of May 1909 (Hindustan and Dromedary.) Of the New South Wales Corps about three-hundred were permitted to remain in the colonies and subsequently were absorbed into the 73rd. Our ancestors and indeed we descendants know them more colloquially as ‘redcoats’. The premise that they were all drawn from England however is inaccurate. Members of the 73rd were drawn from across several different branches of the British army including but not exclusively, England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Some came as far as from Canada and India where they had previously served.
Source Australian War Memorial Colonial Records and Hill, R. M. (1934). A SHORT HISTORY OF THE NEW SOUTH WALES CORPS 1789-1818. Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research, 13(51), 135–140. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44221611
The journey appeared to be largely uneventful. The ship called in at Rio de Janeiro before arriving at Port Jackson on the 27th February 1810. Those aboard are remarked in the shipping notes to have enjoyed a pleasant voyage with only one man (a convict named Pope)lost overboard. As to where (Patrick) John and Sarah fitted into this crew I strongly suspect he was a soldier with the 73rd regiment on foot who would come to Australia. (Thanks to Lyn Murphy and Allen London who have done the research behind this one and generously shared).
A wide and varied supply of produce had been brought from London and Ireland aboard the Ann and this included ‘slops’ (clothing that was allocated to the convicts) for their use when they disembarked. They were responsible for maintaining this wardrobe as getting new clothing from the ‘stores’ was not an easy achievement in those days and the clothing was expected to last a considerable period of time.
Slops that were brought by the Ann and made available were as below. (I’ve kept the spelling as the paper reported it.)
1 blue waistcoat with sleeves or a Military Jacket.
1 pair of dark trowsers or 1 Duck frock
1 white or 1 cheque shirt
1 pair of shoes
1 blanket
1 forage cap
1 pair of stockings
1 pair of socks
1 yarn cap
Saturday 17 March 1810, The Sydney Gazette & New South Wales Advertiser
The Biographical database of Australia has enabled me to almost certainly tie our Patrick into the 73rd Regiment on Foot. Sarah who is recorded as a free-woman (Mrs. London with a child) would stay on in Australia. Poor record-keeping at the time with families arriving was a criticism that would make its way back to England’s government of the day. Tracking Patrick (John) and Sarah’s movements in Sydney has to date proven exasperatingly difficult. What is known without doubt is that a month after arriving Patrick (John) died on the 27th March 1810.
Patrick (John) London’s burial is recorded in the St Phillips Church parish Register, Vol 2 has C/E burials 1787 to 1831. What this tells us is that C/E is Church of England and this was his religion. Remembering that religion was much more important than how we would perceive it today as it also gave clues to a persons location of origin. At the time that he died our ancestor’s religion points toward him being a British subject. There are no indicators in any of the many records that I’ve scrutinised that he was a convict. This would in many ways have made him much easier to locate!
What is helpful in Patrick (John) being identified at the Old Sydney Burial Grounds is that his burial is recorded in St Phillips church registers. St Phillips is also the oldest Anglican or Church of England Church in Sydney. Located between York Street, Clarence and Jamison Streets it sits upon the appropriately name Church Hill. The rather glorious gothic building that sits there now had its foundation stone laid in May of 1848 so well past our man’s time. It replaced an initial modest convict built dwelling of wattle and daub circa 1798 that was burned down by disgruntled convicts. A later stone edifice begun in 1800 was completed by 1810. By the late 1820’s the unremarkable stone building was considered too small to cater to the booming population so plans were begun for the new St Phillips that stands today. Balmain Observer & Western Suburbs Advertiser NSW, 7 Apr 1906.
St Phillip’s rebuild was enthusiastically desired. Such was it’s poor ‘curb appeal’ it was remarked by the Lord Bishop when laying the foundation stone stating, “I have viewed my poor unsightly old church, I have felt ashamed and grieved at heart, because no better house was provided for the ever gracious and all glorious God.” The Sentinel Sydney 4 May 1848
Patrick (John’s) record (no. 1342) shows he was buried aged 40, on 27 March 1810 at what would became known as the Old Sydney Burial Ground (opened for interment in 1792). His name was recorded as John London. The cause of his death at this time is still a mystery. The Old Sydney Burial Ground now rests beneath the Sydney Town Hall in George Street. The town hall foundation stone having been laid in 1868. From City of Sydney Website (2013), “The corner close to Kent Street hosted graves of the non-commissioned officers of the 46th and 48th Regiment. Over in the south-west corner near the Presbyterian Church, soldiers of the 73rd Regiment were buried. And in the ground fronting George Street, near Druitt Street, some non-commissioned officers of the NSW Corps were buried”. The Old Sydney Burial Ground was on the very outer of the town perimeter. By 1820 when the now full cemetary was abandoned it enjoyed a dubious reputation as a gathering place for brigands, thieves and woman of poor repute. Grave robbery was rife and its use as a public urinal was said to turn the noses of those in Sydney itself. (City of Sydney website, 2013). During the hot summer months the stench from the burial ground was said to be so bad that those in Sydney could not abide its revolting perfume. Standing on the steps of the building during a hot summer’s day in January 2014, I could only imagine what must have been going through Sarah’s mind as she faced the future with no protector, no income and an infant, reliant on her. Did she have any friends to whom she could turn? What opportunities were available to a woman in her circumstance?
By 1814 Sarah who was still recorded as Mrs. London was living off of the stores, (so a woman of independent means), with a ticket of leave convict, Maurice Halligan, (multiple different spellings of Christian name and surname recorded). Now here’s where it gets interesting. At first I assumed maybe she had formed a new partnership? Was Sarah living as a housekeeper with Maurice? was he a relation (possibly a brother?) I really don’t know for certain. It would be too easy for me to wrap it up in a neat bow as Maurice being Sarah’s brother who swept in to look after his sister and nephew at their time of loss. But I just don’t have the evidence to support this.
Sarah London and her son William were living with Maurice Halligan in Appin. It had become understood by the colonists in Sydney that while the Hawkesbury was the primary ‘food bowl’ for the colony, there was and would always likely be problems with flooding along the Hawkesbury-Nepean River. This put the reliability of cropping and animal farming at significant risk. Nearly ten years earlier some cows brought from England had wandered away into the area to the south-west that would become known to the Colonists as Appin. Originally the area was given the name the Cowpastures. It wasn’t a town at all rather just a name of the area where the cows who had wandered off were now pasturing quite successfully in the wild. Large tracts of good farm land were handed out to free settlers who quickly made good of the rich land. Convicts and particularly ex-convicts were able to establish small grants around creeks (for water supply) where they could establish their own small farms, while still providing labour for the larger landholders.
Historical Heritage Assessment Appin (Part 2) Precinct, Wollondilly Shire Local Government Area (2023), Niche Enviornment and Heritage
The land of Wollondilly
None of this was good for the Dharawal people who were unceremoniously and violently pushed out of their traditional homelands by this colonisation. The Appin Massacre of 17 April 1816 being a perpetual dark stain in Australian history. While the number remains debated and not fully known, sleeping Dharawal people (men, women and children) were woken in ambush and murdered by night in an unprovoked attack at the behest of the Governor Macquarie (Lachlan Macquarie, governor of NSW from 1810 to 1821) by members of the 46th Regiment. There was no resistance which Macquarie had insisted was his reason why the Dharawal people could be treated with such unforgiveable barbarity. It was a brutal terror campaign designed and executed to create fear and fright to a people who had done nothing other than live their lives in the traditional way they had always done. The premise that they were a credible threat to the colonists pioneering being pure fantasy. The Appin Massacre
Sadly by 1818, Sarah herself died at Appin. As to the details, I am not yet certain.
I do believe it is unlikely that the relationship between Sarah and Maurice was anything other than platonic because very soon after her death Maurice would marry and was listed as a bachelor.
Later records refer to Hallighan (who was recorded as William’s guardian, and also some records refer to him tantalisingly as his uncle and in one case, as father, the latter of course not being correct). At first I felt quite disgruntled that Maurice would hand over a nine year old boy who’d just lost his mother to an orphanage, but then I did a bit of research on Maurice and it all became a bit clearer as to why this likely happened.
Maurice was a mere nineteen years when he was sentenced 1802. He was held in jail and finally arrived in the colonies aboard the Hercules. HIs sentence was life. The Hercules held a significant number of “Irish Rebels” aboard, of which Maurice was one. Also known as “Defender’s” these political prisoners had been involved in the 1798 and 1802 Irish uprisings. In Maurice’s case the uprising of 1798. At the time that Sarah died these Irish rebels were still quite a problem for the colonies, frequently rousing dissent and agitating for an Ireland free of British rule. (All sounds pretty reasonable to me.) However, the times being what they were and the fact that Maurice was still technically a convict it is unlikely that the local authorities were going to leave a young boy in the care of a political-prisoner after his mothers death – hence William was made over to the orphans school. Maurice indeed would not receive a full-pardon until 1820 so by this time there was little chance that the authorities would have given William back. Morris or Maurice as he was recorded would marry the same year that Sarah died and after William went into the orphanage. Maurice married a fellow Irish convict, Margaret Rowe in the October.
Timeline for Maurice Halligan.
Maurice Hallihan, (I suspect it was probably Halligan). Known
aliases Hallaghan, Hallighan, Hollahan, Morris Hollaghan.
Born 1st Jan 1783. Convicted at Tipperary Assizes Clonmel in Ireland. Sentence 99 years / life. Crime Irish Rebel.
Embark 29/11/1801 – Arrival 26/6/1802
1808 was employed by John Hoare who was also on board the Hercules at the Orphan School.
Mustered in 1816. Landholder. Confirmed arrived aboard the Hercules. Crime Irish Rebel.
1818 Sep 30 to Nov 17 asks for permission to marry at Liverpool.
Married Margaret Rowe October 1818. Margaret arrived per the Frances & Eliza 1815 no children found. Marriage at Liverpool. Maurice Halligan, prisoner, per Hercules, age 40, and Margaret Rowe, prisoner, per Frances and Eliza, age 35, married Oct 26 1818, by Banns at Liverpool.
1820 applied by petition for mitigation of sentenced.
Brother Denis Halligan arrived as a convict per ‘Anne and Amelia’ 1824. Embark 8/9/1824 – Arrival 2/1/1825. Tried Mallow Cork Co. 1824, 7 years. DOB 1797, native of Cork Co. Ploughman. I’ve been able to source that Dennis/Denis was five foot six, had flaxen (blonde) hair, blue eyes and a fresh complexion.
1828 Census Index. Morris Holagan, age 45, Employer, per Hercules, 1802, Life, catholic. Farmer at Appin. Has 160 acres of land, 80 of which are cleared and 75 cultivated. Has 180 cattle. Margaret Holagan, age 40, F.S. per Frs & Eliza, 1815, 7 years, catholic. Denis Holagan, age 32, G.S. per Amelia, 1824, 7 years.
Death Date 9 April 1845. Occupation Labourer. Ploughman, Shearer.
9/4/1845: Maurice died at Appin, NSW., aged 62 – listed on the BDM as Hollahan – and was buried at St Bede’s Catholic Cemetery, Appin.
To date I’ve not been able to find any Australian family or descendants of Maurice, Margaret or Denis. All of which has resulted in them disappearing like Patrick (John) and Sarah into history with frustratingly little to go on.
Upon the loss of the last of his family connections, The Reverend Samuel Marsden would step in and young William London would be ‘brought out of the bush and back to Sydney town’ as one of the first admissions to the new Orphanage School for the growing number of orphans in the colony.
Yews to Eucalypts 