Oceans of Consolation: Personal Accounts of Irish Migration to Australia [1 ed.] 9780801482304, 0801482305

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OCEANS OF CONSOLATION

DAVID FITZPATRICK

Oceans of Consolation Personal Accounts of Irish

Migration to Australia

CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS

Copyright © 1994 by Cornell University All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850. First published 1994 by Cornell University Press.

Printed in the United States of America The paper in this book meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences— Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Oceans of Consolation : personal accounts of Irish migration to Australia / [edited by] David Fitzpatrick.

p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-801 4-2606-5 (cloth: alk. paper) ISBN 0-8014-8230-5 (paper: alk. paper) 1. Irish—Australia—Biography. 2. Australia—Emigration and immigration—History. 3. Ireland—Emigration and immigration—History. 4. Immigrants—Australia—Biography. I. Fitzpatrick, David.

DU122.17025 1994

994'.0049162—dc20 94-21662

Contents

Preface Vil Abbreviations Xili INTRODUCTION

1 Representations: Letters and Migration 3

1854-65 39 NEWS FROM AUSTRALIA

2 ‘Whistling a Jig to a Milestone’: Michael Normile,

3 ‘These Golden Shores’: Isabella Wyly, 1856-77 96 4 ‘Queensland for Ever, augus un Ballybug go Braugh’:

Biddy Burke, 1882-84 139 VICTORIAN VOICES

1853-57 161 1857-72 174 18 56-63 186 Comber, 1862-92 230

5 ‘A Happy Home for You and Myself’: Michael Hogan, 6 ‘Jack Is as Good as His Master’: Edward O’Sullivan,

7 ‘We Are Not Living in a Wilderness’: The McCance Circle,

8 ‘An Outside Part of the World’: Patrick and Edward

9 ‘A Friendly Chat’: Philip Mahony, 1882-90 249

Vv

vi Contents

NEWS FROM HOME

1851-59 271 Circle, 1864-77 2.96

10 ‘Facing the Wild Ocean’: William and Eliza Dalton,

11 ‘Always Be Submessive to Your Superiors’: The Dunne

Circle, 1877-1906 334

12 ‘It Takes Me Tow Days to Rite a Letter’: The Doorley

ULSTER ACCENTS

1843-64 361 1865-76 390

13. ‘Comming Down the Hill of Life’: The Hammond Circle, 14 ‘We Will Meet in Ireland Yet’: The Brennan Circle,

15 ‘Farewell Farewell My Children’: William Fife, 1860-81 412

THEMES

16 Correspondence: Ceremonies of Communication 467

17. Reciprocity: The Politics of Kinship 503 18 Negotiation: The Process of Migration 516

19 Origins: Images of Ireland 535

20 Outcomes: Images of Australia 561

Sources 629

21 Reflections: Culture, Identity, Home 609

Thematic Index 643

Preface

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¥ pia om F Me te: - ae ‘a wo a en oo “3 Seattle, ae Fp, — 8 “ae " | eg ) f * FIGURE 13. ‘A very fine street’? High Street, West Maitland, circa 1868 (Newcastle Region Public Library).

Normile Letters (No rod-11b) 87 they can eat & drink and many chances besides. Up in the interiour is the Place for makeing money if a man is lucky for he need not spend but what he gives for clothing. I must conclude my feeble accounts of Town & Country.

(e) I will scend you some newspapers which will amuse some of the neighbours for a bit. I hope you will scend me a newspaper as offten as you can. I was very much obliged to you for scending me one. The last time I had to lend it to upwards of 60 peopple. It gives us great Consolation to hear from home and especily a good catholic paper. I should like if Mr.

Shannon would communicate with me. I would scend him a paper every month if he scend me one in every 2 months either Sydney or one of our local papers—I hope Mr. & Mrs. Shannon are well. (f) My loving Father The sad News of the Death of Mrs McMahon when I perceived it made the tears drop from my eys. She was a good neighbour & an old neighbour and woman I licked well may her Soul rest in peace. I hope the rest of the family are well. Patt Neylon wants to be remembered to his Father Mother Brothers & Sister—he is in good health and lives In Maitland. I must conclude those few lines with my love to you all hoping this will find you all in good Health. Remember me to Martin Neylon & Family my uncles & Aunts & to Numerious to mention. I hope you wont fail in Scending Me the newspapers often. The English Mail Arrives here every month and goes home every month. I am your loving Son MI Normile (g) It is a Patrick’s Day I wrote this. Let me know how many in family have you scince I left.

(No 11)

West Maitland Octb. 21st 1861

My Dear Father (a) I take the favourable oppertunity in answering your kind letter dated June rrth 1861 which gave us great pleasure to hear from you Stepmother Brothers & Sisters being in a perfect State of health. Likewise we are very glad to hear from our friends & relations and our old neighbours to hear that they were all well & doing well, thanks be to God. (b) My dear Father My Sister Bridget is married & gone up the country. I have not herd from her for the last 5 months. I hope I will by the next country mail. Patt Neylon is gone a good way up the country. He is hired with a [erased: large] squatter that Keep a Dairy and a large farming buisness. We got a letter of late from him. He said he was doing well and will

88 News from Australia shortly come down to see us. Michl Carrigg & family are very well and are doing first rate. They tell me that Mary Carrigg is a clever looking girl & well educated. She is one of the leading girls that [erased: plays] sings in Brisbane chappel in the choir. She is well licked by the Bishop & Priests

of that Town. I got no letter from Thomas Doolan of late. The last time he wrote to me he had a notion of going to the Diggings. I dont know whether he is gone or not. (c) Dennis McMahon & Brother James are in New-Zeland. I received two letters from there. They come from the East Indias there to quell the rebels or (Mourees) that made ware with the British authorities. They are natives of N. Zealand & very strong & neumorous race of people. It would take me to long to tell you how the war commenced between them. There was a good many European soldiers killed there before the strong forces arrived. I hope I will have the pleasure of seeing them one of these days for they are sure of coming to Sydney. (d) My dear Father, it is a sad affair about the wars in America. There is a good many true hearted Irishman killed or wounded there, and by all accounts from the last mail from home they have no thoughts of having an end of it. I expect it will do a great deal of harm to Ireland for there was a good deal of money coming from there to Ireland. Let me know as soon as you can if you heard from America or did Mary & Husband come out of it. 1 am uneasy for not hearing from them for this long time Past.

(e) My dear Father this Place is not turning out so good as people thought. There is a great many people here often out of Employment. There

is no large or extensive works carried on here that would take the influx of the labouring Class but at the same time there is a good deal of Blame on themself. They are frightened to go out of the Towns or go up the Country in to the interiour. (f) It is very hot here at the present time. Summer is commencing on and scarcely you could bare a light coat on going to church. I mean to inform

you that we are in good Health at the Presant time and I am working in the same place as yet and likely not to leave it. The children & Bridget are well thank God. (g) My dear Father you have a large Family and I expect you will soon have good healp of your own. I am very much pleased at Theadys writing and was very glad for the newspaper he had scend me. You could not credit

what pleasure I get in reading home papers. I had to conceal that Paper from many peopel until I read it over. I lend it to upwards of 20 persons and then they were not done. I have scend him a newspaper by this mail and twoo to Mr. Shannon. I will scend Mr Shannon one every month if he likes it. I hope Mr. Shannon and Mrs are well, likewise Martin Neylon wife & family My uncles and Aunts and all relations Neighbours, &, &. I scend them my best love and respects.

Normile Letters (No 11b-12b) 89 (h) Actualy my Dear Father I fancy I am speaking to you verbaly while I am writing this scroll to you but my grife I am not. O wouldnt I be glad if I could have one glance at Derry People and especaly you dear Father and family. Good by. I expect I will never see yea. (i) Thomas Murry & Austin Fitzpatrick are the twoo onely Neighbours I care for in this Town. They are working in the one place with me they are strong men. I can tell you it would be hard to speake an angry word to a Co. Clare man in this Town. Mrs Murry is going to write home to her mother by the next mail that will be in a months time. The English mail leaves Sydney on 22nd of each month. I hope Theady will be kind enough as to scend me a paper as often as he can. I must conclude those few lines with my love to you dear Father Stepmother Brothers and Sisters and all enquiring friends & relations from your loving son MI. Normile (j) May the Lord spare you long lives[?] over your Family. Belive this to the constant prayer of your loving son M.N. (No 12)

West Maitland April 18th. 1862 My Dear Father (a) 1 am glad to Acknowledge the receipt of your letter dated Decembr. 28/61 which gives me & wife great consolation to hear from you and from the old country. Belive me dear Father I feel meself at home when I am reading your valuable letters & newspapers, I read them over & over—but to my grief I expect I never will see Ireland anny more or the Land that gave me birth. It’s all I can say I wish yea all & the Country you live in every good luck & prosperity. (b) My dear Father

I might be a wealthier man than what I am at presant If I did go to the [erased: Interiour] wild country to live and live there like wild cattle, where I would not see a Priest for years nor the face of a white man for months.

It’s strange to hear & see how some people lives in this Country. I know some people living (what we call the bush) in the Interiour far in the country. They might be Catholics. If they hapen to have a family they Cant run to a Priest to get them christined. They Come down here some times with as many as half a Dozen at a time and get them Baptized and the whole of them well able to talk to the Priest. Catholics has the worst chance for anny such thing in the bush. As for other religions I could count as many as 6 or 7. All of them has plenty (what the call clergymen traversing the

90 News from Australia country well paid from goverment for converting them as they say so). I heard a yarn from a true Auther that he had seen a young girl of pretty good age, getting christened & married the same time by what we call Wesleyan Preacher. Certanly there is a great many young natives both sex in this country and I am sure they dont think there is a God. They are wild and careless about religion but very Hospitible. A man can travel the whole

Country without a penny that is if he walks or has his own horse to ride go from one station to another. You will get plenty of bred & meat you can stop as long as you like no charege that is there rules. (c) My dear Father I did not choose to go far away. I am near the priest & church and religion I have plenty as yet thank God. I am working in the old place still. I have 4 in Family 3 girls & a boy the eldest is going to school. We are comfortable as yet thank God. (d) I am to inform you that Michl. Carrigg wife and family were all well when I last herd from them. So is Patt Neylon he is Married and doing well. I wrote to the McMahons I got no answer from them also to Ritchard I got no answer so I dont know what reason they have for it. I did not hear of late from Thomas or Hana Doolan. I will write to them again in short. I hope Margret Will arrive safe and be happy here after. This is a good country for man or woman when they get accustumed to the work of the place and keep from bad Company. I got a letter from Sister Bridget of late. She intends to go to Morten Bay to her Sister Susans. (e) I am very glad to hear that Miss Margret Shannon is married and called Mrs Stretch. She cant have more luck than I wish her. I hope Mr. James Shannon Mrs Shannon & family which I hope they have are well. I

was verry sorry to hear of you to let your old chapel to be chifted to (Ballyfadeen). O poor Derry is gone and to let them crow over yea. (f) I must let you know that I have not sceen Michl. Healy’s daughter Scince She got Married but I heard from her often. She is dooing very well also. I was told that she has another Sister out from home named Susan. | have not seen her. (g) Let me Know how is my Father in Law Martin Neylon wife & family.

Let me Know in your next how is my uncles & aunts or did John get Married yet. I expect my uncle Edmonds son is a big Boy be this. I hope dear Father that you will have good help for the future. I hop that God will spare you to them for a long time and I earnestly Pray to God for the restoration of your Health. Remember me to all enquiring friends & relations. Let me know is Big Darby Leary & wife living as yet. My wife wants

to be rembered to them also she wants to be rembrd. to her Father & Mother Brothers & Sister. She says that she has nothing to tell her Father &. but what I tell them. She gets no accont from her Sister Mary. I must

Normile Letters (No 12b-13d) 91

conclude this scroll. My wife & me Joins in scending our love to you Stepmother Brothers & Sisters. When I say that I say the whole of you ] remain your lovin son M Normile I will scend some Newspapers By this Mail. (No 13) West Maitland Feby. 18th. 1863 Dear Father (a) I have taken a notion of writing a few lines to you Hoping you will excuse me for not writing to you for the last six months or more. I have nothing particular to tell you now—but I have been Dreaming of you of late very often and very nasty Dreams. I hope there is nothing wrong with ye with the blessing of God. My wife has been Dreaming of her people also so we were thinking there might be someting wrong with ye.

(b) The reason I did not write or answer your late letter was my wife was very bad for a long time with a deadly Headache. She Tried all the Docters in this district but done her but little Good. She had to go to another Town about 40 miles from Maitland to a more noted Docter. He done her some good but she could not stop away from the children under his care for anny length of time. How ever she is a good deal better and after she was over the worst of it one of the children took a disease called the Gastic fever which Continued on her for 4 months but thank God she is getting all right although she was given up for death by this Most Eminent Docter in this part of the Coloney. He is newly come to this Town his name is Docter Doyle. He charges (£ 1) one pound a visit besides medcine. His Bill soon amounts to Something. Though he is an Irishman he has no compassion for rich or poor he must get his money. (c) My Dear Father I hope every thing is geting on all right with you. I am very thankful to Mr James Shannon for his Kindness to me for scending me the newspapers. They gave me great pleasure to read them and many more besides. I do scend you & Mr. Shannon a paper every month. If you receive them they will give you more news than I could concerning many

things. The mail Steemer leaves here 22nd. of each month and the mail arrives here about the roth or 12th of every month. (d) We had a very dry Season nothing but scorching hot weather for 6 or 7 months no grass no water except in the river and some places the river was not within 20 miles of them. Thousands of sheep & cattle died for the want of water or feed. They dont Care much for that here especily in the bush. The Town people feels it more for it made the Beef & Mutton Dear.

92 News from Australia They could not travel with cattle from the country without water so beef

is 4d per lb. I will scend the paper it will show you the market price. Potatoes are 12 shilling for Cwt. in the Town. They cant be had up the country for love or money. They are sowing the second crop of potatoes now. We are after 3 days and 3 nights rain which fell in torents the same as a cascade. (e) I got a letter of late from Mich Carrigg & family they are doing very well. I am in the same Employment as yet. I have nothing particular to tell you at presant. Patt Neylan & family are well. My wife want to know how is her Father Mother Brother & Sister are geting on. Remember me to all my uncles aunts & relations likewise my old neighbours. Let me know as

much as you can about home. I should like to hear does Austin Nester write home or not. Thomas Doolan did not write to me of late I think he left Sydney. Remember to Mr. J Shannon and Martin Neylon & wife not forgeting my uncle Ned. (f) I conclude these few lines by giving my best respects to my Stepmother Brothers & Sisters & to you my loving Father. I had always a notion that

I would see you but alas I dont think I will be able. But I give you my Blessing

Michl. Normile

(No 14)

West Maitland 15th Septr. 1863

My dear Father (a) I received your letter By the last mail which gave me and wife great Consolation to hear from you & Family being well. Also I was very Happy to hear from my Sisters in America. I wrote differant letters To them & got no reply. I thought it might be the reason they did not wite [write] the state their Country is in at presant. I hop the wars of America will soon be at an end. It will be a good Country after. The English mail that arrived this week has brought news that their is great rumours of war between Rusia France & England—which I hope there will if it does any good for Farmers In Ireland. They cant be much worse (I hear) than what they are at presant. (b) Dear Father—I am verry sorry to hear that Mr J Shannon is not your Land Lord. How in the name of Providance was it Swingled away from him. I should like to hear the whole of it but deer Father I expect it would be too much trouble for you. If the Trial had been published in anny of the Dublin Papers Mr Shannon might get it for you and scend it to me. Let me know has he left old Derry House the Mansion of his Father & Mother and his own native house & home. If I should see Derry House

Normile Letters (No 13d-14h) 93 and he not living there I would Surely shed tears for it (But I expect I never will) to my griefe. Dont forget to let me know how Mr Shannon is situated

for I feel very uneasy for it. He is a loss to you dear Father that I know thoug I live far away from you. (c) I have been a bad son to you dear Father but I could not help it. I had a few Pounds once and IJ was thinking of buying a piece of Ground to Build on it a House. But something come and took away which I dont like to tell—after that Providance laid sickness on both of us which cost me some scores of pounds. Thank God we are all right at presant. (d) Michl Foley comes to see us often. He lives about 6 miles from us.

He is a steady young man and doing well. He told me that you loocked fresh and young yet which I was very glad to hear. I hope my Mother [added: in law] and Family are well. Ye must have good help at home. I expect my Brothers are well able to work. Neddy ought to be a strong fellow. He was a promising youth when I left home. (e) This Country is not turning out as good as people thought. There is a great flow of Emigrants to here daily from England Ireland Scotland Germany & China. This country is infested with that race of people chinamen that they are able to destroy any Employer. The work for little or nothing. And besides this country is in trouble very much in the Interiour whit what they call Bushrangers young vagabonds that does not care for God or man plundering and robing takeing peoples lives which you will see an account in the newspaper of some of their doings that I will scend you along with this letter. It is not safe to travel in it with money Horses or Goods of any Kind that they can lay their hands on. There is a good few of them taken by the police. There is one of them in Maitland Jaol condemed to Death and another man waiting for his trial to come off. (f) I got a letter From my Sister Susan of late they are all well. She informed me in the letter that Michl. McMahon arrived there of late in good Health. I wrote to them when I got the letter from home. I mentioned to them about Mary Carrigg I got no answer as yet. Dear Father I wish to let you know my Sister Bridget is well. She is married and living about 60 miles from Sydney. Let me know if you possibly can did Mich. Ford receive 3 £ that his son Patcy scend a long time ago. It was J that scend it for him. I mean I directed the letter from him that Conveyed it home. (g) I am still living with the same people. I have not much work to do but waiting in the shop as grocier & Draper per times. We are all right at presant thank God. Bridget and the children are enjoying good Health. You wanted to know their names—which I will let you know (Mary Susan John & Margret, they are good children thank God). Also you wanted to know Patt Neylons wifes name. (Catherine Colman) was her maiden name a good strong Healthy woman. They are all well at presant. (h) Let me know his [?/ow is] Martin Neylon and wife. It would take

94 News from Australia me too long to mention their names. I hope you will remember me to my uncles Aunts & relations, give my love to them all also to all my old Neighbours not forgeting my Stepmother Brothers & Sisters and you my loving Father. That the Almighty may spare you long to your Family blive this to be the constant Prayer of your son M Normile (i) Dont forget if you can to scend me newspapers as often as you can. I got the last ones you scend me. It gives me great pleasure in reading them. I can scend you newspapers every month if the be any use to you. I have nothing else particular to tell you. Good by for ever I suppose. (No 15)

West Maitland April 18th 1865

My dear Father (a) I recived your letter dated Janury 22d which gave me & wife great pleasure to hear that you were all in good health, but on the other hand we are very sorry the way you are situated in your old days. We shall be very uneasy until we hear from you again. I know from my heart that some of your Carrhuduff neighbours is but very glad to see yea dethroned or rejected out of your old hard earned home. They are worse than the bushrangers of Austrilia. My firm beliefe they think there is no (supreme being) over them. I hope and trust in God that honourable Gentleman Mr O Brien wont be said by them to hunt the poor families of Derry far from their homes. My dear Father I expect Mr Shannon felt heart Broken when he left Derry. He was a good friend to you no doubt. Let me know where Mr Shannon lives in your next letter to me. I will scend him some newspapers to read and remember me to him. I am very sorry for him leaving his old home. I hope you will have better news my dear Father for me in the next letter which I will be anxtiously waiting for until I receive it. I am very thankful to my Brother for scending me the newspapers. It gives me great pleasure to get home catholic papers to read. (b) I scend you newspapers by every mail that leaves here. I have scend you some by the last mail. You will see in them concerning a great fire that took place here. The largest place of buisness that was in this town was burned to the Ground thousands of pounds worth of Goods Destroyed. The day was awful hot, and hot winds blowing a hurrican but thank God there was no lives lost. I worked there for many hours day and night. My Employer scend all his men there and shut up all his own places of buisness—to assist to save the neighbouring houses from distruction. (c) My dear Father I hope you will tell my Stepmother that I cant get her Brothers address. I get letters very often from Margret. I scend her the

Normile Letters (No 14h-152) 95 letter I got from you of late. She told me that she wrote home. They live a long way from me or I would go to see them. I rode 15 miles one Sunday to see John Lenane. He appointed to come to meet me there but his Employer would not let him come so I was disapointed. I had my 30 miles Journey for nothing. Margret said she would write to hanna Doolan to Sydney about geting his address. As soon as I get it will scend to my Stepmother.

(d) My dear Father J am verry sorry that I cant scend you some assistance. It takes all my earning to support ourselfs and little family. Every thing is so verry dear boots & clothes is very dear especily anny cotton clothes. All things are dear that a family wants except meat tea & sugar is reasonable we would not grumble at the price. Also you will see by the newspapers I have scend you the price of Flour here. We had no wheat grown in this district for the last two Seasons so that makes the Flour deare. (e) I received a letter (this day) from Sister Susan from Moreton Bay with her likness, she looks well. They are keeping a large Hotell in Brisbane and I belive doing very well. There is a great many of the old neighbours located here. Michl. Healy’s son & daughters I can see often. (f) Dear Father I was very much pleased to hear from my uncles & aunts and all the old neighbours. Give my best repects to them all. I am scending three of the youngsters to school the are doing very well at school. We are all in good health thank God so is Patt Neylon wife and family. He wishes

to be remembered to you. Bridget wants to be remembered to you dear Father & Stepmother also to her own Mother Brothers and Sister. I cant find out Tom Doolans wifes name until I get his address. I will hunt it out some way or another. I was very happy to hear from America. I hope their husbands wont be slaughtered [in] that merciless war which I would [like] to be at an end. (g) I have nothing else particular to tell you. But hoping you will have

better news for me in your next letter I conclude with our love to you Stepmother Brothers & Sisters your humble son

M Normile

¢3 C H A P T ER 3

These Golden Shores’: Isabella Wyly, 1856-77

HEN ISABELLA WYLY REACHED ADELAIDE IN 18 51, SHE WAS A PENNI-

v4 less orphan without relatives or friends in the colony. Yet, as the tone and vocabulary of her letters suggest, she came from a middle-class and educated background. This sequence of ten letters, sent to her brother’s family in Newry, Co. Down, between 1856 and 1877, is redolent of reduced gentility.’ Isabella’s letters bring to life a plucky, optimistic, and garrulous Dublin Protestant, courageously coming to terms with colonial life. In due course she found a job at a drapery, married her employer, and spent the rest of her long life praising God, her husband, and South Australia. Her last letter was sent from Victoria, to which she had reluctantly moved in 1872. The sixth letter and part of the second were penned by her uncle’s wife Elizabeth Wyly, who had reached Adelaide with her family shortly after Isabella. Most of the letters were sent to Matilda Wyly, the widow of Isabella’s brother Thomas, who took over her mother’s drapery at Newry, Co. Down. Perhaps because Isabella found it difficult to sustain this correspondence, the seventh and ninth letters were addressed to Ma' Photocopies of all but one of the Wyly letters are kept among miscellaneous family correspondence in PRONI, T 2393/3/10-31. The item numbers corresponding to the sequence here are as follows: 10 (Wy 1), 13 and 11 (Wy 2), 12 (Wy 3), 18 (Wy 4), 15 (Wy 5), 17 (Wy 7), 19 (Wy 8), 14 (Wy 9), and 31 (Wy 10). Four other letters by Isabella, adding little information

not conveyed by the letters appearing here, have been omitted from the sequence (items 4, 24, 25, and 26). The Wyly Papers are reproduced by permission of Messrs. Heron and Dobson (Solicitors) and the Deputy Keeper of the Records, PRONI. The sixth letter is available only in typed transcription, in Dorothy Wyly, The Wyly Family in Australia, vol. i (Launceston, 1971-72), pp. 2-3. 1am grateful to Mr. Tom McCann, Regional Librarian of the State Library of Tasmania at Launceston, for his unavailing attempt to locate the original letter, which is not among the Wyly collection lodged in that library.

96

Wyly 97 tilda’s son Edward. The Wyly letters, though wordy, almost indecipherable, and sometimes infuriating, give a vivid account of shopkeeping, marriage, and religious enthusiasm in mid-century Adelaide. They also offer the moving chronicle of a woman’s discovery of happiness against fearful odds.

| Isabella Alice Wyly, a servant from Dublin, was aged 18 when she reached Port Adelaide in September 1851. The voyage of 89 days from Portsmouth on the Navarino, an aged three-masted barque built in Cochin in 1808 and reconstructed in India 27 years later, had been fairly free of incident. Two passengers had died, and a case of Asiatic cholera had been suspected but cured so promptly that the vessel was spared quarantine. Only one complaint was lodged against the Surgeon Superintendent, and the emigrants selected by the Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners were deemed ‘an eligible class for the Colony’. All but five of the 44 single women aboard were, like Isabella, returned as domestic servants.2 Among the male passengers was a farm labourer and lay preacher from Wiltshire, named Jacob Baker, who celebrated the voyage in appreciative doggerel:? Off we go to Adelaide as fast as we are able, Beef and mutton we expect to see upon the table... And when at Adelaide we arrive will our fortunes strive to win, For in my head there is a notion, that we shall safely cross the ocean.

Nine weeks after her arrival, Isabella was joined in Adelaide by her uncle Alexander Wyly, with his wife Elizabeth and their five children. They had travelled as unassisted passengers in the Candahar, a much newer threemaster—which had, however, taken 115 days between Plymouth and Adelaide. Sophia Taylor, who kept a diary of the voyage which mocked ‘the loud broad talk of the Irish’ aboard, found the vessel ‘a very easy ship although not a fast one’, and the master ‘a very agreeable man’ who la-

boured mightily to prevent his men from swearing in the hearing of female passengers. The Wylys were among the signatories of a published 2 Tender for Passage Accommodation and Diet, and General Report by Emigration Agent, in PROSA, GRG 3 5/48/1851/11; Report of Health Officer, 27 September 1851, in PROSA, GRG 24/6/2925; Adelaide Observer, 4 October 1851; South Australian Register, 27 September 1851; Ronald Parsons, Migrant Ships for South Australia, 1836-1880 (Gumeracha, SA, 1988),

Paco Baker, ‘The Voyage to South Australia from England on Board the Naverino, 29 June, 1851’, transcription in Mortlock Library, Adelaide, D 5351. For Baker’s background, see Eric Richards, ‘British Poverty and Australian Immigration in the Nineteenth Century’, in Richards (ed.), Poor Australian Immigrants in the Nineteenth Century (Canberra, 1990), pp. 19-20, citing a letter home but not this poem.

98 News from Australia testimonial to the master, though unlike most passengers they refrained from signing a second testimonial extending their congratulations to the ship’s officers.* Elizabeth Wyly in particular was to remain an important figure in Isabella’s life in South Australia. Isabella’s immediate response to her new surroundings was extreme loneliness, according to her later recollection: ‘On my first arivel to Adelaide, I felt a stranger in a strange Land, which is now 5 years since I left home.

I new no one, nor had I a friend to take my hand, but thank God I had Him who Never[?] has forsakeing’ (th). The sense of isolation was slow to disappear, for the Wyly ‘connexion’ remained very small and Isabella’s uncle and aunt felt ‘lonelly, for want of some of her deer friends to be neer me and console her’ (2a, 1j). Relief was promised in February 1853 by the arrival in Melbourne of another uncle, Robert Wyly, with his wife Fanny and six children including a girl born during the voyage.’ Yet within weeks

of landing Fanny and her two youngest infants were dead, and Robert himself died in the following year before completing his intended move to Adelaide (1d, rl). Isabella’s letters record the further misfortunes of her extended family in pathetic detail, chronicling the death of cousin after cousin (4e, 61, rok). Uncle Alexander’s condition also caused alarm, as he seemed ‘very low spirited’, ‘altered in every way’, his constitution ‘completely broaken’ (6c, 8f). South Australia did not greet the Wylys kindly. Finding satisfactory employment in Adelaide was not easy, particularly for an unhealthy middle-aged clerk with an expensive young family, like uncle Alexander. The letters record his failure to get ‘a fortion’ on the Victorian goldfields, his subsequent employment by a wine merchant at £2

per week, and his eventual elevation to a ‘a Warrant[?] Situation at one hundred per Year which is the best thing that has turned up for him yet for it is perm[anen|t’ (xk, 2q, 51). Alexander was variously described in the

directories as a storekeeper, clerk, and storeman, occupying various addresses in North Adelaide until his death in 1882. His ‘warrant situation’ was evidently that of assistant superintendent of the Armoury and Powder Magazine.® His children, like the surviving members of Robert Wyly’s fam-

ily, mainly became apprentice drapers (1d, rf, 21, 2g, 4d). It was in this 4 Parsons, Migrant Ships, p. 69; Irene C. Taylor (ed.), Sophy under Sail (Sydney, 1969), pp. 41, 46, 55; South Australian Register, 2 December 1851; Dorothy A. A. Wyly, Irish Origins: A Family Settlement in Australia (Launceston, 1976), pp. 24-7. This work, whose author regrettably had access to only one of the letters in the sequence, is a meticulous example of privately circulated family research, providing much of the genealogical background for this commentary. 5 They travelled as unassisted steerage passengers in the Lorena, from Dublin. Robert was returned as a Dublin druggist, aged 44. In the following year, however, his age at death was returned as being 47. Extracts from the shipboard diary kept by his daughter, Frances Ruth Wyly, appear in Wyly, Irish Origins, pp. 75-9. 6 Wyly, Irish Origins, p. 30.

Wyly 99 trade too that Isabella found her first job, using testimonials from Ireland to good effect: ‘A short time after my arivel I met a friend in Mrs. Capten Bagget which is well know[m] in West Meath. I had letters for her from Ireland. She received me very kindly and obtained a Situation in a drapers Shop’ (11). Her Corkonian benefactress, by this time a ‘full, respectablelooking, handsome woman of advancing years’, was married to Charles Harvey Bagot (1788-1880). In 1840, Bagot had supervised the emigration and settlement of several hundred rural labourers and servants from Clare on behalf of Sir Montagu Lowther Chapman of Killua Castle, Co. Westmeath, subsequently becoming a prominent pastoralist, mining speculator, and politician in the colony.’ Isabella was indeed fortunate to secure the patronage of the Bagots, whose renowned hospitality at Nurney House, North Adelaide, was normally ‘extended to the upper classes, rather than to the labouring class to which most of Bagot’s countrymen belonged’.® With this support, Isabella made rapid progress as an assistant in the Times Drapery Mart, Alfred Spain’s emporium in Rundle Street, at the heart of the city’s retail district (see Figure 14). As she told Matilda Wyly, a draper in Newry: ‘You know I new nothing about the buisnes, but with an effort and a kind Master I got on, and was receiveing ros/ Per week. In

a short time after, I received 12s/ and then 15s/ week and now I am in Posecion of £52 Per Ann’. She felt ‘independent of everyone’, ‘comfortable’,

and confident that she was doing better than could have been achieved in Dublin: ‘It is not like the shops athome, nothing so Stif. I do not think I could live in a place of buisness athome, after living here’ (1i, 2g). When her ‘last dear Master’ went ‘home to old England’, she took five weeks off and then agreed to stay on with the new proprietors, ‘as I prefered it to a strange shop, and it was to their advantage to have an old hand, for I new all the costomers’. She was soon ‘as happy as ever’, proud that Messrs. Gault and Scott were ‘doing a very good traede, I believe as Good as any in town’ (2g, 3b, 5j). Her new bosses were cousins from the north of Ireland named John William Scott and Robert Nelson Gault. Their move to the imposing Times Drapery Mart, then valued at £180 per annum, marked a sharp ascent from the small business they had been running in North Adelaide since 1855.? When Gault died in 1889 aged 62, he was mourned as a leading Wesleyan layman who as a lad had been won over to God in ’ See A Holograph Memoir of Capt. Charles Harvey Bagot of the 87th Regiment (Adelaide, 1960; 1st edn. 1942); Eric Richards, ‘Irish Life and Progress in Colonial South Australia’, in Irish Historical Studies, xxvii, no. 107 (1991), pp. 220-1. In 1847, Chapman had another 200 of his own tenants shipped to South Australia by the Emigration Commissioners, an event often confused with the consignment on the Birman supervised by Bagot. 8 Mail, 5 January 1920, cited by Pauline Nagel, ‘A Social History of North Adelaide, 18371901’ (BA thesis, University of Adelaide, 1965), p. 36. ° The Rate Assessment Books (lodged in the Adelaide City Archives) show that their previous tenement in Tynte Street was initially valued at £30, rising to £60 in 1856.

100 6News from Australia

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Strabane, Co. Tyrone, during the ‘great revival’ of 1838. In his dying moments, he was to join his family in a final hymn, before ‘to all appearance without one pang of pain, he fell asleep in Jesus’.!° His partner William Scott came from a moderate farm in Drumclamph near Strabane, having emigrated to Adelaide as an intermediate cabin passenger three years before Gault’s arrival.!' He proved to be another keen and evangelical Wesleyan, well attuned to life in the colony celebrated as a ‘paradise of dissent’.!? Isabella Wyly too had become a Wesleyan in 1853, setting aside the 10 Adelaide Observer, 14 December 1889; Christian Weekly, 27 December 1889. 11 In 1860, the Primary Valuation returned John Scott as occupier of 34 acres valued at £21 ros for the land, with a house (£2), a flax mill (£4), and a tenanted cottage (5s). Scott arrived on the Gratitude: South Australian Register, 16 August 1848. 12 Douglas Pike, Paradise of Dissent: South Australia, 1829-1857 (Melbourne, 1967; 1st edn. 1957). South Australia had been first incorporated under charter to a private company in 1834, being reconstituted as a crown colony seven years later, after its financial collapse.

Wyly 101 Anglican enthusiasm of her immediate forebears. As she wrote in 1857: ‘I think I told you before that I had become quite a Wesleyan I hope not in Name only but in heart. I have been one now for 4 years.’ Conversion was a delicate matter, even when it involved so minor a shift, and Isabella added rather defensively that ‘it does not mater what you ar by Name as long as

you belong to that one church that is the church of God, and I hope we are all united to that one’ (3c). Perhaps more emphatically than any other correspondent in this book, she poured forth her faith and zeal in prayer and expostulation. She was constantly astonished by her good fortune in finding security and happiness in South Australia, hoping that ‘these Blessings’ of ‘Goodness and Mercys’ would ‘never rise up in Judgement against me’. When others suffered ‘tryal and trubble’, she would write out a hymn, call to mind the ‘comfort’ offered by ‘Him who will never forsake, tho all friends may’, or reflect that ‘all happened for the best’ (3c, 3l, 3k, 1p, sf: 10, 2c, 2m, 5r). She prayed that her nephew would be kept ‘from the evils of this wicked world’, and hoped that both of them would ‘have our lamps trim[m]ed prepared to meet our Sav[iJour’ (4j, 7a). Above all, she thanked God for guiding her own ‘steps in to the right path’, reciting with ardour the key metaphors of her adopted church: ‘I found a father and friend in him in a strange land and opend my private[?] wary way, and when surround by danger and temtacion he was my shield’ (3f, 51). On 29 March 1859, Isabella put temptation and danger behind her by marrying John William Scott at the Wesleyan chapel in Pirie Street, Adelaide. She justified her choice in terms of his origins as well as his virtues: ‘You will see[?] I was determined to have my own country man. It is the first offer I have had from an Irish man but plenty of English which I expect

Aunt will tell you of but as I told you before I waited untill Mr Write would come and he has at last’ (sp). Her aunt Elizabeth confirmed that Scott was ‘from the County Tyrone, a respectable steady, sober young man.

I don’t know that he has got any money to boast of but he has a good business and there is every prospect of happiness. They have been long attached—she has refused 3 others within the last 3 weeks’ (6d). While Isabella bubbled that her fiancé was ‘almost perfection in my estamation’,

being soon transformed into ‘a dear kind good Husband which is better than all’, her aunt observed more prosaically that Isabella had ‘got a fine stock of clothing, a chest of drawers etc. etc. and a share in a Building Society, and I am sure she will make a good wife’ (5m, 7c, 6j). For Isabella,

marriage was the crowning glory of her ascent from friendless penury to comfort and respectability. She had observed with fascination the effect of marriage upon uncle Robert’s orphaned daughter Ruth Wyly, who had married the saddler George Shadgett in 1854. At least to begin with, Ruth had seemed ‘very happy’, being ‘very much altered for the better’ and ‘quite a little Mother’ (1d, 11, 8g). Over a year before her own wedding Isabella

102 News from Australia had dropped a heavy hint that she was not reconciled to being ‘on the list of old Mades’, and in due course she announced her engagement with a series of flourishes designed to arouse and eventually gratify Matilda’s ‘curiousity’ (3f, 5j, 5m, 50). Marriage to an ‘out and out’ Wesleyan was her thanks-offering to God. The surviving correspondence reveals little of Isabella’s next two decades of child-rearing, during which ten children were born. It provides glimpses of a harmonious household, with her husband, his sister who was ‘so kind and good’, ‘a comfortable little fire’, and a ‘dear little cottage’ (7d, 8d). Isabella had previously lived in the drapery, but after marriage she set up household in one of a terrace of modest cottages in North Adelaide, valued at £22 per annum. Such cottages of two or three rooms provided basic initial accommodation for Adelaide newly-weds throughout the century.'? By the mid-1860s the Scotts were living in a £50 house in King William Street, one of the main city thoroughfares, which crossed Rundle Street a few doors down from the Times Drapery Mart.'* The business was large enough to justify a substantial advertisement in Boothby’s Adelaide Almanack for 1871, Gault and Scott being described as ‘drapers, hosiers, silk mercers, and outfitters’, with sidelines in millinery and tailoring and an agency for ‘family sewing machines’. Isabella gave no hint that preoccupation with her own expanding family and business weakened her Wyly ties, as had occurred after Ruth’s marriage to George Shadgett (6e, 9d).' No doubt she continued ‘to confide & to advise with’ her aunt until 1870, when Elizabeth died, twelve years ahead of uncle Alexander.'* There is, however, some evidence that her religious enthusiasm alienated members of their family, for one of Elizabeth’s sons was later to write that ‘I have seen very little of the Scotts as our peoples seemed so divergent & we are great Church people & they are great Wesleyan Methodists’.’” Isabella’s letters to Matilda Wyly conveyed a favourable impression of immigrant life in South Australia, despite the economic stagnation that beset the colony for much of its first half-century. Isabella complained that ‘every thing is so much more expensive here that it is atome’, that ‘you 13 Rental accommodation in mid-century Adelaide was typically in single-fronted cottages, with direct access from the street to a small parlour, a lean-to kitchen with open fireplace, and a minute enclosed backyard: Stefan Pikusa, The Adelaide House, 1836 to 1901 (Adelaide, 1986), pp. 22, 44-6. ‘4 Between 1868 and 1872, William Scott was listed as occupier of a drapery at two addresses in North Adelaide, although his partnership with Gault remained until 1872. These locations have been traced through Rate Assessment Books, directories, and citizens’ rolls (held in the Adelaide City Archives).

'S Another reported case of repudiation of kinship duties by a young mother was that of cousin Fanny Wyly in America, hitherto deemed ‘the Modell of the family’ (3e). 16 South Australian Register, 4 November 1870; 15 November 1882.

4 Aleck ‘ Wyly to his cousin Mrs. Armstrong (in Ireland), 16 January 1894, in PRONI, T 39313139.

Wyly 103 could make £1 go fu[r]ther with you there than you could £3 here’, and that ‘you have all the nice things and everythink won [one] could wish to get, but here nothing is new’ (1f, 2b, 5£). She was ever conscious that ‘there is and always was more said abou[t] Austrilia than ever was true’, chronicling her uncle’s ‘grand struggle’ and ‘great difficulty to get on with his large family’, so that ‘Poor Uncle Alexander often says He should like to

be back in His old Situation on the Kees [quays] of Dublin agen’ (2b, rf, 51). Moreover, the raw Australian environment had other drawbacks, ‘what

with dust, & Heat & hot winds & Flys & an Insect that the call Moskitoes’, and ‘very heavy falls of rain, which makes our roads very unplesant for walking for the ar not paved as the are atome’. Yet (as aunt Elizabeth observed) the heat was mitigated by cold intervals and ‘heavenly weather at times’, so that ‘on the whole I don’t find fault with the climate and believe it healthier than home’ (2f, 6g). In any case, physical discomfort, like high prices, counted for little against freedom. Even as an unmarried draper’s assistant, Isabella had ‘never felt more happy in my life than I do now that I am independent of everyone’, proud to be ‘quite my own Mistress, none to dictate[?] to to me’ (11, 3b). She had felt ‘no reson to regret my coming to Austrilia’, reflecting that ‘I should hav been a long time in poor old Dublin before I should show so well as I hav done here’ (rh, 11). The contrast with a grim background emerged repeatedly: ‘I never have had one reason to complain yet. It is like a new world to me. Every thing seems to go well with me as it went ill with me atome’ (2b). The polarity between Isabella’s success and Alexander’s discontent provided a fitting framework for the discussion of further emigration, almost always a central theme of Irish-Australian correspondence. The letters in-

dicate that the widowed Matilda Wyly and her son Edward were both candidate emigrants, at least in the imagination of Isabella and her aunt Elizabeth. Both women were circumspect in offering advice, fearing that they might be held responsible for the consequences of its application. Isabella told Matilda in 1857 that ‘I would never advise anny one to come here, for most people finds it a difficulty to get on Just now, perticular[/]y those who hav a large family’. In the following year, she warned that times

‘never were much worse than the ar at present. There is such a dale of compfez]ition that some times you think the People would not let one another live if possable. I shall alway be able to let you know how things ar getting on before then so you will be able to Judge for your self’ (2b, sh). Isabella therefore confined herself to wishing vaguely that Matilda and her family were ‘with us in Adelaide’, that ‘we were all together here’, or that ‘you coul[d] to come to see us, and Judge for yourself’ (1j, 50, 8d: 4c, tom). Only once did Isabella offer direct encouragement, to Edward individually rather than to his mother and family: ‘How would you like to come to Adelaide. How do you like your situation as a Station[er]. | expect

104 News from Australia when you ar out of your time, and should you come here you would do well here. There are some nice Stationers Shops here’ (4b). Aunt Elizabeth was still more cagey, observing that ‘I dont doubt you could do very well

here if Edward was able to assist you, but I should not like to induce anyone. Peoples opinions tast[es] & distastes differ so much.’ She later repeated that ‘you and your children might do very well here but I should not wish to induce anyone to come as many find fault with it at first as | did’, stressing that ‘I should never advise you to come while you can live at home’ (2r, 6b, 6h). In fact, the only member of Matilda’s family to reach

Australia seems to have been her brother, a naval surgeon who does not appear in the correspondence."® Isabella’s Adelaide idyll was shattered in April 1872, when William ‘left

the drapery buisness and went into the Grocery’, moving the family to Melbourne. While recognising that grocery was ‘a Good buisness’ and beneficial for her husband, Isabella missed her old trade and avoided the shop, though living on the premises in the bayside suburb of St. Kilda (10e, 101). Despite her lack of background in the rag trade, Isabella had enjoyed mastering millinery and trimming bonnets (5k). As a devout Wesleyan, she may have found repugnant the temptations offered by W. Scott & Co. of Grey Street, as ‘grocers, wine and spirit merchants’.!? Certainly, her only known letter from Victoria made no mention of the second and third elements of

the business. Managing her large household was in any case a sufficient responsibility: ‘Buisness is not so good as it was. Melbourne is over done. We all have to work. I have my share what with sewing for my six Girls and all the rest my hands is quite full.’ Yet this sigh was preceded by a proud recital of the heavy expenses involved in employing four shop assistants, a servant, and a nurse, as well as keeping potentially wage-earning daughters at secondary school (10}, rof, 10g). Having uttered her faint hint of discontent, Isabella consoled herself as before with the bounty of God: ‘Now I am sure you will say with all your heart, A charge to keep I have. I am very thankfull for the number that providence has given me. I trust we may be spared to bring them up in the good way to be a blessing to world and to ourselfs’ (10h). Her burden was to increase on 23 February 1889, when the Lord gave William ‘his beloved sleep’ in Melbourne’s General Cemetery, at the age of 61.*° After a brief reversion to drapery in Brighton, another bayside suburb, Isabella moved with her family to the new house in Hawthorn where she was to spend her remaining quarter-century.2! The house and the ten sur18 Wyly, Irish Origins, p. 17. ‘9 This description appeared in Melbourne directories from 1873 onwards. 20 The inscription survives, complete with shamrock, on the Scotts’ headstone.

21 The Rate Books for the City of Hawthorn, in PROV, show that the annual valuation of the property was £80, reduced to £54 after a subdivision of the land before 1895.

Wyly 105°

an, °. VE i ~" — hae a a. or re a ay i FIGURE 17. ‘I shall send you one of this years scenes by next mail, so that you will see the improvement in the place’: the same outlook, circa 1867 (Mortlock Collection, B 41725: State Library of South Australia).

wicked world. That is the sincere prayer, dear Edward of your ever fond and Affectonate Aunt Isabella Alice Wyly PS

Joyned by all in kindest love to you exept the same from your fond Aunt Bella

[top half of first page contains an etching labelled as follows]

ON STONE BY S. T. GILL PRINTED BY PENMAN & GALBRAITH VIEWS N ADELAIDE NO. 1 HINDLEY STREET FROM KING WILLIAM ST Published by Penman & Galbraith Adelaide [in Isabella’s hand]

(k) About ro years ago. I am quite ashamed to send this. If I had time I should write again but time wont permit.

126 News from Australia (Wy 5)

Rundle Street Adelaide South Australia

October roth 1858 My dearest Sister

(a) Your Kind letter and Parsel came safe to hand 15th October. I regreted very much not been able to answer it by return of post, but the mail made some little delay in Melburne so that the Australian mail left before the English one arived. (b) I cannot express my delight when seeing yours and dear Thomases likeness, they were so Good. Do tell me when the were taken and where. I can carsely believe after seven or 9 long years I was to see you once more. I hope for my sake I shall see the reality some day. (c) My dear Brother I fancy I see Him alive, I cannot believe he is gone, but I hope to meet him on a better Shore than even these Golden Shores.

(d) Tell dear Susan I was delighted with her Collar. I have never seen one like it. I shall be so carefull of wearing it lest I should wear it out soon which would grieve me very much. Also dear Edwards present, I have put it away for a particular ocation which I will tell him of some day. I intend writing to each one thanking them myself, but please tell them I prize them more coming from them than if I paid 30/- for them here.

(e) I hope by this time dear Edward has read my note. I intend writing often if it is but a few lines, and I hope you will do the same, for it is cheering to think I have one Sister in the world, thou[gh] far from me yet

ever dear to me, and your dear little ones also. Dear Matilda I intend sending my likeness per a Gentleman who is going home in december next. His Name is Mr. Charles Robin. I shall inclose his adress. He has promised

to register the parsel in London so as to go safe. I thought it was a nice chance as I should hav to leave the end of the parsel open if I send it by Post[?] here or pay letter weight which would be more than all is worth, but I should not mind that had I not this good chance. I send Edward a little Pocket Book with a letter and a soverin. He can please himself as to spending it. I have not thought yet what to send dear little Susan, but She shall have some thing to remember her Poor Aunt Bella. (f) I shall write before you receive the parcel, so I sh[a]ll then tell you the contents. I cannot think what I could Send you that you could prize. You have all the nice things and everythink won [one] could wish to get, but here nothing is new. I hope I shall some day see dear old Dublin again

and its splendid shops and every thing ones heart could wish for, but it was not for me to be there when I was well off. All happened for the best. We cannot expect thinks to happen just as we like in this world. It would not be well for us if so, for we should likely forget ourselfs, and cling to[o] close to this Vail of Tears.

Wyly Letters (Wy sa-sl) 127 (g) I was sorry to hear your dear Mother was not so well. I think it is well for her She has you with her, you do for her what no stranger would do. I soppose She is failing fast, you cannot expect her to last many years longer. I do trust when her change comes it will be a happy one. It will be a consolation to those she leaves behind. Give my very dear love to her. (h) I soppose you would not think of coming to Australia while she lives. I hope times will be much better before you come. The never were much

worse than the ar at present. There is such a dale of compfef]ition that some times you think the People would not let one another live if possable. I shall alway be able to let you know how things ar getting on before then

so you will be able to Judge for your self. For my part nothing I should like better in this world, than to have you all near me and I have no doubt by industry you would do well, but as I have told you before it is all chance work. (i) May God direct your steps which ev[e]r way he thinks best. He has guided me all through life, and I am sure he will you if you trust to him, altho alone without an earthly helping hand, you have him who has promised to be the Husband to the Widow, a friend to the friendless. I found a father and friend in him in a strange land and opend my private[?] wary way, and when surround by danger and temtacion he was my shield. I trust

my faith may never fail in him and may we all look to him who is the strong for Strength. (j) Dear Sister I am still in the Times Drapery Mart, I cannot tell how much longer. Perhaps my next letter may say something. I cannot say any thing for sertain yet, but as far as Gault & Scott are conserned I may stay forever, for the would never give there consent to my leaving exept exept to better myself which I hope if I should it would be. I hope I would raise

your curiousity, but I shall tell you all in my next which I hope will be next Mail. I am just as happy as ev[e|r no care. I some times think it cannot always last but I must not look at the dark side of things. We are doing a very good traede, I believe as Good as any in town. (k) The anser to your question you will be Surprised to hear. I have got

quite a Profisent[?] hand at Milinery. I trim and make Bonnets. I trim plenty, but I have so litle time to spare to make I give most Bonnets out. It is all left to me just as I like. I like to sit some times to sew for a change, but I am continualy up & down serving customers. Mr. Scott has a Sister just come from Strabane in the North of Ireland, it mak[e]s it much more plesant for me to have a young person with me. She is about 29 years of age and a very nice Girl just lik her Brother a Good hearted Irash Girl. She knows nothing of the Drapery buisness being brought up on a farm. There is a large family of this home respectable farmers. (1) Uncle is just getti[zg] on the same. I told you he got a Warrant[?] Situation at one hundred per Year which is the best thing that has turned

128 News from Australia up for him yet for it is perm[anen]t from 9 in the morning untill 5 or 6 | do not know which evening[?] and every Saturday at one the[y] close. I hope he will soon get a raise as he anticipates. He has had a hard struggle to get on and bring his large family up respectably as he has done. The have Cows and Calvfe]s and Hens and Ducks and I do not know what all, but I expect Aunt will enclose a note which will tell you all perticulars. November gth 185[8] Dear Sister

(m) I thought I woul begin another apistel as I had a little more News to tell you. I dare say part of my letter will raise your curiosity, and as things have come to the point I must tell you I am engaged to Mr Scott you have often herd me speak of, as my cousin[?]. Aunt E will tell you all about him rather I expect she will. I cannot Say more at present than He is one after my own heart, and in short words he is almost perfection in my estamation. (n) If Aunt will not describe him I will when next I write. I promised to send you my likeness. I shall decline doing so Untill I send dear William and mine together. I know you will like to have them, both together. Perhaps I shall still send them by Mr. C. Robin, but I sh[a]ll say in what way I shll send them by next Mail. I shll have [a] litle to tell you by next mail for the changes which is about to take place here. I do not know whether we shll stay here or not, it quite depends upon sercomstances. I shall write next month. I hope I shll hear from you ev[e]ry month also. (o) I did not intend writing much more, but this affair having taken place within the last fortnight, I thought I would gratify your curiosity. You were surprised to hear I was a Wesleyan but I soppose I shall s[tJill be one as, my dear William is an out and out one, not only in Name but in heart and prinsable [?principle|. My only prayer is that I may never be a stumbling

block in the way for him, but that we may both go hand in hand in the name of Christ. It matters little in the Name as long as we ar named as the Children of God and even of the Guardians[?] of Heaven. I some times wish we were all together here, but all is for the best, I hope we shall some day. (p) Mr S and Sister ar from Drumclamph co Tirone. I never met a nicer family since I came to this colony. You will see[?] I was determined to have my own country man. It is the first offer I have had from an Irish man but

plenty of English which I expect Aunt will tell you of but as I told you before I waited untill Mr Write would come and he has at last. (q) I must not tax[?] your pacience with this scribble any longer. I hope my next will be a more interesting one. Please give my very kind love to Uncle John and Aunt and all Family when you see them. Please tell them all, I am lon{g]ing to hear from them. I send them a Paper almost every Month. I receive his also which is very kind of him not to forget me. Tell

Wyly Letters (Wy 5l-6c) 129 him or Aunt to write. I send you a paper also Uncle, by this mail[?]. I send you a Gold Shawl Pin for your self with a Nugget of Gold which answers for a head[?]. I could not think what to send So I thought you woul|d] like some thing colonia[l]. If you will keep it for my sake as a token of love, I sh[a]ll send what I promised by Mr C. Robin to Edward with Susan, for I can send nothing that I shoul[d] wish to send by letter. I shll send Mr R adress by next mail. Please answer[?] this by return of Post. (r) Give my love to the dear Children and lots of Kisses. I soppose dear Edward will except this from his Poor Aunt. Give my Kind love to your dear Mother and all friends and except the same dear Matilda from your ever fond and Affection|ate] Sister Isabella PS

May God bless you and yours and give you Grace and Strength under all your trials and trubles and bring you through all. That is the sincere Prayer of your fond Sister Bella

Write soon. (Wy 6) [from transcription of lost original] Barton Terrace North Adelaide South Australia Nov. rg9th 1858

My dear Matilda, (a) I was very glad to hear from you and that you and the children were well. Isabella showed me their letters which were very nice and well done. We also saw your likeness and I was surprised to see so much change in you, but it will soon be nine years since I saw you, yet the time appears short it passes so quickly and you have had much care and trouble. I hope your Mother may long be spared to you. (b) You and your children might do very well here but I should not wish to induce anyone to come as many find fault with it at first as I did, but I

trust with God’s blessing we shall do well yet. Education costs much. Fanny, Henrietta, William and Alexander’s amounts to nearly £50 a year, servants wages (one) 9/- per week and 10/- per week rent, but I expect the children will be fitted for respectable situations, and the money will not be thrown away. (c) I am sorry to say your Uncle’s health is very middling latterly. He has not been able to attend to business this week, he has a bad cough and looks very delicate, that I am very uneasy about him but I hope it may not signify—he is very low spirited and you never saw anyone more altered in every way.

130 News from Australia (d) We were glad to hear poor Lucy had got a comfortable situation. | suppose you go to see her when you go to Dublin. I intend writing to her soon. Isabella I expect will be married shortly, the latter end of January or beginning of February, to one of her employers Mr. Scott. He is from the County Tyrone, a respectable steady, sober young man. I don’t know that he has got any money to boast of but he has a good business and there is every prospect of happiness. They have been long attached—she has refused 3 others within the last 3 weeks. (e) Ruth and hers are very well—her husband is a sadler and has property

in houses and land, and I believe are very comfortable but have it all to themselves—am never asked to spend a day. She did ask me once or twice but she had no dinner, keeps everything for themselves—he does not go home till night from the shop. She charges her brother Aleck 2/- for his dinner of a Sunday, yet he often spends it with us. (f) Isabella has no idea of inducing Mary or Bessie to come out here, they would only be a burden to her or us if out of situations. I know two young girls looking for places these months back and can’t procure them. Business is so dull, particularly at this season of the year just before the harvest. It will soon be in now and I trust a plentiful one. We have had a very favorable season. Till latterly it has been rather dry, but I trust there has not been much injury done to the crop. (g) I don’t make my own bread now it was so troublesome sending it out to be baked. We send our meat to the bakehouse, no one here roasts it at the fire its too expensive, and makes the house too warm. You think you could not bear the heat, but it does not last long without intervals of cold—we have heavenly weather at times. This is the most disagreeable month, many days so dusty that you should be quite astonished where it comes from, but on the whole I don’t find fault with the climate and believe it healthier than home. (h) Should you ever come you might get the situation of Matron to an emigrant vessel and you could have your children with you for a trifle, but I should never advise you to come while you can live at home. (i) Dublin must appear altered to you. I suppose there is not a Wyly in

it now. Was there anything heard of Charles? I regret dear Nancy and Fanny very much, and when I heard poor Fanny was in Melbourne | thought I had her in my grasp yet she never was able to write to me and a few weeks after was in her grave. 5 of the family buried in Melbourne. (j) 1 am very glad Isabella will soon have a home of her own and not be serving for others. She has got very thin latterly but I expect she will get plump again shortly. You are too far off to send you any of the cake. She has got a fine stock of clothing, a chest of drawers etc. etc. and a share in a Building Society, and I am sure she will make a good wife. (k) I had to leave this letter so often it is quite disjointed but I shall take

Wyly Letters (Wy 6d-7d) 131 more time for the next. Your Uncle and the children unite in dear love to you and yours, and ever believe me your Very affectionate Aunt E. Wyly

Mrs. Wyly Mrs. Bell Hill Street

Newry | Co. Down Ireland

(Wy 7) Adelaide

May 17 1859 My dear Edward (a) I received your long looked for letter dated February 17th. I was

sorry to hear the sad Newse of your dear Grand Mothers death, I trust what was your loss was her gain. I was delighted to hear her end was a happy one, it is the only comfort left for those behind, we could not wish her back again to this world of sin and misery. I hope your dear Mama has been Given Grace to bear it with Christian Pacience[?]. I have no doubt

that she will be suported under all Knothing [?knowing nothing] will be put on her more than she will be able to bare. It is har[d] to part bu[t] we must expect it some day or other, as we know the lot of all men is to die. I trust dear Edward when our time comes I hope we shall have our lamps trim|[m]ed prepared to meet our Sav{iJour.

(b) Dear Edward give my kind love to your dear Mama. I hope by this time She has quite recovered. Is the Buisness left to her, or is it a Partnership

affair I shoul[d] so like to know. I hope, all your Grand Mothers affairs were left square and that your Mama will have no truble but I hope to get

on well. I have written 3 letters for the one you wrote. I hope she has received them for I sent a Gold Pin which I should not like to be lost and all the newse which you ar ancious to he[ar] I expect. I have also sent a Newes Paper containing the colloni[a/] events. (c) I must tell you I am as happy as the day is long and has all this world can afford to make me happy a dear kind good Husband which is better than all. We live in North Adelaide about 1° Miles from Town where Mr Scotts Shop is. I have told you what he is and all about him in my last letter. (d) His Sister is living with us. She goes in to buisness with her Brother ever[y] morning and returns in the evening. She is a dear Sister to me. I shoul[d] not know what to do without her. She is so kind and good. You shoul see us just now. We ar all writing to old Ireland round the table and

132 News from Australia a comfortable little fire in a comfortable little Cottage, in fact it is a perfect little Picture of happiness. I only wish you could transfer your self for a Month and then you could answer for yourself. (e) Fanny has promised to to enclose a Note in this so I expect she will tell you all the newes. I live very near them and I see them some times. It is plesant to live near each other. (f) I hope dear Susan is well. I shoul so like to have her with me. Give my love to her and lots of Kisses. I expect she will take the shine out of all her cosins in education. I hope she will, is she quick at learning. Does she take after her Poor Pappa, I shoul like to know. (g) I intend send my likness by the first chance. You woul have had it long ago but I thought you woul|[d] like to have my dear Husbands face with mine. I do not forget my promise. I shll send all togethr. I hope you will fill up a Sheet of Note Paper nextime as you forgot this time to do. (h) I hope I shll hear from your Mama soon. J shall be ancious to hear from her. Remember me to your Aunt Jane[?] I suppose she remembers me. Do you go home ever[y] Sunday. How long have you to serve before you ar out of your time. What ar you getting per week and do you live in the house. Excuse my questions but you know for what motive I ask. I like to know how you ar Getting on. Do you go to Dublin ever. (i) | am expecti[ng] to hear from Uncle John or some of them. I am so

glad to hear from them. I have sent them cards, and your Mama also. | get a paper from Uncle J nearly ever[y] month is it not kind. I hope you will pardon this long Scribble. The Mail starts tomorrow so I did not like but to accnolidge Yours at wonce. I hope you will be as punctual. (j) I must leave all the remaining newse for Fanny and conclude joined by all in kind love to you and your dear Mama & Sister & believe me dear Edward your ever fond & Affectionate Aunt Isabella A Scott Ps

Write your letter the same. Gault & Scott. God bless you all. (Wy 8)

Mona Cottages October 18th 1859 My dear Sister (a) I received your long looked for letter dated Augt roth. I was almost begining to think you had forgotten me. You say you wrote to me acnolidging the Pin. I never received it, I was quite ancious[?] untill I herd.

(b) I was very sorry to hear of your loss but I trust it was your dear

Wyly Letters (Wy 7d-8g) 133 mothers gain. It is a world of sepparation but there is one consolation. We may get to that world where parting is not known. Do you intend to keep on the Business, or ar you in Partnership with Mrs Prescot[?]. I hope you will get on well. I know it will not be for want of exertion on your part. (c) I soppose dear Susin will soon be able to help you but it would be a pitty to take her from school as long as you could. I am so glad to hear dear Edward is getting on so well. I trust he will be a comfort to you. Give my kind love to him & tell him I shall write to him nex[t] time as I have left this within a few hours of mail time. I hope he has got my last by this time, as I sent half of my promised present to him and also our likeneses which did not please me. I should have had them taken again only we had not time. I hope you will see they originals some day which you will say

then that they did not flatter my dear William and they say I was not flattered either. (d) Give my love to Uncle John & family. I am lookin[g] out for a leter

from them soon. I soppose Uncle told you that he Met Mr. Gault that is William[s] Partners Brother and his full cosin. There ar 2 of his Brothers living in Manchester. I expect if you ar going there to purchase goods you will meet with them. One of them knows dear Thomas very well also Uncle Johns sons. I was so Glad to hear they new some of my friends. They wrote

to that affect to their Brother Robert Gault but after all there ar none of them like my dear husband. You will say & so I say but more than me can testify the same. I must tell you I am as happy as ever in our dear little

cottage. I should so like you coul[d] to come to see us, and Judge for yourself. There would be such a resepcion for you from a thorough out & out Irish heart. (e) I have had a serious[?] Illness since I wrote to you last. I soppose you

will gess what it was, when I tell you I had a Nurse & Doctor &c you may imagine what it was, but thank God I am quite well again. I have much to be thankful for. Hilth & Strength, happin[es]s. (f) Poor Uncle has been very Poorly indeed. He had an Apses [abscess]

on his Back which had to be cut out which gave him much pain. I am afraid his cons[ti]tution is completely broaken. Poor fellow I feel so sorry

for him but thank God he is now better again & able to go to busines again. Fanny is still going to School & all they others except Robert & they youngest. Robert has left the drapery busin[ess] & is learning to be an Architect and is only getting 10/ per week and he got 15/- and his food in the drapery Shop which mak[es] a deel of difference in the week. (g) Ruth sends her kind love to you. She is quite well & has 2 little ones and the 3d expect[e]d. She is quite a little mother. Aunt said she would enclose a line with this but she has not sent it so I soppose I may send her love to you also all they family. She will tell you all the newes of her family

that I have left out.

134 News from Australia (h) Do you ev[e]r hear anny News of Poor Aunt Lucy. I shoul so like to hear from her. Dear William was so pleased to Get a paper from dear Edward. I should so like Edward would write to him. He would be very pleased. (i) Have you seen any thing of the revival of religin that is going on in Belfast. It seams to me as if all the North was in a confusion. I hope it is for we want to see the land of our birth converted to God & Perticul[azlly the dark benighted parts of it. I have made up my mind that the King is about to comfort the hole world for it seams as if he was passing out his Spirit upon all Plases & all Churches. (j) We have had a sad loss in loosing one of our dear devoted Ministers

the one that Married us. He was a dear priest of mine one who always took an intrest in me a priest like a father but he is gon to heaven & who could wish him back. All I can say is, may my end be like his. He preached

3 times the Sundy before he died, twice in Chapel and once in the open air. He was very impressive[?]. He had a litle cold then but he did not mind

that but it brought on fever[?] which caused his death in 5 days. He has left a wife & 2 Children to deplore his loss. She is a dear Christian. She can with all confidence say thy will be done. Nea|[r]ly all the congregation was in morning and a Min|i|ster of almost all denominations were at His funeral what got|?] up with our respect. (k) I inclose a him [hymn] he sang with his little Girls hand in his 12 hours before he died & and almost out of his mind. He did go quite out of his mind before he died. I think you will say I am wandering from subject

to subject but I was so fond of him I cannot but tell you of him. (1) I hope I wont tire your patience with this scrible as usual. Write soon & tell me all the newse. Give my kind love to Mrs. Prescot[?]. I soppose she cannot remember me. Kiss the dear Children for me. (m) Dear William & his Sister Unites with me and dear love to you. Believe me dear Sister your ever fond & Affectionate Sister Isabella Alice Scott Write soon. Excuse haste.

(Wy 9) Adelaide South Australia April 29th 1865[?]

My dear Edward, (a) I soppose you will be disapointed not hering from me last Mail but Susan will explain. I hope you will like the enclosed. I tell you dear Edward what I want you to do. That is to get me a good Cart [carte] of your dear Mama. I did not like the cased one for it looked so old and I did not think Good.

Wyly Letters (Wy 8h-10a) 135 (b) We ar getting on as usual. I was delighted with that pleasing newse of last Mail. I shall be glad to hear of the dear Girl having a happy home of her own(?]. I should so like to know if you ar thin[k]ing of taking that desperat[e] step. I hope you will some day when you can meet with one worthy of you, that will make you a good Wife. Do let me into the secret. (c) I must tell you a little Newse. Uncle Robert Wylys Alaxander is Mar-

ried and living in the Bush. He is keeping a General Store. We have not seen her yet and I do not think we shall for some time to come. His Brother Tom is living with them. Uncle Alaxander is getting [oz] as usual. Henrietta is keeping a School. I told you Fanny was married. William does not think of any just yet. He is quite the Gentleman, that family has done very well. They have kept up their posicion[?]. Alaxander is in a gover[z]ment Situation. (d) Poor Ruth she has had her triales[?]. She has 5 little ones the eldest ro years old and no Servants doing the best she can for them. Mr Shadgit fail[e]d this last year, so the were left pennyless. I give you this newse for your Mama. I am sure she will like to know how all ar doing. Every thing

has [been] so dull this last year those that ar left to get on can just keep their heads above water. (e) Do you think you could get me a few more Vewse of Ireland or I shoul like Dublin as I know more about it. I think Uncle John could. Would you please ask him. You can get them much cheaper. I shall pay for them if you let me know what the will be. (f) I must bring this hasty scrible to a close hoping the next will be longer

but I coul not say more, or it would make this to[o] heavy. I think I sent you our likenesses. Let me know. I should like to see yours. I have not seen

that yo[u]ng friend of yours yet. Is he gone to Melbourne. Good by dear Edward with Dear love to Mama and also your good self. In writing[?] give Uncle[?] yours.

I remain your fond & Affectionate Aunt I. A. Scott Ps

Pleas hast[e] write soon. I hope you got the Austrilian Pap[e]rs. We shall send them ev[e]ry Mail. (Wy ro) Victoria Grey Street St Kilda October 2st 1877

My very very dear Sister (a) I cannot tell you how delighted I was to get your very welcom letter.

136 News from Australia I must say I had long thought I was forgotton by all whom I loved in the dear old country, that is as far as letter writing. But dear old Uncle John Gratten sends me a Dublin Paper every month for which I am so thankful for Fanny used to write to me but I have not had a line now for 9 years. Just fancy that. I often wondered the cause of such silence between us and as for your dear self and Edward & Susan I could not think what had become of you all. I often and often thought of you and longed to hear of you all. Had I known where to write I would not have kept silence so long. (b) And now dear Matilda as the ice is broken I hope and trust we shall corspound [correspond] regularlly. I promise you I will, and if any thing should prevent you doing so Susan or Edward could write. I did so feast of dear Edwards letters, the were such a treat. I do hope I shall have them to feast on once more. Poor fellow what changes he has passed through since then, and me not to hear one word of it. I was so delighted to hear he was again a happy man and had got such a good wife and one of your choise so thoughtful for you. (c) What a woman of buisness you are. You would not be happy out of it and I must say I am thankfull you have your health and strength to work to be independent if it is ever so little. Time will pass much more plesently to have your time occupied, if not too laborious. It would not do to be that in your time of life. It should be all pleasure for you. I beleave I should be like you myself. I am so fond of buisness that is drapery.

(d) I was deeply greeved to hear dear Susan was not strong. I thought she would have had a large family by this time but poor Girl as she is not strong she has as many as she aught to have for it requires strength of body as well as mind to bring up a large family. The Great Being knows all things and will not put any thing more upon his Creatures than the can bear[?]. I trust she may be spared a long life to those little ones that are Given her. I sometimes look at their little faces and think how changed the are by this time. (e) Now I must tell you a little of ourselvs which I know you are anxious to hear. I wrote and told you all of our change to Melbourne. 6 year next

Aprill William left the drapery buisness and went into the Grocery. He spent nineteen year[s] in the drapery in South Australia the place I still call home. I shall always love it having spent 24 years in it and left so many dear dear friends behind. I have been over and spent eight happy weeks among my dear old friends. I think if I spent twelve month I would not want for a home. The time was only to[o] short that I had to stay but my little family call me home. (f) I took my Baby that was then seven month old with me and my eldest Girl that is now sixteen years old. She is quite companionable now. She is taller than her Mother. She has been to School untill the last half year. We have her now finishing with a Good[?] Master. She is very studus [studious]

Wyly Letters (Wy toa-10j) 137 and fond of teaching so we wish to finish her well and if she should ever have to get her living teaching will be her wish. She is very clever[?] so I have very little help from her untill her Studies are ended. (g) Now that is saying a little of my eldeldest [eldest] of nine six Girls

and 3 Boys. What do you say to that. Our second is only 14 months yo[u]nger as tall as her sister but not studus. She is clever[?] at Music, but one of my best helps. She can work and help if she was home from school. I do not like to take her from school just yet. Her name is Fanny Elizabeth and the eldest is Alice Jane. Now the third is as big in her way as the two older Girls. She is fond of school and thinks she would like buisness. However time will tell what the will all be fit for. Nex[#] is a Boy William John rz years. I did not tell you the third Girls name is Emma Mary. Did I send

their likeness to you. I did I am sure but had no reply. The nex Girl is Edith Steel a bright Girl of nine years. Then come[?] two fine bright Boys Robert George and Arthur McKirdy Scott. Now that is the number going School. And the next two[?] are little Girls one Adelaide Maud three & a half[?] and Florence Isabel the flower of the flock. Now Alice will teach them when she is finished. The yongist is just two years. (h) Now I am sure you will say with all your heart, A charge to keep I have. I am very thankfull for the number that providence has given me. I trust we may be spared to bring them up in the good way to be a blessing

to world and to ourselfs. We ar endeavouring to do so with the help of Him who never yet refused those who sought his help. You know we need

all the strength of mind and Grace daily to do our duty in a large little family like ours. We have much to be thankfull for such a family you would [220t] see any[?] where. (i) And now a little about buisness. I do not like the Grocery as well as

the drapery alth[ough] I nevr go into the shop. We live on the buisness premises. I would like that part very well but we now find our house is to[o] small, so our staying here is unsertain. However you direct your letter just the same untill you hear of a change. I like the buisness for Willi[a]m.

He has got his health better since we came here. It is not such a close buisness. I would like the drapery for the sake of our Girls but that is a second[ary| consideration. We have no cause to regret our leaving Adelaide

for we got a Good buisness and it was a change for Willi{a]m which did him Good in every way. (j) Our expenesses are very heavy which you know must be to bring up

such a family and keep the position we should like for the sake of the family. I will Give you an idea. We have four men to trade[?] pay them good wages one £3 per week the next £2, then 25/- then ro/-. Servant Girl £36 p. year nurse Girl 5/-. I have paid 9/- per week to a nurse Girl but I have no Baby to nurse now so I can be a little independant what I never could before. I hire to wash pay a woman 4/- p. day and you will fancy

138 News from Australia what our house keeping would be with such a family. We keep three horses one cow but[?] gives enough Milk for our use. You will say it would require

a good buisness to keep up such an establishment and buisness is not so good as it was. Melbourne is over done. We all have to work. I have my share what with sewing for my six Girls and all the rest my hands is quite full.

(k) Now I think I must say no more about ourselv{e]s untill next time, and tell you a little of our Adelaider friends or reletives rather. Deer old Uncle Alaxander is still liveing but feeble. He holds his situation in the Govermt yet. I think he will till the end. His eldest daughter Fanny he heard[?] of been married to a lyer [lawyer]. She lost her husband about two yeers ago. He was drowned on his way from the Northern territory. He went on some law case and on his return was rect [wrecked] with all the Crew Judge also. He left her with five little ones. The Goverment gave her £1500 but what was that [?against] his loss. She keeps a School and doin it very well. Her Sister is teaching Music and drawing[?] not married yet. Her Brother William is married and has two Boys. He lost his last. Alexan is also married and has as nice a little wife as you would wish to see and two dear little Girls. She writes me such affectionate letters. John the other Brother is up the country I do not know what doing. Ruth Shadgett is still in the same place five Girls and two Boys. I seldom hear from her. Now I think I have told you all. (1) Have you heard if Aunt Lucy is still alive. Do please Give my dear love to Fanny & Tom Grath also dear old Uncle & Aunt. Tell them to write if only a few living occasionally to let me know and thank Uncle for the Paper William reading them. (m) I wish I could see you all. There be a great number of newery [Newry| people over here. There are more Irish in Melbourn than Adelaide. Now dear I must close this and will give you another as long by return of your next. I promise you fathefully yours will always be answered by return of mail. If you only new how I long to hear from you all if alive or ded you would not forget poor me. I sometimes wish you were all out here. You perhaps would do better but that is to be proud. I must now say good by and untill I know if you have recvd this I will be anxious. William unites with me in fond love to Edward & Susan[?] Uncle when you see him and a very large part for your dear self from your loveing Sister Bella

C H AP TER 4 Queensland for Ever, augus un Ballybug go Braugh’: Biddy Burke, 1882-84 'F

3

HREE LETTERS SURVIVE FROM BIDDY BURKEIN BRISBANE TO HER FAMILY

in Balrobuck Beg (‘Ballybug’), near the eastern shore of Lough Corrib in Co. Galway.' Written in 1882 and 1884, they paraded her duality as an Irish Australian. When she scrawled the title of this chapter across the final page of the second letter, to her brother John, she was jokily affirming attachment to her colony of settlement as well as her native townland. The Irish phrase, in modern orthography agus an baile beag go brath, means ‘and Ballybug for ever’—the placename Ballybug itself signifies simply ‘small town’. Biddy Burke’s voice is untutored and ingenuous, but also clear and authentic. Her spelling was intuitive rather than precise, but she wrote with a flourishing hand. Her letters provide vivid testimony to a young emigrant’s hope, enthusiasm, loneliness, and nostalgia. Though written from Queensland, they evoke her damp but cheery place of origin even more clearly than the harsh hot world in which she settled.

Biddy Burke was baptised in the Catholic parish of Annaghdown in February 1859. She was the youngest child of ‘Patch’ or Patrick Burke and his wife Mary Costello, who had been married in the parish five years earlier. Though only ten miles north of Galway town, Balrobuck Beg was by 1880 archaic in its culture and social organisation. The census indicates that the rapid diffusion of literacy in English, and the decline of vernacular Irish, had scarcely touched Annaghdown by 1881. Over three-quarters of the | The original letters (the Burke Papers) were kindly shown to me by Dr. Tony Claffey and Mr. Joe Lynch of Tuam, Co. Galway. Mrs. Margaret Dillon of Balrobuck Beg, and above all Mrs. Nancy Lynch of Tuam, graciously supplied family lore and photographs.

139

140 News from Australia population aged 40 or more were illiterate, as were two-fifths of those just

out of school or the risk of school (aged 12-19). In the barony (Clare), four-fifths of the population spoke Irish, though only a handful were monolingual. The farmers of the district had yet to consolidate their holdings into neat blocks divided by clear boundaries.? Patrick and several of his brothers and relations had small holdings under the ‘rundale’ system on the Lynch estate. As a result of subdivision, piecemeal inheritance, and perhaps also the equitable allocation of different qualities of land, the distribution of farms in Balrobuck Beg was remarkably intricate. The tithe commissioners had made no attempt in 1826 to distinguish the ‘different denominations’ in the townland, and Griffith’s surveyors in 1855 could not compute the area of land occupied by each holder. When the insolvent Lynch estate came up for sale before the Land Judges in 1878, however, it was revealed that Patrick H. Burke was farming eighteen statute acres at an annual rent of £7 12s 8d, an amount exceeded by only four of the townland’s twenty-four tenants. His rent also covered some minor portions of indeterminate acreage, for Burke held two out of three

shares in a partnership occupying four and a half acres, and was one of five tenants in common of a patch of two and a half acres. Like all his neighbours, Patrick held his land from year to year, and was required to pay his rent on the conventional gale days in May and November.’ The full complexity of his farm was only exposed at the turn of the century, when land purchase proceedings necessitated specification of every scrap and needle of land. Figure 18 highlights the eighteen holdings assigned to Patrick Burke, including those acquired from a succession of relatives and neighbours.* His fields dotted most of Balrobuck Beg and abutted areas of waste, ‘liable to flood’, at four different points. His situation illustrates the logistical difficulty of farming efficiently under the rundale system. The farmhouse in which Biddy Burke was reared was quite substantial by local standards, and unlike the dwellings of her southerly neighbours in Balrobuck More it was not part of a rural cluster or so-called clachan. The house remained largely unchanged until recent years, being thatched, unplastered, with an earthen floor trodden down by sheep and a loft reached by ladder. Family photographs from the 1930s and 1940s show a white-

washed cottage with three front windows, and also a spinning-wheel, horse-drawn mower, and potato-sprayer, illustrating elements of the farm’s mixed production (see Figure 60, reproduced on p. 543). The family census

schedule for 1901 confirms that the house had three rooms, three front * The consolidation of Balrobuck Beg was not achieved until the 1970s. > O’Brien Rentals, book 134, no. 5 (6 July 1878), in NAD. * The Valuation Revision Books indicate that by 1904 his 18 holdings occupied nearly 49 acres, the annual valuation of the land being £13 16s with £1 9s for buildings. The valuation of Burke’s holdings had risen from £7 15s in 1880 and £3 12s in 1855.

Burke 141

~~ = yn , ljey‘)N fy _ > ey 6 fF 7 ~lexic : Se Y cee a ——— 5B ) lnvevervy eevee BSS |=—— I] Lye we evad vw ea Sa ye — fj ‘. ve — Y oN “) = 9 {lf aae Sd levy vy r= y. 4” v vi? a — f= ,y, wie =) ey i fES —— a oy WF SFPA. wv = P; ———— ,y—_ , Ae Fy “SS A Nee ALES

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FIGURE 18. Holdings (shaded) occupied by Patrick Burke in Balrobuck Beg, 1904 (based on Valuation Revision Books and annotated Ordnance Survey maps in IVO).

windows, imperishable walls, and a perishable roof. The farm had as many

as six outhouses: a stable, a barn, a cart house, a cow house, a piggery, and a fowl house. It sustained twelve human inhabitants, all Catholics born in Galway and conversant in both Irish and English (with the exception of an infant). At 80 years, Patrick Burke was returned as farmer and head of household. Like his wife Mary, who was four years younger, he could not read or write.’ Their eldest son John, though 43 and married, remained a ‘farmer’s son’. The residue of the household consisted of John’s 38-year5 Patrick Burke outlived his wife Mary Costello, dying in March 1905 at the age of 85. 6 The parish registers show that John Burke was in fact 46 on census day, having been baptised in October 1854—nine months after his parents’ marriage. His own eldest child was likewise born nine months after his marriage in April 1877 to Winnie Burke of Cluidreragh (the ‘Clude’ of the letters). John died a widower in November 1941, aged 87.

142 News from Australia old wife Winnie and their eight children. The advance of literacy was man-

ifest in the fact that John and all his family apart from the infant could read and write. We may assume that the younger members of the Burke household read aloud the letters addressed to their illiterate seniors. Such was the home from which Biddy Burke had departed two decades earlier. In October 1880, Bridget Burke and her brother Patrick reached Brisbane

on the Dunbar Castle, after a voyage from Plymouth lasting nearly 15 weeks.’ Nearly half of its 293 passengers were Irish. Bridget received a free passage as a domestic servant, but Patrick (a labourer aged 18) came as a ‘remittance’ passenger.’ He was probably nominated upon the deposit of

£4 by his uncle Martin, who according to the letters was already settled with a family about 40 miles outside the capital. It is possible that uncle Martin was the Martin Costello returned in 1874 as a ‘squatter’ at Purga Creek, south-west of the capital beyond Ipswich.’ Brisbane was still a small

city, with 31,000 inhabitants in 1881; but over the following decade its population trebled, so outpacing the growth of any other Australian capital.'° The letters contain what little we know of the Burkes’ subsequent careers in Brisbane. By early 1882 Bridget was working as a servant in the city; Patrick left for the bush about a year later and disappointed his sister by failing to return to Brisbane for Christmas in 1883 (3f). According to family lore Patrick eventually moved on to America, whereas Bridget settled

and married in Queensland. As the letters testify, however, her spiritual home long remained far from Brisbane. More poignantly than any other sequence in this book, they evoke the emigrant’s experience of nostalgia. Like many correspondents, Biddy Burke was full of wry plaintiveness about the infrequency of letters from home: ‘I constantle watch the postman 2wice a day for my father and Mary Letters but its all in vain’; ‘I suppose my Sister Mary hasent got a Bit of paper to soil on a sister’; “To think my father & mother at the end of a long year could cast a thout on me & wright me a letter’ (2b, 3c, 3a). Reciprocity was required for successful correspondence: ‘I will surely wright to you once a Month & let you do the same’; ‘Now John I must Conclude Hoping that You will send ’ The passenger list includes two Bridget Burkes, both domestic servants, aged 19 and 20. Our Bridget was 21 at the time of embarkation. Her namesake on board may have become the policeman’s wife in Bundaberg (ze). Documentation of her subsequent career has been severely hampered by the multiplication of Bridget Burkes in Queensland. 8S. W. Silver and Co.’s Handbook for Australia and New Zealand (London, 3rd edn. 1880), p. 288. Patrick would have been required under the Immigration Act of 1875 to repay the Pavance of his fare (£12) within a year, but in practice this stipulation was often waived or ° The township of Purga is about 30 miles from Brisbane. Although this entry is absent from the directories for 1876 and 1883-84, no other Martin Burke or Martin Costello listed in Queensland directories is equally plausible as a candidate. '© See J. W. McCarty and C. B. Schedvin (eds.), Australian Capital Cities: Historical Essays (Sydney, 1978), p. 21.

rie a a 4 ey (ee Burke 143

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te . 3 : ‘ ¢ ° o : et a” 2S S210 Ro Np : AY ; ° ) S \ : ent AF. ati Ff a aver f { 0 6. > ff = ae ore s ~ . , % z\ : 2 f- : , ; 4 an tei oon é‘ cep ball ie f. ,a -.a “fEe: =. But his cardinal aim in writing

home was to induce brother Mathew to uproot his own household from Cappawhite and reconstitute the extended Hogan family in Melbourne. His sometimes frantic appeals in the third letter (1856) must be interpreted in the context of family crisis, death, and fear of abandonment. The earlier letters from 1853 and 1854 also encouraged Mathew to emigrate, but without insistence: ‘I hope as soon as Opportunity offers you will come to me for it would Be the greatest Pleasure of mind for me to have you in this Cuntry with me as I know you could do well even by your trade’ (1b). Michael realised that so long as their widowed mother lived, her support would take priority in family strategy. He acknowledged his own share of responsibility by sending substantial remittances to brother Mathew ‘as a Token of gratitude’, while rebuking another brother in America for irresponsibility in escaping Cappawhite only to avoid Melbourne: ‘Me brother James acted very unkind when he was leaving Ireland in not coming here as he knew where I was. But I am very thankfull to you in Stoping with My Mother in her old age’ (rb). Two events gave new urgency and moral force to Michael’s campaign: the successive deaths of Ellen Hogan in Cappawhite and Margaret Hogan in Melbourne. Bereft of his wife, and released from responsibility for his 23 His sister’s son Michael Moore, labourer, reached Melbourne in December 1857.

168 Victorian Voices mother’s welfare, Michael rammed home the logic of rebuilding the shattered Hogan family under his own paternal protection: ‘I dont see as my mother is dead why you should not Come out to me for whilst my mother was alive I should never encourage you to Come out here. But as She is dead I request of you to Come to me’ (3c). He promised a ‘happy home’ for Mathew and also for James, whom he again reproached for choosing America (3b, 3c). The final letter made no further explicit appeal to Mathew, but argued in the case of another Hogan group that kinship responsibilities were better served by migration than immobility. Whereas John Hogan was ‘Slow’ to press his brother to emigrate, ‘in consequence of how his parents and brother are circumstanced at home’, Michael felt that ‘he could Serves his parents or friends better in this country than in Ireland’ (4c). Likewise, the remaining Hogans, Ryans, and Dwyers would gain more from Mathew’s remittances than his company. Michael Hogan’s tone suggests the assertiveness of an elder brother dealing with recalcitrant siblings, and the frustration of a man with money and children but without a wife to share them. His resentment when flouted betrays the enduring stigma of transportation, which always threatened to undermine the precarious respectability of the ex-convict. The letters do not reveal the outcome of Michael’s struggle. Upon his death aged 67 in June 1873, he left five grown-up children of whom at least one was evidently still living with him in South Yarra.2* He was buried by his wife’s undertaker in the Melbourne General Cemetery, receiving an almost identical funeral notice in the Argus.?> But his dream of family reunion was not after all to be disappointed. Eight years after the surviving correspondence ceased, Mathew and his family belatedly succumbed to Michael’s entreaties.2° In July 1865, they reached Melbourne without recorded assistance on the Ocean Empress. Between 1867 and 1871 Mathew Hogan also lived in South Yarra, a few doors from Michael’s house. Mathew seems to have left Melbourne shortly before his brother’s death, for by 1875 he was listed as a cooper in the heavily ‘Irish’ town of Kilmore not far north of Melbourne, where a Michael Hogan (possibly the ex-convict’s eldest surviving son) had been returned as a farmer between 1868 and 1871.2” Mathew was to die there in September 1882, being mourned as a ‘hard-working man’, who was also ‘highly respected judging by the number who attended his 4 The informant of Michael’s death was his youngest son James of South Yarra, then aged 25 Hopan’s age at death was given as 67 in his death certificate, 73 in his death notice in the Argus for 12 June 1873, and 78 in the cemetery register. Of these ages the first corresponds to that in his convict’s indent. 26 The Valuation Revision Books confirm that Mathew’s holding had passed to Patrick Sloyne

by December 1866.

27 The 1871 census shows that no less than 51% of Kilmore’s population (excluding natives of Victoria) were Irish, easily the highest proportion for any of Victoria’s 49 electoral divisions.

Hogan Letters (Ho ta-Ic) 169 funeral’.2® He left liabilities almost equalling his modest estate of £188, much of which consisted of a ‘four roomed brick cottage same very dilapidated and rooms small’.?? His children continued to practise the trades of cooping and dressmaking in Kilmore well after the turn of the century.*° The will of Michael Hogan had prevailed.

The Hogan Letters, 1853-57 (1-4) (Ho 1)

Melbourne December 8th. 1853 Dr. Brother (a) I Avail meself of the opportunity of writing you those few lines in

Receipt of your letter Dated June 2nd. 53 for which I am very happy to hear that you your W [wife] and Children & me Mother is in good health as this leaves me me Wife & Children Thanks be to God for it. (b) Dr. Brother you accuse me of Being very ungreatfull To you and not

Sending you any remittance. Not knowing your P. Prst [parish priest’s] Name I wrote to you before Margret Calihan came to Victoria wishing to know who I might remit you some money through. But I am told to Direct to yourself you Being as well knowing and in as good Oppolense [opulence| as many in the Parish of Cappawhite. I send you £30.0.0 thirty Pounds as a Token of gratitude and J would have sent you More But hearing of your welfare you keeping a Public house in the old Place. But I hope as soon as Opportunity offers you will come to me for it would Be the greatest Pleasure of mind for me to have you in this Cuntry with me as | know you could do well even by your trade. Me brother James acted very unkind when he was leaving Ireland in not coming here as he knew where I was. But I am very thankfull to you in Stoping with My Mother in her old age. (c) I have never herd of John Dwyer until I Reseived your letter. But through enquiry i found that he is in Morton Bay a long way above Sidney A Place very Difficult for Me to Send for him as he has never written to me and there are no People there i know. He has never written to me But I hope i will be able make off his address. Phillip White I herd of one Day

Pr [prior] to me writing this note. He is at the Bendigo Diggings the Mounted Police. I was Speaking to Jermiah Ryan Richards Son he is gone 28 Kilmore Advertiser, 21 September 1882.

29 Administration Papers, 25/704, in PROV, 28/P2/147. The house was valued at £80, whereas liabilities exceeded £156.

30 Mathew’s widow Catherine died in Kilmore in 1905, but two daughters were listed as electors in 1908.

170 Victorian Voices to the Diggings in very good health. I saw James Ryans Nailor two Daughters they a[re] in Melbourne in very good health and in good Situation. (d) This is a good Place for young men and Weoman now. Wages rules as follows. Single Men £60. to 70 per annum or per Day 12 to 15 Shilling. Single weoman 26 to 35 Pounds with rations of the Best. Married Couples with family 60 to 80 Pounds. Michael Ryans Boam son holyford is living

near me in good health and Doing very well. I wonder you never let me know how John Mc.Grath was. His friends Thos Ryan Bulloghs are very Independant here in Melbourne. I am very sorry to hear that young Patt Kilbride was not getting on as well as the father or uncle. I am very happy to hear that Richard Penfeather is Back Again and Doing well in Cappagh. (e) Dear Brother I am Sorry to Inform you that I Buried the two oldest of my children Mathew and Margret Hogan. Mathew was eight years & Margret Six years old. May god be with Them. I have four Children remaining by name Michael, Ellon, Mary & James Hogan. (f) Dr. Brother I am sending you Enclosed in this note a Draft for £30 Thirty Pounds and in case of any Delay I will write to you By next Mail. Please answer this as quick as Possible and Direct your letter to me Michael

Hogan N. S. Wales Victoria South Melbourne. No more at Present from your ever Affectionate and loving Brother Michael Hogan Mr. Mathew Hogan Cooper Cappa White County Tipperary Ireland

(Ho 2)

Melbourne Feby 2d 1854 My Dear Brother (a) I have written to yo[u] about eight weeks since and sent a draf{t] for thirty pounds. For fear of a disappointment with the first I now send you the other part which you will understand is for the same sum the first was for if you received it. You were mistaken in regard to the thirty eight pound you were of opinion my wife sent some time ago. She sent the ten pounds and the other part was sent by a friend unknown to her or me untill your letter reached here. I would have sent more money but I am told and glad to hear it that you are doing well and not in want of any thing. The times here are more uncertain than home. A person with a family [m]ust keep a reserve for fear the times might change as they have often done. (b) I have made all enquiry about John Dwyer but Could not hear anything of him untill lately. Instead of Coming here his vessel was put into Morton Bay. Both me and Mick English are endeavering to learn of some

Hogan Letters (Ho 1c-3c) 171%

of them who Come from there where to direct a letter to him and are both willing to pay his passage to here as soon as we Know where to write to. If you hear from My Brother James send me word. I might have an oppertunity of writing to him as there are a great many vessels from here to America. I have seen the two Terry Ryans one from Moon-Voan and Ter from Bun a rea. They are both Gone to the deggings. Ter of Moon Vane was with his Brother John in Vandiamens land. He has a big family and doing well. Margret Callaghan is married and doing well about forty miles from here. She told me she meant to send money to have her sisters come out. If they are Coming out you might send a letter by them along with one by post and then I am sure to get either. Yours &c. Michl Hogan (c) Direct to the Care of Mr. Maurice Feehan friend in hand Little Collins Street for me.

Mr. Mathew Hogan Cooper Cappagh White Tipperary Ireland (Ho 3)

South Melbourne June the 22nd. 1856 Dear Brother, (a) I have to inform you that I buried my wife on the 18th. of July 1855, may the lord have mercy on her soul. Dear Brother I have also to inform also that I have 5 Children 2 boys and 3 Girls and buried 2 more. I have also been very ill this long time with sore eyes but they are mending a little now. (b) Dear Brother I am most anxious that you and family would Come out here where I Can make a happy home for you and myself. This is the place where a man makes all for himself independent of any master for at

once you purchace land here you have it for ever without taxes or any other Cess. So I Expect you will have no hesitation but Come out at once

for the sooner you Come the Better, which ever is the quickest way to Come out hear that is wat I desire. If you wish [me] to pay your way out hear I will do so or either to Come by Imigration. The most speedy way is the way I require for about paying for your passages J matter not. I want to have ye with me where we Can be happy together for ever and the sooner the better. (c) lalso wish to Know from You have you heard from my Brother James

who went to America for I under stant in your last letter there was no

172 Victorian Voices account from him in it. I was very angry with him when he was about to imigrate that he would not Come to me where I Could make a happy home for him for ever and I dont see as my mother is dead why you should not Come out to me for whilst my mother was alive I should never encourage you to Come out here. But as She is dead I request of you to Come to me for as I have said or mentioned before this is the Country where we Can Enjoy ourselves with the Best of every thing independen of a landlor of the Galling Yoke of oppression. I also inform you that if my sisters son wish to Come out here Thomas Moore I will pay his passage.

(d) Michael Hogan of Hospital who Came out here sends his best respects to Mathew Hogan an family. He is in Good health and doing well. John Hogan your aunts son went to Hobartown—from here I received a

letter from him in which he mentioned that he was doing well. Daniel Ryans his wife Cousin was doing very well here. He went to the ovens diggins he told me that he would wrigh when he went to the diggins but he did not wright. Let James Hammersly tuam Know that his Brother son is with me this 12 Months sins my wife died and his sister is living Convenient to him and has 30 £ per year. He got a letter a few days ago from his Brother James from Sydney and when he got the letter he wrote to him. All persons Imigrating ought to try to Come to Melbourne not to being paying their passage to Sydney or Adelaide. Williams Hayes 3 sons were

here they are gone to the deggins and their other Come out hear from America and is with them at the diggins. (e) Dear Brother I hope You will let me Know the names of your Children in your letter. The names of my Children are as follows Michael Ellon Mary James and Margaret Hogan. No More at present But I remain Your Sincerely, and faithfully Michael Hogan (f) To Mr. Mathew Hogan Direct your letters as follows To Mr. William Ryan Carriers Arms Elizabeth street To be forwarded to Michael Hogan South Melbourne. (g) Dear Brother I expect an answer to this as speedy as possible. And let me Know whether you will Come or not. (Ho 4)

South Melbourne March 1857 Dear brother (a) I avail myself of the opportunity of writing these few lines to you hoping to find you wife and family in good health as this leaves me and family at present thank god. I recd. your letter about the first of Jany. last

Hogan Letters (Ho 3c-4f) 173 and would have written an answer to you ere now were it not for I being paying Michl. Moores passage as required by you and I was waiting until I could mention all particulars to you about it. I am Still under the care of Dr. Jacob and my eyes are mending only very Slowly. (b) Mathew Hammersley has left me and has gone to the harvest about 3 months ago and John Hogan is with me Since. Mathew Hammersley’s Sister 1s in Service near me and we recd. a letter from him a few weeks ago. He and his Sister are well and in good health as are all the friends. In consequence of low wages being in adalede Dora ryan has come over to melbourne and has 36 £ a year. She has had the pleasure of reading your letter and paper. She comes to See me occasionally. Your friend danl. ryan has gone to the ovens diggins. He promised to write to me a letter but he has not done So as yet. Michl. hogan of hospitle and family are well and in good health. He is worth from 200 to 300 pounds of shared money. (c) John hogan requires if his brother could leave his parents to come to this country he would do well in this country. Whether he is married or Single he would press on him to come but he is Slow in doing So in consequence of how his parents and brother are circumstanced at home. I think he could Serves his parents or friends better in this country than in Ireland. Tell Mr Kilbride that I have got no account of his Son any more than that I heard about 3 years ago that he was then in Sydney. I would not Spare nor will not if I possibly can get any information respecting him, Spare any trouble. (d) Dora ryan sees the hayes continually. One of them Jas. came over and borrowed 3 pounds of me and he going to the diggins and he never came near me since [?th]en. When parents dont give their children industrious habits they Seldom need expect them do much good afterwards. (e) I have paid Michl. Moores passage through the government immigration. There is living with me a Servant girl named Mary Leamy formerly of the parish of emly and a cousin of John Leamy’s of Solohead and She being Sending for a brother and a sister of hers we considered it the best and cheapest to bring them 3 out on the Same form. If you go to paddy hogans house this girl formerly lived near terry higginsis and any of terry higginsis children will make them out for you. (f) As william ryan has left the carriers arms you have better direct your letter to Michl. Hogan South Melbourne. No more at present from Your affectionate brother Michael Hogan

¢.’ C H A P TF E R 6

Jack Is as Good as His Master’: Edward O'Sullivan, 1857-72

Beware O’SULLIVAN’S TWO SURVIVING LETTERS, LIKE THOSE OF MICHAEL

Hogan, were sent from mid-century Victoria to an artisan household in rural Munster.' In his case, too, there are hints of estrangement from kinsfolk in Ireland, coupled with evidence of a strong desire to maintain contact through both words and remittances. O’Sullivan’s letters were addressed to his sister Lucy and to her husband John Downing, a bootmaker in Kenmare, Co. Kerry. The letters were inscribed with a flourishing hand; and despite oddities of spelling and syntax, his command of written English was sufficient to provide clear and concise information and advice. O’Sullivan’s prose was unadorned, unsentimental, and matter-of-fact. The first letter was written from the goldfields, and the second from a nearby farming district.

Edward O’Sullivan was born in the Kenmare district of Kerry in about 1825. Precise identification of his parents Daniel O’Sullivan and Lucy Downing is difficult, since these surnames were even more predominant in Kenmare than were Hogan and Dwyer in Cappawhite.? In the case of Edward’s family, the lines of Sullivan and Downing were crossed repeatedly. Edward’s sister Lucy married John Downing or Downey in 1853; half a

century later John’s niece Lizzie Downing was to marry a Cornelius O’Sullivan.? It seems likely, however, that Edward’s father was the 82-year1 O’Sullivan’s two original letters, with photographs and a few other documents (the O’Sullivan Papers), are in NLA, MS 7406. 2 In the decade after 1827 at least six male Sullivans married Downings in the Catholic parish including Kenmare (Templenoe), and a dozen Daniel Sullivans were entered as bridegrooms. 3 The union of Lizzie and Cornelius O’Sullivan is mentioned ruefully by her co-resident sister

174

O'Sullivan 175 old widowed farmer who died at Gortamullin, on the western outskirts of the town, on 16 March 1871.* The Tithe Applotment Book records two small farmers in the townland in 1842, named Daniel Sullivan and Daniel O’Sullivan.’ Daniel’s death was reported by Richard O’Sullivan (named as Edward’s brother in the letters), who in 1852 occupied about nine acres and a share of mountain in the townland. By 1864, Richard had acquired land and buildings worth £15 9s and £1 §s respectively, as well as becoming clerk of the Kenmare poor-law union.® Richard, whose failure to keep contact with his Australian brothers was a source of reproach, was still living in Gortamullin in 1901 at the age of 83, in a first-class house with eight rooms and eleven front windows. He had clearly prospered in his official struggle against poverty. Kenmare had suffered severely during the Famine, as a temporary poorlaw inspector reported on 12 August 1848: ‘Potato crop has everywhere been blighted about the town of Kenmare; the gardens have suffered more severely than any part of the union... . The oats are looking well; wheat is in a backward state, in consequence of the wet weather; turnips have been sown, every farmer has a small quantity.”’ In the following year his successor gave a remarkably dismissive assessment of society in Kenmare, claiming that ‘there is no social evil existing in any part of Ireland, save that of combining for deliberate assassination, that has not its ramifications in this union’. His catalogue embraced ‘infinitesimal subletting’, ‘political agitation’, ‘religious animosity’, and ‘habits of idleness’, in combination ‘with a state of semi-barbarism, consequent upon remoteness of geographical position and non-intercourse with the civilized world’. The inspector’s hindsight revealed that potato failure had ‘only hastened that crisis, which was long since foreseen to be inevitable by every reflective man having a Julia Downing, in an additional letter to their uncle John Flynn, sent from Killowen outside Kenmare on 22 June 1907. Julia lamented the intrusion of O’Sullivans into the family holding in Killowen, writing that ‘many a tear I shed here when I think of all our good people & none here but Strangers. Many a hard day went through me since we got this partner for Liz.’

4 This identification is rather uncertain, since the deaths of four other Daniel Sullivans of Kenmare were registered in 1871-72, the period in which Edward O’Sullivan received news of his father’s death. 5 The Tithe Applotment Book for the parish of Templenoe records their annual rentals as £9 5s and £5 7s 10d respectively, the amounts possibly being in Irish currency. The lands of Gortamullin were held in common, being ‘chiefly unreclaimed Mountain and Bog’. 6 The Primary Valuation returned Richard Sullivan as occupier of land and mountain (without buildings) valued at £6 1s in Gortamullin, while elsewhere in the townland a house worth 6s per annum was occupied by Daniel Sullivan. By about 1860, when Daniel’s cottage had been

erased from the Valuation, Richard’s land amounted to 33 acres together with a share of mountain. See Valuation Revision Books and Thom’s Official Directory (issues between 1864 and 1898), in which O’Sullivan is listed as clerk of the union.

7 Report of Captain O’Mahony, in Select Committee on Poor Laws (Ireland), Fourteenth Report, appendix 4, p. 272, in HCP 1849 (572), xv part Il.

176 Victorian Voices

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. 9 + eee net . ~~ ed ,\A3°4, ize " ‘ FIGURE 23. Lucy Downing of Kenmare (tin print, formerly in red leather wallet with shamrock-shaped hole, in MS 7406: NLA).

knowledge of the country’. Edward O’Sullivan’s letters convey no hint of ‘idleness’, ‘semi-barbarism’, or isolation from ‘the civilized world’, and indicate that his family had survived the crisis without disintegration. Several of his siblings married locally and found a livelihood in post-Famine Kenmare. Among these was Lucy O’Sullivan, whose handsome head with its pile of black hair, prominent eyebrows, and firm chin is commemorated, on tin in a tiny red leather wallet, in company with the surprisingly debonair features of brother Edward (Figures 23, 24). The Lucy of this pho-

tograph was sufficiently bourgeoise to wear a jewelled clasp and a decorative dress spangled with shamrocks.? On 30 January 1853 Lucinda Sullivan was married to John Downey of Kenmare, who was listed as a 8 Report of Colonel Clarke, 23 January 1849, ibid., p. 273. 9 The sitters are tentatively so identified in a covering note by the donor of the letters and the wallet, Mr. M. Flynn, whose father’s first wife was their sister.

O’Sullivan 177

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ar ts Se . is “ | ; “ os i . : 7 , a 4 . af .wt " “fins ,“7 ee >. x ze ae ae or. are . mgt p: meer as “hie OS “sh

ee bie ai aie—" +a my . See pat aa ee ag oy . |

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Se oe a 7 Enis rie me

FIGURE 24. ‘Not yet grey’: Edward O’Sullivan, presumably before emigrating in 1855 (from the same wallet).

bootmaker and shoemaker in Main Street three years later.'!° Her husband

was probably the John Downing who occupied two houses in the street during the 1850s and 1860s, valued at £3 and £4 respectively.'! Like Mathew Hogan in Cappawhite, John Downing’s household achieved a respectable living through skilled labour in a country town. For two of Lucy’s brothers, emigration to Victoria seemed preferable to

lingering in Kenmare, where the family farm had evidently passed to brother Richard. In December 1854 Edward and Florence O’Sullivan, aged 26 and 24 respectively, set sail from Liverpool in the clipper James Baines. The brothers jostled with over 600 passengers in the steerage but were not 10 Slater’s Royal National Commercial Directory of Ireland (Manchester and London, 1856), Pp. 273.

11 The Valuation Revision Books show a John Downing at separate addresses in Main (or William) Street for 1852-60 and 1861-65, and in a building worth £6 ros in Shelburne Street (1865-69). His brother James Downing (also listed in 1856 as a bootmaker) evidently occupied buildings and a garden valued at £6 5s at no. 21, but had moved by 1863 to a 19-acre holding in nearby Killowen valued at £10 15s.

178 Victorian Voices without means, since they received no state assistance. The James Baines, named after the founder of the Black Ball line and carrying his bust on her prow, was on her maiden voyage after delivery from Boston. Thanks to

Donald McKay’s superior design, skilful captaincy, and an ‘enormous spread of sail’ comprising 13,000 running yards of canvas, the clipper reached Melbourne in the record period of 63 days.'* Her precipitate arrival

caused great excitement in Australia, enhanced by the news she bore of war in the Crimea: ‘English Decr mails per ship “Jas. Baines” 64 days out!!—news of Fearful fights before Sebastopol—Balaclava & Inkerman— heavy losses to the Allies—many Officers killed.’!? The memory of battles such as Sebastopol was to be preserved in the names of goldfields, to which emigrants like the O’Sullivans were swarming.

The brothers’ movements during their first two years in Australia are unrecorded, but by July 1857 they were writing home from the reinvigorated Sandy Creek diggings, north of Maryborough. Gold had been discovered at nearby Nuggety Gully in 1853, attracting a brief and wild rush;

but by 1858 mining was in the hands of small companies, with 850 shareholders working 176 claims on 15 reefs. The settlement was growing

fast, and before long the canvas encampment described by O’Sullivan would give place to the brick town of Tarnagulla.‘* Edward O’Sullivan’s first letter contained some interesting information on the diggings, inviting comparison with John McCance’s contemporary letters from Chewton. O’Sullivan warned Irishmen used to ‘warm houses’ that they should ‘say to themselves that they must be satisfied to live in a Tent 8 by ro or what is considered a large Size 10 X 12 made of strong calico which is cold in

winter and hot in summer, mostly suffocating’ (re). His account of the diggings was pointedly negative, suggesting that John and Lucy Downing were considering emigration. O’Sullivan stressed the redundancy of artisans in a market flooded with imported goods (1d): ‘You can judge how things stood when there was only him [Creed] and three more Kept a Boot and shoe store, that is living by the bare trade itself without Keeping any other goods where there was a population of 20,000 or 30,000 people on a large rush named Chinamans flat’.!5 Unlike Michael Hogan, who had assured '2 Don Charlwood, The Long Farewell (Melbourne, 1981), p. 35; Arthur H. Clark, The Clipper Ship Era (Riverside, Conn., 1970; 1st edn. 1910), pp. 273-81. '3 Anonymous diary in NLA, MS 4055. The author patriotically resolved ‘to return to England’ and rushed to Melbourne from Sydney to travel home in the first-class cabin of the James Baines, becoming ‘very anxious lest we exceed 70 Days’ (the return voyage took 69 days). This voyage was enlivened by the capture in the pantry of the Chief Steward with a woman known as ‘Great Republic’, whereupon both were ‘hurried as they were to the wheelhouse, and Put in irons’. '4 James Flett, Dunolly: Story of an Old Gold Diggings (Melbourne, 1974; 1st edn. 1956), pp. 31, 122. The population of Sandy Creek increased from 300 to 3,000 between 1857 and

Is hinaman’s Flat ran north from Maryborough, through Chinaman’s Gully towards Hit

O'Sullivan 179 his married brother that he ‘could do well even by your trade’ as a cooper (rb), O’Sullivan was at pains to discourage the emigration of tradesmen (especially those with family). He ‘would not recommend to Tradesmen or domestic Servants to come to this Country that is if there was any young or helpless family with them. Give me no male or female for this Country but the young and Strong Constitutioned persons that will be able to endure with hardships both rough and smooth when put to it and Moreover Men as their first resource to look to is the Gold Diggings’ (1e). He ob-

served that footwear was almost invariably imported from England or America, colonial prices being up to three times as high since local makers retained half of the retail price (1c, 1d). O’Sullivan referred twice to the high cost of colonial ‘Bleuchers’, the style of low boot which had vied with the Wellington to trample upon Napoleon at Waterloo. These were a staple of the digger’s outfit: indeed, the body of a Scot murdered at nearby Dunolly in November 1857 was clothed in ‘a blue serge shirt, moleskin trousers, pea jacket and Blucher boots’.'¢ The O’Sullivan brothers, like many emigrants to Victoria, soon tired of life on the diggings. Life in the raw was not, however, without reward, for in December 1858 Edward’s younger brother Florence was able through an agent to deposit four pounds each to bring out two labourers and four female servants from Kenmare to Sydney. His choice of Sydney was doubtless prompted by the reduction of deposits ordered by the New South Wales government in September 1856, only three months after Michael Hogan had urged emigrants to take advantage of Victoria’s then superior assistance schemes (Ho 3d).'” Three of the six nominees arrived in early 1860, including two more O’Sullivans. The third to reach Sydney was Ellen Corcoran, a housemaid aged 23, Catholic and literate, whose referee was the parish priest of Kenmare—John O’Sullivan.'® Her arrival on 20 February, presumably by prior design, encouraged Florence to seek a more settled life than the diggings could provide. A fortnight later, on 3 March 1860, Ellen Corcoran and Florence O’Sullivan were married in St. Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney. Their first child was born in the following year at Huntly, east of Bendigo in Victoria. Their chosen locality, close to the goldfields, had relatively small proportions of Catholic and Irish settlers.’ In 1864 Florence O’Sullivan purchased eight acres of land just south of and Miss. In March 1857, the district had 30,000 inhabitants: James Flett, Maryborough, Victoria: Goldfields History (Melbourne, 1975), pp. 78, 82-5. '6 Flett, Dunolly, p. 116. The Blucher took its name from von Bliicher, the Prussian general at Waterloo. 17 The Victorian Remittance Regulations of August 1856 required a deposit of at least nine pounds in the case of single men, more than twice that in New South Wales. 18 Immigration Deposit Journal, and Agent’s Lists for Alfred and FitzJames.

1° The 1861 census for the parish of Huntly shows that 20% of residents with birthplaces outside Australasia were Irish-born, and that 25% of the population were Catholics.

180 Victorian Voices the township of Huntly, paying £3 per acre at auction.*®° He went on to select further land under several land acts, accumulating over seventy acres in at least eight lots.2! Two of these acres were later sown with vines, O’Sullivan’s cellars being ‘dug well into the hillside’ overlooking the orchards of Huntly.?* In 1875, an official reported that ‘the improvements made on the land where Mr O’Sullivan resides Consist of a Vineyard, Or-

chard, & other Cultivation, Cottages (2) wine Cellar, outbuilding and dam’.?3 Most of Florence’s other plots were of wretched quality, some being ‘unfit for cultivation’; and the Land Selection Files indicate that he fell into

arrears in 1881 as well as taking out a mortgage in 1875. Government officials were indulgent, deeming him ‘a bona fide Selector’ enduring hardship from ‘bad crops’; but the Hibernian Society proved less forgiving when foreclosing on the mortgage in 1898. Despite these setbacks, Florence and his brother created a small but notable enterprise. Between 1868 and 1870 Edward and F. O’Sullivan were listed jointly in the Post Office directories as ‘vine-growers’, being promoted to ‘vignerons’ by 1880-81.7* They belonged to a polyglot band including

French, Italian, Swiss, and Spanish vine-growers and market-gardeners, many of whom had doubtless migrated to Huntly during its gold rush in 1859. Their cellar was ‘the last winery to close’ in Huntly, where the industry was ruined by the threat rather than reality of the dreaded phylloxera. According to the local historian, ‘fine quality wine was made at this cellar and bottled under the label of ““Gold Leaf’’. A thriving business was

conducted at these premises. In later years, wine was purchased in bulk from the Barossa Valley in South Australia, and distributed by the O’Sullivan brothers.”*5 Edward was evidently the junior partner in this enterprise,

as his second letter indicated in 1872: ‘We are pulling along like all Aus-

tralians who purchase land to make a home. Flor has 80 acres of land which is his own private property and on part of this is a vineyard for the making of Wine. It takes a large outlay and brings no returns for the first 5 years but this term is past and we are making Wine for the last 2 or 3 years’ (2d). In becoming vignerons, the O’Sullivans completed their cultural migration from Kenmare. 20 Land Selection Files, no. 735, in PROV, 439/176; see also no. 17708, in PROV, 627/206. 21 See Huntly Parish Map for boundaries, acreage, and date of acquisition of each lot. 22 Journal of the Board of Viticulture for Victoria (1888-92); Marjorie Shaw, Our Goodly Heritage: History of Huntly Shire (Bendigo, 1966), pp. 66, 72. 23 Report by Henry Avery (26 April 1875), in Land Selection Files, no. 17708, in PROV 627/

2 The brothers were not always listed jointly. The electoral roll for 1877 (in the Huntly Historical Society Museum) returned only Edward, as a ‘vigneron’. Florence was listed alone

in an 1884 directory (as a farmer) and by the Board of Viticulture in 1889 and 1892 (as a ‘vinegrower’ with two acres). 25 Shaw, Our Goodly Heritage, pp. 65-6; Huntly: 126 Years (Huntly, 1980), pp. 4, 9.

O'Sullivan 181 O’Sullivan’s letters betray little of the thirst for Irish company so evident in the halting paragraphs of Michael Hogan. They contain only one reference to Victorian contacts with an Irish neighbour, and few personal sal-

utations beyond a narrow circle of relatives at home (except at 2f). The second letter, written after long silence, was prompted by the belated news of his nephew’s drowning and his sister’s ‘delicate health’ in consequence (2a). This ‘sad calamity’ prompted a catalogue of family deaths in both countries, so establishing the fragile unity of shared disaster (2c, 2d, 2f). Behind the expression of sympathy hovered resentment at the loosening of

family bonds and the faltering of communication. In 1857 Edward was still in touch with his brother Richard (1a, rf), but fifteen years later contact had lapsed. ‘I had not even a letter of My Fathers death from Richd— I only heard it from Richd Donnelly. I never expected Richd would be so

unkind or at least so careless as not to write on that occasion’ (2f). The link had been partly restored through the initiative of Richard’s son Edward, who was contemplating emigration: ‘Young Ned would wish to go to America or Australia and he wrote me for my advice. There appears to be a large family of them there, and I suppose Richard will have to allow some of them to emigrate to look for a living’ (2c). This passage, though highlighting the importance of family strategies in determining migration, was not followed by the expected invitation to join his uncle in Victoria (a colony to which state-subsidised emigration had virtually ceased by 1872). Edward acted upon his family obligations not by promoting further movement, but by sending home remittances. In 1857 he sent substantial

drafts for £35 to his brother and £15 to his brother-in-law, remarking rather grandly that the second draft was ‘not much but at the same time it may be some help as a little at home is better than a great dale here’ (1b, rf). While happy to make life more bearable in Kenmare, he made no attempt to follow Michael Hogan’s example by reassembling his family network in Victoria. Perhaps in the hope of keeping his relatives at a distance, O’Sullivan conveyed a rather negative account of Australian conditions. He observed that the Australian climate was ‘dry and withering to the face whilst in Moister climates the face will look rosy and fresh’ (2e). In the first letter, he had stressed the roughness of life and the unwelcome need to labour into old age: “There is no great dale of Comfort in this Country. Jack is as good as his Master and every man man must work for his livelihood even men better than 60 years of age and perhaps may have 4 or 5 sons men and not eased the more from being employed to make out his living’ (rb). Australia, it seemed, was ‘no country for old men’. Yet, for those rugged enough to endure its harshness, southern Australia offered compensations. Despite the withering climate that had ruined his complexion, Edward maintained that ‘Australia except the tropical parts of it is as wholesome

182 Victorian Voices as any part of the World. Fevers or many sicknesses in the old country are unknown here’ (2e). After ‘pulling along’ in Huntly for nearly forty years, and growing ‘old and very grey’ looking in the process, Florence O’Sullivan died in January

1901 at the age of 72.26 His status at death had declined to that of a gardener. Edward had remarked of his brother Richard in 1872 that ‘it is well he had so many as Stephen if now living and myself are not very likely to increase the human race in numbers. Your Brother Florence had only four children two boys and two girls’ (2d). In the event Florence and Ellen engendered three more children between 1873 and 1878, but Edward remained single. Ellen O’Sullivan lived on until 1909, occupying the sixroomed weatherboard house on her 22 remaining acres.’ In April 1902, aged 76, Edward succumbed to phthisis (probably tuberculosis). Though evidently his brother’s partner in the Huntly winery, Edward O’Sullivan remained enough of a miner to be returned as such on his death certificate. Even after death the brothers’ early experiences in the diggings lingered on the label of their finest growth—‘Gold Leaf’.?°

The O’Sullivan Letters, 1857—72(1-2) (Su 1)

Dunolly Sandy Creek Diggings July 6th. 1857

Dear John, (a) I for the first time embrace the opportunity of writing you these few lines hoping to find you Lucey and the children all in as good health as this leaves Flory and myself at present thanks be to god. Also I hope Eliza and James & family are well. I always had information through Richd’s letters how you were getting on as well as of his own private matters which was always gratifying to me to hear. (b) Dear John we have enclosed in this note to you the sum of fifteen pounds drawn in Dunolly [another hand: Maryborough] July 7th. on the Bank of Victoria No. 974, which I hope you will get with safty. It is not much but at the same time it may be some help as a little at home is better than a great dale here. There is no great dale of Comfort in this Country. Jack is as 26 His age at death was given as 74 in the Bendigo Advertiser, 21 January 1901. 27 Administration Papers, 110/609, in PROV, 28/P3/14. Her real estate at death was valued at £400, with furniture, a few cattle, and some hay worth less than £50. 28 “Gold Leaf? was a sweet white wine (muscat). Its label, of which a copy was kindly shown to me in Huntly by Mrs. Esma Turner, bore the motto ‘In Vino Veritas’.

O’Sullivan Letters (Su ta-1f) 183 good as his Master and every man man must work for his livelihood even men better than 6o years of age and perhaps may have 4 or 5 sons men and not eased the more from being employed to make out his living. (c) As for tradesmen there are as many of them on the diggings if not

more than of any other class of people. Boot and shoemakers are little needed here to the exception of a few, the generality of the people wearing English and American Work which is no more than something more than one third of the price of the colonial work. I dar Say there is not one out of forty wears colonial worked Boots or shoes. The price you give here for a pair of English Bleuchers [Bluchers] is 12 to 14s/- and Colonial 30s/-, for

Wellington Boots English made £1 or £1/5s- and for Colonial £3/10 to £4/- also for Riding boots £5/-. The Maker is generaly allowed half price for Making any shoes or boots Say for Bleuchers 30s/ the Maker gets 15 out of it. There are very few dealing in this trade as in all stores there is boots and shoes kept for sale as well as any other article. (d) I am well acquainted with a chap from Macroom a closer by trade his name is Creed. Very likely Dan Sullivan Master W. H. [workhouse] knew his Father I beleive a Schoolmaster, or if he did not the Matron of the W. H. did. He is doing very well, keeps one or two men at work to make a pair for any man who may give his measure out of every 30 or 40 pair of English work that he sells and is chiefly employed in brushing off the dust of the work hanging in his place. You can judge how things stood when there was only him and three more Kept a Boot and shoe store, that is living by the bare trade itself without Keeping any other goods where there was a population of 20,000 or 30,000 people on a large rush named Chinamans flat. (e) I would not recommend to Tradesmen or domestic Servants to come to this Country that is if there was any young or helpless family with them.

Give me no male or female for this Country but the young and Strong Constitutioned persons that will be able to endure with hardships both rough and smooth when put to it and Moreover Men as their first resource

to look to is the Gold Diggings and indeed they will not have the warm houses th[e]y have at home too. Let them say to themselves that they must be satisfied to live in a Tent 8 by ro or what is considered a large Size 10

x 12 made of strong calico which is cold in winter and hot in summer, mostly suffocating.

(f) Dear John there is a letter with this to Richd. and a draft also for him for £35 drawn on the same Bank as yours No. 975. Dear John you can see at any time more information in my letters to Richd—I am yours truly Edward O Sullivan

Mr. John Downing—Boot & Shoemaker Kenmare Co. Kerry Ireland

184 Victorian Voices (Su 2)

Colony of Victoria Huntly—Sept 10/72. My Dear Lucy (a) It is a very long time since either of us heard from each other. I am very sorry to have to relate that I heard of the death of your son by drowning some years ago, but it was a long time after the sad calamity occurring that I heard of it. I was not then nor yet in communication with Richd. in consequence of some letters being mislaid between us both, but J am after receiving two letters from his son Edward for the first time. He says with sorrow that he sees your delicate health ever since the Boy was drowned and eulogises upon the cousin as not having his equals in Kenmare at the time of the fatal occurrence. (b) My Dear Sister we all here felt much at the shock you received when

I got notice of it from Richd Donnelly. I dont wonder such a calamity would be disastrous to your health but I hope as it is Gods will that you will reconcile yourself and not help to altogether break down your health and be satisfied with these that God has left you. I have not heard how many Children you have but I think I once heard you had a good many and hope they are in good health as well as John. (c) Young Ned would wish to go to America or Australia and he wrote me for my advice. There appears to be a large family of them there, and | suppose Richard will have to allow some of them to emigrate to look for a living. I am given to understand that they are a fine lot of children. He had a great many. | learn there are three dead and that there is nine more living.

(d) It is well he had so many as Stephen if now living and myself are not very likely to increase the human race in numbers. Your Brother Florence had only four children two boys and two girls. The girls were the youngest and the younger of the two died of Diptherea [diphtheria] eighteen months ago. The three living are in good health so is he himself and Ellen. I am myself enjoying good health thank God—we are pulling along like all Aus-

tralians who purchase land to make a home. Flor has 80 acres of land which is his own private property and on part of this is a vineyard for the making of Wine. It takes a large outlay and brings no returns for the first 5 years but this term is past and we are making Wine for the last 2 or 3 years.

(e) Flor is looking old and very grey but very healthy. I am too giving way to old Father time as you will see by the carte I send you. I am not yet grey but I am afraid you wont Know me and is it to be wondered at when I am 17% years in Australia a climate that is dry and withering to the face whilst in Moister climates the face will look rosy and fresh. But still Australia except the tropical parts of it is as wholesome as any part of

O’Sullivan Letters (Su 2a-2f) 185 the World. Fevers or many sicknesses in the old country are unknown here. Flors eldest boy is or will be 11 years in November next and the biggest of his age I have seen. (f) Dear Lucy you must excuse me for my long negligence and hope you

will soon write and let me Know how yourself & John and the children are and how you are getting on. I had not even a letter of My Fathers death from Richd—I only heard it from Richd Donnelly. I never expected Richd would be so unkind or at least so careless as not to write on that occasion.

I hope Denny Hallasy & Mother is well also Ellen Mack and any other friends. I hope your Brother in law James Downing & family are well also Mr Murphy and Mistress. I heard of John’s sisters death I beleive she was nurse of the Fever Hospital. I was sorry when I heard from Edmond Donnelly, I saw it on a Kerry paper but did not Know it was she not Knowing her married name. Flor and Ellen Joins in sending their love to John, yourself & the children and remain Dear Lucy your affectionate Brother

: Edwd O’Sullivan

address—Huntly post office—Colony of Victoria—Australia

CH AP T ER 7 ‘We Are Not Living in a Wilderness’: The McCance Circle, 1856-63

Bows 1856 AND 1863, JOHN McCCANCE AND HIS RELATIVES ON THE

Victorian goldfields sent home nine extant letters to Grey Abbey, on the Ards peninsula in Co. Down.' The sequence is brimming with curiosity, informative of life on the diggings, and instructive about the me-

chanics of emigration. The letters are infused with an _ evangelical Protestantism which united the McCance circle in both countries. Though

full of personal information, the sequence is addressed not to a close kinsman but to a neighbour of superior station named William Orr. The only exception is the first letter, addressed to John’s widowed mother-inlaw, Agnes McLeod. The tone of the other letters is intermittently stiff or formal, indicating awareness of a social gulf between the uncultivated writers and Mr. Orr, who is addressed with the deference due to a gentleman. In the fourth letter, John McCance called upon his son as amanuensis, in the hope of producing a neater script. He nevertheless showed signs of a fair education and wrote in a clear if uneven hand. The chron-

icle is complicated by the fact that John McCance had six McMillan stepsons, all of whom, like the McCances, reached Victoria in 1853. The sixth letter was written by Hamilton McMillan, and the ninth by Mary, wife of John McMillan. Somehow, this unwieldy extended family maintained much of its cohesion amidst the disruption and excitement of the rush for gold.

1 The original letters are among miscellaneous family papers in PRONI, D 2908/2/5, the item numbers being 11, 13, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, and 23. The McCance Papers are reproduced by permission of Mr. A. D. Patton and the Deputy Keeper of the Records, PRONI.

186

McCance 187 I

During 1853, sixty-eight natives of Co. Down reached the new colony of Victoria as assisted immigrants. Fifteen belonged to the party headed by John and Agnes McCance from Grey Abbey. John and Agnes had four children under 7 years, in addition to her six sons by a previous marriage to Nathaniel McMillan. The group was completed by John McMillan’s wife, and Hamilton’s wife and infant daughter. John, Agnes, and the eight youngest children reached Geelong in April 1853, after an appalling voyage lasting 125 days in the Confiance from Liverpool. Epidemics of scurvy and whooping cough took a heavy toll in a vessel groaning with young families, and no fewer than four married women and 23 children died on the voyage. Over a quarter of the 400 passengers were then incarcerated for six weeks Or more in a primitive quarantine camp of canvas tents. One sufferer complained that it was ‘most Shamefull on the part of the government to send

a lot of sick people on shore on such a wild uncultivated unchristian like place as this’, where beef and damper were the only food for the living and where the dead were buried like dogs.2 The McCance party survived the voyage and set off to work on their ‘own account’ in Geelong.? Even so, the rigours of the voyage doubtless left John McCance with a keen sense of the seafarer’s vulnerability. When the Royal Charter was wrecked homeward-bound from Melbourne to Liverpool in October 1859,* he ruminated

that ‘we do not know what fine ship may be the next or what other precious Souls may be the next Victims’ (41). Meanwhile, Agnes’s two married sons had already arrived in Melbourne two months earlier on the Marian Moore, after a much shorter but also hazardous voyage.* Of the three family groups in the McCance party, only John McMillan with his wife Mary Regan fulfilled the Immigration Agent’s desideratum that ‘the candidates most agreeable are young married couples without children’.6 Like most 2 W. J. Walker, diary of voyage on Confiance, in La Trobe Library, Melbourne, MS 12473; P. T. Wilson, ‘To Victoria in 1852’, in Royal Historical Society of Victoria Journal, \vii, no. 2 (1986), pp. 19-22. Walker, a carpenter from Surrey, was outraged at the absence of coffee, bread, cheese, and butter. Damper is a crude form of unleavened bread baked in ashes. 3 James and Nathaniel McMillan, being statute adults, were returned separately as unaccompanied single emigrants who had ‘gone to friends’. * Only 39 of the 498 aboard were saved when this steamship was wrecked off the Welsh coast, having reached Queenstown after only 58 days. See the report probably read by John McCance, in Mount Alexander Mail, 11 January 1860 (three days before composition of his letter). 5 Three adults and 16 children among the 500 passengers died during the maiden voyage of this ‘fine new clipper ship’, lasting 92 days from Liverpool: Argus (Melbourne), 16 February 1853.

‘6 According to the rules set out in his report for 1851, no families with more than four children under 12 were to receive assistance. John and Agnes (who had six such children) achieved the semblance of youth by being returned as 28 and 29 respectively, though their correct ages were probably 33 and 43.

188 Victorian Voices colonial attempts to impose quality controls on assisted immigration, the Victorian prescriptions were confounded by the shortage of ‘agreeable’ candidates and the ingenuity of less desirable applicants. The McCances and McMillans did not initially make for the goldfields, nor did they cluster together. The ‘disposal’ list for the Marian Moore indicates that John and Mary McMillan went into service with Alexander Earle McCracken, a farmer on the Saltwater River just north-west of Melbourne.” Their contract was for six months, with rations and wages of £80. Hamilton and Mary McMillan, being encumbered with an infant, had already settled for only £60 from John Murchison, a squatter at King Parrot

Creek near Kerrisdale on the Goulburn River.’ Whereas the married McMillans landed at Melbourne and moved north, the McCances and one

or more of the McMillan boys evidently moved south from Geelong to Barwon Heads, remaining there for two years.? By 1856, however, the entire family had reassembled in the goldfield district around Castlemaine and Chewton, some 70 miles north-west of the capital (Figure 25). The Forest Creek fields had attracted some of the colony’s dizziest rushes in 1851, including one to Old Post Office Hill, from which John McCance sent the first letter. His subsequent letters were addressed from Chewton, as the township had been officially renamed in 1855. The population of

the district fluctuated wildly as the diggers pursued new excitements through Victoria, New South Wales, and beyond. After the initial influx, Forest Creek was ‘comparatively deserted’ in 1854, only to regain popularity in the following year.!° By 1861, the Chewton municipality alone had over 3,000 inhabitants; but over the following decade the decline of gold-mining caused Chewton’s population to fall by nearly one-third and its Irish component by more than half. John McCance was among the few who stayed put in Chewton regardless of economic fluctuation, and his letters document the contrast between his own fairly unadventurous life and the restless migration of his stepsons and friends. Like Michael Normile in Maitland, McCance remained in close touch with the wanderers and followed their movements and fortunes with fascination, but seldom envy. In the midst of mobility, he was unmoved. John McCance took a keen interest in gold-mining and its organisation. He raised hopes in Grey Abbey with the half-promise of presents of ‘Gold ’ The electoral roll for 1856 returned McCracken as doubly enfranchised, with leasehold at both Saltwater River and Doutta Galla. 8 Kerrisdale is about 50 miles north of Melbourne, east of Seymour. Murchison, an overlander from the Lake George region, held a pastoral licence for 14,080 acres and 6,000 sheep between 1838 and 1868: R. V. Billis and A. S. Kenyon, Pastoral Pioneers of Port Phillip (Melbourne, 1932), pp. 101, 202; Billis and Kenyon, Pastures New (Melbourne, 1930), p. 61. ° Barwon Heads seems the most plausible location for the ‘heads’ (5e), though Thomas McMillan’s return horse trip from Chewton would have covered some 200 miles. 10 James Flett, The History of Gold Discovery in Victoria (Melbourne, 1979), pp. 180-93.

McCance 189

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258 Victorian Voices with home was also functional and directed. His determination to influence major family decisions is illustrated by the case of Kate Shanahan of Farside, recipient of the first letter.

Kate’s father was Daniel Shanahan, a substantial farmer who had acquired over fifty acres valued at nearly a pound an acre, as well as buildings (presumably a shop) worth £13 annually in the picturesque village of Farside by Cork Harbour. He rented out several houses in the village and gained the reputation of being canny and ‘progressive’, in short ‘the wise man’ by contrast with his easier-going and more political brother Lar. Descendants recall that the brothers were ‘always bad friends’. In 1867 Daniel had married his second wife, Ellen Driscoll, the wicked stepmother whose influence over Kate so exercised Philip’s analytic brain: ‘You have also approached the age when you Can defy her to interfere much with you’ (1c). In the first letter, Mahony presented himself as a mediator, urging Kate to reconcile herself to her stepmother and cease scheming to escape her domination through emigration to Australia. He deplored the diplomatic ineptitude of the family in Cork: ‘We are surprised at your G Mother & uncle Lar & aunt Bridget for not throwing a little oil on the troubled waters and to endevour to check that wandering nature So Characteristic to our race’ (1d, 1c). Mahony supported his plea for family solidarity with arguments in terms of economics and welfare, ostensibly designed to discourage Kate from emigration. He expostulated that ‘you or nobody else ever experienced the dearly earned Crust got here’, disparaged the belief that Australia was a ‘land of Health’, and claimed that Melbourne offered little employment for female shopworkers. Farmers’ daughters like Kate would find the available work demanding and unrewarding: ‘They are working hard from the rising of the Sun to the going down of the Same for a living in a burning hot Climate far different to Home’ (1b, 1rd).”4

This advice may not, however, have been taken at face value. In urging reconciliation Mahony had emphasised family disharmony; in warning of heat and hard work he had invited Kate to respond that she was afraid of neither. We may surmise that Philip was covertly encouraging her emigration while taking care to avoid conflict with his wife’s relatives. The second letter shows that she pressed her case and obtained a ticket from her uncles and aunt in Melbourne, only to cause them great disappointment ‘in She not coming’. This outcome was now squarely blamed on her stepmother

and stepbrother: ‘I Know it’s very hard for Her to bear up against the combined force of Her Stepmother & stepbrother, why she should have 4 For the sources of this picturesque expression, see Ps. 50: 1, Ps. 113: 3, Mal. 1: 11.

Mahony 259 the wit & ability of Bidy Moriarty?> who once encountered the great Daniel

O Connell on the Quay of Dublin to stand them both’ (zh). Stepmother Ellen, not Kate, could now be portrayed as the principal disturber of family unity, having caused the sponsors in Melbourne to waste a ticket. Mahony

contemplated further intervention, remarking that ‘she also appears to think that She will be sent for again. So far I am not in a position to say anything on that matter, as I believe the question is to be considered at a meeting of the full house here’ (zh). In the event neither Kate nor her uncle

Lar—who had once appeared ‘to be youth all over, when He thinks of leaving his home’ (1c)—were to leave their native Cork. Lar died in Lurrig aged 87, in 1928; Kate eventually married a minor landowner outside Cork City. His name was Jeremiah Mahony. Philip Mahonys subtle strategy for extending the Shanahan network in Australia (if such it was) had failed. The family in Cork had proved unexpectedly resilient in sustaining its fractured and battered organisation, just as their neighbours had doggedly continued to marry and farm long after Mahony had expected them to stop ‘hanging on’ (2g). Meanwhile,

his own family lurched from high promise towards disintegration. The earlier letters had rejoiced in the accomplishments of wife and children: ‘The Youngsters are growing up well educated with pure Irish blood running in their veins with one of the best Mothers in Victoria to steer them through a virtuous life’ (2d). Then in September 1890, as the grief-stricken third letter records, their ‘dearly beloved son’ John Laurence Mahony died in his twentieth year. While a student at St. Patrick’s College, attached to Melbourne’s Roman Catholic cathedral,?° he had been ‘surprising the Jes-

uit Fathers’, as well as his own father, by his cleverness (ze). John died from phthisis in the north-eastern Victorian town of Wangaratta, where he had been working as a clerk. After John’s death, his sisters Mary Ellen and Catherine discovered the vocation that Philip had abandoned, becoming Sisters M. Ethelreda and M. Philippa of the Institute of St. Joseph in 25 Biddy Moriarty was a huckster working opposite the Four Courts, whose expertise in invective goaded O’Connell into a slanging match. Though eventually silenced by his stream of pseudo-invective drawn from Euclid, she maintained self-respect by throwing a saucepan at him. See anecdotal histories such as T. C. Luby, The Life and Times of Daniel O’Connell (Glasgow, 21882 edn.), pp. 266-8. 26 This was Melbourne’s only secondary school for Catholic boys between 1855 and the foundation of Xavier College, Kew, in 1878. At the time of John Mahony’s death its once impressive academic performance was in decline, though St. Patrick’s continued to supply a large number of future Jesuits and other clergy. According to the provincial archivist of the Society of Jesus, Hawthorn, John L. Mahoney appeared in College lists in 1886 and 1887, but not in 1885 or 1888. He was presumably one of the three Footscray boys admitted in 1886-89. See Ursula M. L. Bygott, With Pen and Tongue: The Jesuits in Australia, 1865-1939

(Carlton, 1980), pp. 14-27, 51-2, 56.

260 Victorian Voices

South Australia.2” After brief teaching careers, they also died in their youth.?8

The death of all three children must have placed intolerable strain upon their grieving parents. After Johney’s death, Mahony had written: ‘So now we feel sad & lonley after him, my life is a misery to me & to his Poor mother after his nineteen years & three months’ (3b). From 1899 onwards, the occupier of the house on Cowper Street was returned as Mrs. Philip Mahoney,2? while her husband evidently lived separately in the cattle yards. When she died aged 79 in March 1918, Kate Mahony was mourned in her newspaper notice as the ‘wife of Philip’ as well as the ‘loved mother’ of her three lost offspring.*° The registrar was informed of her death by a nephew

rather than her husband. Philip Mahony was neither her executor nor a beneficiary of her will. Bequests went to various friends and members of the Shanahan families of Footscray. She held title of the ‘6 roomed bluestone and brick house’ in Cowper Street, parish of Cut Paw Paw, with its substantial allotment measuring 132 by 336 feet and value of about £560. In addition she left personal estate worth some £60, including a dozen fowl, household effects, a small deposit from an earlier property sale, and ‘savings out of her housekeeping allowance’.*! Three months after Kate’s death, Philip Mahony prepared for his retirement by marrying Mary Fitzgerald, a carrier’s daughter born in West Melbourne some 48 years earlier. She too was dead by February 1927, though Philip lived on until July 1933. Upon his death in Moonee Ponds aged 88, he was interred under the description ‘gentleman’ in Footscray Cemetery,

but not in the family vault.32 His death certificate described him as a

27 The Josephites were established in South Australia by Mother Mary MacKillop in 1866, and like many active and vigorous orders were often at odds with their bishop. The Mahony sisters entered the mother house at Kensington near Adelaide (opened in the early 1870s), which received a substantial bequest through Philip’s will. See Marie Therese Foale, The Josephite Story (Sydney, 1989), pp. 12, 150, 163—4. 28 Mary Mahoney (Sr. M. Ethelreda) entered Kensington in October 1893, received the habit in January 1897, was professed in January 1898, and died in October 1899. She was buried in the nuns’ graveyard at Mitcham near Kensington, but her death was also recorded on her brother’s headstone in Footscray Cemetery. Catherine Mahoney (Sr. M. Philippa) entered in November 1896, received the habit in January 1898, was professed in April 1899, took life vows in July 1907, and died at Jamestown in June 1914. Iam most grateful for this chronology to Sr. M. Callista Neagle, archivist of the Institute at Kensington. 9 The records are inconsistent in spelling the surname. Philip himself used the penultimate

‘e’ in signing the second letter, but not the first. ,

30 Argus, 13 March 1918. 31 ‘Will and Probate Papers, 157/410, in PROV, 7591/P2/582; 28/P3/819. The net annual value of the house was £24 in 1900, according to the Rate Book cited above. 32 The broken headstone commemorating Kate, two of the children, and her brother Patrick remains decipherable. No trace has been found of grave no. 1199, in which Philip joined his second wife. See Interment Registers, Footscray Cemetery office.

Mahony Letters (Ma ta-1c) 261 ‘clerk’, adorning his name with the honorific prefix ‘O’.33 His will left legacies

to fifteen Catholic institutions or clergy and requests for masses eventually performed by twenty priests. Among the largest beneficiaries were the Sisters of St. Joseph at Kensington, South Australia, who were bequeathed £300. Half of the outlay on masses was ‘for the repose of the souls of my late Father, Mother, Wife and Children’; the remainder, ‘for the repose of my own soul’. The personal beneficiaries included several nephews and nieces. Mahony left no real estate, but his savings, deposits, debentures, bonds, and

shares amounted to about £5,o0oo—a startlingly large sum in midDepression.** Clearly, Mahony had counted pennies as carefully and cannily

as he counted stock during his 35 years as a humble yardsman. As he had once written to Kate Shanahan of Farside (1b): ‘You I hope will remember its not all gold that glitters no not out here or no where else.”>°

The Mahony Letters, 1882-90 (1-3) (Ma 1) Footscray 18/9/82

My Dear Friend

(a) You will excuse us for not writing to you before now. We would have done so only awaiting to See your uncle John who came down to See us both Himself and aunt Mary. Uncle Mike was out to see us also. They are all well so are all your Cousins in Heathcote.

(b) You my Friend seem to have a desire to Come out to this land of Health as you Consider it. | am giving you my oppinion of you you leaving

Home. It may not be agreeable to your taste but I cannot help that. My advice to you would be and this is supported by all of your Friends to remain Contented at home & put the thoughts of a foreign land out of your head. You or nobody else ever experienced the dearly earned Crust got here. You I hope will remember its not all gold that glitters no not out here or no where else. (c) You unfortunatly have a Stepmother who may not be the Kindest to you but you have a good Father who has well provided for you and who 33 This prefix also appeared in his death notice in the Argus, 28 July 1933. In his will dated September 1932, Philip had followed his familiar practice of signing his name ‘Mahony’. The inflated version was presumably preferred by his nephew and executor, William J. O’Mahoney. 34 Will and Probate Papers, 257/740, in PROV, 7591/P2/904; 28/P3/2469. 35 This version of the proverb may be read in two ways: either as a restatement of the conventional saying in idiomatic syntax (‘not all’ signifying ‘not only’), or as a characteristically Irish play on the familiar words to signify that some gold does not glitter.

262 Victorian Voices would not see you wronged. You have also approached the age when you Can defy her to interfere much with you. Taking these things into account, we could not upon any Consideration advise you to Come out. We are surprised at your G Mother & uncle Lar & aunt Bridget for not throwing a little oil on the troubled waters and to endevour to check that wandering nature So Characteristic to our race. Uncle Lar appears to be youth all over, when He thinks of leaving his home. Well when I do read His letter I cannot help laughing at manner in which He worked his landlord. (d) But I must not wander from the main point. There is nobody that | Know of more Suitable for this Country than Servants at home. There are of Course many Farmers Sons & Daughters to out here, but how are they situated. They are working hard from the rising of the Sun to the going down of the Same for a living in a burning hot Climate far different to Home & after all we find we are the poorest of the different nationalities in Australia. You may think I am oversteping the Mark but I am not. If I said otherwise I would tell an untruth & I do not mean to do that, & as for Store[ke]Jeping all that buisness is done by men in this Country. I firmily believe there are not one hundred young women in the whole of Melbourne

Storekeeping. We would all be very anxious to see you but to advise you to leave [y]our Home its a thing we cannot do. Be advised by your Father & your fond friends in Lurrig & Some day we hope to hear from over the water that Kate Shanahan is now living happy & Contented in the old sod free from the dictates of a Step-mother & perfectly satisfied with the advise given Her by Philip Mahony.

(e) Dear Kate its the first time we heard that poor Norry Quirk was dead. We were very sorry to hear it & your uncle Lar never mentioned how her Father & Mother was in Cloyne. Tell your uncle Lar we were all glad of his letter. Ask him for me to request of my friends to write to me. I will soon write him a long letter hoping he is getting on well at farming also your Father. (f) Tell G-Mother Aunt Mary Came down to see us and remained for a week and John Came down after her unexpected with a little boy that went away from the Goverment Schools. Uncle Mike & Mrs was to see us also so we had one good meeting[?| & the only time I felt myself at Home while in the Country. Uncle Pat is thinking of going Home soon. He says He will Take Johney with. (g) I must also return our Sincere thanks for your Kindness in Sending the newspapers so regular to us. I have no more to Say only that you will remember us all fondly to G Mother uncle Lar Father & aunt Bridget & believe us to be all interested in your welfare your glory here & hope here after. These are the wishes of your fond Friends whose advice I hope you will accept. From Yours ever truly & affectionatly Phil. Mahony.

Mahony Letters (Ma 1c-2d) 263 (Ma 2) Footscray August 18th. °87

My Dear Friend Lar (a) You will no doubt think myself amongst the many friends you have got in Australia very ungrateful for not corresponding with you more regularly. Long may be the hour my Dear Old Friend from me when fond recollections of you all & Dear Old Ireland shall cease & when I repeat this I hope you will consider me sincere. We received a very fond & affectionate letter from Kate of Farside this past week & were very glad to learn from it of you all being engoying good health. (b) I may mention also that we had the pleasure of a visit from a portly

Son of Erin one W. Cotter, who put in an apperance about 9 o’c. p.m. when we were just thinking of easing our weary frames. We were taken by surprise at his marshal bearing accompanied by a magnificent Black Thorn the gift of a lady friend to me & one which shall be dearly cherished by me as long as I live. Johney has it hung up in his own room, & sometimes

flourishes it with as much pride, as the heroes of Old times did at Donnybrook fair. He gave us a lot of useful information or rather pleasant information about many things, but supplied us with the sad news, of the passing away of many of the Dear Friends, & grand Old Neighbours, of Lurrig, Castlemary & Ancient Cloyne, also the N. League, the tyrany of Landlords, the depression in trade, the failure of crops, the competition from other lands, all, all, he says, (which is very true) has a strong tendancy

to Keep in subjection the hard wrought tenant farmers of Ireland. I think He will be safe enough out here. We are going to have a little party of our own out here next Sunday a genuine Irish one. Katy Murphy promised to come also one Miss O Brien, sister to poor O Brien one of the Manchester Martyrs in honour of whom you & I walked many a mile in proscession about twenty years ago. They are all doing very well out here they are Contented & happy. John & Family are all well as is Pat & Mike. He is still at the same buisness in town & doing very well. (c) With regard to myself I cannot say much, but I may mention that | got a very good job about two years ago & which I hold still in the Melbourne Cattle market as Yardsman counting out Cattle & sheep. W. Cotter was out one day with me & was surprised at the Quality & quantity of stock about 40,000 sheep & 2,000 head of Cattle every week. All the meat supply of Melbourne is disposed of in these markets they are all sold by salesmen. There is no hard work attached to it only to be careful in the count so as everybody will get their own. (d) How I came by this I will just mention. A Russian scare took place here. I was then eight years in the Melbourne Harbour Trust a body similarly constituted to the Cork Harbour Board & with many others I was

264 Victorian Voices told if I did not put on the red & blue I would be disrated or discharged. About one hundred joined, six were discharged, & I was taken from a easy post & put to hard work again a thing I would not do. So in the presence of Turks Jews & Gentiles John Bull’s Germens & all others I pitched the Queen & all Her followers to Hell & left. Of course I was called a dynamitard but what did I care. I was & is still thinking that considering the cruel manner in which poor Ireland is used no Irishman should be so mean as to assist Queen Vic, in any shape or form. But as I said before Dear Lar I do not care. The Youngsters are growing up well educated with pure Irish blood running in their veins with one of the best Mothers in Victoria to steer them through a virtuous life. Why should I be dismayed. I got this job I mentioned & is now better of than ever I was in my life, & so are all the rest of my old associates who left the Harbour Trust with me. (e) Johney is getting on first class at College in Melbourne. He is surprising the Jesuit Fathers in there. He is so clever. A neighbour a woman who is very fond of Kate asked Him a few days ago what He intended doing with Himself. He replied He would yet be a member of Parliament in Ireland.

(f) We are just after receiving a letter from Kate of Farside. She mentioned many things about home & how you all were situated. We all here were very glad when we heard you were all well in the Dear Old Spot where we first saw the light of God’s own day & breathed the pure air of the beautiful atmosphere of them grand Old hills in the background & of the fertile valley in the front. It grieves us very much to hear of the terrible devastation of the Country. Myself & Pat often come to the conclusion that nothing will save Ireland but a home legislature or otherwise a war that will rake Ingland from one of her dominions to the other. May God send either of the two, if it would have for its affect the saving of poor helpless Irish families.

(g) Well Dear Lar we could not help laughing when the New Chum (as a new arival is called out here) told us that Garret Barry was married to the fifth wife. Why we all agreed that He had some systematic manner of doing away with them. Surely if they all lived He would have as large a

harem as the Grand Turk if there were no law. Poor Tim Aherne who remained longer than either of us had the illuck of losing his wife. We were

surprised to hear that three Scannells were still in the farm & Ned Fitzgerald being married at the back of the Hag-g-art or farm yard with James as his foreman & often thought most of these were away long ago but it seems they are still hanging on. (h) I forgot to mention that Kate comes very heavy on the stepmother. Well She may have good cause no doubt Her Father appears to be very distant with you, well that should not be. I think You were always a good Friend to Him far more so than He was to you. I never cared much for

Mahony Letters (Ma 2d-2k) 265 Him although I believe Him to be a very respectable man but I suppose other powers are brought to bear on His good intentions & causes a sad change oftentimes in Him who would be as good a Brother I believe as any you have got if only left to Himself. But that is not so because your nearest Friends out here think more about your little finger than of his whole frame. She also appears to think that She will be sent for again. So far I am not in a position to say anything on that matter, as I believe the question is to be considered at a meeting of the full house here. You can tell Her Kate is going to write to Her concerning it. I think She acted very unwise in not coming before. It may be very hard for a young person like her to travel alone & of course it is. The greatest difficulty a young woman would have is in going to London & getting on board a ship but after that She would be all right. Her uncles & aunt was very much dissapointed in She not coming. I Knew from the tone of Her first letter after receiving the ticket that She would not be allowed to come. I Know it’s very hard for

Her to bear up against the combined force of Her Stepmother & stepbrother, why she should have the wit & ability of Bidy Moriarty who once encountered the great Daniel O Connell on the Quay of Dublin to stand them both, but if She is possessed of the same luck & stern nerve of her namesake She will surely hold out a little longer. (i) We have had a grand season in Victoria this year & sheep & cattle are coming in rolling fat big heavy weight Bullocks fetching only at the

rate of one pound per Cwt, & best Quality sheep about twelve shillings per head. The only thing that brings a high price is veal. Butter is also very dear in Winter, & so are eggs, the former as high as 2/6 lb & the latter 2/per dozen. Beacon is also dear as high as 10 pence per |b. Butter & eggs

we do have plenty of our own, & you Know already the sort of butter Kate is Capable of manifacturing. I always introduce it to my Friends as Cork’s first Quality. (j) Well my Friend there may be very many items in this that may be of no interest to you, but however it may have the effect of a Friendly chat between yourselves in that grand Old Homestead wherein once resided a

pure & unconquered Patriot very near a Century ago & which in latter days gave birth to honorable & warm hearted Men & Women. Though it’s sad to part with such Friends Still it will be a consolation for you all to Know that they are all happy out here away from perhaps tyranical landlords & Irish Bailiffs. Glorious My Dear Old Friend, Glorious it would

appear to us if you all in Ireland were possessed of the same amount of freedom that we have out here & without which no people can be prosperous, but I hope a change will soon take place. Things cannot continue as they are much longer, if the situation is not altered then I pity the poor starving Children of Erin. (k) I now consider I am pretty well advanced with what I had to say &

266 Victorian Voices it now only remains for me to ask of you to sometimes see my Dear Old Father who now must be fast & I am sure is preparing for I hope a happy Eternity. Utter to Him & Sisters a few words of Consolation & advice, & ask of them to remember your humble Friend who is far away in Australia together with his Care in their prayers, & I am sure your entreaty will have the desired effect, because with all my faults & I Know I had many, I believe they do still think of me. Tell them that Johney promised me He would Come from Queensland but has not arrived yet. I think He will soon Come. Ask Mary My sister to write to me its many years since She wrote to me now. Tell Her that She is always somehow in my memory, if you like you can give this to Her to read & I will soon write to Her. (1) Now I will draw to a close by asking you to remember us all fondly to your Mother Bridget & Mrs Quirk & family to all the Old neighbours who may enquire about our welfare to My Father & Sisters in Castlemary, &—Good Bye My Dear & affectionate Friend, & if we all never again shall have the pleasure of meeting here below, I hope we shall in the Glorious Land of Promise. From your Unalterable Friend Phil Mahoney Mr. L. Shanahan Lurrig Tell mother we are just after receiving Her letter—

(Ma 3) [September 1890: first half of sheet missing|

(a) ...in the same place at St Patricks, he told us he saw a Priest drop dead & afterwards saw the Blessd Virgin walk towards him taking him by the hand & raised him to life. Before he got bad at all Kate one night saw her mother in a dream, she thought she had a few angry words with her. Then your mother went straight into the room where he slept, stooped over him & Kissed him. Ever afterwards he was not well. (b) My Poor Johney’s last words were Mother you Keep my watch & dont be crying. He was so very fond of his Mother that he Could not bear her to be away from him one minute. So now we feel sad & lonley after

him, my life is a misery to me & to his Poor mother after his nineteen years & three months. His name was John Laurence because he was very near twelve months before being baptised & Kate was always saying he had a head like you & truly it was so, & therefore his name. On yesterday Sunday we laid some flowers on his grave, & shed some silent tears over him who was loved by all that Knew him. You will let Poor Father & sister Know of our sad loss.

Mahony Letters (Ma 2k-3c) 267 (c) John was telling me Poor Tom Quirk died. Poor Fellow many a happy day we spent together. Give our fond love to Mrs & Family. I would like to say more but cant for the present. Yours fondly Phil— Please excuse this wr[it]ing

NEWS FROM HOME

: | ne 7 a i - a NO oF ae oe we

3eRanpean. 4 .f fvBI tayasya. tee-t* ae, n,* Nw: ‘ ;-”: > :> os . “ts. + Co 2¢ ® 3. m NY , me 2: c~ 5) BY 3 an oN Se oe ar ieok 4aemi . aa" ,7 Michael ‘had a very large Funeral over a hundred & fifty six Cars 65 Probate Papers, 25/1909 (Dublin Registry), in NAD. His chattels and management of the

316 News from Home at it’; and the Meath Chronicle offered its respects to the departed ‘member

of an old respected family’. The Kells Board of Guardians lamented the loss of ‘a true and valued official’, who had probably served as a rent collector and relieving officer like his son Mickey.® In retrospect, the broth-

ers had drawn closer together, united in their respectability and service to the public. Yet Christy’s path to the safe haven of a wordy obituary had been twisted and dangerous. After his death, Bridget McDonnell in her Moate convent celebrated the ‘Comfort and Joy’ that his children had given their ‘beloved Father, who suffered much hardship and sorrow in his early years in a Strange land, away from Home & Kindred. . ... God in Kindness gave him this blessing, to make up for the trials in his earlier life.” Christy Dunne had fulfilled his father’s injunction to submit to his ‘superiors’, and thus also to the morality of his father and his father’s class. The price of peace had been submission.

The Dunne Letters, 1864-77 (1-13) (Du 1) [October 1864]

Dear Father— (a) Being about to sail to Queensland and in all probability leaving you & all my friends for ever, I do not like to leave without asking you to give my best respects and thanks to Wm S. Garnett Esqr for the great Kindness he shewed me in giving when I really wanted it this time twelvemonths six pounds. I can assure both you and him it was of the greatest service to me and I can never forget his Kindness.

(b) Good bye and God bless you and all belonging to me from your affectionate Son whom you may never see again Christopher Dunne (Du 2)

March 18/67 Dear Father (a) I received your letter dated December 11th and was delighted to hear you Mother and all my Brothers and Sisters are well and all old frends as entire property were bequeathed to his wife Maria ‘during her pleasure’, by a will dated 9 February 1908. The daughters’ legacies were increased from £100 or £150 to £200 under a codicil of 3 August 1908. 66 Maria Dunne (Meath) to her cousin Mother Antonia (Westmeath), 22 October 1908; Meath Chrenicle, 10 and 17 May 1908 (reporting an attendance of almost 150). 67 Sister M. Antonia (Westmeath) to her cousin Meta Dunne (Toowoomba), 17 May ro9rt.

Dunne Letters (Du ta-2d) 317 this leaves me at presant and all the Children thanks be to God for his Kind mercy to us. I was sorry to hear of the trouble my Uncle has met with by the death of his Son and also Mr Kernans Children hopeing the are now better. (b) Dear Father I thought by this time I would be Sending you a better account of Brisbane but I am Sorry to Say that it has not improved Since I wrote to you last. If any it is worse; there are a grate many leaving hear for America. I Could not Complain So much of this place untill up to the

presant for the buisnes I was at I had to leave on the 8th of January. I happened with an accident. I was loadeing on top of the van. The Horse Started off and I was upset & was very Severly hurt and my Colar bone was broken. I must give thanks to God I am now better. I was under a good dale of expences togeather with the loss of time it has Came very heavy on me. I am not in any employment at presant. I now want a frend to assist m[e] to get over the presant difaculty untill Such time as I would be able to make Some recompence. I was getting on to my wishes untill I happened with the accident but when I was not Killed on the Spot I have not much Cause to Complain when God was pleased to leave me over my Children. I was for two hours after that fall that I did not make a motion but lay quite Sinceless. I was takeing to my home where I had to remain for Seven weeks without leaveing my bead and the grater part of that time in Sever agony. (c) Michael mentioned he would Send me a paper but I did not receive it. 1 would have Sent you one this time but ther is nothing in them worth reeding. As to Thos. Brady he has left Brisbane and went to Melborn about four months past. I have herd from him once Since. He was then in good health. I have had the pleasure of seeing James Murtagh at Christmas and he Came to See me when I was hurt. He wishes to be Kindly remembered to you all. He told me to mention he was to send Something to his Father and in Concequence of the dullness of the times he will not be able to Send him anything Sooner than July and that he would Send him what he Could. He is married and has three Children and the enjoy good health. He also told me that if his Brother and Sister wished to Come to this Colony he would pay there passage on Conditions that the would pay him back and if his Father wished to Come he would also pay his. (d) I send m[y] love to you and Mother and all my Brothers and Sisters also to Mr McDonnell and Mr Kernan hopeing the and there family are well. Wishing to be Kindly remembered to W. S. Garnett Esqr. Mrs Garnett and family also Mrs Ryan and family Patrick Christy a[n]d Anne Gibney hopeing the all enjoy good health. I now Conclude Sending my love and blessing to you all. I remain Dear Father and Mother Your affectionate Son Christopher Dunne

318 News from Home N.B. Direct your Letters Sherrif Street Brisbane Queensland Australia

(Du 3)

Norbinstown 19th. June 1867 Dear Christopher

(a) I Received your letter, dated March 18th 1847 [1867] and highly rejoyst we ware at hearing from you. Yet the accident you happend with turned our Joy into Griefs, yet we are all bound to turn Thanks to God you were not Killed on the moment of the Occurrance. I hope you are finely [finally] recovered. We felt much for your Children during your Illness what the do. Our recourse was to pray to God, both for them and you. Your Mother got Holy Mass said for you God to restore you to your health and Children also for your Spiritual and Timporal wellfare. We always remember you in our prayr. Thomas Brady wrote to his Father and in His letter, sayd. you met with the accident you mention. He told it to your Mother the account he got, could not say whether Killd or not, which left us in suspince untill we received your letter. You may think what Grief pervaided over us untill your letter Came to us. (b) You said Michael promisd. sending you news papers. He did so 3 papers, when he wrote to you. I have to aprise to you your Sister Margret got Married last Sun aft to Christy Farrell Carlanstown. The are living at Dressog near Kilbeg. (c) Dr [Dear] Christy, We had a serious loss of Cattle this year, no less

than ro Beasts died of the Lung Distemper and prinsipally the Milch Cows—and a fine Foal of the Waterhen [?horse’s name], which showe|[d] a great Beauty.

(d) We told Patrick Murtha what his son said to you conserning him and Children. Dear Christy we have to say we are all in Good health thank providence, and wish to be remembered to you each and every one of us. Judy often talks of you when you wold come home. We would all be glad if God permit. Your inquireing Friends Mr. & Mrs McDonell and Children Mrs King, Mr. Thomas Kernan and Children, Patk. Christy & Ann Gibney, Mrs Ryan George & Peter sends there best respects to you. Patrick Smith Biddy Hand, Thomas & Catty wishes to be remembered to you. Pat Dinnin and Wife Thos Mangan wife and Children, James Murphy Williamston Cottage and Many More to numerous to insert. W. S. Garnett Mrs. Garnett and Children are in good Health.

Dunne Letters (Du 2d-4c) 319 (e) Dear Christy I humbly intrate and beg of you above all things, is to pray to God at all times to protect and save you and your Children from Da[n]gers, and never loos Mass on any account where Christ is offerd for

the Living and the dead. I Hope in God your next letter will be more favourable than the Last. (f) Dear Christy I Send you a Post Office order for £5-os-od five pounds and believe me it is as much as I could do at present. Dr. Christy I now Conclud by sending you and also your mother Blessing. We pray to God for you. Michael Dunn

(Du 4)

Norbinstown Augt 17th. 1868 Dear Christopher (a) The long Expected Guest the Honorable Sir John Young, has arived at the Castle of Headfort on Saturday the 8th. Inst. I earnestly watchd His long Comeing. On monday morning the roth. inst. your Brother Michl. &

I went up to Headfort in hopes to see our Guest. I was usherd in to the Grand Hall by the Marquis’s vallet, in hopes to see first, the Marquis; I had the letter you sent me in my Hand where you requested the Marquis to interfair with Sir John, for you to the Governer of Queensland. Sir John

Came into the Hall where i was sitting. I Got up and seluted Him & sat down again. He walked out the Hall Dore. In half an Our He walkd. in again & said to me what is your will. I got up & said I wanted to see the

Most Noble the Marquis to Introduce me to the Honorable Sir John Young. At the same time the Marquis walked in to the Hall, and Coming straight forward to me and shuck me by the hand, and seid Hear 1s Sir John that we long expected Home, after the abcence of Ten long years. Sir John then took your letter and read it all over, then sd. I cannot refuse the Noble Marquis to cumply to his wish for your son. He then Handed the letter to the Marquis, and told Him how it would be proceeded with, and told me to call on Thurseday that being on the 13 Augt.— (b) I must tell you that on the same day the Marquis of Downshire Died

in some part of England sudenly. He was Interd. a fue days ago in the Familly vault Hillsborrow—He being the Father of Lady Allice Hill the Wife of Lord Kinless Headfort [Baron Kenlis, grandson of the Marquess of Headfort|— (c) Also I have to Tell you there was great and Briliant luminations in

the Town of Baleboro. Barrells porter and all sorts of drink Given and wonderfull Cheering and welcom home of Sir John & Lady Young to their

vast Estate, Baliboro Castle, Co. Cavan.

320 News from Home

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FIGURE 38. ‘I was usherd in to the Grand Hall by the Marquis’s vallet’: The hall at Headfort with Robert Adam’s ceiling (1771-75), as viewed at the turn of the century from the right of the front door (Butler Loan Collection: Irish Architectural Archive).

(d) Dear Christy, when I got these letters from These Noblemen, I took them over to Williamstown to W. S. Garnet & his Mistress and gave them to read, and when read, Mr. Garnett said the were worth £100 to Christy Dunn, then said He would do some thing for Chty Dunn. In a fue days He will goe to Virgina Co. Cavan, to Earl Bective & Make Him Write to the Governer of Queensland in behalf of Christy Dunn. He expects you will make aplication for some High and lucrative office as you Can be highly recommended. Wm. S. Garnet’s letter, will be one fortnight or three weks later than this letter. (e) Inclosed I send these letters, opend that you may see their Contence and it is our wish if possible your self to present them to His Excellency— and if you cant get to see his Excellency, you must Envelop them. (f) I hope you are minding your duty towards God and selvation of your

Dunne Letters (Du 4d-5a) 321 sole, the care of your Children. Hopeing this letter to find you all well, as we are at present, God be Praised. (g) Dear Christy, now you see, the Carracter we support hear, we have the good will of Noblemen, & Gentlemen. I Expect you to support the same Carracter, to be punctual and Thrustworthy in all your undertakeing. (h) I sent you Two pounds in my last letter, did you get them. We had

a dry hot sumer, from May to 1st. August without rain. We have fair Harvest. Men’s Hire from 3s/6d. to 4s/6d p day at present. (i) At Recept of this litter write to me. Dear Christy all of us Joyns in sending our Love and best wishes to you Brothers & Sisters your Mother & Father who Enjoys Good Health Thank God & always Pray to God for you & Children. Richd McDonell and Family Thos. Kernan & Children Cristy Farrell Margret & Child Thomas. Lastly I am proud you made mention of W. S. Garnett, Mrs & Children in your letter. Always do it. I remain faithfully & your Dear Father Michl. Dunn [enclosure]

[Crest] Headfort Kells August 11 1868 (j) I certify tht Christopher Dunne is the son of one of my most respectable tenants in my immediate neighbourhood, & one who bears the highest character for upright conduct, & steadiness in the managemt of his Farm— The brother of Christopher Dunne a young man of good character, chiefly now manages the Farm for his Father who is upward of 75 years of age— I have no doubt tht C. Dunne would fill any Situation with credit to himself & his employers. Signed & sealed under my hand— [Seal] Headfort

(Du 5)

Norbinstown Octr. 17 1868 Dear Christopher (a) I hope you have receivd. my letter with the inclosure, The Most Noble the Marquice of Headfort’s letter to Sir John Young in your behalf which

I hope will be, of the greatest importance to you, and Sir John Youngs letter to The Governor of Queensland, an opertunity I Could not ever reach to since. The Marquice is away abroad, Sir John also. I have to inform you that Sir John Young, is going out to the Canadas to be Governor General

322 News from Home there. Should you ever wont a Friend I am confidant shure, he will do what

he can for you. Write to me at reciept of this and how you are doing & how are the Children. (b) We are all well hear, Thanks to the Great God. All your Brothers & sisters wishes to be rememberd to you. Mr. McDonnell and all his Family Mr. Keirnan and Family Christy Farrell and Margret and Child Thomas Patrick Smith and family sends their love to [?too]—to you, and many of your formaur acquantances Sends the Best Respects and Love to you. The are praying to God for you, and pray always to God, and he will not forget you.

(c) We have at the present time three days of Devotion to Commince on

Monday the rgth. Inst. Tuesday & wednesday for the Intention of the Pope, and the Holy Catholick Church in all parts of the World. It is Equal to the Counsil of Trent. (d) Wm. S. Garnett were very proud also Mrs Garnett that you rememberd them and Children in your letter. Never forget doing so. The are our best Friends. I suppose you Have no account of James Murtha, he is not writeing to his Father as usual. (e) Mr. John Hamill did not come up this year up to the [?friends] or Mr. Graham. The Both [had] a turn of Sickness, the are now well. Michal your Brother sees Mr. Close often in Dublin. Price of Grain here, Wheat 30s to 32s Oats 14s & 15s p Barrell potatoes 8s to 9s p Barl. (f) W. S. Garnett’s Brother, Mr. Wead Garnett is goeing to Melbour New

South Weals—to his Mother’s Brother who is a Judge in the corts, and young Mr. Wade Garnett took out his Degrees as Cousil [counsel] is on His passige to him. I was with him on the day of his departure from Williamstown—he told me the distence betwen him and you was Great. Should

he Know your adress, he would Communicate with you. So I gave him your adress we shake hands and parted. Mr. W. S. Garnett appeard at the moment showd pride that I attended at his departure. (g) NB, in any of your Difficultys Make your aplication to Sir John Young and alway make mention of the Most Noble Mrquice Headfort, and you will never wont a friend. I will shortly write to you again plase God. I Remain Dear Christy Your Loving Father Michael Dunn

(h) I send you a fue news papers to amuse you.

M. Dunn (i) Dear Christy P.S

Dear Brother Christopher as this letter passes through my hands I cannot let the Opertunity Pass without assuring You that I shall bee always happy

Dunne Letters (Du 5a-6d) 323 to here from You and Your children. I shall write a long letter to you shortly. I read over Your letter which told me of your trials with much consern but I trust the are all at an end. (j) Matt & Bridget & all the Children Richard & Mrs King wishes to be Kindly Remembered to You and the Children. I Remain Your Affectionate Sister M. McDonnell (k) Mother told me to tell you she Does not forget you in her prayrs nor Do Father in Heaven the Holy Mass offered for you.

(Du 6)

Norbinstown Decm. 17th. 1868 Dear Christy, (a) 1 am in Expectation of Receiving a letter from you in a fue days and will I hope be of good tidings, of the result, of the Marquis of Headfort, & sir John Youngs recomendation to the Govvner in the Australian Coloneys his Excellency—Blackall.

(b) Dear Christy I have to tell you we are all well thank God Father Mother Sisters Brothers—Mr. McDonell wife & Children Mr. Kernan &

Children Christy Farrell wife 8& Child Mrs Ryan and family, Patrick Christy & Anne Gibney, Patrick Smith, Wife Thos. & Catty, Pat Dinning Mrs. Farrell & Bryan of the Mill with many others sends there best respects

to you. Mr & Mrs. Garnett and Children Jas. Murphy of the Cottag begs to be rememberd to you. (c) I will send you a fue Newspapers; will give you an Idea of the great revolusinary Circomstance on Elections in great Britton, Scotland & poor Ireland and the victorys won in most County in Ireland. Two Englishmen—

Gladstone & Bright, both Prodestains, over turned the Goverment and become Premiour of the Ministry by Quen Victorias wish. Such elections was not contested these 300 years. (d) The last letter I wrote to you was Augt. 18th 1868. I registerd it lest, it should Meet, any Mistake bearing the important a Carracter from Noblemen whereas I Could not optain the same now. Sir John Young is now Governer in the Canadas. I wish him Many Happy years. W. S. Garnett’s Brother Mr. Wead Garnett is gon to Sidney. He did not write back yet. Turn to Know his adress. We will send it to you that you Can Communicate with Him—also you should Write to Sir John Young to the Canadas, giving him Thanks for what he has don for you, through the interferance of the Most Noble the Marquise of Headfort n[e]v[e]r omitting in giving

324 News from Home Him, His Excellency’s due title. I will write to you again at the expiration of two months god willing. [no continuation|

(Du 7)

Norbinstown 16th. June 1869 Dear Christopher,

(a) I received your letter of the 13th. March last (69). I am Happy to find you and Children are all well thanks be to God. Also I am glad to hare your Change from Brisbane to Toowoomba is for the better & more cool. The Change of air will be an adition to your health. You have not said what your salary is p year, or how you & Children are situated or do the stay where you are doing Duty or how the are supported. Are the under your Inspecton so as to bring them up in the fair [fear] and Love of God.

(b) I am glad Colonel Blackall the the governer [?of his] coloney of Queensland has paid so much respect to the Marquis of Headford letter to Sir John Young, in your behalf. Sir John Young is at present General Gov-

erner in the Canadas. I wish Him every success. You will never want a Friend whilst the live. The Maquis was proud of your Apointment. (c) Dear Christopher, I expect you will support the Confidence Placed in you[?] with Credit to your Self, and Children. Always be submessive to you[r] Superiors. Show Kindness to all Men, as you wish to be don to you. I hope there is a Catholic Clirgyman—in the Establishment you are placed

in. ’'d wish to know have you some hours of recreation that would be Condusive to Health. (d) Dear Christy Your Mother and I Got a turn of sickness this winter

it originated from a Cold. I was nearly to [two] months confind to my Bead. We are getting over it, thank God. You wrote to Know of W. S. Garnet Mrs Garnett and Family the are all well. Two fine Boys is all the family as yet. The got a Letter from Mr. Wade Garnett from Australia he is doing will. (e) I will send you a Newsepaper. Perhaps it does not answer Goverment men to be conserned in Politicks. (f) Now I will say about your Friends. Your Mother and I, Bryan John & Michael Judith Mary & Margret sends our fond love and Blessing to you and Children may God Bless ye all. Also Richd McDonnell and Children Mrs. Farrell and Child Mr. Thomas Kernan and Children, Partick Christophr & Ann Gibney Uncle Michl. Farly and Children Mrs King, Patrick Smith and Family. I am to tell you Cathorene |[added: Catty] Smith Paddys dauter gon to America, about one month agoe. (g) We had a special meeting of Clergy called or termd. Mishinnars, in

Dunne Letters (Du 6d-8a) 325 Carnaross Chapple. It lasted 3 weeks. The Mishoner ware six in Nomber. The Clergy of the ajoining parrishes came to assist them I blieve 8 or 10 priest Hearing Confessions, together with his Grace the Bishop of Meath all under his rool and Guidance and sat in the Confessinal Equal to anny other Priest and said Mass every morning at 6 Oclock and then gave a Sermon. There would be three Masses going on at wonce up to 12 Oclock every day. The Chapple & Chapple Yard would be filld. every day and up to nine OClock at night and would End with a Benediction. (h) I would wish you would write often to us. At the receipt of this write to me. I may write again shortly to you. I now conclude by sending you & your Children, our Blessing and may God Bless ye all. Yours truly Michl. Dunn (i) N.B.

I send you an advance[?] inclosed.

(j) Dear Christy it is a great Pleasure to us to hear from you but my mother expects you will write more frequent. We had a great many changes

in Ireland since you left. I think my father forgot to let you Know that Christy Gibney was married this time 2 month to a young Girle from the County Cavan and got 150£ fortune. (k) All your old friends remembre you and very often enquire about you and pray for your good look [luck] and often when speak of there past day gon by with you the Say god be with old times[?]. (1) You must have herd of Pat Briens death before this, that he was got dead on a heap of Stones in Astralia and Mrs Farrell had high mass for the repose of his Soul in a few day after She getting word from his wife and you must think we wer all rejoiced when he wrote home in about 1 month after Saying that he was doing well and not drinking, enquiring for all old friends and sent for your adress. He said he will not die until he will see you. Thomas Kiernan told me to remember him to you. I Conclud now for this time wishing you every blessing to you and your family. Michl. Dunn Junior (Du 8) [Part of sheet torn off | 1870

Norbinstown Augst 17th My Dear Brother (a) I received your Kind letter on the 21st July last which gave us great satesfaction to hear that you and your children are all well and that you

326 News from Home find your self so comfortably situated. I sent you some [blotted: >papers but you did not] mention that you got them. As regards my mother she is quite well and in very good spirits. My Brothers & Sisters also My self is in the enjoyment of good health and all friends you enquired for all unite with me in sending you there kindest regards. (b) Sister mary wrote to you 2 months past and sent you some papers with news... [parts of lines missing] very disturbed this year past. Old Mr Radc[liffs] life was attempted at by two men from Kells Edward Geraty the Swab Bucher and a boy named brady. The fired at him on his way home from Kells and [?pas]sed the whole charge through his hat. [?Brady] held his horse and Geraty fired [?when] fortunatly the horse

broke away. [?Gera]ty intended to mangle him... Knife according to bradys ...it was found with the... after Mr Radcliff... and there was

...call to Trim to try...Brady ro years... During the... life... It caused great excitement in the Country and the peopl all went to congratulate him on his happy escape. Cleargy of all persewasions visited him.

(c) This country is very much changed since you left. The seasons are very much altered. We had no rain since last May that I might mention. The green la[nd] is quite burened and the streams all went dry though the crops looke very well. The harvest is all cut by this time and mens hire here is greatly raised. The have 6 to 7 shillings a day in harvest in some destricts where people are scarse. It is expected f[?or] to get very dear on account of this war between the French, and Prussia. Flower rise 5£ per ton in one day here and horses became very dear. I will send you some Newspapers to [?let] you Know how the wars is g[?oing] on. (d) All old people that you [k]new . . . at home are nearly all d[?ead and]

Buryed. Poor Michael ...Saturday may the [?Lord have mercy] on his soul. Sist[ter] ... write to you in... deathe may the [?Lord have mercy on his] Sowl. (e) Made no change in the family. We all live together and are very united

thanks be to god for his blessings to us. My mother sends her blesings to

you and your little children and requests of you to spare no trouble to bring them up in the fear and love of god. John Smyth of Balreask Expects to visit you in a short time. He was priested in all Hollows Collage [All Hallows College] for America and he will visit Australia. You would wish to get pat Brines adress. My mother would not wish that... [half-page

muissing| |

(f) My Mother requests of you to write every 2 months even but a few lines that she dose be very down-harted when she dose be a while from hearing from you as it is one of the greatis means of chearing her to hear from you. In my next letter I will send you a good deal more news and I

Dunne Letters (Du 8a-9d) 327 will write to you soon again and let you Know all the occorances of of home.

Good by until you hear from me again. Michl. Dunne

(Du 9) [postmarked Kells MR 6 72; Toowoomba MY 11 72|

Norbinstown March 6th 1872 My dear Uncle Christy (a) I am afraid you have quite dispaired of ever hearing from us again,

but to make up for past negligence I am determined to write you a long and descriptive letter. My Grand Mother received your letter on New Years morning & you may be Sure it was a Joyful gift. It was only a few moments

before Michael brought in the letter that She was Speaking about you & wondering that you did not write. She was beginning to fear that you were dead. So indeed your letter was a relief to her. (b) She would have answered it sooner only for my Aunt Margaret’s IIlness. She had been Suffering from toothache for nearly a year & a half & it broke out in a great lump on her cheek but it broke & Kept running for a whole week. She was very weak & Sickly during the time but She is now almost as well as ever & we hope has done with the tooth ache for life. She has three fine children one boy & two girls. My Grand Mama too was delicate

during the winter but She is recruiting [?recuperating| fast with the fine Spring weather. She is anxious to Know if you got an increase of Salary Since you first took the Situation. She was delighted to hear that you & your children were in good health & Spirits & Prays that God may Spare you So. (c) I will now tell you about the remainder of your relatives & friends. Mr. Kiernan & his children are well & prosperous. Marianne is home from

School now a very fine girl. She is as tall as her Mama. I who am older than her looks quite a fairy beside her. My Sister Jane is also Some of the people with the good growth. She is much taller than me. Matt is very like yourself a ‘“‘darkie”. I will not say any thing of the rest of the children for I dare say you hardly remember them. Kate is the Same as ever only that

now she has Seven children & is as broad as She’s long. Mrs. King too who is living with us is as well as ever & as Jolly. (d) My Uncles are all together in Norbinstown Still, no Sign of any of them marrying except my uncle John Who admits himself that he was trying to coax a girl to run away with him a short time ago but failed. There was a good many changes about here for the last year I mean in the Shape of Marriages & deaths. Your old friend George Ryan was married Some time ago to Miss Mulvany of Cortown. You will be sorry to hear

328 News from Home that Mrs. Graham in Belfast died lately. Her father who is alive Still greived greatly after her. (e) I was nearly finishing my letter without telling you that my Dada & Mama are in the best of health thanks be to God & desire to convey their best wishes for your welfare. The latter will write Soon & perhaps we will Send a few carte de visites. I will now Conclude this letter by assuring you of the Kind wishes & remembrance of all your friends. My Grand Mama

particularly requests that you will write often to her. She becomes very lonly when She is a while without hearing from you. You need not wonder at my Uncles not writing. They are a Set of lazy old bachelors & I wish you would write & give them a good lecture. With Kind love & remembrance to your children I remain your affectionate niece Bridget Mc Donnell (f) P.S. Pers[?] Brady that is James Bradys youngest son got married to

his first cousin a Miss O Farrell from Melbourne with thirty Thousand pounds fortune. They came over here last Summer & he is going over Some of these days. You might Some time have an oppertunity of seeing him. Yours B. Mc.Donnell Mr Christopher Dunne H M. Gaol, Brisbane Queensland, Australia (annotation: try Toowoomba]

(Du ro) Norbinstown Aug 14th [21872] Dear Brother

(a) I hope you will excuse me for not writing to you before now as I promised in my last note but I had expected to get my live[?] likeness taken

and also the Mcdonnells children Kiernans to send to you but we were delayed by Mr Mcdonnells illniss. But he is much improve now thank God

he is able to go out now. His family are all will also Thos Kiernan and family C Farrell and Sister Margret and Children also my Mother Brothers

and Sister Julia are quite well. Bryan got a severe bruise on one of his fingers. He went to Dublin to get it Curred. It is getting on well now. (b) My Dear Cristy I am glad that you returned home safe to your Children and that you are recovered of your illness that the children are well. We are all happy to congratulate you on the occasion of your marriage and that the young lady is from Ireland and that the children and her are so much united. She appears to be a beautiful woman. I am sorry that I cannot send her, her request this time but I will surly send it in my next

Dunne Letters (Du 9d-11d) 329 letter. Give my Kindest love to her and the children. I was also glad to hear that you were raised in your wages. (c) We had a very severe winter here there were continual rain. Several persons had to leave their houses with the floods. The spring and summer was verry dry.

(d) I forgot to mention in my last note the death of my uncle Michl. Farrelly. He died last April 12 months of inflamation of the lungs. Also Thomas Farrell of Carlanstown and his son Bryan from Palubber[?] also Mrs Graham. I was speaking to Mr Graham on the 12 of this month. He looks old. He told me his son Robert went to America Some time in winter. With kind regard I now conclude wishing you Mrs Children every blessing and happines. I remain your fond brother Michl. Dunne

(Du 11) Kells

September 16th. 1873 My dear Uncle (a) It gave me the greatest pleasure to read your very Kind and welcome

letter to which I would have replied Sooner, only as you asked for our cartes I was waiting to have them taken to send you thinking they would not be an unwelcome present. I enclose four. I am Sure you will have very little difficulty in recognising us. Mamma is there to the letter. Jane & my Uncle Bryan are together in one. Matt stands with his dog at his feet and I am there myself as forlorn looking as any creature can possibly be. Still all the likenesses are true copies. They show us to you just as we are. (b) I suppose by this time you have received my uncle Michael’s letter

and that it has left nothing for me to Say with regard to your marriage. However I will add my voice to his and Say that we were all very glad to hear of it as it was a thing that we were long expecting. As to your amiable wife, you asked our opinion of her. At first sight of her portrait we all came

to the conclusion that she was fair and very good looking. My Grandmama particularly was very much pleased with her appearance and said that if she was as good as she looked you did right in marrying her. As you say yourself you are a perfect “‘darkie” yet every one who saw your carte said it was very like you. (c) I need not tell you how glad we were all to hear that you are going on so well and also that you were not so foolish as to deny your children the benefit of education and yourself & them the exercises of religion for a slight advance in your Salary. (d) I have nothing to Say of ourselves, only that we are all quite well

330 News from Home thanks be to God. I have not a Single news worth relating to you. They are all well in Norbinstown & Send their love to you your wife & children. (e) Aunt Margaret & children are also quite well as are also Mr. Kiernan & his children. I must not conclude without thanking You for the long & interesting letter which you were So Kind as to write to myself. I thought it the nicest letter ever you wrote. It may be that your wife was prompting

you as you wrote it. I sent it to Norbinstown where all your letters are Kept. I hope that your dear children are healthy and are going on well. Believe me nothing will give us more pleasure than to hear often of your own & their welfare. I am Joined by Mama Dada Sisters & brothers in Sending our love to you and ever Remember me your affectionate niece, Bridget McDonnell P.S.

All the friends whom you enquired for I am happy to say are quite well. (Du 12)

Norbinstown August 12th. 74 My Dearest Brother

(a) I hope you will not think it unkind of me not to answer your very welcome letter befor this but indeed I was extreamely busy. I often sat down to write to you & could only say a few words when I would have to leave it there again. I will now send you a long letter to make up for my long delay.

(b) I mu[st] first tell you how delighted we were to hear that your Mrs Dunne & Children are enjoying good health which blessing we all enjoy thanks be to God. (c) Next I will tell you about Bridget Mc.Donnell. I told her you got her likeness & how much you like them. I am sure you will be surprised to hear she went away to a Convent to become a Nun. She stole away without any one knowing it. She pretended she was going to Oldcastle to see her Sister Mrs Kenna, she stopped there one night, went the next day to Moate Convent W. Meath, then wrote to her Parents asking pardon for going as she did but that she Knew she would not be let go & she could never stand to bid them adieu. We were all seeying her she is very happy. Maryanne went to see her also. When she go[?t] herself below nothing could induce her to come home. She is very happy too. We expect Bridget’s reception sometime the next month. It was put back on account of a Mission that is going on in that plase. Their Father & Mother felt very uneasy after they going but the are delighted now. (d) After that time Mr. McDonnell got a sevear attack of bronchitits. He was very bad, they did not expect him to recover. He never was in better

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FIGURE 39. ‘She stole away without any one knowing it’: Bridget McDonnell before

her elopement in 1874 (Mrs. Meta Truscott). e

332 News from Home health than at present also Mary & the children. Mrs King is not very well she has a very sore foot she looks very poorly. As for my Mother she is getting young. Sister Margaret Husband & family are quite well, also Mr Keirnan & family. Maryanne is anxiously wathing [waiting] a letter from you, sends her Kindest love to you her Aunt & Cousins. (e) My Dear Cristy there is a very good prospect this season in Ireland. Crops are beautiful. America has very much failed, in consequence of banks closing the peopl are starving & comming back to Ireland in crowds. Mrs. Heardy formerly Betty Farrell from Williamstown gate & her son came home on a visit. She is stopping with Mrs Farrell of Plubber. She has made a great purchase in America. She has eight in family one Doctor & a Councillar. They will return after some time. (f) There has been many changes about here. Land has become very dear & some convient eanugh [convenient enough] has changed its owners. Tom Smyth of Carlenstown his farm was sold by his creditors & purchased by Bryan Kiernan formerly from the [?Roughan]. It consists of 12 acres rent & taxes three pound per acre under a bad land Lord for his interest in the lease twelve hundred pound. Also Patt Morris his farm sold for debt also bought by John Kelly, Pady Kelly’s son who used to make the brooms on Emlough bog at a similar acarage.

(g) My Dear Christy I will now tell you about the rest of our friends. Uncle Micheals family are quite well. Bridget is here on a visit at present & sends her kindest love to you, also my Aunt Bridget’s family. Christy has no family, they are all together still. My Mother wishes you to write

oftener. It is great joy to her & us all to get a letter from you. I would write oftener to you but really I do not have one minute for my self. I never had so much to do as at present. I was very glad to hear you have a peice of land. We also have a great lot of grass land fifty acres in Nockglass & as much is [?7] Stoholmack[?] at four pound per acre. I hope you will not

fail but write soon. I will never be so long without to you again. Mother Brothers & Sisters joins in sending their kindest love to you all & accept the same from your fond Brother Michal

(Du 13) [postmarked Toowoomba, MY 19 1877; Kells, JY 25 77; 6d stamp] Toowoomba

May roth. 1877 My dear Michael (a) I received your letter in November last and would have answered it

before this only that I have been greatly put about threw Sickness both myself and family. I dare Say you will be Surprised to think I am Still

Dunne Letters (Du 12d-13f) 333 living when I tell you my Complaint was Cholera and in a Short time after they Children had Scarlet feavor. 1 am happy to Say that we are all quite recovered and gives thanks to God for his Kind mercy to us. (b) Iam glad to find My Mother enjoyed good health and Still hope that She Continues to enjoy that blessing. I was verry Sorry to hear of Sisters Julia’s death May the Lord have mercy on her Soul. I onley hope we may be as happy as She is.

(c) I have written to you Some time past but I Can See by your letter that you did not get it. I have to tell you now that we have an increace in the family and has Called him after my Brother John and must tell you that you are his Godfather. He is now two years. I am Send one of his portraits which was taken when he was five months old. (d) Now I must enquire how my Brothers and Sisters are and all frends and wishes to be Kindly remembered to them. I hope Bridget Mc.Donnell is proffessed before this time. May the Great God Strenthen her in the duties toards him. I wish to be Kindly remembered to her and hopes that She will think of me in her prayers. I am Still in the Same possition. I have nothing to mention that would be in anyway interesting to[?] you. Be Sure

and write Soon and let me Know how are all frends. Mrs. Dunne and Children joins me in Kind love to Mother Brothers and Sisters and not forgetting yourself.

I remain Your Affectionate Brother Christopher Dunne

(e) Dear Michael you would do me a great favor if you would let me Know my age next time you write. I remain yours & Christopher Dunne (f) I wish I Could get Some Home frise [frieze]. It is very much thought of here and very hard to be got. C-D

Mr. Michael Dunne Norbinstown Kells Co. Meath Ireland Via Brindisi

CHAPTERI2 ‘It Takes Me Tow Days to Rite a Letter’: The Doorley Circle, 1877-1906

Me DOORLEY’S MOTHER AND SISTERS WERE POOR, UNHAPPY, AND

scarcely literate. It is a painful but rewarding experience to read their

halting attempts to maintain contact with Maria after her marriage to Christopher Dunne, the subject of the preceding chapter. Maria, like her father, brother, and sister, had emigrated to Queensland from King’s County, leaving behind her mother, another brother, and three sisters. The residue of the family had reassembled in the squalor of Bolton, ten miles north-west of Manchester. Their nine surviving letters, written between 1877 and about 1906, were therefore sent from England rather than Ireland.! Even so, this sequence is unmistakably a product of Irish culture, though soured by English experience. The letters provide a searing impression of the penury and misery experienced by many Irish expatriates in industrial England. The Doorleys exemplified the transient outlook of Britain’s Irish population. Though they died in Lancashire, their hopes for permanent settlement long remained fixed on Queensland rather than England. The first three letters were composed by Maria’s mother Mary Anne Doorley, the fourth by her unmarried sister Lilly, and the remainder by her married sister Bridget Liptrot. Maria was the recipient of all letters except the eighth, which was addressed to her thirteen-year-old daughter Frances. We may surmise that Maria’s mother was illiterate, since the calligraphy of her second letter is the childish hand of Lilly, and Bridget penned her first and third letters. Even Bridget was clumsy and unpractised as a writer,” ! The original letters and associated documents (the Doorley Papers) were kindly made available by Mrs. Meta Truscott of Ashgrove, Brisbane. 2 Bridget’s literacy is contradicted by her mother’s death certificate, in which Bridget as in-

334

Doorley 335 and these letters abound with spelling errors, transposition of characters, and unintended omission of words. Fractured and flawed, the prose of the letters mirrors the decomposition and disunity of the Doorley family.

When Maria Doorley married Christy Dunne in June 1872 at the age of 23, she was already an experienced Queenslander. With her fifty-year-old father William, she had reached Brisbane aboard the Saldanha in September

1863. Like the Golden City on which Christopher Dunne arrived a year later, the Saldanha was a Black Ball vessel crowded with ‘Jordan’ emigrants, and Maria at least would have received a free passage as a domestic

servant. The voyage from Liverpool via Greenock had taken 136 days (nearly two months longer than for the Golden City), with no fewer than 614 ‘souls’ aboard as well as cargo ranging from bibles to pianos.? As in many of the early Black Ball sailings to Queensland, infections swept the steerage, leading to 16 deaths and 369 reported maladies. The Immigration Agent was overwhelmed by the influx and failed to send a steamer to meet the vessel, concluding retrospectively that the surgeon superintendent had

‘as far as practicable maintained discipline on board’. He strongly suspected, however, that ‘improper intercourse’ with the crew and single male emigrants had occurred as a result of ‘the objectionable arrangement of the Single Women’s apartment’, and he recommended proceedings against the captain.* Yet the horrors of this voyage were minor compared with those affecting the Erin go Bragh, which had staggered into Brisbane in August 1862 with epidemics of typhoid and measles raging among the surviving passengers.’ One of those survivors was Maria’s 19-year-old brother William, who may have been accompanied by their sister Margaret. They had

been brought out by Bishop Quinn’s Queensland Immigration Society, which was rewarded for its services by land orders worth £18 on behalf of each passenger.® Like the Dunnes, the Doorleys overcame fearful hazards before disembarking in Moreton Bay. Little is known of the Doorleys’ early years in the colony, except that Margaret, a 29-year-old ‘simpstress’, married William Doyle in January

1864. Her husband was then a police constable in Maryborough, about formant is represented by her mark. Her signature is, however, recorded in her marriage certificate and in three other death certificates. 3 Brisbane Courier, 2 October 1863. 4 See correspondence of Immigration Agent, 63/2316, 2347, 2513, and 2559, in QSA, COL/ A 45-6; and correspondence of Colonial Secretary, DUP COL/12, pp. 21, 644. 5 Ross Patrick, A History of Health and Medicine in Queensland, 1824-1960 (Brisbane, 1987), pp. 53-4, 210; Queensland Government Gazette Extraordinary, ili, no. 73 (4 August 1862), Only William appears in the damaged return of surviving passengers, but both were listed in the Registers of Land Orders. The Queensland Immigration Society collected orders for William on 29 August 1862 and for Margaret four days later: QSA, IMM/246.

336 News from Home 150 miles north of Brisbane. As for Maria, by 1871 she was well established in Rockhampton, 250 miles further north and the main town serving Queensland’s goldfields. Its population had soared from 698 in 1861 to 6,464 a decade later. The rapid expansion of demand for servants and wives made the town particularly attractive to Irish and Catholic women like Maria Doorley.”? The town’s first store had been opened by the Palmer family in 1856, and John Palmer became its first mayor after proclamation

of the municipality in 1861.8 It was in his household that Maria found employment as a servant and needlewoman. After his death she worked for the grocer Richard Robinson, who soon acquired both Palmer’s business and his widow. Maria was clearly a superior and respected servant. After leaving Rockhampton for Sydney Mrs. Palmer sent her ‘a little present’, declaring that ‘I will always be pleased to hear of your well doing & hope after your long residence with me that you will be a good & useful member of Society’.? Maria’s ‘well doing’ was not emulated by her father or brother, who were still drifting aimlessly about the Rockhampton region during the early 1870s. By 1874 William senior was homeless, unemployed, and recovering from ‘low fever’; while William junior was proposing to turn ‘steady’, having ‘learnt my experience at a costly price’.!° He married

a 32-year-old widow in March 1874 and is reputed to have become a teacher. The letters indicate that he lost touch with the Doorleys, who as pious Catholics were doubtless outraged by his being married in the house of a Primitive Methodist minister. His wife died within two years, and at his own death from ailments of the bladder and kidney in 1899 William

Doorley was returned as a mere labourer. His pursuit of steadiness had brought him little reward.!! Margaret died in the same year after rearing a large family, but the fate of William senior has escaped detection.'” ” The Queensland census for 1868 shows that in male-dominated Rockhampton, unlike the colony as a whole, women outnumbered men among both Catholics and those born in Ireland.

Catholics comprised nearly one-third of all women in the town, while over two-fifths of women born outside Australasia were Irish. 8 J. T. S. Bird, The Early History of Rockhampton (Rockhampton, 1904), pp. 22, 38. ° J. Grant Pattison, ‘“‘Battler’s” Tales of Early Rockhampton (Melbourne, 1939), p. 32. Three years after John Palmer’s death in 1870, Robinson married his widow Janet Oswald (née Ewan). He is mentioned in her letter to Maria from Tudor House, Sydney, dated 25 January 1871. This letter and others from acquaintances in Australia survive in the Doorley Papers. 10 William Doorley to his sister Maria, 22 March 1874 and 5 November 1873 (from Fleetwood and Rockhampton respectively), among additional letters in Doorley Papers. The earlier letter gave his father’s mailing address as Westwood, some 30 miles inland from Rockhampton. ‘Low fever’ was a contemporary term for typhoid or enteric fever: J. H. L. Cumpston (ed. M. J. Lewis), Health and Disease in Australia: A History (Canberra, 1989), p. 81. 11 His wife was born in Sydney, the daughter of a blacksmith. William married in Rockhampton and died in Blackall, some 400 miles inland. 12 The Queensland registers record 12 births to William Doyle and Margaret Maria ‘Dooley’ (or Doolay, or Doolan) between 1865 and 1884. Sergeant Doyle retired on pension in November 1885, dying of heart disease in the Shamrock Hotel, Brisbane, six years later: Police Department, Commissioner’s Files, A/38774, in QSA.

Doorley 337 Maria Doorley had been reared on a farm at Ardan in King’s County, a mile or so north of Tullamore on the road to Kilbeggan. The family farm of 31 acres on the Coote estate was scarcely one-third as large as the Dunne property forty miles to the north-east, so that Maria and Christy would have seemed hopelessly mismatched had they married at home.!3 William Doorley senior had evidently married into the farm of his father-in-law, but the Valuation Revision Books indicate that he took occupation from the deceased William Gready only in about 1861. By that time William Doorley and his wife Mary Anne O’Grady (or Grady) had presumably been living as her father’s dependents for at least 20 years.'* William Doorley had thus retained the galling status of a farmer’s ‘boy’ well into middle age. Having at last assumed control of the farm where he had laboured so long, he lost no time in disposing of it.!° By 1863 the holding had been divided among strangers, probably generating sufficient ‘tenant right’ to enable William and part of his family to make the journey to Queensland. The ‘boy’ celebrated his belated manhood by hurrying from the scene of his subjection. In doing so he abandoned not only Ardan, but also his wife and four of their children. The family would never be reunited. When her husband set sail for Brisbane in 1863, Mary Anne Doorley

(then about 42) was left in charge of four children, all of whom were probably aged under 12. The ‘little famly’ evidently remained in Ardan or its vicinity for several years, though in 1867 John died at the age of twelve.

He was buried further up the Kilbeggan road at Durrow, the site of the Columban abbey where the celebrated Book of Durrow had been inscribed 1,200 years earlier. Ten years later, his mother’s pain was unabated: ‘May the lord have mersey on him. You no i loved him in hart’ (1d). As the girls grew up, the dearth of employment in Ireland for those without land encouraged the Doorleys to move to industrial England. When the first surviving letter was written in 1877, Mary Anne and her daughters were living together in the textiles town of Bolton in Lancashire. Like so many of those who went across the water, the Doorleys regarded residence in England as a stopover on their way to the New World. They were reluctant transients 13 The land was valued at £23 5s annually, and the house and offices at £2. 14 Mary Anne Grady was a very young and childless widow when she married William Door-

ley in Tullamore, in July 1839. In February 1838, aged about 17, she had married John Whelehan, whose family probably occupied a farm of similar value to that of William Grady in 1854 (110 acres valued at £50). I am grateful to Mrs. Ann Horan of the Offaly Historical and Archaeological Society for consulting indices of the Catholic parish register for Tullamore. No Doorley or Gready is listed under Ardan in the Tithe Applotment Book for 1834, or in the House and Field Books of the Valuation for 1842-44. In 1854, according to the Primary

Valuation, Gready occupied over 90 acres worth about £50. He disposed of most of his property before handing over to Doorley (who may, of course, have had a job elsewhere). 15 Tt is also possible that Doorley was evicted. Although the Revision Books do not record repossession of the holding by Sir Charles Coote, Bt., they do indicate that the larger segment of the farm was thereafter occupied by a herd, named Eugene Robbins.

338 News from Home rather than settlers. By July 1877 Mary Anne had_been out of Tullamore for a full year, yet she instructed her daughter Maria to direct her letters ‘as allays to tullamoy’ (11). She continued to move between Bolton and Tullamore, sometimes using remittances from Queensland to pay the costs of passage (3a). England, surely, was not the promised land. At first, it seemed that Queensland was. In 1877, five years after her marriage, Maria evidently urged her mother and sisters to join the household in Toowoomba. Mary Anne responded that Kate and Lilly were ‘verry Ansanse [anxious] to go out there. For my Part there is nothing in the world give me more Plesuare then to sea you and youar husband and all the rest of my famly that is there’ (1a: 1d, rh). Bridget, though deserted soon after her marriage, seems to have been less inclined to emigrate. The deposits for their passages would have cost the sponsors at least £10,'© and Mary Anne emphasised that Maria’s siblings in Queensland should share the burden: ‘Me and them has made up ouar mind to if you Can witout hurting youar selfs. You must go to Margret and Willam And teell them that i am only in hops of there granted to Me’ (1c). In 1879 they remained eager to make the journey, and Bridget’s ill-health provided a further incentive for her to accompany them: “That country might be beter for her’ (3a: 3c). Subsequently Maria sent them a ‘Pasages Note’, presumably a warrant authorising them to emigrate after nomination in the colony. At this point the plan collapsed, for Kate’s recently acquired husband found it impossible to save the five pounds required for his assisted passage and ‘Bagge’ (2b).!” The spectre of further family fragmentation persuaded the Doorleys to postpone departure until it was too late. Their decision to linger in Bolton was coolly received in Toowoomba, and by 1885 Lilly was ‘wondering whether you ever recieved the letter we sent in answer too the Passages we sent back too you.’ She justified their

prevarication by explaining that ‘we were out of work at that time all through a strike. If it had not been for that we might have been there now’ (4a). This strike was probably a by-product of the major protest of weavers in northern Lancashire against reduction of their wages by one-twentieth, which led to stoppages in towns like Blackburn and Darwen (a few miles north of Bolton) between December 1883 and February 1884. The strike ‘6 Under the Remittance Regulations in force between 1875 and 1882, Mary Anne (being over 40) would have required a colonial deposit of £6, compared with £2 each for Lilly and Bridget. Kate, as a domestic servant, might have obtained a free passage as an ‘approved nominee’. See S. W. Silver and Co.’s Handbook for Australia and New Zealand (London, 3rd edn. 1880), pp. 288-9; Directions in Connection with Emigration to Queensland, 8 April 1879, in Queensland Legislative Assembly, Votes and Proceedings (1872, 2nd Session), ii, pp. 7’ Moran, as a blacksmith (an approved trade), might have obtained an assisted passage on pre-payment of £4, together with £1 for his ‘ship’s kit’.

Doorley 339 disrupted deliveries from Bolton and led to a few stoppages in local mills.'® Kate’s loyalty to her partner had been misplaced, and Lilly noted that ‘Kate would like too go because she has a very bad husband’. Lilly herself now

saw emigration as a cure for her ‘very bad health’, but their mother was ‘so delicate she would never be able to travel’ (4a). Though Lilly affirmed that Mary Anne would ‘be glad if I went out there’, family solidarity continued to forestall piecemeal emigration. The deaths of Mary Anne in 1890,

Lilly in 1891, and Kate in 1899 did not leave Bridget free to follow her inclination towards Toowoomba. Though childless and without a husband at home, she was left to maintain Kate’s ne’er-do-well son and his young family. As Bridget moaned in 1905: ‘I would like to Be wit sis only for my Mother in ths simatrey [the cemetery] and my sters [sisters]. It wold Kill me to think of leving then. O i coul[d] not think of gong away’ (8e: 8c). Always eager to escape England, the Doorleys were imprisoned there by the implications of death, desertion, and dependency. The Doorleys’ circumstances in Bolton provided few positive incentives to remain. Their letters convey a poignant chronicle of broken marriages and family conflict, fanned by poverty, unemployment, and illness. In September 1873, as Mary Anne’s first letter indicates, Bridget had married an English ‘Brodesent’ or Protestant who deserted her after seven months (1c, tf). Joseph (or Job) Liptrot, a collier at the time of the marriage, served in the army for nine years before reappearing in Bolton and finding work as

an engine fitter’s labourer. Liptrot was still living with Bridget in their modest tenement house in Edmund Street, Little Bolton, at the time of his death from Bright’s Disease and heart failure in May 1900.'? We cannot know whether Lilly’s tentative ‘hope they will live happy’ was fulfilled (4a). Bridget’s marriage, though conducted in a Catholic church, seemed to bear out the dire warnings against mixed unions so often uttered by the Catholic

clergy in industrial Britain. Kate’s marriage, equally disastrous, could not be faulted with respect to her husband’s nativity. Silvester James Moran was an illiterate Irish blacksmith who had been living in Bolton for five years when they married in May 1878. No elaborate courtship or match '8 See Bolton Chronicle, 29 December 1883, including the informative supplement entitled ‘History of Bolton to 1884’. Settlement of the dispute entailed restoration of the former wages, in northern and north-eastern Lancashire, from July 1884. See Royal Commission on Labour, Minutes of Evidence (Group CG, vol. i), Q 832-4, 2444-9, in HCP, 1892 [C. 6708-VI], xxxv. ‘9 Job and Bridget Liptrot (a cotton-mill hand), both aged 39, appear in the enumerator’s abstract for Edmund Street in the 1891 census. In 1897, Job was listed as rateable occupier of a tenanted house with annual rental of £7 15s in Edmund Street, the tenement passing to Mary Liptrot in 1901. Information on the Doorleys’ locations is derived from census returns for 1891, Bolton directories, electoral registers, burgess rolls, and rate books, all housed in the excellent archive at the Bolton Central Library. The registers of the Tonge Cemetery were kindly made available by Mrs. Boydell.

340 News from Home had occurred: ‘When the got thick then the got maried all at once. The are living Wit us ever since’ (2a). By 1891, Kate was living with her son Silvester and a lodger in a tiny court about 150 yards from Edmund Street, being returned as a ‘foulder’ in a cotton mill.2° Moran came to a bad end in April 1905, six years after his wife’s death, when he drowned after falling into the Manchester and Bury Canal. He had spent the previous night in a drunken stupor on his landlady’s sofa, having recently lost his job with

a shoeing smith because of ‘drinking’.24 Mary Anne’s accounts of her daughters’ marriages and their collapse were drab and negative but unsanctimonious. She herself had survived two rural matches culminating in death and desertion. The Doorleys’ triple experience of marital breakdown exposed the fragility of the mixed marriage, the union of expatriates, and the Irish match alike. The more their husbands failed them, the more Mother Doorley and her daughters clung together. In Bolton they seem usually to have shared the same household, pooling resources in their grim struggle for survival. Coresidence beyond the conjugal family was commonplace in industrial Bolton, where rent for lodgings took a large slice from the income of a factory worker.”* A census sample for 1871 indicates that over one-fifth of Bolton’s households had co-resident kin, while a similar proportion had boarders or lodgers.2? The Doorleys not only endured the sporadic presence of Liptrot and Moran, but also became responsible for Silvester Moran junior and his family. By 1895, Bridget found herself the only remaining breadwinner in a household reduced to herself, Silvester junior, his wife, and children. The theme of male indolence and parasitism suffuses Bridget’s references to her nephew: ‘Silsvester is no Benfet to Me in worled nor never was nor will’; ‘I do not think silvester would do annything for Me if he had it’; ‘I do not think he will Be anny good for him self let alone for me’; ‘He Would sooner take of Me then give Me’; ‘He has more of his father then his mother in him’ (7d, 8c, 9c, 9d, 5d). His greatest offence was ingratitude to the women who had cosseted him: ‘My Mother his Mother

my sister and me done all we could to rere him and now sea’ (9c). Yet Bridget did not abandon her nephew’s family, invoking the memory of Silvester’s mother Kate (‘a good sister and a good mother’) and exempting his wife and children from blame (‘I speak to his wife and i am sory for the children’). Bridget’s solace lay in loyalty among women, while her anger 20 By 1897, Catherine Moran was listed as rateable occupier of a tenement in Graham Street, adjoining Edmund Street, with an annual rental of £6. 21 Report of Coroner’s Inquiry in Bolton Chronicle, 15 April 1905.

22 See Hannah Mitchell’s splendid memoir, The Hard Way Up (London, 1968), pp. 72-96, for a detailed analysis of the rent burden in Bolton, as it affected a shop assistant and dressmaker before and after her marriage in 1895. 23 Mark Ebery and Brian Preston, ‘Domestic Service in Late Victorian and Edwardian England, 1871-1914’, Geographical Papers, no. 42 (University of Reading, 1976), p. 66.

Doorley 341 towards men was expressed by silence: ‘I never spoake to him for twilve months nor i never will’ (5d, 9d, 9c). As death robbed Bridget of female companionship, she raised her cry to the sister and nieces in distant Toowoomba. Ultimately, she discovered strength within herself: ‘I did Comford my self latly and did stretnen [?strengthen] my self and allways Will anny more’ (9d). Domestic calamity was compounded by inadequate income and harsh conditions of labour. Even in 1877, when exports of cotton manufactures were greater than in any previous year,’* Mary Anne Doorley declared that ‘Everry thing’ in Bolton was ‘so Bad that i Could [not] tell you’ (1c). Such protestations were of course a commonplace device for cadging from gul-

lible relatives, and Mary Anne was at pains to reassure Maria that her penury was authentic: ‘You will not Bee ashemd like youar sister margret was ashamed of me riting her anney Porvety in my letter to her when the one letter after so manney yers’ (1e). At this period Mary Anne was evidently running the household, while Bridget and Lilly were working in one of Bolton’s ‘numerous mills for silk, cotton, worsted and flax’.25 Kate was ‘at severis’ or service, an occupation that attracted Irish immigrants in exact proportion to their share of Bolton’s population in 1871.76 By 1879 only Kate was still employed, factory work being ‘very bad on account of the war’ with the Zulus (3a). The textiles industry was particularly susceptible to wartime disruption of trade, a theme that recurred during the Boer War: ‘The say it is the War is macking slack[?]’ (5d).?” Silvester junior, in a rare spell of employment, found ill-paid work with the Bolton Corporation rather than in manufacturing (8c). Work in Bolton’s textiles factories was notoriously irksome as well as insecure. In 1905, Bridget gave a chilling recital of her conditions of employment: ‘I go to a Mill where the Make Blankets. The do not only work Part of hey day it is not fare But i have to get up at five oclock to get in 24 While exports of cotton piece goods from the United Kingdom rose consistently from 1875

to 1877, those of woollen manufactures declined sharply from 1872 to 1879: B. R. Mitchell and Phyllis Deane, Abstract of British Historical Statistics (Cambridge, 1971 edn.), pp. 182, 196.

25 Kelly and Co., Post Office Directory of Lancashire (London, 1858 edn.), p. 71. 26 In 1871, those born in Ireland accounted for 6.5% of Bolton’s servants as well as 6.5% of the town’s total population: Ebery and Preston, ‘Domestic Service’, p. 77. Bolton’s Irish component, though small by comparison with that in Liverpool or Manchester, was only just below the overall proportion for Lancashire (England’s most ‘Irish’ county in 1871). Bolton was among the few English towns with more Irish-born females than males, reflecting the predominance of women among textiles workers: Colin Pooley, ‘Segregation or Integration? The Residential Experience of the Irish in Mid-Victorian Britain’, in Roger Swift and Sheridan Gilley (eds.), The Irish in Britain, 1815-1939 (London, 1989), pp. 66-9. 2? The fifth letter, though undated by year, was probably written in 1902. Cotton imports had in fact fallen sharply before the war, between 1898 and 1899; but the decline in exports first evident between 1899 and 1900 coincided with the conflict, which began in October 1899. See Mitchell and Deane, Abstract, pp. 181-2.

342 News from Home time’ (7c: 8c). The physical toll of work in the cotton and woollen mills of Bolton has been described in several graphic tracts and memoirs.”®? The

working week for cotton operatives at the turn of the century, though reduced by one-third from 82 hours since 1855, was still formidable. The mills operated from 6 a.m. to 5.30 p.m., with an hour and a half allowed for breakfast and dinner. On Saturdays, work ceased at 1 p.m., but millowners were inconsistent in their allowance of paid holidays or ‘hey days’.*®

Men had long since displaced women from mule-spinning, while women predominated in weaving. Whereas a female weaver might expect to receive 18s weekly in 1899, the average earnings of a male spinner were 38s.*° Girls entering the workforce earned as little as 4s for a working week of over 55 hours, and Alice Foley remembered working in a weaving shed with ‘hundreds of towel looms belting to and fro, operated by women and girls, whilst in an adjoining section heavy jacquard machines were run by men’.*! Those who survived a Bolton upbringing remembered the physical environment with disgust rather than nostalgia. Allen Clarke recalled Bol-

ton Park towards the end of the century as ‘an isle of dingy green in a black sea’, overlooking 200 ‘smoky towers’ served by 12,000 proletarians immured in a ‘shrieking, steamy sphere of slime and sorrow’. Bill Horrocks, reared in Edwardian Bolton, recalled that ‘filthy soot used to drop

on the streets, causing the populace almost to choke in damp, foggy weather. There was a saying in those times: ‘Muck means money”’.’*? Such

was the inferno in which the Doorleys lingered, their hopes of escape to Queensland always receding, yet never quite disappearing. Even Bridget’s niece Katie Moran, when twelve years old, would write enviously to her cousin Gertie Dunne in 1915 that ‘I am sure it will be lovely living on a fruit plantation and I only wish we were there because there is nothing here only factories and founderies’.*4 Pollution and punitive conditions of labour exacted a cruel physical toll. Clarke claimed that ‘the weavers (mostly women and girls) are bloodless

28 Allen Clarke, Effects of the Factory System (London, 1899), and his recollections under the pseudonym ‘Ben Adhem’ in Liverpool Weekly Post, 9 June 1934 and passim; Alice Foley, A

Bolton Childbood (Manchester, 1973); Bill Horrocks, Reminiscences of Bolton (Swinton, 1984). For a more mellow account of factory organisation in Bolton, praising the ‘understanding and moderation of its private employers’, see Patrick Joyce, Work, Society, and Politics: The Culture of the Factory in Later Victorian England (Brighton, 1980), p. 69. 2° Erroneous variant of high-day, ‘a festival or gala day’ (OED). 30 Clarke, Factory System, pp. 49, 82, 98-9, 130-1. 31 Foley, Bolton Childhood, p. 51. Foley went on to work for a cloth fettler, doctoring faults in towels and blankets—one of many ill-paid ancillary occupations generated by the industry. 32 Clarke, Factory System, pp. 30, 37. 33 Horrocks, Reminiscences, p. 10. 34 Katie Moran (Bolton) to Maria and Gertie Dunne (Queensland), 25 July 1915, in Doorley Papers.

Doorley 343

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er mt* ee . . TON vite:.ire Pag! 4s*. ‘abe €. ;i; 4. ite . :_- ., ae~ . =|6# .eee‘my is . . ” Py . z . By FIGURE ‘A bad husband’: Sil MJames ith Oran his wit wife Kate D 42. very Da usDand: ollvester is wife Kate Voorley (Mrs. Meta Truscott).

Doorley Letters (Do 4b-5d) 353 have gave her your directions and also Margarets. We have sent a note to you both. She says she will write you too inquire for you. She is going too some part nof [mot] far from you some part not far from Brisbane. She worked with us in the mill and would be very glad do us a kindness. She says she will do her best to get me out there. (c) I will now enclose one of Kate liknes and i will send one of mine in the next letter. My Mother and Bridget joins with me in sending you our best and kind wishes too you and your husband and family. Dear Maria when you write let us know where Margaret is or if you ever hear from her or from William or my father. (d) No more at Present. My Mother and Kate and Bridget joins with me in sending you your love. Your fond sister Lilly Doorley

Direcet your litter too St Mary’s Chaple Little Bolton Lancashire England (Do 5) [last line or so of each page lost] Bolton March 5 [?1902] Dear sister and children (a) I reseved your verry Welkom letter. It was sonday moring [morning] When i got it, it made me crie to sea By it the Kiness you have tauth youar children to show to me. I thank you from my hart. It was like a cry Come-

ing down from heven to me. Maria i hope that god has rewarded you that you are Quite well again [when] you get this letter. All i can do is to Prey for you. I now god will Bless you for youar chartty [charity].

(b) I was very sick Before chrisams[?] and has... After... that it was my Kiddness [kidneys] that they were Bad and And had Been Bad along time. He said My Blud is verry thin. I am not well long at once. But you will not wonder at that and all i went thrue. My Memery is very Bad. (c) I noead [knew] Before i got youar letter that you or some of they Children were eling [ailing] something for night after night i sawe you in

my dream. I hope that Christopher is Better By this. Rimember me to them[?] all. You are happy... children and... Me nether [neither] children nor sisterss nor mother near me i must trust all Wit god. You no that all Comes from him.

(d) Now i must say a fue words to the girles. I thank them for there letters. Thoese are tow letter cards in return of them. One is from silvest[ers] Wife to little fannie. She ased me to let her send her one. Silvester has had very Bad luck in his Work a long time. He has not Worked since

354 News from Home Before Chrisams untill this Weeke. The say it is the War is macking slack[?].

Maria... he has more of his father then his mother in him. But i do the Best i can for the seak of her a good sister and a good mother. (e) Now Maria i Will say no more at Present. It taks me tow [two] days to rite a letter. So you will no [?70w] remember me to all they children And mack them rite to me. (f) No more from youar sister Bridget hoping you Are Better. Silvester and Wife And Babby sends there love to all. Maria do rite to [too]. Rember to all they children And your husband from youar sister Bridget

... have had a Bad...

(Do 6)

Bolton june 29th [?1903] Dear sister (a) Just a fue liness to you wondering you did not ansawar my letter. It is one year and fore Months last March since My letter i rote to you And

1 never got answar to it. I cannot tell waht happent. Have i done anny thing ronge or said anny thing ronge in my letter to not here from you. Time and time i am in turbled [troubled?] in my Self not hering from you.

For gods sake rite me a fue linnes And let me no how you all Are or if annythring is the matter. (b) I went to the infernemy docder [infirmary doctor] all the Winter. My nevers are weeak [nerves are weak]. Now the fine wedder is in i am alot Better thank god. We have good Wedder But wark is verry Bad And has Been for a long time. (c) Dear sister will you Annser this letter and let me no how you are and all youar famly. Doos Christopher Keep well. I wonder francess did not rite to me Before thiss. You no you are happy in life Wit all youar famly round you. I J am not so Blessd as to call mysellf. Now do not forget to rite and let me no how you are and all they Children and father. (d) Silverster and Wife and chldren are all well and sends there love to and all the famly. No more at Present from youar sister Bridget liptrot Remember me to all they children. I will Be loocking foreward for a letter from you. Mrs Bridget liptrot no 7 Edmund st off Bridge st little Bolton Bolton lancashire england

Doorley Letters (Do 5d-8a) 355 (Do 7) Bolton febery 12 ’05 Dear Sister

(a) I reseved your verry welkem letter and i was glad to here you and All youar famly are well and i hope you all Keep well. Maria i thank you from my hart for youar Kind gift to me and i Hobe [hope] that god will reword you and youar husband and children for it Boath in this worled and in the next. Maria i allays have to crie when i get youar letter. I crie wit joy to here from you and the children and the Kindley saings [kindly sayings] to me. I love to read they letters that the rite for you. My Mother used to tell us when you were litle the things you would say to her. She often[?] came over them to us up to dying. I am verry like her. (b) I never will Keep in helt [health] as she did. I can harly [hardly] lie on one side. I have bad rumtisom [rheumatism] in my left foot since last march. I am verry Bigg But i have no strinth wit Siskns [strength with sickness] and one thing or anoder it has Broken me down. I am tired and werry some times.

(c) Maria you now [know] it is hard to live. I have to get up in the Morings [mornings] and go to worke at 5 oclack. I am just telling you how

i live. What Would i do if i could not eren [earn] a Bit for My self. I go to a Mill where the Make Blankets. The do not only work Part of hey day [festival day] it is not fare But i have to get up at five oclock to get in time. I do Be Bad in my self and short in my Breath if i hurey. I thank god for

helping me to Be able to get for my self a liveng or what would 1 do or what will i do if i am not able. To think of it makes me hart eacke [my heart ache|. There would Be nothing for me But the worst. (d) I trie to Keep the little home over My hed. Silsvester is no Benfet to Me in worled nor never was nor will for he is never in work and when he was he give Me nothing & him[?] nisly in helt [nicely in health]. Just now it has Been a Bad winter. We have had a good deal of frost and storm. | will say nomore now Dear sister. But 1 remain ever youar fond sister Bridget Lipt—— Hoping to here from you soon. Remember me to all the children. (Do 8) Bolton Feberry 12 05

My dear frances (a) I resevd youar verry welkem letter and i was glad to here from you

all. I must thank you verry much for all the truble i am to you. I would send they Childrens littness [likeness] only little Cate fell and Cut her chin and When it is getting Better she will not Kepe her fingers off. It is Keping it longer Bad so as soon as it is Better she will get it taken.

356 News from Home (b) I sea you have got youar new Covent finshed [convent finished]. We are having ouar chaple made larger it is called saint Marias. We have three Prest. I sea you are away all weak. Youar Mother and sisters will allays Be glad when saturday Comes.

(c) | am Keeping nise in helt only it is so Cold i feall it in hands and feett. I have to get up verry erley in the moring i feel it most. I go out Before six to get in time. If i had fare to go i could not go. You no [know] we must all live. I have no one to depend on here But god. Silvester has got no work yet. He has Been working thoes two or three Weaks for the corption [?Corporation]. He only gets six shilins it is little anuff for himself. He is of no use to me nor never Was. I have to trie to live and Keep a little home. I am verry tired some times But rest at night. I never go out only to

Chaple. I do not think silvester would do annything for Me if he had it. He is hard harted. I wonder What i will do if 1 canot get for myself. (d) But god is good. Put this little Picter in youar Prer Booke [picture in your prayer book] frances. Remember me to all youar sisters and Broder. So no more at Present from youar fond Aunt Bridget liptrot (e) Rite soon. Hoping this Will find yues all well. I would like to Be wit sis only for my Mother in ths simatrey [the cemetery] and my sters [sisters]. It wold Kill me to think of leving then. O i coul[d] not think of gong away.

(Do 9)

Bolton januarey 18th [?1906] Dear Sister

(a) I reseved yuaor Welkem letter. I got it on Sunday Before chirisans day. I need not tell you the joy it was Boath to here from you and youar charity to Me. Maria i thank you from My hart. It is allays a week After the letter when i get they Mony. (b) I was verry Well in helt untill the Chirisames [Christmas] Was over and then i Bugin [began] Wit sore Eyss and Pains in my limes [limbs] and cold shakes. I could not stand strit up. I then stoped in Bed two days not Been able to get anney sleap. I Kept nocking about. I were not able to rite to you anney sooner. I am a good deal Better thank god. I often do Bee sick But the Weder is verry dark and cold. I went to midnight mass. Youar letter coming on the sunday Before made me happy and i at mass first in my hart wish you a happy chrisams and good helth and all the Children. I hope that god Prospres them for all there Kind Word and all there Kiness to me. (c) There are so diferent. Silvester he has nerly Broke my [mel]. It is 14 Weeks now Since he did anny work. He is I think going to Be like his father. He never stopes at Work long. All i did for him is lost. I do not

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C H APT ER I 3

‘COMMIN ng D he Hill Own theof lit Life’: O lke : The Hammond Circle, 1843-64

Ti DESOLATION OF NEGLECTED PARENTS SUFFUSES THE EIGHT LETTERS

received by Joseph and Helenah Hammond in Victoria, between 1843 and 1864. The families of this emigrant couple from Armagh felt increasingly aggrieved at the reticence of their children, only one of whose homeward letters survives.! Many of the relatives in Armagh were illiterate, and it is not always clear who penned these multiple compositions. The first

and third letters were inscribed with a flourish, evidently by Helenah’s brother Richard Thompson, but in the former case he was probably following their father’s dictation. The second letter was written out by Daniel Devlin, Joseph’s stepfather, on behalf of his mother and siblings. The four

letters sent between 1852 and 1859 were all signed by Joseph’s mother Mary, though written in two distinct scripts. The sequence ends with an informative letter of condolence to Helenah from her sister Susanna Boyd. The style of the Hammond letters is often awkward, sometimes stuttering, yet capable of expressing concern, anxiety, and even torment. It also conveys the deepening insecurity of Ulster’s rural proletariat, unshattered by the potato failure but rocked by the fluctuations of the domestic textiles industry. Disjunction, poverty, illness, ageing, and death darken the letters of those left to struggle on in Ireland, while their emigrant relatives prospered. ! Photocopies of the nine letters, with documents, photographs, and a family history (the Hammond Papers), were kindly made available by Ms. Jeanette Bakker of Greenvale and Mrs. Mavis Down of Warrnambool. The fourth letter (from Victoria to Armagh) survives only in a fairly early transcription, by an unknown writer unfamiliar with Armagh placenames.

361

362 Ulster Accents I

In February 1851 Joseph and Helenah Hammond were still climbing what Joseph’s mother in Ireland used to term ‘the hill of life’. After a decade in Australia, the Hammond family was settling into the township of Belfast on Victoria’s south-western seaboard. Belfast (otherwise Port Fairy), a pri-

vately owned town which became a municipality in 1856, was a fairly recent creation rich in Ulster associations. The name Belfast had initially been applied to the Special Survey granted in 1843 to James Atkinson, a prominent squatter from the Hammonds’ native county of Armagh.” As their only surviving letter indicates, Joseph and Helenah still regarded Ar-

magh as ‘home’, but were determined to remain away. Joseph told his father-in-law that ‘I would like to hear from Home but I would like better to see you all in Australia for me I will never be in Ireland’ (4g). With the dry understatement of an Ulster Protestant, he observed that ‘we have got

a little more than we could expect to have in Ireland’ (4d). His farm of 100 acres with its 27 milch cows, 5 horses, and numerous cattle, rented for only four shillings an acre, would have seemed formidable to those reared in the rural congestion of Armagh. For example, Helenah’s father Robert Thompson had occupied eight acres of medium-quality land in 1834, for which the rent per acre was probably four times that payable in Victoria? Joseph took care to qualify these images of opulence by reciting the local prices of provisions (4e), which in most cases exceeded those reported in letters reaching the Hammonds from Armagh (1f, 7e: 9d).* Yet livestock such as cattle were ‘cheap’ by Irish standards, and many of the commodities priced by Joseph Hammond were inaccessible luxuries to the struggling weavers and small holders of Ulster. Readers in Armagh would

have marvelled at the presence of plentiful tea and coffee, home-raised meat, boots and shoes of every design, not to speak of racehorses costing up to £75 (‘to my knowledge’). Hammond presented himself as a man making good as a result of hard work and versatility—a racing man and 2 Pamela M. Marriott, A Shamrock beneath the Southern Cross: An History of the Shire of Belfast (Warrnambool, 1988), pp. 2-3; James Bonwick, Western Victoria: Its Geography, Geology, and Social Condition (Melbourne, 1970; 1st edn. 1858), pp. 78-80; James Francis Hogan, The Irish in Australia (Melbourne and Sydney, 1988), pp. 114-22. > The Tithe Applotment Book for Seagoe shows that the ‘real acreable value’ of most of Robert Thompson’s plot in Drumgor was 17s 6d, a figure probably close to the actual rent. * After adjustment for difference in units, equivalent prices in pence for (a) Victoria (1851), (b) Armagh (1843), and (c) Armagh (1857), were as follows. Potatoes (cwt.): (a) 72, (b) 8, (c) up to 40; Beef (lb.): (a) 12.5, (c) up to 6; Flour or ‘mail’ (cwt.): (a) 202, (b) 112-20; Wheat (cwt.): (a) 63-73, (b) 96-120, (c) 120; Oats (cwt.): (a) about 80, (b) 48, (c) up to 84. The low price of potatoes in Armagh (1843) is consistent with the prices for lumpers and cups in that year charted by Cormac O Grada, Ireland before and after the Famine (Manchester, 1988), pp. 96, IoT.

Hammond 363 | coffee drinker who nevertheless felt impelled to supplement his basic income by skilled work as ‘Hammond the shoe maker’ (4e). For most of the decade before 1851, the Hammonds had restlessly pursued prosperity in the hostile environment of Australia’s ‘hungry forties’ following the crash of 1842.5 Joseph Hammond and his wife Helenah had reached Port Phillip in March 1841, as bounty emigrants selected by John Marshall at a cost to the colony of £19 each. They belonged to the Protestant minority of emigrants aboard the Neptune from Plymouth. Joseph

was returned as a literate labourer aged 23, and Helenah was listed as a dairymaid of the same age who could only read.* Their only child was buried a few days after disembarkation. Over the next three years the Hammonds remained close to Melbourne, where two more children were bap-

tised.’? They may well have received offers of work before leaving the Neptune, prospective employers having been invited to scrutinise the avail-

able bone and sinew under the surgeon’s direction.’ Joseph apparently found employment at a sawpit outside Melbourne, but by July 1844 he was working as a farm servant on the Yarra Yarra—that sluggish river swarming with ‘reptiles’ which aroused the amused interest of Helenah’s brother in the following year (3c). Shortly afterwards, the family is said to have moved to Port Fairy and taken lodgings at the Merrijig Hotel. Over the next few years, as Joseph reported, they ‘lived in the bush’ (4c), working on a succession of stations in the Western District north of Warrnambool as well as setting up in the Hexham (Woolshed) Hotel in 1848.9 Their descendants recalled tales of Helenah’s soaking in a freak storm while sleeping on a bed of gumleaves en route for Hexham, and of Superintendent La Trobe’s unplanned night

at the Hammonds’ hotel when his horse baulked at fording the flooded Hopkins River. Throughout this period Belfast remained their metropolis, at which four more Hammond births were registered between 1845 and 1849. In 1850, with six young children requiring rescue from savagery, the 5 See also Win Allen and Kaye Scholfield (eds.), Beyond Belfast: The History of the Family of Joseph and Helenah Hammond, 1840 to 1990 (privately circulated, 1991). 6 In fact, Helenah was three years older than her husband. A second passenger list indicates erroneously that Helenah was literate and Joseph unable to write. 7 Whereas these children were baptised by an Anglican minister, John Devlin Hammond received a Presbyterian christening at Port Fairy in 1846: Allen and Scholfield, Beyond Belfast, Pp. 39.

8 Port Phillip Gazette, 31 March 1841 (advertisement by the ship’s agents). ? Joseph is believed to have worked on the Goodwood and Barwidgee stations near Caramut and a dairy property further west at Penshurst, as well as at Hexham to the east (all townships along the modern Hamilton Highway). These facts may well be inaccurate in both detail and date, being recorded in obituaries and recollections published in 1932, 1934, and 1947 in newspapers such as the Warrnambool Standard (cuttings in family possession). See also Allen and Scholfield, Beyond Belfast, p. 17.

364 Ulster Accents Hammonds returned to the township ‘to get the Children to school’ and rented 100 acres at Goose Lagoon (4c). In the same year, James Atkinson had granted an acre and a half to the Church of England for erection of a school, still standing in recent years.!° Like many emigrants of indifferent education, the Hammonds clearly valued its future benefit for their children, whose accomplishments in reading, writing, and spelling are proudly catalogued in the fourth letter. With their diverse experience of farming, hotel-keeping, and shoemaking, and the developing skills of their children, the Hammonds were justifiably confident of their Australian future. Throughout the 1850s, the Hammonds prospered without venturing into the risky quest for gold, which brought ruin to many participants while benefiting those offering essential services on the sidelines. In February 1852, Joseph secured two small allotments costing £36 ros at an auction in Portland;'! and two years later he became licensee of the Plough Inn at Tower Hill Marsh (Killarney), a few miles north-east of Belfast. The Plough Inn boasted an eight-stall stable, ten acres under cultivation, and four cottages fetching an annual rental of £100.'2 The Hammonds remained there for two years or more, before establishing another hotel named the Carleton.!3 Immediately after taking over the Plough, Joseph purchased over 200 acres from Robert Atkinson of Tower Hill, subject to payment of five annual instalments of £200.'* Presents and money also flowed out to Armagh,

and early in 1854 Helenah’s brother-in-law received £20 and Joseph’s mother £25 (6a). Joseph’s respectability was recognised in 1855 by his election to the Belfast District Road Board, whose original members had been elected during a disorderly meeting at the Plough shortly before Hammond acquired the licence.'’ His eleventh and last child was born at Tower

Hill in 1858. The family continued to migrate within a short radius of Belfast, taking up several further properties before settling at Winslow in the early 1860s.'° 10 Bonwick, Western Victoria, p. 94 (note by C. E. Sayers). Goose Lagoon is six miles west of Port Fairy. '! Returns of Land Sales, 18-19 February 1852 (parishes of Yalimba and Boram Boram), in PROV, 80/1. Hammond paid deposits on each purchase. 2 Notice of sale in Warrnambool Advertiser, 17 April 1855, quoted in Allen and Scholfield, Beyond Belfast, p. 22. ‘3 Marriott, Shamrock, pp. 163-8; Alex G. Hill, The History of Port Fairy and Belfast Hotels (Belfast, 1970), unpaginated. ‘4 Memorandum of 1 April 1854, kindly provided by Mrs. Mavis Down. In 1879, Robert Atkinson of Kenilworth, Belfast, remained a minor landowner with 3,889 acres: Paul de Serville, Pounds and Pedigrees: The Upper Class in Victoria, 1850-80 (Melbourne, 1991), p. 495. 'S Marriott, Shamrock, p. 173; J. W. Powling, Port Fairy: The First Fifty Years (Melbourne, 1980), p. 125. '6 In 1855, for example, Joseph Hammond purchased two further allotments at auctions in Warrnambool and Belfast, this time paying the full price immediately. See Returns of Land Sales, 8 August and 20 December 1855 (parish of Boram Boram and town of Kirkstall), in PROV, 80/3, 80/4.

Hammond 365 The surviving correspondence confirms the importance of Australia as a destination for emigrants from mid-Ulster. The letters from home were replete with enquiries about Armagh neighbours who had emigrated to Australia, and with whom the Hammonds were expected to seek contact. The most frequent enquiries concerned Henry Harrison (1b, 5f, 6c, 7f, 8d), who

had also emigrated on the Neptune and was probably a kinsman of the Thompsons.’ Eleven other Armagh-Australians were mentioned, including one resident at Port Fairy in 1859 (8b). It is noteworthy that only three of those named were women, an imbalance reflecting the persistent male majority in emigration from Armagh. Joseph and Helenah could offer little satisfaction to the relatives and neighbours fretting in Armagh: ‘H Harrison lives in Geelong. James Patton lives in the River Plenty near Melbourne. The rest that came from our place I know nothing of them’ (4f). This rather flat response probably understated the extent of neighbourhood contact in Victoria, for two other emigrants sent home reports of the Hammonds and a third acted as their emissary in delivering money and presents (8b, 6a). This was the ‘Samuell Lutton from Hillshore who has been a Friend to us for some years’, the friendship being celebrated in 1848 upon the baptism of Samuel Lutton Hammond (4b). By contrast with many emigrants, however, the Hammonds seem largely to have avoided dependence upon neighbourhood networks fabricated at home and reassembled abroad. For Joseph, the pursuit of security and respectability ceased abruptly on Saturday night, 21 May 1864, when he visited several hotels, went to sleep in his bullock dray, caught and almost severed his right foot in one of the wheels, and eventually died from the resultant poisoning, tetanus, and exhaustion. Characteristically, his cascade down the ‘hill of life? was an Australian rather than Ulster experience: his companion on the fatal pub-crawl was William Cust, a name virtually unknown in Ireland.’® Joseph Hammond was only 46. His widow and children moved to Warrnambool, belatedly parading their Irishness as licensees of the Hibernian Hotel in Koroit Street, before establishing a more enduring painting business in Fairy Street. They lived in a stone cottage with three rooms, valued at £130 in October 1883.!? Helenah died in the following month at the age of 68, after suffering for a year from acute bronchitis. She was buried beside her husband in the Anglican section of the Warrnambool cemetery. 17 The Seagoe parish records indicate that a Robert Thompson married Jane Harrison in January 1804. It is possible that this was the same Robert whose (then) wife Anne Jane Bickett bore Helenah in August 1814, although the connection is uncertain. Seagoe’s parish records have been splendidly indexed in 8 volumes: John Shearer (ed.), Seagoe: A Church of Ireland Parish in the Diocese of Dromore (Seagoe, 1985-86). 18 Inquest Deposition Files, 401/1864 (Warrnambool, 30 May 1864), in PROV, 24/142.

19 Administration Papers for estate of Samuel Lutton Hammond, 26/491, in PROV, 28/P2/ 155.

366 Ulster Accents

FIGURE 45. A publican in his forties? By some accounts, Joseph Hammond (Mrs. Winifred Allen). II

On 1 April 1839, Joseph Robert Hammond of Tamnafiglasson was married to Helenah Thompson of Drumgor, their homes being a few hundred yards apart and close to the main road from Portadown to Lurgan and Belfast. The Hammonds, like many Ulster Protestants of their time, came from a background of poverty, semi-literacy, and insecurity. They were reared in the Church of Ireland parish of Seagoe, in ‘proto-industrial’ north-eastern Armagh. Even in 1861, over a third of the Anglican population of Seagoe could neither read nor write.2° Through much of the nineteenth century,

townlands such as Drumgor and Killycomain, from which these letters 20 The 1861 census for Seagoe civil parish indicates that illiterates comprised 36% of the population aged 5 or more. The proportions for Anglicans, Presbyterians, and Catholics were 34%, 26%, and 50% respectively.

Hammond 367

en ™

aa “3 an ee » ay 7 ° ‘so Pest a oe

ee de’ pe .

bs fad ad es 5 “ ~ ) + gh a \

ge e fl a: .

° ee , i. oon

@, _aee” = sl ia

af

FIGURE 46. His widow: Helenah Thompson (Mrs. Winifred Allen).

came, were crowded with small farmers whose survival depended on supplementary income from weaving, skilled labour, or army pensions. Today, they have been submerged by the dismal conurbation of Craigavon, and the visitor finds few traces of the Hammonds’ environment—whether industrial or agricultural. That environment was relatively unscarred by the Great Famine, potatoes being a major but not indispensable source of subsistence. Even Catholic labourers, when employed, might expect to dine on butter or fish as well as potatoes and milk in Seagoe, during the 1830s.?! Though ‘Famine fever’ and other epidemic diseases affected the Lurgan region, the disaster was more muted than in localities where the rural poor 21 Evidence of Revd. L. Morgan, PP: Poor Inquiry, supplement to appendix D, p. 284, in HCP, 1836 [36], xxxi. Morgan’s Presbyterian counterpart, Revd. Hamilton Dobbin, indicated, however, that his own labouring parishioners seldom ate butter or ‘flesh meat’.

368 Ulster Accents lacked alternative sources of income and nourishment.”* Mary Devlin gave the episode cursory treatment in her letter of August 1852: ‘Dear Joseph

there is one thing to Mention and that is the loss of our Potatoe crop in Ireland. I blieve this is the 7th year that the have been taking from us’ (5g). The Famine’s muffled impact helps explain the absence of rapid population decline in the region until the 1860s, two decades later than in most parts

of the country. In Drumgor, the population increased marginally in the 1840s and sharply in the following decade; in Killycomain, the minor decline of the 1840s was followed by recovery, which was reversed only after

about 1871.” Around Lurgan and Portadown, at the heart of Ulster’s ‘linen triangle’, looms mattered more than lumpers. Throughout the period of the correspondence, handloom weavers of fine linen, lawn, and cambric were dominant in the region, resisting the competition of power looms and factory production. Flax had remained the chief material around Lurgan even at the height of Ulster’s cotton trade, whose collapse in the 1830s therefore had little local impact. Some weavers continued to buy their own yarn at brown linen markets, of which Lurgan’s was among the last to expire; but most handloomers survived only by working ever longer hours to produce ever larger pieces for merchants, under the notorious ‘putting-out’ system. The depression of 1837 had reduced the weekly net earnings of a typical Lurgan outworker to only five shillings per loom, though a weaving household normally operated two or three looms. Outworkers usually supplemented their meagre income by farming plots of three acres or less, and most weavers manufacturing ‘for the market on their own account are holders of small farms of from five to fifteen acres’.25 The letters convey little sense of long-term decline in demand for textiles, but a keen impression of the insecurity of workers always menaced by severe fluctuations in

earnings. In 1843 ‘the weaving never was as Bad as at present here’; whereas, a year later, it appeared that ‘the waving Buisness is doing well in this Country at present and provisions on a reasonable Scale’ (1a, 2c). This contrast of testimony reflected recovery in the industry after the troubled period of 1837-42. Despite a further setback in 1847-48, weavers’ earnings in Ulster rose by about one-fifth between 1845 and 1855.2 Two years later, however, Joseph’s mother was lamenting that ‘the Weaving Tread is Lower than it has been been this Manny years’. Military service, 22 E.R. R. Green, The Lagan Valley, 1800-50 (London, 1949), pp. 154-5, 160. 3 See Francis Xavier McCorry, Seagoe, Diocese of Dromore: A Parish History (Lurgan, circa

» Creer Lagan Valley, pp. 67, 117-21; Liam Kennedy and Philip Ollerenshaw (eds.), An Economic History of Ulster, 1820-1940 (Manchester, 1985), pp. 5—6. 5 C. G. Otway on Lurgan district: Reports from Assistant Handloom Weavers’ Commissioners, part Ill, pp. 642-5, in HCP, 1840 (43-ID), xxiii. 26 Kennedy and Ollerenshaw, Ulster, p. 10.

Hammond 369 with its attendant promise of a small pension, provided one of the few alternative sources of subsistence for marginal workers in periods of recession. In December 1857, a month after the relief of Lucknow, she reported

that there was ‘hardly annything but War War in India in the month of Nov—16 ooo in Listed into the Queens Army all on account a want of Good Tread’ (7e).*” Seven years afterwards, despite a slight improvement in wages, it remained hard ‘to make a living by weaving for the webs is so long and wages little’ (9b).28 For a population painfully vulnerable to the vagaries of the linen industry, the option of emigration was always relevant. The families of Joseph and Helenah Hammond each straddled the margin between peasantry and proletariat, with predictably precarious results. He-

lenah’s father Robert Thompson scratched out a livelihood as a weaver with a holding of eight acres, and in 1845 brother Richard reported wonderingly that ‘my father stands it Prety well althoug he is a Hard working man’ (3g). Robert’s holding in Drumgor—though ‘situated in a very fertile and beautiful district of country’ where rents were below market value and the lands ‘well planted, fenced and divided’—was too small to support a family of a dozen or more.?? Robert had written in 1843 (1a) that he was weaving handkerchiefs ‘for Warrings town’—a highly skilled but unrewarding occupation. Waringstown, a village about two miles south-east of

Lurgan in Co. Down, was a major centre for the production of cambric after 1817 and hem-stitched handkerchiefs after 1836, and its merchants relentlessly exploited the skills of local weavers. Handkerchiefs long remained one of the major products of low-wage employment in the region of Lurgan and Portadown, and domestic outwork was still widespread in the early twentieth century.*° Helenah’s sister Susanna, who had married Edward Boyd in 1836 and stayed in the Lurgan region, reported in 1864 27 During 1857, 18,761 ordinary recruits were raised in Britain and 4,103 in Ireland, figures roughly doubled in the following year. Mary’s figure of 16,000 approximates total recruitment in the British Isles between September and November. The year’s overall intake peaked in October, but in the case of Irish enlistment outside the Dublin headquarters district, the highest monthly intake was 653 men in November. See Report of the Commissioners Appointed to Inquire into the Present System of Recruiting in the Army, p. 326, in HCP, 1861 [2762], xv. 28 In the Dromore district of Co. Down, the length of a web increased from 58 yards in 1828 to 72 (1838), 100 (1850), 104 (1853), and 120 (1858). In the same years, the prices paid for a web of fairly coarse cambric were 178, 11S, 128, 178, and 14s: (Hugh McCall], Ireland and Her Staple Manufactures (Belfast, 3rd edn. 1870), p. 255. 29 These comments on the Letitia Reid estate in Drumgor appeared in the notice of auction ordered by the Landed Estates Court for 4 November 1864: O’Brien Rentals, book 74, no. 23, in NAD. Robert Thompson had long since left Drumgor, but his relative Richard Thompson remained a tenant from year to year of a similar holding, paying rent of £8 13s 5d for more than 6 acres (slightly above the Primary Valuation). 30 Green, Lagan Valley, pp. 81, 158; E. R. R. Green, The Industrial Archaeology of County Down (Belfast, 1963), pp. 9, 12, 24-5; Kennedy and Ollerenshaw, Ulster, pp. 162-3. For examples of the declining returns for cambric weavers in the Lurgan district after 1837, see C. G. Otway, Reports from Assistant Handloom Weavers’ Commissioners.

370 Ulster Accents that her older children ‘still wave for Mr Henning of Waringstown since Before you Left Home’.*! She went on to specify the sizes and prices for their piece-work, ending ruefully that ‘now Dear Sister you can see from this how we are Doing’ (9c). The first letter, with its negative account of conditions in Armagh and curiosity about ‘cultivation and every thing Else’ around Melbourne, suggests that the Thompsons were contemplating following Helenah and her husband to Australia (re). Perhaps because Australia was itself entering recession, the Thompsons and many of their neighbours instead chose Canada, with its greater accessibility and familiarity, as their emigrant destination. The letters record several local departures for ‘America’, which in the Armagh context normally signified the British colonies (1d, 2f). In June 1845 Helenah’s brother Richard wrote a letter of valediction on the eve of his de-

parture for Quebec on the Conqueror, adorned with a jolly if poorly scanned ballad farewelling his ‘Deer native soil’ and declaring that he would ‘try to reach the Land of Liberty’ (3e).** He failed in that endeavour, dying in Pontiac County, Quebec, in 1897. Over the next few years Richard was followed to Canada by his widowed father Robert, his brothers Robert, William, and Thomas (of whom the first had married in Ireland), and his sisters Margaret, Elizabeth, and Mary Ann Craig. Several of these move-

ments are recorded in the letters to Victoria (4g, 5b, 6b, 7b); others have been documented by Canadian descendants using further letters sent from Ireland to Canada.*? Robert Thompson the elder died at Quyon, Quebec, in November 1858, having lived for some years with his son William (8d, gi). The Thompson network in Canada had reportedly been ‘dowing very well in America’, and showed no inclination to join Helenah and Joseph Hammond in Victoria (7b). Susanna Boyd, left behind in Armagh, looked upon the exodus with dismay: ‘Dear Sister you May thank God that you are not

in Ireland. You would Scarce Meet Any one you Would Know so many dead And so many Gone to queensland and New zeland and America’ (9i). Joseph’s father John Hammond was an army pensioner, who died aged 43 in 1829, when his son was in his twelfth year. John’s widow, born Mary

Neil, immediately married another pensioner named Daniel Devlin, the stepfather who penned the second letter.34 But remarriage and continued 31 John Henning had introduced the manufacture of hem-stitched cambric handkerchiefs to Waringstown in 1836: Edward Dupré Atkinson, An Ulster Parish: Being a History of Donaghcloney (Waringstown) (Dublin, 1898), pp. 72-3. 2 The Belfast News-Letter for 13 June 1845 reported that the Conqueror had left Belfast for Quebec on the previous day, ‘with a full complement of passengers’. °° Joan Duquette and Joan McKay, ‘Some People from Seagoe’, in Review: Journal of the Craigavon Historical Society, vi, no. 2 (1990-91), pp. 27~9. The Victorian collection includes one letter to Helenah from her Quebec relatives (not reproduced). I am grateful to Joan McKay of Ottawa for further information on the Canadian connection. 4 The Seagoe Church of Ireland registers record Mary Neil’s first marriage to John Hammond

Hammond 371 settlement in Killycomain, just outside Portadown, brought little security to Joseph’s mother. In 1843 she lost her daughter Jane, the only issue of her second marriage, who had ‘promised fair to be useful in her Generation’. Mary comforted herself with the cadences of the Book of Job (x: 21): ‘But the Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away Blessed be the name of the Lord’ (2a). Before long, she also lost her son John Hammond and his

family (of the Red Cow), whose progress had been charted so fondly up to the eve of the Famine. The Seagoe parish registers record his marriage to Eliza Best in 1838 and the baptism of three children at various addresses,

the last entry appearing in June 1845. By the 1850s, as the letters imply, both John and his children were dead (5b, 7a). In June 1846 Daniel Devlin died at the age of 61, leaving Mary to find shelter with her daughter Mary Ann Hammond. Mary Ann had just married William McCormick, a maker of the reeds separating the threads on a loom. The extending family lived together in a medium-sized house on less than a rood of land, ‘in a district celebrated for the industry and good order of the population, and in which the Linen Manufacture is carried on extensively. The Lands are of prime quality, and the Rents most punctually

paid.’ Joseph’s mother helped pay the rent as a weaver, but by 1852 (when she was about 63), she was already ‘comming down the hill of lif and I can make little at winding of warp’ (5d).3° Mary’s security was further menaced when Mary Ann and later William McCormick became seriously ill (6b, 7a, 8d), and by William’s death in 1862 at the age of 37.57 The two widows and Mary Ann’s three daughters continued to ‘all Live toghather in the old Place. .. . She keeps a Grocer shop and Sends Reeds on hire. She

Lives very Comfortable and takes Good Care of her Mother’ (ge). Such cheery observations were rare in the letters from Armagh, with their grim, spare catalogue of loss and heartbreak. As Mary Devlin reflected in her last surviving letter of 1859: ‘I may tell you that my Helth is on the decline but it would be beyond reason to expect it otherwise as I have now Reached

within one year of 7o—that you see to be the limitt Three Scoar & Ten Byond which is Said to be Labour and Sorrow’ (8c). She was to endure her sorrows for a further decade, before succumbing to bronchitis in January 1869. Mary Devlin’s letters to her son bear sober witness to her insecurities in 1808, but not her second marriage. Her daughter Jane Devlin was baptised in July 1830, 14 months after John Hammond’s death in Killycomain. 35, Notice of auction of Robert Fivey’s estate, Killycomain, on 29 December 1854: PRONI, T 877/561. The McCormick house was valued at £2 annually in 1864. 36 By 1859 Mary felt that her son, then aged 41, was likewise ‘comming down the hill of life’ Mary Ann married George Roberts, yet another pensioner who (like herself) could not sign the marriage register, in 1867. He died aged 50 in 1880.

372 Ulster Accents and anxieties, without resorting to uninhibited grovelling or wailing. Her letters reminded Joseph that his filial responsibilities had not ceased when he boarded the Neptune, and lauded her remaining connections in Armagh for supporting her beyond the call of duty. When Jane Devlin was dying, solace had been offered by the girl’s stepbrother (soon to leave Armagh) and even her stepbrother’s brother-in-law. Mary reassured Joseph that ‘your Brother John and Richard Thompson was verry attentive dureing her last illness’ (2a). After Daniel’s death, she emphasised the harmony within the McCormick household where she had found succour. In doing so, she also indicated that expressions of gratitude from her absent son might help to sustain that harmony: ‘When You write do not neglect to mention Your sisters husband’ (6c: 5d, 7a 9e). On occasion, Mary used more direct methods to solicit assistance from Australia. In August 1852, she had ‘bing thinking that perhaps you might think of Sending me a Present as that is a Gold Contry, and in deed gold is very hard to be got here’ (5d). Over a year later, Joseph announced that he was sending her £25, in addition to £20 for Helenah’s remaining sister in Ireland (6a). Upon arrival many months afterwards, these gifts offered only temporary relief, for in the same letter Mary asked to be told ‘if the gold Continues as plenty as it is verry useful and proves verry beneficial in this Country’ (6c). This presumably artless enquiry elicited no known response. Money worries and parental anxieties intermingled in numerous expressions of concern and distress at the infrequency of correspondence. The Thompsons were ‘all thinking Longe’ upon Helenah’s silence between 1841

and 1843, and two years later Richard wrote that their mother was ‘still thinking of you, and Mee Going away now Sets sore on hir’ (1g, 3c). By 1857, Mary Devlin was ‘discoraged a good deal by never receiving one word from you since the Receit of your very Kind present’. In a halting exclamation of startling power, she mused: ‘Me, I think I think it would not be too much for me to say your Affectionate Mother which I do think Joseph you Mite gratify by writing to Me’ (7a). Her final letter was still more intense: ‘Dear Joseph now after having wretten Letter after Letter the long Space of five Long and I must Say antious years wthout ever Receiving one line cheer or gratifying me and still you see I must write’ (8a). Perhaps

recalling from his letter of 1851 that Joseph feared her silence almost as much as she feared his, she switched tack by threatening that ‘if you do not answer this Letter I May give up anny thoughts of forther troubling of you’ (8b).

In coping with reticence and seeming indifference from their departed children, the Thompsons and Devlins dallied with the possibility of their eventual return. Richard Thompson wrote that ‘sister Bess wishes to Know of you have any word of coming home’; and in 1844 John Hammond still lived ‘in hopes of Seeing you once more in your native Land’ (3g, 2g).

Hammond Letters (Ha ta-1b) 373 Brother John’s prayer reinforced Daniel Devlin’s insistent suggestion that ‘you and your little familey might Return onse more to the land of your nativity, which would be a Comfort to your mother in her old days as She has few friends living’ (2b). As the Hammonds multiplied in Australia, the option of reverse migration faded. Thereafter, consolation could be found only in correspondence and in religious contemplation. Occasionally these were combined, as in Daniel’s exhortation to Joseph to ‘be ever mindfull of your Everlasting wellfare and in bringing your little family up in the

Nurture and admonition[?] of the Lord’ (zh: 9a). No doubt solace was derived from the reappearance of Devlin, Thompson, and Bickett as Chris-

tian names for the young Hammonds. The continuing thirst for contact was manifest in many expressions of curiosity about life in Australia (1a, Ie, 3c, 5e, 9g), and about the Hammonds’ growing brood of children (zh, 7c, 8b). The objects of curiosity ranged from reptiles and cultivation to prices and the calendar. Still more important, of course, was news of those

who had departed, and among the Armagh neighbours there was ‘grate enquiring when the here of anny letter from that contry’ (5f). Letters received, and letters sent, helped those at home to reconcile themselves to loss and dispersal. They provided the simulacrum of companionship, the comforting appearance of continuity amidst the menace of death and disintegration. As Mary Devlin wrote to Joseph Hammond (7f): ‘In Concluson I do ask you to Write to me and Gratify Me Before I do leave this uncertai[n] World.’

The Hammond Letters, 1843-64 (1-9) (Ha 1)

Drumgor Aprile 30th 1843

Dear Joseph and Helenah Hammond (a) I have now set down to write these few Lines to you to let you know that we are all in good Helth at present thank god for it—hoping this will

find you Both in the same. I answered your Letter in 1841 and got no account—and wee are uneasy to now how you are getting along whether ded or alive and I request you to answer this as soon as possible and Let us now the Rates of your country in Every Line and concerning what imploy you are at—for the weaving never was as Bad as at present here. I am weaving for Warrings town at present handkerchief. (b) In the Letter I sent you I stated that Helenah Wetherhead and man Sailed for Sidny, and your grand father Bicket is ded and Tomas Bicket is ded, and Edward Boyd is well wife and famly and has a younge daughter

374 Ulster Accents Helenah is hir name. Edward Boyd requests of you to let him know concerning Henry Harison how he is and his grand father is ded, and I took your Letters to uncle William Bicket and the are all well at present and the had a younge son Born and the called[?] him Joseph after you. (c) Your Brother John sends his kind love to you to Let you know he is well and wife and famly and John and William is his 2 sons. He and his Mother answered there Letters Likewise and got no Answer which makes them think Long to know concerning you Both. Your father and mother is well at present and your 2 sisters Likewise. Young Gorge Miller is ded and never recovered after you went away. The Blamed carying the planks out of portadown for Bringing on his death. (d) Isaack Hall and famly is well at present. I wish to Let you know that Sarah ann Stephenson and Joseph Williamson is maried and had a Large weding 20 Couple And is in america, and Aunt Betty Thompson and famly is well and Also Dynes Gilpen and famly is well and all your inquiring friends and acquaintance is well and when you write mak mention all the Neibours and acquaintance. (e) As soon as this comes to hand [?I hope] you ont delay in answering this in all the Satisfaction you can corcerning cultivation and every thing Else and I will send you all the news I can again for [?I am at] a short for time to give you satisfaction [?for what h]appened Since you went away as I was getting this sent By hand through the acquaintance of Thomas Lawsons wife. Deer daughter Helenah your mother is thinking Long About you to hear about you. (f) I wish to Let you kno[w] concerning the rates of Vitling [?victualling] here at present Potatoes 8d p cwt Wheat from 8s to ros cwt Oats—4s cwt Mail [meal] from 9s=4d to ros do. Pork—£1-10s cwt cows from £2=10s to £5. (g) No more at present But Remains your Kind friends to death also Richard Thomson and John Hammond Edward Boyd all present at the writing of this. I am dry for a smok. I must conclude. Write as soon as possible. Wee are all thinking Longe. To Joseph Hammond of Melbourne port Philip Australia. He came By the Ship Neptune New South Wails.

Hammond Letters (Ha tb-2d) 375 (Ha 2) Killicomane

Dear Son

14th May 1844

(a) We Seen the Contents of your letter dated the 8th Nov. 1843 and likewise your answer to our last dated (the 4th Decimber 1842) and is happy to hear that you and wife and family is in Good health. Your mother and me Enjoy good Health at present thanks be to God for his unspeakable mercies, and as for Maryann She is growing a tall young woman but appears to be delicate. But Dr. Joseph in the foregoing lines it is with Heartfelt

Regret we have to announce to you the death of our beloved Daughter your Sister Jane—when after a long Protracted illness at intervals Changed

this [mortal life, for an imortal, in Sure and certain hopes of a Blessed Resurrection through our Lord Jesus Christ. Her Bodiley Sufferings Ceased

to exist on the 21st. November 1843—at 2 oclock in the morning after being under bodyly Sufferings 3 weeks privious to her death, in a Decline. She promised fair to be useful in her Generation. But the Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away Blessed be the name of the Lord. Your Brother John and Richard Thompson was verry attentive dureing her last illness. So Dr Joseph we hope you will Excuse us not writing as we expected this to take place. (b) Dr Joseph your mother is anxious that you would if God permit as we expect you might by being Saveing together with that place you have Bought to dispose of it that you and your little familey might Return onse

more to the land of your nativity, which would be a Comfort to your mother in her old days as She has few friends living which would be a great Consolation to her to have you and your Brother John with her at her Decace.

(c) The waving Buisness is doing well in this Country at present and provisions on a reasonable Scale. William Murry has took to drapering these last few years and is in a fair way of makeing a fortune, and we think that Coloney will Be a poor place in the course of a few years by reason of so much Emigration to it yearly, and but bad Encouragment when there for the working Classes. And we further hope that what we have Said on the Subject will make a deep Impression on Your mind to fulfill the same if God permit. (d) Your Brother John Delivered the letter to your Father in laws family

and I was happy to hear that you and your little family was well and in good Health, which leaves them all at present, and likewise. Edward Boyd and wife and family is well and is happy to hear you are so likewise. The

have 3 Children and the Call the youngest Helenah. David and Hanny Miller and family is well and desires to be remembered to you, but David

thinks it Strange that William never writes, and having the Same

376 Ulster Accents Opportunity as you have. Isaac Halls familey is all well and wishes to be

Remembered to you. There has been a great number of Deaths in our neighbourhood this last two years 4 Children in our neighbourhood in the Course of a few days—z2 Children of Richard Welch and one of Joseph Fowlers Hammilton By name and Welches oldest & youngest. (e) Joseph Fowlers Eldest Daughter is married to a Soldier names Charles Wild and is in Expectation of Going on Station to N. S$. Wales—the Regts number is the 54th. Sarah Holmes that is Mary Greenaways Mother would be Glad to hear from her and if you Can if posible hear anything about Her Let us know in your next as She heard Some time ago of Some unfavourable Account of her. (f) Dr Joseph Respecting what we have hinted at on the other side do your Best Endavours to Return home, Before you have much of an increace of famlily] as it would be more Difuccult than when your family is small. Jas Miller left his place in Tyrone[?] and is gone with young John Overend to America. Miller is well and has Sent for his wife and family and likewise Young John Overend is well. (g) Dr [Jose]ph your Brother John Received your welcome Letter [?dated]

13th May and we are now writing in his absence. Concerning[?] him he still lives at the Red Cow and is well and his wife and 3—Children. He Calls the Youngest Mary Jane—and he Still Lives in hopes of Seeing you once more in your native Land. Richard McNeill & family is all well and John Stephensons. Let Helenah know that her Cousin ann Thompson is Married to Thomas Gregson. (h) We must Entreat you Dr Joseph Before we Conclude, to be ever mindfull of your Everlasting wellfare and in bringing your little family up in the Nurture and admonition[?] of the Lord. We are intent that nothing Shall prevent us of writing in future till Death or exille[?] in a Strange Land.

Dr Joseph when you receive this write immeediatly and let us know the number of your family which you Ommitted in Your last. So wee Commit the keeping of your Souls and Bodyes into the hands of a faithful Creator—

and remains your Loving Mother Brother and Sister and Stepfather till Death Mary Develine

John and Mary ann Hammond Danl Develine

To Joseph Hammond Melbourne Port Phillip Australia N. S. Wales

Hammond Letters (Ha 2d-3e) 377 (Ha 3)

Drumgor June the 9—1845 Dear Brother & Sister Joseph & Helenah Hammond (a) I embrace this favourable opportunity of scribling these few Lines to you once more hoping that the will find you Both in as Good Health as the leave us all in at present thank God for all His mercies to us. I received your Letter after a long silence on the 30th of May Being Dated the 29th of September 1844 which Gives us all a Great Deal of Comfort But sory to hear of your Loss But content to Hear of you Being in a situation and your children in Good Health. (b) Dear S. & Brother I had William Millers Letter which Gives us some satisfaction Concerning the way of Living in Australia, and of Him receiving your Stepfathers letter After you had left melbourn And by that I judge you had not received my Last letter for Daniel had posted his some time Before me. But as soon as this comes to Hand I Hope you ont Neglect in answering this as God knows whether Ever I will have the Satisfaction of writing to you any more or not for I have set my face towards America and I have to Be in Belfast to morrow to Go on Board the Conqueror for Quebec me and my mistress Maria Gilpin and if Posible I can Write from America To you I will as soon as as I settle. But I Hope that you will alow my father to put a case on your letter and forward it to me as soon as it comes to Hand. (c) Dear sister & Brother my mother Enjoys Prety Good Health But is still thinking of you, and Mee Going away now Sets sore on hir. But thank God wee all Enjoy Prety Good Health—and I am content with the satisfection that you Give me of the river yarra yarra and the Reptiles. But | hope that the Lord will Be Gracious to you to Keep them from you all. I hope that you will Let me Know what Lenght your Days is and of ther is much cultivation since you came to Australia and of it is improveing any way fast. (d) Dear S & Brother your stepfather and Mother received your Letter along with our one And the are for writing soon. The are all well Likewise our Brother John wife and famly. There famly is increasing there youngest is a son Joseph. Aunt Betys famly is well. Edward Boyd Susana and famly is well. Dear Brother & Sister I am So much confused that I cant Give you as much satisfaction as I should But I Hope that you will forgive Me at Present. (e) Dear sister I Hope an ear you will lend to those few lines the Being the last I send from old Ireland my Deer native soil I am Going to leave it, and wander many a mile

378 Ulster Accents I am Going to cross the atlantic sea and try to reach the Land of Liberty to Leave Drumgor tomorrow the ro of June it is my intent Our old Birth Place where my youthful Days I spent alongst with you in Quietness and content.

(f) No more at present But remains your Affectionate Brother to Death Richd. Thompson Farewell To you Both. (g) Dear sister & Brother my father stands it Prety well althoug he is a Hard working man. Sister Bess wishes to Know of you have any word of coming home. She is still talking about you Both and your son Robert. To Mr Joseph Hammond Belfast Port Fairy Austrailia by Private ship (Ha 4) [from early transcription of lost original] Belfast

Port Fairy Feb 3rd 1851 Dear Parents

(a) It is so long since I wrote or received any news from Home that I was almost afraid of hearing from home however to do so but I hope you will not defer writing as soon as you get this. As the ship sails direct from Belfast to London there is no danger of it getting mislaid. Helenah and myself and Children is all well: Thank God: and I sincerely hope this may find all Our Mother’s and Father’s Sisters and Brothers in as good health as this leaves us. (b) Our Family consists of 5 sons and One Daughter. Robert 9 years Old: Mary Jane 7 years old John Devlin 5 years and 5 months Joseph near 4 years: Samuell Lutton from Hillshore who has been a Friend to us for some years is now 2 years and 6 months. Richard the last and the best liked. Doulls Daughter is 16 months old. (c) We are living within one mile of Belfast and have 100 acres rented at 4 shillings per acre. The land is not very good but it does for Grazing cattle and growing what we want ourselves. The very best of land is rented at 6/- per acre. We have lived in the Bush to within the last 12 months. We left then and came to our present Home to get the Children to school. Robert is able to read and write: John is spelling Mary Jane is reading &

Hammond Letters (Ha 3e-4c) 379

la & ee int a - aan ioe - .)rs Bi,a ‘a——_ : . . a} ‘« a»a’:'7;

Eg: ; : \: | _ . 4 : - ; “a ; 7 “+

) , wy a re Met - ‘ * ape : ma ft ~ “., -~ “ WE wi ® *s Mee, , Nis ) a 7 it ail ™

& S, a ”

. a ; i 41 y | \ Vy . 3 | AL 2G \

j:5\

‘ i a + a _- - . Ad ! " i * ’ B YY AY Nee " we. dK: +h Sea , wy ‘: | e° } ‘ FIGURE 47. ‘I am Going to cross the atlantic sea’: Richard Thompson and his brothers in Canada, circa 1870s (Mrs. Winifred Allen).

380 Ulster Accents

Rt pages a RE Fen gO SP large tein oo tae eS ay Fes oes ccs Sits -- co SS = awe a eer

7” ti ' heAeiy{dy eS4{is a sTPs 4),sont . i, . ~~~ §&)--3R Wry a ~ aT

. . ae tee St tee ee MS nn “

xi - Yowern tah te a we, ff Sm The ts f FIGURE 48. Township of Belfast from the North (pencil drawing by S. T. Gill, 15 March 1856, in La Trobe Collection: State Library of Victoria).

spelling: Joseph we intend to send to school next summer and Samuell as soon as we can if our Family has increased. (d) We have got a little more than we could expect to have in Ireland. We have 27 Milk Cows with a team of working Bullocks and a good dray I paid £17 for 4 months ago beside Heifers & steers that would number up to 100 with a good brood mare yearling colt foal at foot and a good saddle horse for myself and another for Robert in all 5 head. (e) I sold a good filly fit for the Plough 3 year old for £14 and a good saddle horse 4 year old for £13 that is about the price for Hack horses. Good cart horses will bring £20 Race Horses will bring from £20 to 75 to my knowledge. Cattle is cheap a good milk cow bring £3—Working Bullocks from £6 to 9£ a pair according to quality. The prices of everything varies very much in this colony—for instance Flour is sold now for 15/shillings per 100 lbs—very good Beef 1°/2 |b Mutton the best 1d per pound. We kill our own beef therefore it costs us little. Good sugar 3d per lb— Tea very good 1/6 lb coffee 1/- per lb Potatoes £6 per ton. But this is our Summers consequently in a few months they will fall to about £2.10 to £3per ton. This is about the standing price yearly. Wheat was this last 2 or

Hammond Letters (Ha 4c-5b) 381

3 years from 2/10 to 3/3 per bushel: Oats a little dearer. All kinds of wearing apparel cheaper than we saw them in Ireland for instance good Moleskins Trousers 7/6 Pair Strong Waist Coats 5/- each: Tweed Frock Coats £1-7-6 to £1-10- or there abouts—Boots & shoes dearer. The leather is not so good as in Ireland. Wellington Boots £1-15 to £2. Strong Bush boots 14/- per pair. There are very fair shoes worn here. Womens Kangaroo & Calfskin boots 11 per Pair. Boots & shoes dont cost us much as I have

been working at the trade the last 6 years. I am well known in Belfast as Hammond the shoe maker. (f) H Harrison lives in Geelong. James Patton lives in the River Plenty near Melbourne. The rest that came from our place I know nothing of them. Dear Parents write as soon as you can. Let us know the Particulars of Druinger [Drumgor] and Killiconan. Let my Brother John know I will write to him about a month from this date. (g) Give Helenah’s kind love & best wishes to our Mothers & Fathers, Sisters & Brothers and all kind friends. Helenah wishes to know how Susana & Edward and family is and Richard is doing in America and if more has left the Paternal Home. Dear Friends I now not say much. I would like to hear from Home but I would like better to see you all in Australia for me I will never be in Ireland.

Yours ever Son & Daughter Joseph & Helenah Hammond

Mr Robert Thompson Ireland County Armagh Lurgan—Driagor|?] Hill

(Ha 5)

Cillicomain August 8th. 1852 Dear Joseph (a) I Received your Kind and Very welcom Letter of the roth of March— and was no little comforted thereby on the 31 of July 1852 and may tell

you that we wear as you wished all in good Helth. We wear all glad to here that youar Family wear all in good helth and I may also Express my gratitude to your Wife who Spake so very friendly to and ove[r] us all here. (b) Dear Joseph you inquire about your Brother Johns children if there

are anny of them alive to which I have to say there is none and as for William Craig and wife they would not go at] all—for the have 3 children. Edward Boyde and wife have 6 Daughters and are all will and Sends their Kind love to you. There is some word from your Brother in law William

382 Ulster Accents Thompson out of America. He has Sent for a young women of the name of Russell. (c) Dear Brother I wish to Send my Kindes respects and warmest love to your Misses and ame very glade of your wellfair—and My Husband Joinse in the above Sentiments Expressed. We have as yet but one child which is

4 years old June last. We col-hir Sophia and she sends hir love to Uncle and Ant and all hir cousens. (d) Now Dear Joseph I May tell you something that perhaps your would like to here. My Son in law William is a Very Kind Husband and also very good to me, but as I am now comming down the hill of lif and I can make little at winding of warp, I have bing thinking that perhaps you might think of Sending me a Present as that is a Gold Contry, and in deed gold is very hard to be got here. Joseph if you wear in circomstances Similar to mine | Know what I would dow if I wear in yours.

(e) Dear Joseph we would be very glade that you would send us an account of your holding and how you and Family are employed or whether you are holding the Farm that you did hold that you Spoke of in the Letter previous to this. (f) Joyce Irwins Mother wishes you to let him Know that she is still alive and enjoys but bad helth and lives with hir two daughters. Mrs. Harrison was greatly rejoyced by hearing from hir Son in your letter & would be glade that you woul|[d] let him Know that his Father and Mother is Still

alive and would feel thankfull to you if you would take the trouble of letting them Know some thing more about him in your next Letter. William Magee formaly of Breagh is now in that contry and if you could find him out or anny thing about him, and let us Know, we would be glade or anny other young Men from this contry we would also be glade for thir is grate enquiring when the here of anny letter from that contry. (g) Dear Joseph there is one thing to Mention and that is the loss of our

Potatoe crop in Ireland. I blieve this is the 7th year that the have been taking from us. (h) Isaac Hall & Family are all well and none of them are Maried yet. John Walker the clerks Son is in Melborn and if you can make him off and send us word we will be glad. Joseph I could say a great deal if I was with you but I must conclude at present By Saying nomore at present but Remains your Affectionate Mother Sister & Brother to death Mary Devlin & Mary Ann &—Wm MCormick— To Mr Joseph Hammond Belfast port fary Australia Pr. Ship

Hammond Letters (Ha 5b-6c) 383 (Ha 6)

KillyComain Decmbr. 6th. 54

My dear Joseph (a) I take up my Pen to write these few lines to you hoping to find you and all your family in good health as this leaves us all at present thank god. I wrote to you per Mr. Little who left this for Melbourne on the 6th. of November 1853 but up to the present has receved no letter from you. Doutless that you have not recieved that letter [and] fearing that it has been misled I hasten to write to you per Post direct, to let you Know that after great anciety on acount of the information which Your letter of 25th. of October 1853 it arrived which gave me to Know that You had forwarded to us the Sum of £25 pounds and which wee expected to have recieved immedeately afterward but did not unto the 12th. June 1854. On or about

the 16th. of January last one Mr. Lutton from hieghtborough Came to Edward Boyd and gave him 20 pounds but Said nothing about my money. I therefore proceeded to Mr. Lutton myself and he Could not gave me any

information about my money. I was therefore uneasy about the matter altogether up to the 12[th of] June last when I recevd A Bank order from one Mr Mit[?chell] from London after recieving the necessary instractions from me by letter before hand. So that you will at once percieve that I had A great deal of trouble and anciety of mind Concerning all matter before the were finally arranged. But I am hapy to see from you that I recievd all the amount £25 pounds stirling, for which I return You my most Sincere

thanks both You and Your Mistress. Also Mary Anne returns You and Your wife her most Sincere thanks for the handsome present that You Sent

and wee all join in love to you all and hope all things will turn for your future wealth and hapiness and Prosperity is our united wishes. (b) Edward Boyd his wife and family of 7 [daJughters are all well. Your sister Mary anne Craig went to America in August 1853. Her fathers family Sent for them. Mary Anne was verry ill about Easter last. She was very near dying her life indeed was very much despaired of from inflamation in the hand but thank god she is quite recovered, and at present her health is much better. She sends her Kind love to you your wife and all the family. Sophia and helenah Jane is both verry well and Sends their Kind love to all their Cousins. (c) When You write do not neglect to mention Your sisters husband his name is William Mcormick. He is A verry Kind husband and a good industrious Son in law. Wee all live verry hapy and Co[nt]ent together, and William wishes to be remembered to you all in the Kindest manner. Do

not neglect to let us Know if the gold Continues as plenty as it is verry useful and proves verry beneficial in this Country. Do not neglect to write Soon as posible and let us Know all about henery harrison and Joyce Irwin

and all other aquaintance. Do not neglect to say what distance you are

384 Ulster Accents from Melbourne and I send my most affectionate Love to all my grandchildren and to You all. No more. Your aff Mary devlin

(Ha 7)

Killagomain Decr. 20th 1857 My Very Dear Son

(a) To you I do address this few lines and do hope the shall find you and Family possessing good helth and happiness. But | must say I ame discoraged a good deal by never receiving one word from you since the Receit of your very Kind present altho I have written Several Letters both

by Post and hand, and I must say it discorraged me a good deal. But to you My Son & Daughter With you all My Dear Grand Children to [too] I do Most Greatfully Acknowledge the Kindness you dun to me in that you

have sint me your Money which I did not Expect. But I still say I am thankful. But Dear Joseph now in my declinning years | still have my thoughts about you altho we are so farr sipperated and would feel very happy [line largely illegible: 2to sometime see a Letter that would] tell me Somthing about you and Family. But I must say yet another word about

your Kind present and that is that it was in a good time for your Sister Mary Ann was out of Helth at the time but is at this time in Better Helth than she has had for some time but would feel very glade and happy if You would be so Kind as to Write and let us here Know something about you. But Dear Joseph when you do write you mite say some thing to William as some like to be mentioned by Name for he is very Kind to Mary Ann. But your Brother in Law does think that as you have no Brothers or Sisters in Ireland but Mary Ann and him. Me, I think I think it would not

be too much for me to say your Affectionate Mother which I do think Joseph you Mite gratify by writing to Me. (b) I may tell you Edward Boyde and Family is well and has 7—Daugh-

ters. I Should have said Helenah to you I say that in reffrence to your Fathers Family the last account that I had of them well and dowing very well in America. I may report a gain to you your Sister Mary Ann Craig and Husband are in America also and fel into a Comfortable way when they went there. (c) Dear Joseph we would like that you would Sind us the Number and Names of your Children and some of the purticklars Respecting them. Your Sister Mary Ann has 3: Children and their Names are as follows—Sophia age 9: years Helenah Jane—4 years: Mary Ann: 8 months old and are Fine promising Children but we have one Child Dead, Caled William Thomas

Hammond Letters (Ha 6c-8a) 385 that is 4 in all. [imserted: All wishes to be remembered to their Uncle ant & cozens.] (d) When You do Write lit me Know how farr your off Melbourn as there is a great Manny from this Neighbourhood over there. Elen Fowler and Thomas Shinamon [Cinnamond] is in Melbourn. Joyce Irwin did Visset Ireland and his Friend[s] but is gon back to Australia again and is I hope by this time Safe theer. I might tell you of they Neighbours but I do think the 3rd of them are ded and a way it a mercy I’m here. (e) The Weaving Tread is Lower than it has been been this Manny years. Provisions are as follows. Wheat ro[?] Shillings p cwt Oats from 7 Shillings down. Potatoes from 0.3s.4d down. Pork 42.6d that is £2.2.6 p cwt. Beef 6d. p lb down. Butter 1s lb. But another thing and that is hardly annything

but War War in India in the month of Nov—16 ooo in Listed into the Queens Army all on account a want of Good Tread. Robert White is living in Mr. Henerys place as they are mostly all dead, and is Munufactorring and grocer. (f) In Concluson I do ask you to Write to me and Gratify Me Before I do leave this uncertai[n] World and when you do write pleas to Direct to the Care of Mr. James Ohanlin Hy St. Portadown for Mary Devlin Kilagomain County Armagh Ireland and I will get it at once. Pleas to let us Know Some thing of Henry Harison as there is no word from him only that we herd that he was dead. [childish hand] (g) Dear uncle and aunt give my kind Love to all my little cousins. I am

fond Of them all though i never saw them. Sophia MCormicks of Killicomain [original hand| (h) These are lines wrote by your Cozen altho She is but 9 years of Age. Nomore at present but Remains Your Affactionate Mother to death: Mary Devlin Mary Ann & William McCormick. Fare well. Please Write in Heast.

(Ha 8)

Killicomain Portadown May st. 1859. My Dear & Much Loved Son (a) Moved by Parental effection I again address these few lines to you and do most humbly hope they shall find you and Family possessing good helth and all they happeness which this World is able to afford—and above all that as you and I are comming down the hill of Life and eare long we Shal desen [?descend| the Grave that we may look to Enjoy a fore tast of that more enduring World which Shal never End. But altho those pressurs

386 Ulster Accents have continued to Move me to Continue to Spake in these or Simelar Sintements what I cannot Spak by Tungue you must Know as a Parant I have Antious thoughts of My Dear Son. Dear Joseph now after having wretten Letter after Letter the long Space of five Long and I must Say antious years wthout ever Receiving one line cheer or gratifying me and still you see I must write. (b) Now, Dear Joseph one thing I would almost Beg Viz—that you would not looke on an answer to these with indifferance but that you will write to me and thus Favour me and give all the perticklars that you can thinke of. Let me Know your Family and each Name. But Joseph—I do thinke it very Strange that I can get some word of you through some of our Neigh-

bours else I Should not thought of writing for I did think there was a Probabillity of your being deat or that you would have written befor this. Thomas Sinnamon of Killicomain, Now in Milbourn give us an account of you in a Letter to his Father. John Fergus of Portadown, now in Portfairy give us the last account of you which encoraged me to write this Letter. Now Dear Joseph if you do not answer this Letter I May give up anny thoughts of forther troubling of you. (c) My Son—I may tell you that my Helth is on the decline but it would be beyond reason to expect it otherwise as I have now Reached within one year of 70—that you see to be the limitt Three Scoar & Ten Byond which is Said to be Labour and Sorrow. Now I would like you to Remember me Very affactionatly to your Wife and Family—and let them Know it would add to my Satisfaction to hear of their Being all well. (d) I have in former Letters which I hope you may have got being telling of your Sister Mary Anns haveing a rising Family in all now 4 Childeren all Faimels [females]. She was Confined on the 1 of April 1859 & Safely delivered of a Daughter & is recovering Satisfatrily. Hir Husband William McCormick got Cold through a very seveir wetting last Christmas and is not getting rede of it, Safely but he also would be Very glade to see a Letter from you. I May also tell you I heard that your Father in Law died about Nove last with his Son William. Edward Boyd & Wife & Family 8 Daughters are all well the eldes Daughter haveing got Maried to a young man caled William Coskin. Mrs Harison is always anctious to See a Letter from you expecting to here some word cocerning hir Son. (e) Now I May Say Nomore at Present But to Remain—Dear Joseph &

Helena & Grand Children Your Loveing Mother Sister & Brother in Law—while this Life Lasts Viz— Mary Devlin William McCormick & Mary Ann McCormick, of Killicomain. Fare well.

(f) Dear Uncle—and Ant with you and My Cozens all I send you my Kind love. My Sister Helena Jane Joins Me and Mary Anne also. Give my

Hammond Letters (Ha 8a—9e) 387

best Respects to my Aunt Helena. As for our baby we have not it Christened yet. No more at present but remains your Affectionate neice Sophia Mc.Cormack (Ha 9)

September 16 1864 Bleary

My Dear Sister

(a) I Send you These Lines In Answer To yours. I am Glad To Hear From you to Know That you are yet Alive Though we All are Sory For The Death of Joseph. Edward Feels Much For you on Account of the Loss of Joseph But Let It Teach you and me that In the Midst of Life we are in the Midst of Death. As for your Sircumstances Strive and be Content and Cast your Care on the Lord And He will take Care of you And your Family. (b) As for my Husband and Myself our Health is Much Worse than it

used to be. But thanks to God for all his Mercies to us our Childern are all well and able to work and Hard it is to make a living by weaving for the webs is so long and wages little though wages is a little better these last few Months than the have been for some years. Our oldest Daughter Myann [Maryann] is Maried to William Coskin and has too [two] Children

a son and a daughter. The rest of our Children is all with us the are all girls. The [?youngest] is near 6 years old she is Called Hannah. She is At Bleary School and so is the next to [two] older Maria and Susanna and the other 4 is waveng and Edward and myself attends them with the help of Maria and Susanna when the come home from School. (c) Wee live in Bleary it is between Lurgan and the Brownmoss. We are here since Last january. Wee Pay 1s 6d weeck for our House and the Children still wave for Mr Henning of Waringstown since Before you Left Home. Some of then weaves orangs[?] work 17!°° 60 yards long and 30 inches wide 59 Hanks wit [weft] wages 12s and Bordered weebs [?webs] 7 dozen Long 28 inchs Broad 16!°° wages 9s. Now Dear Sister you can see from this how we are Doing. (d) I will let you see the price of our food. Flour too [2]s per stone oat meal 19d per stone india meal 15d per stone. Tea 3d per ounce suger 6d per pound Butter 14d per pound Bacon irish 7d per pound america 6d. (e) Mrs Develin is well. She Sent for me when she Got your letter. She was very sory and so was Mrs Mcormick and her Childern. The all felt Much for you as Mrs Mcormick knows the want of a Husband herself for William Mcormick is Dead 2 years. The all Live toghather in the old Place. She has 3 Daughters the oldest is 16 years the youest is about 8 years old.

388 Ulster Accents She keeps a Grocer shop and Sends Reeds on hire. She Lives very Comfortable and takes Good Care of her Mother. I stayed some time with them the were very Glad to see me. (f) Aunt Betty is unable to Walk this 3 years from A Stroke. Cousin Richard and the Rest of the family is well. He has 6 Cildren 4 Daughters And 2 sons. Ann Greigston is dead Long time ago and Left 3 Children 2 sons and 1 Daughter. Uncle Richard Thompson and Aunts is still Alive in the old place in Aughlee But is Getting old. I did not see them these many years But I hear from them by Cousin Richard. I Entainded [intended] to go down this Long time to see Mothers Grave But I Could not Get Away. But If I am Spared a Little Longer I Will go with the Help of God And I Will Bring A Leaf[?] of the Grave and Send It to you when I Write to you Again. (g) I Mack free Dear Sister to Ask what place of [?worship] your Family

Attend as I never Could know Also how fare [far] you Live from it. 6 of our Children Goes to the Church School on Sundays At 9 oclock. Schools over At 11. 3 oldest, Ellon and Helena and Elizajane Stays for Church and 3 Comes Home. (h) Dear Sister I Have not Got A Letter This [blotted] years past. I Have Heard in James Craigs Letter who was Married to Margret stevenson. He says the are All Well And All Married And Sister Bess Her Husband is dead A year ore more. She has 3[?] Children. (i) Dear Sister I expect you Have Heard of the Death of Father Before this. It is near 6 years Since He Died. Dear Sister you May thank God that you are not in Ireland. You would Scarce Meet Any one you Would Know

so many dead And so many Gone to queensland and New zeland and America.

(j) Now Dear Mary Jane As you wish to know how Many Cousins you have I will tell you. There are 8. There are Maryann But She is in her own house she was [?here] to Day And is well. The next is Ellen And Helena And Elizajane And Margret And Maria And Susanna And little Hannah. The Are All Clean Healthy Thanks Be to God. They Are All glad To Hear From you All. (k) Now Dear Sister That God May Bless you And your Family Is the Sincere Prayer of your Affectionate Brother and Sister to Death Edward And Susanna Boyd Why do we mourn departing friends Or shake at deaths alarms Tis but the voice that Jesus sends To call them to his arms Why should we tremble to convey Their bodies to the tomb

Hammond Letters (Ha 9e-9l) 389 There the dear flesh of Jesus lay And left a sweet perfume.

(1) When you write Direct to Edward Boyd Bleary Near Lurgan Irland. Let me know the particulars of Josephs death. Please write adres[?] soon.

C H A P T ER I 4 ‘We Will Meet in Ireland Yet’:

The Brennan Circle, 1865-76

[* THE HAMMONDS OF ARMAGH AND THE FIFES OF FERMANAGH, THE

Brennans and their connections in Down scratched out a precarious

subsistence through weaving and farming. These seven letters, sent to Australia between 1865 and 1876, give a sober and matter-of-fact account of

economic fluctuations, local events, and a wide range of connections in America and Britain as well as Australia.'! They express curiosity about Australian life, without carrying the emotional charge of William Fife’s laments for his lost children, or the grim force of Mary Devlin’s appeals. Yet the letters convey disturbing traces of family disharmony, reflecting the sectarian sensibilities that always menaced communal goodwill in Ulster. The recipients of six of the letters, Joseph McKee and Mary Brennan, had married across the religious divide shortly before leaving Down for Victoria in 1863. The first letter was written by McKee’s brother-in-law Isaac Herron, also a Protestant; whereas the remainder were composed by the Cath-

olic Brennans. The fourth letter was sent to Mary’s brother Thomas Brennan, who had emigrated to Queensland. Their father Daniel Brennan valued education and was a keen student of newspapers, yet his use of a named amanuensis for the second, fourth, and fifth letters suggests that he could scarcely write. We therefore cannot tell to what extent the relative sophistication of his prose reflected his own verbal facility. In August 1863 the Caduceus reached Melbourne after a voyage of 88 days

from Southampton. The ship seemed ‘in good order and very clean, ' The original letters and associated documents are in the Brennan Papers, MS 11770, La Trobe Library, Melbourne, box 2014/10.

390

Brennan 391 thus accounting in a great measure for the healthy state’ of the four hundred ‘Government immigrants’ aboard.2, Among these were Joseph and Mary McKee, listed as literate adherents of the Church of England from Co. Down, with their one-year-old daughter. In fact, as the Catholic parish registers for Moira reveal, both mother and child had been baptised into the religion of Mary’s family, the Brennans of Ballyknock. Mary McKee was to die a Catholic in 1898, whereas her husband Joseph was buried 19 years later in the Anglican section of a different cemetery. Though ‘mixed marriages’ were not yet the target of such systematic clerical interference as was to follow the Ne Temere decree of August 1907, they had long been condemned and resented by both Protestant and Catholic zealots in Ulster. The Orange Institution steadily depleted its membership by expelling those

who had dared to marry ‘a papist’; and Catholic congregations were warned ceaselessly of the spiritual contamination likely to follow congress with a Protestant. The extent to which these admonitions were effective, though an issue of crucial importance in Ulster’s history, is unknown. In Ballyknock, however, no household enumerated in the census of 1901 confessed to the intrusion of any member of deviant religious profession. Forty of its sixty-seven households were exclusively of the Church of Ireland, while seventeen were uniformly Catholic.’ If mixed marriages had spawned any families in this invisibly partitioned townland, they had evidently entailed the conversion of half the partners. A couple like Joseph and Mary McKee, who retained separate religious affiliations after marriage, would have found life in Ballyknock uncomfortable indeed. As in other spheres, emigration offered a route of escape to those impatient of communal reg-

ulation. Yet even in Australia, both Catholics and Protestants remained under strong pressure to marry within their own congregations. Lapsing for love remained a nightmare for Australian Catholics like Mary Sarah McKee, the infant on the Caduceus. After her own marriage to a fellowcountryman, she observed of an Italian acquaintance ‘that the young fellow that the Pistrioccis are breaking their necks after is a Protestant and very strict to his own church. I suppose she’ll turn rather than lose him.”* Faith and freedom were uneasy bedfellows in Australia as in Ulster. 2 Melbourne Age, 3 August 1863. 3 The 158 household schedules for Ballyknock and three nearby townlands in Moira DED, 1901 (Ballygowan, Ballymagarahan, and Lurganville), include only five Protestant households with Catholic members, all servants. No Catholic households contained Protestants. Twelve households embraced members of different Protestant denominations, though only four of these householders coexisted with relatives of another sect (a mother-in-law, a nephew by marriage, and two grand-daughters). Presbyterians and Unitarians, having numerous servants, were unusually ecumenical, with nine of their thirty households crossing denominational boundaries. 4 M. S. Thornton to her sister Catherine Murphy, undated fragment. Several letters between family members in Australia survive in the Brennan Papers. Mary Sarah had married the Irishborn Peter Thornton in 1885.

392 Ulster Accents The Brennans and McKees came from the Lagan valley in north Down, about twelve miles south-west of Belfast. Mary Brennan of Ballyknock in the parish of Moira was baptised in May 1833, sixteen months after the marriage of Mary Ann Magee’ to Daniel Brennan from Hillsborough, the next parish to the east. Her younger siblings included Catherine, author of the third letter; Thomas, who emigrated to Queensland; Sarah Ann, already ‘the tallest of the family’ in 1866 and still ‘growing on’; and Eliza Jane,

who like Sarah Ann contemplated following Mary to Victoria (2d, 3c). Daniel Brennan was a weaver, occupying a small plot of ten statute acres on the Kilwarlin estate of the Marquess of Downshire. He became tenantat-will at the old annual rental of £8 6s 6d upon expiration of the lease in January 1847, when the occupier Patrick Magee was two years in arrears. We may surmise that Magee was Mary’s father, so presumably smoothing the transition. Many Ballyknock tenants had fallen into deep arrears during the Famine, and the tenants following and preceding Magee in the estate register were ejected in 1848 and 1849 with arrears of up to nine years’ rental. Daniel Brennan paid his unchanged rent punctually for most of his life, and owed his landlord nothing when he died in August 1879.° Daniel, like most Catholic correspondents in this collection, showed no hostility to his landlord, instead lauding the fifth Marquess of Downshire as ‘a pleasing landlord’ and adding that ‘his Lady is very charitable’ (4e).” After Daniel’s death the tenancy went to his widow and then their unmarried daughters, before passing out of the Brennan family in 1928. The origins of Joseph McKee, who married Mary Brennan in about 1860, were equally humble. Joseph McKee was baptised in April 1835 at St. John’s Church (Corcreeny), only half a mile from the Brennans’ farm in Ballyknock.® His father was returned in the Church of Ireland registers as a weaver and on occasion as a farmer, though he appears in neither the Tithe Applotment Book nor the Primary Valuation for the parish of Hillsborough. Joseph McKee senior 5 In the death certificate of Mary McKee, her mother’s name is given as Mary King rather than Mary Ann Magee (as in the parish registers). The Kings were evidently close connections of the family, since Patrick King sponsored the baptism of Mary’s sister Ann Brennan (died 1851) in 1835. 6 Rentals of Kilwarlin Estate, 1829-80, in PRONI, D 671/R8. The prevailing rent was deemed ‘enough’ in May 1848, and remained virtually unchanged at eight guineas in 1879. In the Primary Valuation of 1864, Brennan’s land was assessed at £9 10s, his house and offices being worth £1 ros. According to the Valuation Field Book, Brennan was a tenant-at-will in 1863: PRONI, VAL 2B/3/47B.

” Daniel had evidently been out of touch with his son Thomas for several years, since his letter reporting the death of the fourth Marquess in August 1868 was written over three years later in March 1872. 8 Joseph’s parents are named as Joseph McKee and his wife Jane. His daughter gave his birthdate as April 1836, and his mother’s name as Jane Catney of St. John’s Church: Catherine Murphy to Messrs. King and King, 17 January 1929, in Brennan Papers.

Brennan 393 settled in Newtownards, and was probably the widowed weaver who died in the town’s workhouse in October 1881, aged 85 years.° Religion and marriage were only minor themes in the Brennan correspondence, yet the intermarriage of Protestant Joseph with Catholic Mary provides a key for interpreting certain otherwise perplexing passages. Writers of both persuasions expressed a cynical view of wives. Isaac Herron of Moira, who had married Joseph’s sister Rebecca and was probably a Pres-

byterian, told Joseph that ‘I think I Know my brother [better] than to believe that he is any more henpicked than a nother tho there is very few altogather free’ (re). Daniel Brennan’s stream of thought might also be interpreted as suggesting that marriage was an incubus rather than a blessing: ‘John and Patrick Brennan are well and doing well at present, they are not married yet’ (5a). These rueful observations were not ostensibly related to the religious issue, which was tactfully evaded by the Brennans in their letters from Ballyknock. Their only references to religion concerned the munificence of the Catholic laity in leaving bequests to the clergy and subscribing towards new chapels such as that in nearby Dromore: ‘It is a splen-

did building, it has a large spire and a Bell few to equal it’ (5c: 4f, 7e). Daniel admitted that the ‘new chapel in Armage’ (in fact St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh) had attracted still more munificence when solemnly dedicated before 20,000 spectators on August 1873, 33 years after the laying of the first stone.!° The gulf between Catholic and Protestant, though never mentioned, was implicit in the distant and sometimes resentful manner in which writers referred to those of different denomination. Daniel Brennan clearly had little contact with Joseph McKee in Newtownards (admittedly over twenty miles away), writing for example that ‘the last account we had

of your grandfather he was poorly in health’ (5a: 2e, 6b). Isaac Herron was more explicit in defining the social distance between himself and the Catholic Brennans, though he professed puzzlement about its origin in his letter to Joseph junior: ‘I can tell you nothing about Your father in Laws people. The call very seldom here. I dont Know any cause for it except they think the are got too high in the worl for that’ (1g). He expressed equal perplexity at the supposed rift between the McKees in Victoria and his own brother Thomas, the Presbyterian who had been ‘very Kind’ to Joseph and his family after their arrival in the colony: ‘Now if all this was true why an ill feeling. I dont write this to offend you’ (1f). The design of ° He was ‘very Frail’ in 1875 (6b), and was therefore probably not the Joseph McKee who continued after 1893 to occupy a house valued at £2 in Henry Street, Newtownards. 10 Total expenditure on the cathedral exceeded £70,000, of which £7,000 was raised through collections following the dedication: Revd. John Gallogly, The History of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh (Dublin, 1880), p. 122; Guide to St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh: Souvenir of the Consecration (Armagh, 1904), p. 13.

394 Ulster Accents Isaac Herron’s complaints of aloofness is instructive. In each case he suggested that the coolness was both unjustified and inexplicable, so inviting

the reader to resolve the anomaly by considering the effect of unstated factors such as religious cleavage. The languages of Ulster are punctuated with such provocative reticences. The Brennans and their connections, like the Hammonds a few miles to

the west, came from Ulster’s ‘linen triangle’. Their letters indicate the ubiquity of textiles as a source of employment, with references to cambric weavers, cotton weavers, and stitching machinists (1b, 1g, 4c, 5a). Isaac Herron’s letter of August 1865 is particularly informative on the industrial impact of the American Civil War, which had ended three months earlier. Herron was something of a rarity in Down, being a weaver of cotton rather than linen.'' His recollection of the ‘wretched state of trade’ in the recent past reflected the disruption of cotton imports during the Civil War, after

which the cotton trade became ‘better... than ever it was in my day of weaving? (1d, rb). Linen manufacture, by contrast, had flourished in the temporary absence of competition from cotton manufacture in Ireland and especially Britain. Manufacturers continued to reap handsome profits from their heavy wartime investment in linen production until the mid-1870s, when multiple bankruptcies followed the collapse of foreign demand.'” Herron observed that the trade in cambric linens ‘could not be plentier’, wages being ‘pretty good’ at 11s for a piece of relatively coarse cambric in the stingy Macoun factory (1b).'° In 1866 Daniel Brennan confirmed that the ‘weaving trade continues to do well’ (2f); and his later letters give no hint of the violent fluctuations in demand for weavers which had distressed

the Hammond circle in the 1850s. Farming, on the other hand, remained risky and worrying for small holders like the Brennans. The season was ‘very unfavourable’ in 1866, with ‘a great failure in the Potatoe crop’ as '! Moira, where Herron lived, was at the western extremity of Ulster’s contracting cotton zone by 1838. The revival of cotton manufacture later in the century had not touched Down sufficiently for it to be among the six cotton counties listed in Thom’s Official Directory (Dublin, 1883 edn.), p. 699. Nevertheless, 200 women and girls were employed through sewed muslin agencies in Moira. See E. R. R. Green, The Lagan Valley, 1800~50 (London, 1949), p. 105; George Henry Bassett, Co. Down Guide and Directory (Dublin, 1886; new edn. 1988), p. 276. 2 Liam Kennedy and Philip Ollerenshaw (eds.), An Economic History of Ulster, 1820-1940 (Manchester, 1985), pp. 76-9. Exports of linen piece-goods from the United Kingdom peaked in 1866, recovered to a slightly lower level in 1872, and by 1876 had fallen to less than twothirds of the peak volume. Exports of cotton piece-goods rose steadily over the decade 186272, before reaching a plateau: B. R. Mitchell (ed.), Abstract of British Historical Statistics (Cambridge, 1971 edn.), pp. 202-3, 182. '3 “Macouns’ probably refers to the cambric and handkerchief factory of William and James

Macoun of Lurgan, Co. Armagh, which had 376 looms when taken over by the Lurgan Weaving Company in 1881 after 20 years in the business. J. R. Macoun had a similar manufactory at Moyraverty, Lurgan, in 1888. See George Henry Bassett, The Book of Co. Armagh (Dublin, 1888; new edn. 1989), pp. 36, 372.

Brennan 395 well as grain; three years later those who had ‘indulged themselves too deep’ in growing flax during the linen boom were faced with ‘complete failure’ and poor yields (2f, 3b). Possession of a cow remained an essential symbol of security for a rural weaver, comparable to possession of a child: ‘She has a cow and two little boys’ (6d). Possession of two cows would have been yet more reassuring, as the Brennans hinted in their last surviving letter of 1876: ‘Dear Freinds we are all well and doing as well as we can. We have one cow at present’ (7a). For households dependent upon joint income from weaving and farming, the fear of failure in either sector was always present. Like most Irish families, the Brennans of Ballyknock belonged to a complex network ranging from Britain to Canada and the United States. Their letters offered snippets of news on the success of neighbours and relatives throughout the world, providing a yardstick for Thomas Brennan and Joseph McKee in Australia. John Graham was ‘an Alderman in the city of Champaign [Illinois] and is in great repute’; ‘Willie Pat is on a Railway as Engineer and is making money’ (5a: 6d). Three male Devlins were in America or England, and two female Brennans had married and moved to Scotland or Donegal (4c, 4d, 5a, 6b). Joseph McKee’s family was also widely spread, with an aunt in Kingston, Ontario, and a married sister in Cum-

berland. Isaac Herron reported in 1865 that her husband was thriving there: ‘Nathaniel Hinds and family is in white Heaven" this year past at the Iron mines. He has a pound per week and is doing pretty well’ (ze, 1g). By 1869, when Mrs. Hinds returned to Moira for a summer visit to her sister Rebecca Herron, Nathaniel’s weekly wage had risen by half: ‘She said her husband earned 30s/ per week. She had plenty of money with her

but she did not spend much of it’ (3d). Her subsequent conduct was far from niggardly, for after the early death of both Rebecca and Isaac Herron, their orphaned sons were taken over to Britain by Mrs. Hinds.'S Emigration could provide security as well as disturbance for those remaining at home. Joseph and Mary McKee were not pioneers in their choice of Victoria

as a destination in 1863. No doubt discouraged by the Civil War from choosing America, they reached Victoria during a period of recession when free passages were rapidly being withdrawn from all classes except female domestic servants. The McKees were one of 359 married couples chosen

by the Emigration Commissioners for passages to Victoria during 1863. They were probably among the 114 Irish natives from ‘the distressed 14 “White Heaven’ is not a picturesque metaphor for subterranean bliss but a rendering of the mining town and seaport of Whitehaven, an increasingly important source of iron ore. See John Langton and R. J. Morris (eds.), Atlas of Industrialising Britain, 1780-1914 (London, 1986), pp 130-1. 1s §, A. Lavery (née Sarah Ann Brennan, Moira) to her niece Catherine Murphy (Victoria), 16 April 1916, in Brennan Papers.

396 Ulster Accents districts of the three Kingdoms’, selected by the Emigration Commissioners under a special grant to assist victims of the ‘cotton famine’ caused by the American Civil War.'* The McKees were helped on arrival (though evi-

dently not nominated) by Thomas Herron, Isaac’s Presbyterian brother who had emigrated to Victoria with his family on the Black Eagle in 1857. The passenger list of the Caduceus states that the McKees proceeded from the port to their ‘friend’ Thomas Herron in Germantown (now Grovedale), so named in honour of the vine-dressers from Germany who settled there in about 1850.!” The connection with Joseph’s sister’s husband’s brother, tenuous though it might seem, proved remarkably helpful to the settlement of the McKees. Three months after arrival, as Isaac Herron pointedly reminded him, Joseph reported that he had written to Thomas, ‘and that he

sent for you to come to his house and that you were still there and that the had been very Kind to you and had assisted you to get work’ (1f). The McKees remained in Germantown long enough for their second child Wil-

liam to be born there in 1863, but soon left the district after apparently falling out with their benefactor. By 1866, Joseph’s employment required him to travel up to one hundred

miles ‘for a job of work’, an arrangement that his father-in-law found ‘strange’ and ‘very awkward’ (2a). He was probably already working as a woodcarter at Riddell’s Creek, a township near Gisborne and about thirtyfive miles north-west of Melbourne.'® Joseph McKee was so listed in the directories between 1868 and 1870, and his fourth child Agnes was born

in the Gisborne area in 1869.’ During that year, as the third letter indicates, the McKees moved north to the Rochester district, midway between Bendigo and Echuca in central Victoria.2° Their peregrination continued almost as far as Swan Hill, on the Murray River in north-western Victoria. Mary and Joseph were to remain in this region throughout their lives together, at various locations with captivating names (if less thrilling actu'6 This grant of £5,000 was specifically directed towards ‘married couples with small families’, who were otherwise only eligible in rare cases ‘to assist in maintaining discipline on board’ immigrant vessels teeming with single females. The involvement of the Emigration Commissioners, and assistance for those not nominated in the colony, virtually ceased after 1863. See especially Emigration Commission, Twenty-Fourth General Report, pp. 17-18, 24, in HCP, 1864 [3341], xvi. '7 By 1861 South Barwon, the municipality just south of Geelong which included Germantown, had more Catholics than Lutherans and almost as many natives of Ireland as of Germany. Directories listed Thomas Herron of Germantown as a ratepayer in 1861, and as a farmer until at least 1884. '8 ‘The census population of Riddell township in 1871 was 510. '9 Catherine McKee (whose birth was evidently not registered) was also born at Riddell’s Creek, in 1866. See John J. Murphy, ‘A History of the Murphy Family’, in MS 12053, La Trobe Library, box 2542/6. 20 ‘The index to Victorian registered births records the birth of further young McKees in Elmore (1872) and nearby Rochester (1874 and 1875).

Brennan 397 alities) such as Lake Charm, Lake Boga, and Mystic Park.2!. Their wanderings followed no obvious economic or demographic logic, beyond a pattern of gradual retreat as Victoria’s population bulged northwards and westwards beyond Bendigo. The McKees showed no consistent preference for settlements with a large Irish component, and paid no discernible heed to their religious composition.”” The switch from woodcarting to farming brought few material benefits to the McKees. It is noteworthy that the lessee of their grazing run of 465 acres at Mystic Park was not Joseph but Mary, who acquired an 11-year

lease in 1888. By the time of her death aged 64 in February 1898, just before expiration of the initial lease, Mary’s personal estate was valued at nearly £400. The land itself had little value (£116); but Mary’s ‘improvements’ included a slab house of five rooms with an iron roof (£20), outoffices roofed with straw (£10), a dam (£10), four miles of fencing (£65), 35 milch cows compared with her father’s single animal (£70), 39 other cattle (£66), and a modest medley of furniture, utensils, clothing, and sundries.2? Mary’s will distributed her small estate with considerable ingenuity among the children, but required her sons to ‘maintain and support my dear husband Joseph McKee the elder so long as he chooses to live with them’.?* Eventually he moved to Piangil, still further up the Murray River, to live with his widowed daughter Catherine. When he died aged about 83 in December 1917, having suffered for three years from senile debility and exhaustion, Joseph McKee was evidently a poor man.*> Though his sons were long to remain farmers in Mystic Park, Joseph had little to show for

his lifetime of labour in the bush. |

While Joseph and Mary migrated and multiplied in Victoria, Mary’s brother Thomas Brennan pursued an independent livelihood in Queensland. The defective records of Queensland immigration leave uncertain the precise circumstances of his arrival, which probably occurred in 1863.7° By 21 These places are clustered together in Tatchera County, between Kerang and Swan Hill. Joseph McKee appeared as a farmer at all three addresses in Victorian directories, between 1888 and 1897. 22 The Irish proportion of those born outside Australasia was 19% in the municipality including Germantown (1861), 43% in Riddell (1871), 20% in Elmore (1871), 58% in Rochester (1871), and 30% in the county enclosing Mystic Park (1891). Corresponding Catholic proportions were 20%, 38%, 14%, 49%, and 26%. 23 Probate Papers of Mary McKee (1898), 67/565, in PROV, 28/P1/861 and 28/P2/482. Rent for the grazing lease was owed both to the Crown and to a storekeeper in Swan Hill. 24 Will of Mary McKee (19 January 1898), 67/565, in PROV (mic.). Mary affixed her mark, being ‘illiterate and unable to write’, at least during her terminal illness (dilatation of the heart and exhaustion). 25 Both Joseph and his daughter had high hopes of claiming a legacy from a Canadian cousin, but found difficulty in paying lawyers’ fees: Catherine Murphy to Messrs. King and King, 17 January 1929, in Brennan Papers. 26 Thomas and Catherine Brennan sponsored the baptism of Mary Sarah McKee at Moira in September 1861. Of the five Thomas Brennans known to have reached Queensland before

398 Ulster Accents 1866 his covering address was that of a labourer named Patrick Berry in Goodna, a ‘small agricultural township’ by the Brisbane River about 14 miles west of Brisbane (2b). A directory for 1874 lists T. Brennan as a farmer on the Brisbane River near Ipswich, a few miles further west from Goodna.?” By then, as his father’s letter indicated in March 1872 (4b),

Thomas had built a house and was farming corn and cotton. Cottongrowing had been encouraged since 1860 by bonuses and often misleading propaganda, John Dunmore Lang having deemed it an enterprise likely to attract ‘a population of the right description from Great Britain and Ireland’.28 His labours on the farm had made Thomas ‘more robust’ than at home, but had also resulted in ‘a sad disaster, the dislocation of your shoulder blade’ (4h, 4a). Thomas remained single until about 1880, when he married Margaret Hanley in Brisbane. She was to bear him at least seven children between 1881 and 1895. Thomas and Margaret Brennan were still living in 1923, having apparently moved over one hundred miles northwest from Ipswich to live with their married daughter near Kingaroy. The descendants of the McKees in Victoria and the Brennans in Queensland remained in touch, through visits and letters, for at least sixty years after settlement in Australia.?? Those in Co. Down took a keen interest in the activities and success of their relatives in Australia. The Brennans were far from satisfied by the scraps of information they received, and sent back questionnaires revealing

their own preoccupations. Whereas Daniel quizzed Thomas about his house, cotton crop, and use of hired labour, Catherine Brennan asked her sister and Joseph about Rochester’s population, ‘houses of worship’, and accessibility by rail (4b, 4h, 3e). The answers would have placed Rochester in an unflattering light, for two years later (in 1871) it had no churches, one hotel, and only 66 inhabitants. Its sole score was a railway station on the line from Melbourne to Echuca, opened in 1864.°° The Brennans were 1865 (cf. 2c), all of whom arrived in 1862 or 1863, the most likely candidates are the 25year-old on the Warren Hastings (January 1863) and the 24-year-old on the Golden Dream (May 1863). 27 See Queensland directories for 1868, 1874, and 1876. In 1868 nearly two-fifths of those born outside Australasia and living in the Goodna district were Irish, though only a quarter of the population were Catholics. Apart from farming, Goodna’s major enterprise was the colony’s only lunatic asylum, at Woogaroo. 28 S. W. Silver and Co.’s Handbook to Australia and New Zealand (London, 3rd edn. 1880), pp. 270-1. By 1871, before a depression of prices, over 12,000 acres around Brisbane and Ipswich were under cotton. 29 See letter from their daughter Mary Jane Kennedy to Kitty Murphy (née Brennan), 22 November 1917. James J. Kennedy, though not Thomas Brennan, was listed as a farmer at Kumbia, 20 miles from Kingaroy, in directories after 1920. 3° Rochester’s first mass was held in 1871, in Seward’s Hotel, the first Anglican service occurring in 1876: see Live and Prosper: A Record of Progress in Rochester and District during the Period 1854 to 1954 (Rochester, 1954).

Brennan 399 anxious to measure the emigrants’ success against that of neighbours in Down, as well as that of other emigrants from Down. Thus Catherine followed up her interrogation by remarking that ‘Eliza Jane Millar state in a letter that they have got ten acres of land and is liking the country well’, having already ascertained that the McKees were ‘in prosperous condition a great deal better than many here’ (3e, 3b). The letters from Victoria had given a sunny account of emigrant success, causing their readers to conclude that ‘we dont think any person could done better than you have’ (6a). Nevertheless, the Brennans in Down were always careful to qualify these compliments by indicating that they were based on unverified selfappraisal. Their praise was in response to ‘everything you have stated’, or ‘the account which Sarah gives us’, rather than independent assessment. Like all alert correspondents, they probed attentively for hints of deception.

Wariness slid into outright distrust in the case of Isaac Herron, who regarded external assessments of success with even greater scepticism than self-appraisals. Isaac was convinced that correspondents in both Down and Victoria had fabricated a barrier between his brother Thomas and himself, through malicious ‘missrepresentations’ of their respective conditions. Unnamed moles in Moira had robbed Isaac of much-needed remittances from Thomas, by suggesting that he ‘was very well to do’—an imputation that

Isaac refuted in a passage of elaborate irony (1d).3! Worse still, Joseph McKee had falsely suggested that Thomas was too poor and ‘henpicked’ to bring Isaac and his family to Victoria. Isaac’s rhetorical powers were unleashed as he defended his brother’s generosity, proclaiming that Thomas was neither a ‘bost’ nor a beggar, but a proud and cagey man who would not reveal his circumstances to ‘every one’. Joseph was warned sharply to cease meddling in the intricate process of coding and decoding information

in letters: ‘If any such information comes to the country thro you I hope for the future you will not trouble the subject’ (re). For readers in nineteenth-century Ireland, whose destiny often depended on the messages in emigrant letters, adeptness at interpretation was essential. Central to the politics of Irish-Australian correspondence was the regulation of further migration between the two countries. Isaac Herron, revelling in the recovery of the cotton trade in 1865, professed reluctance to follow Thomas to Victoria, having ‘lost all notion of going now’ (1c). But he interpreted the inclusion of half-sovereigns in three successive letters as a token of Thomas’s willingness to send for him if he were ‘able’: ‘Now I think anyone that would do that would do more if the could’ (1d). The

Brennan letters record attempts in both countries to initiate further 31 Isaac Herron’s complaint about ‘heavy rent’ reflected his location in the village of Moira rather than a rural townland like Ballyknock. The Primary Valuation for his house was £2 5S, 15S more than the assessment for Daniel Brennan’s farm buildings.

400 Ulster Accents movement. In 1869, Catherine Brennan reported that their neighbour Edward Kelly had unavailingly asked his son William John to send him a passage warrant (3c). When news came of William John’s death in the Ovens district five years later, it emerged that he had neither written home for six years nor even mentioned his marriage in 1859 (6c: 7d). Edward’s failure to obtain assistance was scarcely surprising after so fundamental a collapse of contact.*? But resistance to renewing the chain of emigration might emanate from Ireland as well as Australia, and occur in close-knit as well as fractured families. When Joseph and Mary McKee proposed bringing out Mary’s sister Eliza Jane, the response from Ballyknock in November 1869 was to double the burden and hence postpone it. By suggesting that young Sarah Ann should accompany her, the family was able to delay acceptance for a year or more on the grounds that Sarah Ann was ‘too young to face the strangers’ (3c). Significantly, this decision was attributed not to Daniel Brennan but to his wife and eldest daughter. We may surmise that they were anxious to relieve their own workload at the loom and in the household for as long as possible. The delay proved terminal, possibly because funding for passage warrants was sharply reduced by Sir Charles Gavan Duffy’s ministry in September 1871.73 Sarah Ann went on to marry in Moira and bear sixteen children. Eliza Jane, however, remained unmarried in Ballyknock like her sister Catherine. In 1901 they were both occupied as cambric weavers, but ten years later Catherine returned herself as a farmer aged 73, and Eliza Jane as a 65-year-old spinster without paid occupation.** She would never ‘face the strangers’. Daniel Brennan did not easily reconcile himself to the permanence of the family’s dispersal, doing all he could to entice his children home with reports of prosperity. In 1865, he proposed to send the McKees ‘word to come home’, a prospect that evidently failed to excite the aggrieved Isaac Herron: ‘I suppose if you live and me lives we will meet in Ireland yet’ (1c).

Nine years later, Daniel had despaired of the McKees and transferred his hopes to unmarried Thomas in Queensland: ‘I invited him to come home but to pay you a visit before he would leave Australia’ (5b). Meanwhile, Daniel anxiously awaited remittances from the unencumbered Thomas, ex32 The standard genealogical indices show that William John Kelly, son of Edward Kelly and

Ann Brankin of Down, died aged 45 in 1874. He had married Mary Meehan in 1859, and was probably the 32-year-old literate and Catholic labourer from ‘Antrim’ who reached Melbourne on the Conway in September 1858. Moira lies by the border of Down with Antrim.

pee request for assistance may have come from a brother named Edward, rather than his SS Richard Broome, The Victorians: Arriving (Sydney, 1984), p. 96. The number of passage warrant-holders reaching Victoria was 3,716 in 1869, 3,881 in 1870, 3,083 in 1871, only 1,093 in 1872, 863 in 1873, and 149 in 1874. 34 In both census years they were the only occupants of a three-roomed house with three front windows and imperishable walls and roofing. The three out-offices listed in 1911 housed cattle, swine, and fowl.

Brennan 401 pressing disquiet when a promised cheque for as much as £12 failed to arrive (2c). Like most Irish parents with emigrant children, he had to be content with the promise of money rather than renewed companionship. The receipt of letters, newspapers, and tokens was as important as money

in maintaining family solidarity. Catherine sent a knot of hair to her sixyear-old nephew, and photographic likenesses were often requested or promised (zh, 2d, 3g, 7d). Thomas’s portrait evidently confirmed the Irish stereotype of wild men in the Australian bush, for his father remarked judiciously that ‘Queensland is a bad country for a Barber’ (4h). Of equal interest was the exchange of news and newspapers (2g, 4a, 5d). Catherine in Ballyknock was intrigued by an informative ship’s newspaper which had

mysteriously reached her father from Liverpool, called the Dover Castle News (3f).35 Daniel delighted in regaling his children with tales of sensational crimes committed by seemingly respectable persons (4e, 7c). His vil-

lains were a schoolmaster who had ‘knocked the brains out his wife’, a police officer who had likewise brained a cashier with a blunt instrument, and an actuary named St. George who had embezzled £7,000 belonging to 400 depositors in the Hillsborough Savings Bank.** The embezzler was possibly related to Howard B. St. George, the Protestant rector of St. John’s Church, Hillsborough—Joseph McKee’s birthplace.*” Daniel clearly expected his son-in-law to gloat over this disgrace: ‘Dear Joseph if you were here at present you would get Satisfaction of Mr St. George’ (7c). Thomas Hartley Montgomery, the Sub-Inspector who was hanged for murdering William Glass at the Northern Bank in Newtownstewart, may also have been familiar to the McKees. A former banker himself, he had served with

the constabulary in Newtownards where Joseph senior resided. Daniel heightened the effect of the tale by multiplying tenfold the amount stolen from the bank.?* The sense of rectitude of the respectable poor was enhanced by contemplation of the vicious rich. 35 A fascinating ship’s weekly of that title was produced during the Dover Castle’s voyage from Melbourne to London between April and July 1867, being subsequently published in book form: John G. Horsey, A Voyage from Australia to England (London, 1867). Five such papers are cited by Don Charlwood in The Long Farewell (Melbourne, 1981). 36 The sufferings of these ‘humble artisans and labourers’ were alleviated in September 1876, when their losses were made good by the Downshire family: Downpatrick Recorder, 30 September 1876; Vaughan to St. George, 22 November 1875, in Downshire Agent’s OutLetterbook, PRONI, D 671/C/445. 37 According to the Primary Valuation of 1863, the rector’s immediate neighbour in Corcreeny was the teacher William Sterrett, who was used by the Brennans as a post office (2g). 38 Montgomery, who had pleaded insanity in the form of ‘this monomania of attacking banks’, was convicted upon his third trial. He claimed to have been ‘drugged and poisoned’ by a Protestant clergyman anxious to acquire him as a son-in-law, ‘and being weak-minded I consented to marry’. He had dreamed of taking stolen money to the top of a hill and residing there in a house of sods. His counsel maintained rather feebly that so horrific a crime might ‘have been committed by a returned convict from Australia, or some villain from London’,

402 Ulster Accents Titillating though such anecdotes must have seemed, they had less personal significance than the prosaic accounts of struggle or success conveyed by letters. The Brennans were ‘filled with joy when we got word of a letter in the post office’, and with despair when they ‘got no word from tom’ (4a, 7f). They followed changes in the ocean mails with care, noting the promised saving of a fortnight upon introduction of the new Australasian service via Panama in 1866 (2c).3? Without the stream of messages flowing to and from Australia the vital connection would soon wither, as the example of William John Kelly had shown. The production of letters was too important to be impeded by mere lack of education. The Brennans applauded neighbours who made ‘fine scholars’ of their children, so enabling them ‘to go to Sitoations’ unavailable to the illiterate (5a, 6d: 4c). Yet they themselves were probably illiterate.*° In later life Catherine Brennan described herself in census schedules as able to ‘read only’;*! and Daniel confessed that Thomas was right to suggest that ‘it was Patrick Cattney that was the writer of our letters—he is always able to wield the old pen’ (4g). Another amanuensis was evidently chosen after Cattney’s death in October 1875 (7a).*2 Catherine used yet another scribe, who tried valiantly to represent her stately determination ‘to congrulate you on your instalation in your new habiation’ (3a). Literacy was useful, but not essential, to letterwriters. Like many sequences from ageing parents in Ireland, the Brennan letters

conveyed an ever more sombre catalogue of illness and death, though spurning the self-pity that this often inspired. In 1872 Mary Ann Brennan was ‘more lusty than when you went away, nevertheless she is not altogether stout’ (4h). But she was ‘greatly Failed’ by 1875, when her husband also became ill, so causing ‘a great dale of expence’ (6a, 7a). Their troubles

paled before the sorrows of Isaac and Rebecca Herron, who lost three children before Rebecca herself became ‘very ill’ with terminal consumpbut scarcely by an Irishman. See Tyrone Constitution, 7, 14, and 21 July 1871; 18 August 1871; « March and 19 July 1872; 21 and 28 March 1873; 1 August 1873. 39 The virtual monopoly of mail to Australasia by the P. & O. line was shaken in 1866 by colonial government contracts for a monthly service by the Panama, New Zealand, and Australian Royal Mail Company. After various setbacks, regular despatches of mail from Southampton began on 2 October 1866. The promise of a fortnight’s saving was misplaced, for sailings on both routes (from Sydney to Southampton) averaged about 60 days. See The Times, 28 July and 9 August 1866; John S. White, The Postal History of New South Wales, 17881g9or (Sydney, 1988), pp. 288, 297. 40 The 1861 census for Moira parish (including Ballyknock) shows that 30% of all Catholics aged over 5 were illiterate, compared with 25% of Protestants. In Daniel Brennan’s home parish of Hillsborough, no less than 36% of Catholics were illiterate, but only 12% of Protestants. *! This appears in her household schedules for both 1901 and 1911. 42 The Catholic register of burials in Moira gives Patrick’s address as Ballyknock, leaving uncertain his connection with Joseph McKee’s mother, Jane Catney of neighbouring St. John’s Church.

Brennan Letters (Br ta-1d) 403 tion. Daniel Brennan again emphasised the monetary as well as emotional costs of illness, reporting Rebecca’s pathetic statement that she was ‘very happy to die only he is put to so much expence that its more than he can bare without help’ (5a, 6b, 7b). The warmth of these later letters suggests that common suffering had reconciled the Brennans and the Herrons at last. Daniel recited the deaths of ‘a great manny of the old neighbours’, and anticipated those of others as yet ‘undying’ (7e, 6b: 4d, 7a). Premonitions of death extended to brother Tom in Queensland, and through a curious chain of association were confirmed by Catherine’s dream that he had ‘brought the Seed corn to the door on a barrow’ (7f). These gloomy messages reminded the emigrants that ‘home’ was no perpetual haven, but a transient and decaying human environment. In his convoluted Ulster manner, Daniel hoped that Ballyknock remained, nevertheless, home. He could scarcely bring himself to describe the McKee’s location at Riddell’s Creek as ‘home’, when he expressed surprise that Joseph could ‘not get work nearer home, as I may call it home, where you are living’ (2a). Their only home worth the name was Ballyknock; and they might, after all, ‘meet in Ireland yet’.

The Brennan Letters, 1865-76 (1-7) (Br x)

Moira 13th Augt 1865 Dear sir

(a) I got your Kind letter some time on or about the 20 of May. We were glad to hear of you all being in good health. We are all in very good health thanks be to God. (b) Trade is greatily improved in this country this season. The Cotton trade is better at this time than ever it was in my day of weaving and for the Cambrick I suppose you Know all about it from other letters. It could not be plentier and wages is pretty good. There is 11s for a 9°° of Macouns and a good many other houses is paying more. (c) You seem to think that the country would not answer me and I think you are right. I have lost all notion of going now. Your father in law was

telling me that he intended to send You all word to come home if you could get so I suppose if you live and me lives we will meet in Ireland yet.

(d) You tell me that if my Brother was able to send for me that he would not get lave. Now I feel rather inclined to dispute that with You. I have got three letters from them since you left this country and there was a half soverin in each one of them. Now I think anyone that would do that would do more if the could. There was for 15 months after you

404 Ulster Accents landed in that country that I never got a single line from my brother owing to missrepresentations—for you could not be but certain sure that I was very well to do after the way that I Commenced to Keep house and the wretched state of trade and a continual heavy rent pressing one for a number of years. (e) But I have nothing more to say on the subject. I think I Know my brother [better] than to believe that he is any more henpicked than a nother tho there is very few altogather free. Several people has been telling me that the believe that my brother is not doing well. There is no part of my brothers affairs any secret to me—and I think that he is better than what he would have been in this country. My brother is no bost [boaster] and if he had a thousand pounds he would tell the people nothing about it and if he was in misery it would not be to every one that he would tell it either. If any such information comes to the country thro you I hope for the future you will not trouble the subject. (f) I think you must have some ill feeling towards my brother Now. You wrote your first letter 3 months after you landed and you said that when you landed in Melbourne that you wrote to my brother and that he sent for you to come to his house and that you were still there and that the had been very Kind to you and had assisted you to get work. Now if all this was true why an ill feeling. I dont write this to offend you. I wish to offend

no one. I was glad to see your letter and will correspond with you with pleasure if You wish.

(g) I can tell you nothing about Your father in Laws people. The call very seldom here. I dont Know any cause for it except they think the are got too high in the worl for that. Nathaniel Hinds and family is in white Heaven [ Whitehaven, Cumberland] this year past at the Iron mines. He has

a pound per week and is doing pretty well. I have nothing more to say. I hope this will find you all well. I remain greatefully Yours I. Herron. | am weaving Cotton. (Br 2)

Ballyknock October 28th. 1866

Dear Mary (a) Your letter of the 24th August came safe to hand, and we are all well pleased to hear of you Joseph and the children being in good health but we think that you and Joseph are living in a very awkward position. We

think it strange that he can not get work nearer home, as I may call it home, where you are living rather than be obliged to travel roo miles for a job of work.

Brennan Letters (Br 1d-2h) 405 (b) I rejoice to let you know that on the day I got your letter I got one from Thomas. He is in good health and he informs me that he has had letters from you frequently, though you say you have wrote often to him and got no answer, therefore I do not know what to think, as him, and you, contradict each other. (Direct to the care of Patrick Berry Goodna— Brisbane for Thomas Brannen.) (c) I have to inform you that Thomas states in his letter that he sent me a check to the amount of £12, but said check has not come to hand, neither had I a letter from him since Jany. 1865. I have wrote to Thomas, and I request you to write to him (as soon as you receive this, lest my letter should be mislaid), that I have not got his letter or check of that date. I have wrote to the Postmaster General concerning the same, but I have not got an answer as yet, and IJ have not time to wait for it as I would be too late for the Mail. It is a new line that sails out on the second of each month, and the Mail will reach its place of destination two weeks sooner than by the old rout. (d) As you wish to know what Sarah Ann is like I can inform you that she is the tallest of the family at the present time and has evry appearance of growing on. The first opportunity I get I will send you her Likeness. (e) I am happy to let you know that we are all well thanks be to God for such an inestimable a blessing. Your friends John and Patrick Brannen are well and Bernard and family are well also. Isaac Herron and family are well. We had a letter a few weeks ago from Josephs Aunt who lives near Kingstown U. Canada. It was directed for Joseph McKee, and as he was

living in Newtonards we released it and send it to him. They are in a prosperous way in America. (f) We have had a very unfavourable season through the harvest, it was with great dificulty that grain was got saved. There is a great failure in the Potatoe crop this season. Weaving trade continues to do well. There is a sudden rise on flour and a fall on Pork. (g) Let us know if you got newspapers that I sent you, please send me one. When you write to Tom request him to direct his letter to the care of Mr. Murphy Moira otherwise to Mr. Starritt St. Johns Via Hillsborough.

Please write soon as we are all pleased to to hear from you, and let us know what success Joseph had in his last undertaking. (h) Having nothing more to mention I will conclude. Your Mother and sisters jOin me in sending you Joseph and children their kind love and hoping to hear from you soon. I remain your affectionate father Daniel Brennan P.S. Kitty sends the enclosed Knot to her nephew William. Eliza Jane will send you letter shortly.

(Br 3) |

406 Ulster Accents

Ballyknock November 29th. 1869 Dear Joseph and Mary (a) I take up my old quill once more to reply to your welcome letter of the r1th. September and to congrulate you on your instalation in your new

habiation. We are all happy to hear of you all being well and in good health but we have got no word from Thomas yet. If you get any word from Thomas write soon and let us know. (b) I think by every thing you have stated that you are in prosperous condition a great deal better than many here. The produce of land here this season is light and prices low and for Flax too many in this country indulged themselves too deep for the purpose of rasing large sums by it but the are all mistaken for it has turned out to be a complete failure from two till three stones to the bushl average price 5s/ per stone and some of it so bad in quality will only draw 2s/ per stone. (c) We return sincere thanks for proposing to pay a passage for Eliza Jane. She is willing to accept of it but not at this time. Her Mother and | are satisfied that she should go and Sarah Ann is willing to go also but we would want them to wait another year or Eighteen months on account of Sarah Ann being too young to face the strangers. At the end of that time she have agreed to go. Edward Kelly has wrote to Williams John to send

him a passage ticket to go to Australia but has not got an answer yet though there is time for it to be here. (d) Isaac Herron and Rebuca and children are well. They have four children Eliza Jane Thomas Margret and Joseph. Eliza Jane is weaving. Mrs. Hynds spent two weeks in the summer time with her sister in Moira. She said her husband earned 30s/ per week. She had plenty of money with her but she did not spend much of it. (e) In your next let me know how far you are from Rochester and also the distance you are from Melburn and if you be near a railway station. Give me a description of your new country and the Population of Rochester and the number of the houses of worship. Eliza Jane Millar state in a letter that they have got ten acres of land and is liking the country well. (f) Dear Joseph there was in august the year 67 three large books called the dover castle news which contained a voyage from austrila to england and wee never new how it came that they came to us accept that tom had told somebody to post them for us. They contained all births and deaths and all that hapened from the first day on board. The were posted in Liverpool for my father. Please let us know in they next letter if there was any of they sort published when you were on board. There was a woman had a birth after a day or too from land she belonging to briskbane. (g) I think we have started plenty of questions in this letter but you never

Brennan Letters (Br 3a-4e) 407 was bad at ancerwing and i doent thinc[?] you will be any worse than ever. Give my kind love too Mary and all my little frends and i hope the family likeness will not be long to it comes. My mother says She would like too see it. No more at present but remains yours truly to death Catherine Brennan

(Br 4)

Ballyknock March 11th 1872 Dear Thomas (a) Your letters dated 25th December accompanied with a Newspaper came safe to hand. We were all filled with joy when we got word of a letter in the post office from you, but alas on opening your letter, we found you had met a sad disaster, the dislocation of your shoulder blade. We are all greatly troubled at your misfortune, knowing that you must have suffered

great pain, besides it certainly has been a great loss to you. When your letter came to hand we had a letter prepared to send to you, and to prevent a repetiton of writing we send it along with this one.

(b) I have to make remarks on your letter, in litting us know that you had built a house and had three acres of Cotton and three of Indian Corn. But you did not give the description of your house, nor the manner you put in your Cotton crop, nor at what season, or what time it will take to grow. These things you will mind to describe in your next. Neither did you say what expence you were at by employing hands to do the work, as we dont think you could do all yourself. You say a bushel of Wheat weighed 65 lb. It must be good, for Wheat here will not weigh so much. (c) Alice Carters and brother are in Lurgan. She is at a stitching machine and the brother is weaving. Catharine Byrne and sister are living in a house belonging to Lewis Carvill. The are weaving and living pretty comfortable. Mr Patrick Devlin and family are well. His eldest daughter is monitor in the school. Thomas Devlin and family are in England. Billy Devlin is working in a Coalpit in America. We have no word from Josep McKee since | wrote to you before. I sent you the directions he sent us. (d) We have had a very wet winter which caused it to be unhealthy and a great many deaths. Neddy Lavery died on the 6th Inst, Jacob Walsh on the 8th and Mary Abernathy to be buried this day. Bernard Devlin and family are in America. (e) A Mr. Montgomery Subinspector of Police is in Omagh Jail for trial, for the murder of Mr. Glass, Cashier in Stewartstown Bank, and robbing the Bank of £16,000. Mr. Galagher Schoolmaster of Blaris School knocked the brains out his wife a few days ago—he is commited to Jail. I suppose you did not hear of the death of Lord Downshire, he is succeeded by his

408 Ulster Accents son who is appearing to be a pleasing landlord. His Lady is very charitable.

(f) There is a new Chapel abuilding in Dromore. With the exception of Armagh, there is no equal for it in the North of Ireland. At the laying of the first stone the collection amounted to £800. (g) Thomas Hoare[?] and family are all in good health. You were right in your observation, when you said you thought it was Patrick Cattney that was the writer of our letters—he is always able to wield the old pen. (h) As to your likeness, we all think you are more robust than when you went away, although you have suffered a great deal by the hurt, but we think Queensland is a bad country for a Barber. Your Mother is more lusty than when you went away, nevertheless she is not altogether stout. I have made remarks of all in my other letter and we would all wish you to write soon, to give us to know how your crop turned out. Meantime I will conclude by subscribing myself you affectionate father Daniel Brennan Nancy McCullough & Son Wm has inquired often about you. (Br 5)

[circa September 1873: half sheet missing|

...(a) We have letters from John Graham frequently, they are doing well. Johnny is an Alderman in the city of Champaign and is in great repute. Willie Pat is on a Railway as Engineer and is making money. Isaac Herrons eldest daugter Eliza Jane died last May morning, of decline, she was ill about seven months. The rest of the family are all well. Thomas is weaving. They had a letter from Alice Jane lately requesting them to write soon and she would send them a letter that would be more use to them than the last one. Rebecca says if you would send them a letter, cousin Thomas would answer it. Sally Hendry is doing well, and has made fine scholars of her three children. William Kearney and family are getting on well. The last account we had of your grandfather he was poorly in health. John and Patrick Brennan are well and doing well at present, they are not married yet. Mary Sally Brennan is married to a wealthy gentleman in the county Donegal.

(b) The last letter I sent to Tom I invited him to come home but to pay you a visit before he would leave Australia. (c) At the opning of a new chapel in Armage three weeks ago the collection amounted to above £8000. When you write let us know, if you can about Jack [word lost]. There is a new Chapel in D[rom]ore to be opened in three[?] weeks, it is a splendid building, it has a large spire and a Bell few to equal it. (d) Your grandmother Catharine Eliza Jane and Sarah Ann join me in

Brennan Letters (Br 4e-6d) 409 sending you our kind love and hoping to hear from you soon. I remain your loving and affectionate Grandfather Daniel Brennan

I send you a Newspaper. Let me know if...

(Br 6)

Ballyknock

Febuary ist. [1875] Dear Joseph and Mary and Mary Sarah (a) In reply to your letter which we received in due time we are all very glad to hear of you doing so well. By the account which Sarah gives us we dont think any person could done better than you have. I hope this will find you all in the enjoyment of good health as this leaves us all at present. I have been ill last winter a good while and your Mother is greatly Failed these last few years. We are just living much as usal the way we were when you left us. (b) I am very [?sorry] to inform you that Isaac Herron has had a great dale of trouble. We told of Eliza Janes death in our last letter and we may tell you now of Maggies death his Second little girl. She was Ill for nearly two years and your Father is still alive. He has got very Frail and I beleive Margaret Jane is very good to him. Your aunt Agness McKeer is undying. We dont expect she will live long. Eliza Jane is up with her these last two days and nights. Patrick Brennan is well and he looks well. Widdow Brennan of dromore is well. Anna Catherine got married about two years ago and is living now in Scotland. Her husbands name is Guinnie of dromore. (c) You want to Know about William John Kelly. There is a letter from his Son on Wedensday last and his Father is dead. That was the first news they got for 6 years about him nor they new he was married. He died on the 4 of October and left 6 Children the oldest 13 years and the yongest 14 months. His widdows address is Mrs. W. John Kelly Bright Ovens Victoria. (d) All the rest of the Family is well and doing well. Sally is well and has 3 fine Children and has had them at School Since ever the were able and will Soon be able to go to Sitoations. Eliza Jane is living next door to Mrs Murry. She has a cow and two little boys Edward and William John. Isaac Herron got 2 letters from his Sister Alace latly. The have very little help now but themselves and has 3 children yet Thomas, Joseph and Alace. The

Grahames Adress is Mr John Graham Champaign City Illinoise United States America. I have no more to say at present but remains yours truly to death Daniel Brennan Please write soon.

> td L ee 410 Ulster Accents

a. ‘¢eR jeenots. Bye, |;PG Ee a a ’ " A 2 2 |. Bebo. « MOIS s-- aie rr iedge egg ees + a>

ingratitude in sending her any help or with a letter to her’, or that Jane Bogan’s ‘Cousin is still alive and Stands in need of her Friendship’, William

used the role of altruistic intercessor to remind his own children of their duties (2j, 5d). He preferred melodrama to supplication, expressing rhetorical willingness to ‘spend the last of my Days in the poor House’, should the collective interest so require (4c). Though the mere despatch and receipt of letters and other missives served as a token of connection, that connection could be renewed and invigorated only by the words that they contained. William Fife was not only a cor-

respondent but a father, attempting to reassert his paternal jurisdiction

Fife 435 through the written word alone. His letters carried numerous moral injunctions: to ‘Keep Good Company Keep Sober be Faithful to your Employers’, to ‘act a steady part’, to be ‘wise for Eternity’, to ‘Prepare for Death and that prepares you for Judgemt’ (1k, 2f, 2g, 14d). His ‘sayings and advices’ often concerned the more practical problems of survival in a dangerous world. William enjoined Nixon to ‘Beware of any employment

that would Endanger your Life or health’, urging him to avoid overexertion: ‘And Now Nixon my Dear Boy take a Fathers advice. Dont over

rate your self as I have done with Work if you have a way to Keep you from it for it will come again [to] you if you live to my time of life. I would never work a hard Day now If I could help it’ (11, 8b). He cogently warned

his son to avoid horses infected with glanders ‘on the peril of your life’, referring to the recent shooting by a neighbour of horses that had developed the ‘Button Fercy’ or farcy buds (1i).”* William, always aware of the trains

roaring and rattling through his own farm, was equally conscious of the dangers entailed by Nixon’s employment on the Goulburn railway (7c, 7}). He gave graphic accounts of accidents at Drumgay (between Drumcullion and Enniskillen) and Trillick (four miles north-east of Ballinamallard), re-

porting the deaths of eight men on the Irvinestown line, which was to be opened in June 1866.”> Though free with his paternal advice, William was careful to avoid injunctions that he could not enforce. As already mentioned, he left the decision about Sarah Logan’ emigration to his children, as ‘the Best Judges’ (31). Likewise, having advised Eliza upon embarkation

to ‘take care of her self on voyage and to Keep her mind to her self’, he delegated his authority as moral guardian in Australia to Faithy (7e, 7g). Yet the act of delegation was itself an exercise of authority, for he ostentatiously dismissed his sons as being unfit to supervise Eliza: ‘As the Boys Did not Give themselves much trouble about taking her out the will not have much Interest in Welfare if she was there.’ With a canny blend of injunction, advice, delegation, partiality, gratitude, and reproach, William sustained a measure of influence over his scattered family. It was his imaginative empathy, even more than the skilful exercise of moral guidance, which enabled William to remain a formidable father even 74 The ‘Button Fercy’ is probably a variant of farcy buds, nodules symptomatic of glanders when affecting the lymphatic system. Glanders, in its septicemic form, is indeed fatal to humans. See E. Lovell Becker (ed.), International Dictionary of Medicine and Biology (New York, 1986), vol. 11, p. 1205. 75 The Irish North Western line to Irvinestown and Bundoran branched off the existing Londonderry and Enniskillen railway (completed in 1854) at Bundoran Junction, between Ballinamallard and Trillick. For information on the line and on the Drumgay accident, see Railways (Ireland) Commission: Report, pp. 111-15, in HCP, 1867-68 [4018], xxxii; Railways: Return by the Board of Trade of the Number and Nature of Accidents and Injuries to Life, for 1865, p. 20, and ibid. for 1866, pp. 42-3, in HCP, 1866 (483), Ixili, and 1867 (516), Ixii. 76 It was nevertheless Nixon who lodged the deposits of £4 and £7 for the passages of Eliza and James McCusker: Immigration Deposit Journals, in SANSW, 4/4587, p. 78.

436 Ulster Accents in absentia. He was curious about Nixon’s life and work in Australia, asking him ‘to Sit Down some wet Day when he will have time and Send me a long Letter about that Country’ (5h). Without specific detail about roadbuilding, bullock-driving, waggon-size, and land-rental, he could not cultivate his fecund imagination.” Likewise, William greedily collected morsels of information about the duration of voyages and the dimensions of vessels, no doubt hoping to give greater verisimilitude to private re-enactments of his children’s journeys across ‘the Foaming Billows’. Occasionally his fascination with comparative detail overwhelmed his primary sentiment, as when he was distracted from ‘thinking about’ his children by Mrs. Irvine’s picture of that vast steamship, the Great Eastern: ‘The Caribou was only a Fishing Boat to her’ (1d, th, 7b).”® William was inclined to picture himself as a lover, his body in Drumcullion but his ‘heart’ and ‘affections’ in New South Wales (1b: rh, 2e). As an instrument for bringing father and children together, recollection of their common past was no less effective than imaginative bridging of their present separation. The emigrant Fifes were re-

peatedly reminded of past incidents (3b, 12b), of the importance of remembrance (re, 3k, 5b, 71), or of the pain of failing memory (8c, 8e, 14b). For William, past and future were always present and potent, the anticipation of disaster being as painful as its recollection. Before the departure of Nixon and Faithy, he had wanted to curtail the agony: “The thoughts of parting with yous so preyed upon me that I wished the moment to arrive that I might have it past’. Yet, once past, the farewell instantly became a memory so painful that he tried to re-enact it, stealing along the quay in the half-hope of catching ‘one sight of Faithys Black Bonnet or your Jacket’. In a sequence worthy of Beckett, William assured his children

that he ‘would have waved my hat and you your hand For the last time’, but for his belief that they had not seen him. By coupling this fantasy with the revelation that they had in fact seen him, William contrived to obscure the finality of the farewell in a mist of disjunction. Yet recollection was ‘ever at hand’ with him, renewing the pain of separation (1b, 1c). Only the hope of heavenly reunion between father and children could mollify that pain. Nixon, Faithy, and Eliza all sailed for Australia carrying their father’s 77 While still in Drumcullion John Fife shared his father’s curiosity about foreign customs, jokily asking if every day was Halloweve in Goulburn as ‘the Boy said when he went to America in writing to his Mother’ (3c). But John’s own letters from Nevada failed to satisfy his father’s curiosity: ‘He says little of the Country’ (9c). ’8 For the disastrous career of Brunel’s celebrated monster, whose dimensions were fairly accurately reported by William, see Patrick Beaver, The Big Ship: Brunel’s Great Eastern. A Pictorial History (London, 1969). Her long-delayed maiden voyage from Liverpool to New York began in June 1860, five months after William’s report. Beaver observes (p. 19) that ‘framed and coloured lithographs of the Big Ship became a middle-class fashion’ during her construction between 1854 and 1858. Since William saw the picture in the house of a humble cottager, this depiction of the cult seems unduly narrow.

Fife 437 ‘last Charge and Final farewell to yous to Strive to meet me in Heaven’. Only in paradise would there be ‘no tears of Sorrow nor any Distra[c]ting Care’ (4d: 1c, 7g, 8e, 9f, roc, 15d). As in most prolonged correspondences, physical decline was an ever more pervasive theme. Apart from condolence upon the death of Nixon’s first wife and an expression of concern about the risk of headaches and nose-bleeding in a hot climate, the letters give no hint of physical misfortune among the Australian Fifes (14a, 11). But the ill-health or death of neighbours and relatives in Fermanagh was regularly reported with melancholy dignity (1f, 2a, 3f, 3g; 3h, 8d, 9d, 12d, 13d). William’s immediate family had their own ailments, and the letters refer to John’s diseased leg, Robert’s deafness, and little James’s death from whooping cough (2k, 3b, 5b, 13c). William was keenly aware of his own growing debility and loss of function. When 71, he declared defiantly that ‘your Mother and the Children are takeing the Best care the can of me. My life is usefull to them yet as it will make a great change with them when I am Gone’ (rob). But eight years later, in his last surviving letter, he lamented to Nixon that ‘I have learned By experience that when we Become Old and useless we are only in the road no matter what were we once or Done’ (14b). Such pathos was uncharacteristic. William’s references to his stoop, cramps, lameness, rheumatic pains, failing eyesight, and growing unsteadiness were detailed but not self-pitying (5a, 7d, 8a, 9a, 9b, 12a). He thanked God that he had ‘as Good heal[z]h as I had Fifty years ago But I am weak as a [C]hild’ (13a:

tob, 14b). The eleventh letter, with its minute account of his ‘Palatic’ or paralytic stroke in 1875, is a masterpiece of narrative.” His afflictions are recounted in a sequence of episodes, each more dramatic than its predecessor: failure of appetite and onset of paralysis, effects on eating and walking, and William’s resignation to his death. The account of each setback is followed by that of his partial recovery, and the offering of thanks to God. The Wesleyan preoccupation with redemption through suffering is given startlingly tangible expression: “There is not a rhematick pain in my Body that the

Palatic Did not Drive out as clean as if I never had one’ (11c). Having triumphed over the fear of death and so earned admission to heaven, William is granted renewed life—a boon instantly followed by a fearful outbreak of scarlet fever in the family, and resultant ostracism by terrified neighbours. Again he thanks God for their deliverance from death and discovery of inner strength: ‘My Dear Fathy I have the Best of all to tell you yet... But my Dear Fathy I had more to come through ... This has 79 A viral infection such as Bell’s Palsy may well have been the origin of his affliction, as Dr. Barry Smith suggests. But an ingenious diagnosis kindly provided by Don Liggins, Professor of Reconstructive Surgery at the University of Auckland, suggests that the stroke resulted from haemorrhage or thrombosis, since Fife’s limbs as well as face were affected.

438 Ulster Accents Been a wonderful year of Sickness and Death.’ As in William’s earlier imagined chronicle of the voyage of the Caribou, his personal epic is a celebra-

tion of the triumph of spirit over body. Readers of his letters would thus have been well prepared for his death at the age of 78, in December 1880, from ‘Inflimation’ or obstruction of the bowels (15a). He seemed to have accomplished a happy death, praying ‘to his last moments’ and preparing to ‘pass triumphant home to Glory’.®° Indeed, as his son Robert was reminded by the neighbours, his children ‘had no right to be sorry’. William’s death did not immediately trigger decomposition of the Fife family in Fermanagh. His married daughter Mary Cowan had returned from America almost a decade earlier, and 64 years later her daughter Minnie still remembered ‘Granpa Fyffe well. He was a small man he used to come to our house very often & I can remember well the night he died. My Father & Mother came home crying. They said Da had died.’*! For a few years after 1880, William’s widow and her children remained in Fermanagh. By 1883, however, her eldest surviving son Robert was planning to join the first Fife family in Australia. Nixon paid his deposit of £5, again citing the rector of Magheracross as referee,®? but Robert instead emigrated to America and married there. He was soon followed to America by three of his siblings: “Then one by one they others all came except William, who got married and remained on the farm.’®? By 1901, the only Fife household

remaining in Drumcullion was that of William ‘Phyfe’, with his mother Mary, wife Jane, and two children. They lived in a thatched house with three rooms, two front windows, and five outhouses.** William was the second youngest son, and the fourth to be given that name by William senior.®5 The Fife household, once a hive of godly merrymaking, came to a macabre end. On 19 August 1903, William ‘Fyffe’ junior, a married farmer aged 43 years, hanged himself in an outhouse by the gable-end. The Coroner and jury learned that he ‘had been mentally affected for some time past, in consequence of which the doctor recommended his removal to the 8° Robert’s phrase suggests a greater linguistic debt to the Wesleys and their hymns than that manifested by his father. According to one such hymn, the Christian (having run the course, fought the fight, and done the work), ‘Finds his God, and sits, and signs, / Triumphing in paradise’: Wesley, Collection of Hymns, no. xlix. 8! Minnie Davidson (Illinois) to her cousin John Fife (NSW), 6 November 1944. 82 Immigration Deposit Journal (2 February 1883), in SANSW, 4/4595, p. 80. The deposit was refunded in October 1883 ‘on account of non-arrival of Nominee’. 83 Josephine Cowan (Chicago) to her cousin John Fife (NSW), 8 October 1916. 84 See family schedule, 1901 census. The Revision Books of the Valuation, in IVO, indicate that the farms of Robert and James Fife in Drumcullion had fallen into other surnames by 1867 and 1883 respectively. The farm of William senior passed successively to his ‘representatives’ (by 1883), his widow Mary (1885), his youngest son Francis Fife (1887), Mary once more (1890), William Fife (1900), and finally Robert Foster (1906). 85 Sons named William had been baptised in 1842, 1843, and 1852, being buried shortly thereafter.

Fife 439 asylum’, which, however, ‘was not effected in time’. His net personal estate was valued for administration at £93 8s 9d.°” Before long the farm

had been sold, his mother had moved to the nearby household of her daughter Mary Cowan, and young William’s widow had also died. Their

daughter Mary Jane followed the trail to Chicago with the Cowans in 1914, while son William remained in the region labouring for a lay

p } family had sp p

reacher.®* The second Fife family had split at the seams and fallen apart. In Australia, however, William’s sons prospered. When Nixon Fife died of asthma and bronchitis in May 1916, aged 75 years, he left behind six living children from each marriage and substantial assets. Like his father,

Nixon passed on the farm to his widow and the children of his second marriage, while providing small legacies for the sons of his first family and

larger payments to their married sisters.*°? His real and personal estate amounted to nearly £2,500 net.°° His widow and four children remained at Gundary, and two other sons were farming near Goulburn.”! Three months later, Nixon was followed by his much younger brother George, who died at Gundary from heart failure compounding bronchitis. He left his widow and two married daughters an estate worth only £200 less than Nixon’s.”? Eliza Scholz continued to work as a midwife and nurse in Coo-

tamundra, where in 1908 she had the distinction of delivering Donald Bradman and so transforming the game of cricket.”? Faithy Cameron outlived her husband and daughter before dying at Maxton in March 1903. If the last Fife of Drumcullion failed to escape ‘as a Bird from the snare of the Fowler’, the Australian Fifes had indeed contrived to ‘put Soot’ upon their ‘own Crook’. 86 See death certificate, and inquest report in the Impartial Reporter (Enniskillen), 20 August 1903. This event is still remembered in the neighbourhood. 87 Index to Wills and Administrations (23 November 1903), 91/226, in NAD. 88 T am grateful to Mr. Porteous Fife of Mullaghmeen, Ballinamallard, for his recollections. 89° Members of his first family, such as William who first occupied the Gundary property, had doubtless received bequests and settlements during their lifetimes. 90 See death certificate, obituary in Goulburn Evening Penny Post, 18 May 1916, and grant of probate (ro July 1916), in NSW Supreme Court, Probate 4/74579. *1 John Nixon Fife was farming at Rossiville on the Wollondilly, part of which estate had once been owned by Nixon’s first father-in-law, George Cole. °2 Obituary in Goulburn Evening Penny Post, 8 August 1916, and grant of probate (1 September 1916), in NSW Supreme Court, Probate 4/75363. He also left a son. °3 Sydney Sun Herald, 10 May 1992 (kindly supplied by the Hon. Wallace Fife).

440 Ulster Accents

7 4 ' "gy : * aa! 6th

omeuare eae _ e { . f . ue a _ . rd Fee i i . : * ‘¢ nes Pare . Ae Ln ‘" . ek al «

eid: I nse: ~ 7

6 seer me woe a. 2M. ee «

_ A hs a | 7 aa ° re oe heat; pa vo “Sai “te Oe RR er Be. - pene Oe El Bae eeeeS 7Bese SO “tad—-tes .aSeo BootLTS et1aeieis: TP rr Rc ars Be >See oeaaae Si: ~oe Soe ae “or .iele ORL ptsto 4 i Sa ea * awo . a. weSs ee ERE eae aRe,: ee < a4

- tp eee cast (ie a Ree. 2 . ~~ “>a - - . . . ag y 9! mm kel

NE QnA A Aa eo went cae ae? ° : oot rr a“a a ye FIGURE 56. News from Home: Christmas letters (Illustrated Sydney News, 23 December’1882: NLA).

CHAPTERI6 Correspondence: Ceremonies of Communication

she READER OF THE LETTERS IN THIS BOOK CANNOT FAIL TO BE CONSCIOUS

of their distinctive form, as well as their rich content. The manner in which these writers of meagre education addressed each other was notably ceremonious—formal, yet seldom stilted; formulaic, yet not perfunctory. Though the genesis of the stylistic conventions governing Irish-Australian letters remains obscure, their imprint is undeniable. The elaborate courtesy with which writers introduced their requests or revelations contributed to a rhetoric of consolation, which is discussed in the fourth section of this chapter. It was also an expression of the gravity with which emigrants and their separated kinsfolk approached the writing of letters. Their correspondence may be treated as belonging to a cultural institution, in which every word was weighed as carefully as the finished artefact on the post-office scales. Since for many moderners letter-writing has lost its ceremoniousness along with its glamour, this phenomenon demands explanation. Expense, duration, and the absence of alternative means of communication all affected the deliberation assigned to the process of composition. The chang-

ing status of letter-writing cannot be understood without analysing the organisation of postage, a topic that excited considerable attention among the correspondents in this book. How did the evolution of the post office impinge on Irish-Australian discourse? THE AUSTRALIAN MAILS

Over the nineteenth century, both the duration and expense of the Australian mails were transformed. The vessels undertaking the initial mail contract direct to New South Wales, between 1844 and 1849, required up to 467

468 Themes five months for their voyage round the Cape of Good Hope. The introduction of steam packets in 1852 brought no immediate acceleration, since various combinations of breakdown, leakage, shortage of fuel, collision, and mutiny prolonged the early passages to three months or more. Many correspondents continued to send ‘ship letters’ by private vessels, so saving money and often time, while risking non-delivery according to the master’s whim. By 1860, however, the typical steam transit had been reduced to eight or nine weeks. The subsequent contraction to four or five weeks owed as much to easier overland communication as to improved maritime engineering. The building of railway connections across the Alps,

and at Suez and Panama, was even more important than the eventual opening of the two canals.! Although the Empire Air Mail was not introduced until 1937, the pre-war mail packets took scarcely a month to complete the connection from London to Sydney.” Correspondence was further facilitated by the increasing frequency of the Australian mails, as the major packet company introduced a regular monthly service in 1859, moving to a twice-monthly contract in 1880.> Since the imperial and colonial gov-

ernments normally operated two separate mail contracts in tandem, a weekly service was eventually available to correspondents in both countries. After a period of frenzied competition between contractors whose performance was often inefficient and unpredictable, a fairly stable and reliable mail service was belatedly achieved in the final quarter of the century.

The improvement in postal charges was even more emphatic. Until the 1850s, the operation of mailing a ‘colonial’ letter was both cumbersome and expensive. Before the abolition of differential charges within the United Kingdom in 1840, and within New South Wales fourteen years later, separate fees were charged for inland transmission in both countries; the sea passage was subject to charges by both the ‘imperial’ and ‘colonial’ authorities.* In the later 1830s, a single ‘ship letter’ posted from Maitland to Clare would have cost rod from Maitland to Sydney, 3d for transmission

out of Sydney, 4d upon arrival in London, and 1s 2d from London to 1 John S. White, The Postal History of New South Wales, 1788-1901 (Sydney, 1988), pp. 29, 288-97; Jane and Michael Moubray, British Letter Mail to Overseas Destinations, 1840-1875

(London, 1992), pp. 198-211, 401-6. 2 By rg15 the predicted period for transmission between London and Sydney was 32 days, 3 days less than the average recorded by packets travelling via Suez in 1889 (excluding the additional days required for collection and delivery). F. George Kay, Royal Mail (London, 1951), p. 144; T. A. Coghlan, A Statistical Account of the Seven Colonies of Australasia, no. 2 (Sydney, 1891), p. 238; Thom’s Official Directory (Dublin, 1915 edn.), p. 1094. 3 R. Kirk, British Maritime Postal History, vol. i: The P. @ O. Bombay and Australian Lines, 1852-1914 (London, circa 1981), p. 3. The service of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co. was four-weekly between 1868 and 1880, and fortnightly after 1888. 4 Ship-letter charges had recently been reduced, the colonial component being 11d up to 1820 and the imperial component being 8d before 1830. The half-ounce limit for a ‘single letter’

Correspondence 469 Clare—over half-a-crown in all. Even between 1849 and 1852, the cheapest postage by private ship amounted to rs 2d, well in excess of the daily wage

of an Irish farm labourer. It is not surprising that many correspondents sought the good offices of passengers acting as couriers. The option of sending unstamped letters, to be paid for by the recipient, was not only socially unacceptable but also prohibited on most routes.° In 1854, when massive emigration was stimulating demand for easy international communication, postal procedures were radically simplified. Letters to and from New South Wales were thereafter charged at a single consolidated rate, regardless of the distance between the seaports and the address of sender or recipient. The basic rate for half an ounce fell from 6d in 1854 to 4d in 1889, and 2'd in 1891. These rates applied to private ships as well as the regular packets, though substantial surcharges were still imposed on those choosing the faster routes.® In 1890, ‘postal cards’ were introduced at a cheaper rate, so encouraging the exchange of brief messages with or without pictures. Telegrams remained a very expensive alternative, though no longer taking 38 days to reach Australia as in 1862.” The most dramatic encouragement of correspondence through administrative reform owed less to the economics of the postal service than to John Hennicker Heaton’s campaign to integrate the empire through cheaper written com-

munication. The imperial penny post was applied to all letters from the United Kingdom to Australia in 1905, and despite objections from the Commonwealth it was extended to letters in the opposite direction six years

later. An ounce of personal correspondence could now be carried for a copper, and two ounces of printed material such as newspapers might be sent for a mere halfpenny. By the eve of the Great War, the transmission of a letter between Australia and the British Isles was no longer a major transaction. The expense of postage, as well as the long delay before a reply could be expected, helps to explain the relatively small volume of correspondence in mid-century. As Table 3 indicates, the monthly flow of letters from the United Kingdom to Australasia during the early 1860s was about 100,000,

with a slightly heavier movement in the opposite direction. On the was imposed in 1835, eliminating the option of sending a single folded sheet of heavy writing paper. An intricate chronicle of the confusing history of postal charges may be found in White, Postal History. 5 Except on the clippers that temporarily replaced the steam packets during the Crimean War (1854-56), the requirement of prepayment, first in money and later in stamps, applied to all letters sent by packet between the United Kingdom and Australia. The rule was evidently not applied to ‘ship letters’ sent on private vessels after about 1853: Moubray and Moubray, Letter Mail, pp. 400-6. 6 For a comparative summary of charges on each route to each colony, see Moubray and Moubray, Letter Mail, pp. 400-6. ”? goth Report of the Postmaster General on the Post Office, p. 21, in HCP, 1863 [3155], xxvi.

470 Themes TABLE 3. Number and weight of letters and printed papers mailed between Australia and the United Kingdom, 1856-1913 (annual averages)

Period Letters Printed papers

From UK To UK Ratio From UK To UK Ratio

1856? n.a. 1,342 1861-63?914 1,194na. 1,256 0.95 2,167 n.a. 1,323n.a. 1.64 Number (thousands per annum)

1881-83 1,429 1,286 1.114,540 3,4681,870 1,418 2.43 2.45 1886 2,083 1,437 1.45

1894 2,404 1,910 1.26 7,654 2,167 3.53

1891-93? 97 n.a. n.a.1,276 1,556525 n.a. 2.43 N.a. 1894 75° 60° 1.26° 1896-1900 8477 681.38 1.23 1,628 1,481 581 $23 2.83 1901-05 106 2.80 1906-10 199 109 1.82 1,846 639 2.89 1911-13 439 228 1.92 2,984 884 3.38 Weight (thousands of pounds per annum)

Sources: The table summarises all returns published in the annual Report of the Postmaster General on the Post Office, in HCP (26 reports). For 1861-63 and 1891-93, see Return of the Number of Letters and of Newspapers, in HCP, 1864 (476), xli; and Return of the Estimated Weight of Mails, in HCP, 1894 (291), Ixx. “Returns include New Zealand. >The mean weight of letters is here assumed to be half an ounce. Notes: New Zealand is included in the returns for 1861-63, 1891-93, and probably 1856. Totals for 1861-63 exclude mails by private ships. Letters include postcards. Printed papers include newspapers and book packets, together with circulars (from 1881) and sample patterns (from 1894). Annual averages for 1861-63 are based on returns for 8 months between October 1861 and September 1863; those for 1881-83 derive from returns for a single month in 1881 and in 1883. The returns of colonial and foreign mails published annually between 1894 and 1913 were derived in part from statistics furnished triennially to the Universal Postal Union. The return for 1895 duplicates that for the previous year and is omitted. The year 1894 was the only period for which the volume of printed papers was given in both numbers and weights, using fixed multipliers. It is likely that the number of letters was also estimated using a fixed multiplier of the recorded weight (or conceivably vice versa), on the assumption that each letter weighed half an ounce.

speculative assumption that one letter in three involved Ireland, the annual flow between Ireland and Australia was under half a million letters in each

direction.’ Table 4 charts the subsequent expansion of mail in terms of index numbers, using 1894 as the base year. The volume of letters from Australia almost doubled over the three decades up to 1894, increasing still more sharply in the last years before the war in response to the penny post. To some extent, the expansion reflected the growth of Australia’s * Although direct confirmation of this estimate is lacking, Rowland Hill stated in 1855 that ‘of the letters passing between the United Kingdom and the United States, about one-third are for Ireland’: Evidence, Q 74, in Report from the Select Committee on Postal Arrangements, in HCP, 1854-55 (445), x1.

Correspondence 471 TABLE 4. Number and weight of letters and printed papers mailed between Australia and the United Kingdom, 1856-1913 (annual averages), expressed as index numbers (1894 = 100)

Period Letters Printed papers From UK To UK From UK To UK

1856? 30 n.a. 13 n.a. 1861-63" 39 52 21 49 1881-83 59 67 45 65 1886 87100 75100 59 100 86 1894 100 Number

1891-93? 100 n.a. 90100 n.a. 1894 100 100 100 1896-1900 112129 115128 116 111 100 1901-05 141 1906-10 265 382 183 234 145 168 122 1911-13 585 Weight

4Index numbers refer to base for Australasia, not Australia. Notes and Sources: As for Table 3.

population, which followed a similar trajectory up to the end of the century.’ Yet within that growing population, the sub-group born in the British Isles were presumably most prone to send personal letters to the United

Kingdom. The number of British and Irish immigrants in Australia changed fairly slowly (peaking in about 1891), whereas the weight of letters expanded inexorably.!? Meanwhile, the weight of letters sent in reverse, from the British Isles, expanded even more rapidly after 1900. This is largely attributable to the earlier introduction of the penny post and the one-ounce limit for outward mail. By 1913, the weight of letters and po-

stcards sent annually from the United Kingdom to Australia exceeded seven and a half million ounces. The volume of outward mail had grown fifteenfold over the previous half-century, compared with an eightfold increase for mail leaving Australia. Communication had become commonplace.

It is noteworthy that the movement of letters was invariably exceeded by that of printed material such as newspapers, which from 1835 onwards could usually be posted for a penny or less.'' Newspapers were not ° Population estimates for Australia, as federated in 1901, yield index figures of 36 for 1861, 52 for 1871, 71 for 1881, 100 for 1891 (base), 119 for 1901, and 140 for 1911. 10 The index figures for the estimated population of Australian residents born in the United Kingdom are 76 for 1861, 82 for 1871, 84 for 1881, roo for 1891 (base), 83 for 1901, and 73 for 1911. 11 The NSW post office imposed no charge for transmission of newspapers to the United

472 Themes only cheap to send but conveniently ready-written. Unlike letters, newspapers were far more often sent outwards to Australasia rather than in-

wards, the monthly movement for 1861-63 being about 175,000 and I10,000 newspapers respectively.!2 Unfortunately, subsequent trends in the exchange of newspapers are difficult to document. The index numbers for printed papers in Table 4 are inflated by the inclusion of additional categories such as commercial ‘circulars’, forming an unknown but doubtless burgeoning proportion of the whole. Nevertheless, the comparatively slow rate of growth over the pre-war decade suggests that the penny post had augmented the appeal of personal as against printed communication. Economics helped determine the very nature of correspondence. By the early twentieth century, the mechanics of the mails thus enabled emigrants and their friends or family in Ireland to correspond frequently and unstintingly, without anxiety about the expense of postage. For a cumulative outlay of less than a shilling, a diligent pair of correspondents could maintain an annual exchange of four or five sets of sequential questions and answers in each direction. While ease encouraged frequency of correspondence, it also tended to foster casual composition, rendering the outcome less interesting to the anatomist of consolation. The bulk of the letters in this book conformed to a more demanding model, generated in a more challenging postal era. Only seven of the letters in this book were sent after the reduction of postage to 22d in 1891.'3 Writers were determined to ensure that the potential benefits of writing would match their considerable outlay. With many months intervening between posting and receipt of a reply, the temporal reference of letters was stretched far beyond the events or emotions of the day of writing. The mid-century correspondent was expected to be a seer as well as a chronicler, encapsulating in a letter the course of life throughout the protracted process of exchange. The importance attributed to correspondence by Irish emigrants and their connections is manifest in numerous direct references to the composition, transmission, receipt, and non-receipt of letters. These passages enable us to reconstruct the letter as a cultural institution, transcending the particular information that it conveyed.

Kingdom between 1835 and 1850, when prepayment of a penny was imposed with surcharges for the faster packets. Between 1864 and 1891 newspapers were charged at varying rates, the

postage in 1880 being 2d via Brindisi and a penny via San Francisco. By 1901 the charge from London to Sydney had been reduced to a halfpenny. See White, Postal History, pp. 36972; Thom’s Official Directory (Dublin, 1901 edn.), p. 1016. 2 Return of the Number of Letters and of Newspapers, in HCP, 1864 (476), xli. This return is unique in distinguishing newspapers from other printed material. '5 One of these (Co 5) was a one-line message from Liverpool to Clare.

Correspondence 473 THE IMPORTANCE OF LETTERS

For many of the writers in this book, the composition of a letter was a strenuous undertaking. This applied particularly to elderly parents with modest writing skills, such as Mary Anne Doorley who had to enlist a daughter to ‘take my pen in hand’ (Do 3a). The voice of Robert Thompson was submerged in the chorus of relatives dictating to his son Richard, act-

ing as secretary in 1843: ‘No more at present But Remains your Kind friends to death also Richard Thomson and John Hammond Edward Boyd all present at the writing of this’ (Ha 1g). In Down, Daniel Brennan sheepishly admitted to using an amanuensis: ‘You were right in your observation, when you said you thought it was Patrick Cattney that was the writer of our letters—he is always able to wield the old pen’ (Br 4g). These examples

suggest that letters to emigrants may indeed have been dictated to local scribes or ‘writers’ in some households, as reported by folklore collectors in Galway and Mayo.'* The emigrant John McCance was also embarrassed by his calligraphy, being painfully aware that others ‘could handle the pen in a superior manner to me’. His son, alas, proved equally unsatisfactory as a scribe: ‘Dear Sir as I had made some mistakes in writing of this letter I caused Robert to Copy it and in doeing so he missed a line’ (Mc 5c, 4l). These anecdotes illustrate the pertinacity with which the barely literate con-

trived to write, in response to their pressing need for communication through letters. Despite the determination of the unlettered to exchange letters, there is some evidence that patterns of illiteracy were reflected in the frequency of letter-writing. During most of the nineteenth century, Irish women were markedly less likely to be able to write than their menfolk, although the comparison was reversed before the First World War. This helps to explain the paucity of surviving correspondence by women, who have conventionally been depicted as dominant in genteel correspondence. The rarity of female letters might of course be attributable to discrimination on the part of preservers, conceivably more excited by male than female voices from the past. It is worth noting, however, that men also outnumbered women among the letter-writers mentioned by our chosen writers, a fact suggesting that the male majority in surviving Irish-Australian correspondence is not merely the outcome of biased preservation.'’ Yet even if women were more 14 See Collectors’ Reports, book 1409, p. 208 (Rahoon, Co. Galway); and book 1410, p. 138 (Rossport, Co. Mayo), in Department of Irish Folklore, UCD. The ‘writer’ would also read letters and explain newspapers, and might be paid with a dozen eggs. 1S Our sequences contain references to 69 correspondents writing to or from Australia (excluding the writer and reader of the letter containing a reference, and omitting duplicate reports). Of these correspondents, 39 were male, 25 female, and 5 of undisclosed sex. The male excess was somewhat greater in letters reportedly sent to rather than from emigrants,

474 Themes inhibited than men in consequence of their educational disadvantages, many were able to obtain a partial hearing through the practice of collaborative composition. The process of correspondence was equally important to relatively well

educated writers such as William Fife in Fermanagh, who wrote out his own letters alone and at night. ‘You will Excuse this Scribble as I Done it with a Candle in the place you were once Familiar with the inside of the Jam[b] wall on the Little Seat young Johston made.’ Unlike McCance, he took pride in his handwriting, lamenting its degeneration as illness and decrepitude rendered his ‘hand Feeble and unstedy’, or ‘Stiff and unstead[y[’. He expressed disgust upon discovering that ‘there is some words wrote twice and other words that I forgot’, observing ruefully that ‘you may see By this Scribble that is not like what I once wrote’. For Fife, legible calligraphy was a cherished sign of well-being: ‘You will see by my hand-

write that I am wearing Down’ (Fi 7k, 12a, 13a, 11g, 14b, 9f). The solidarity of his dispersed family as well as personal pride was at stake, for Fife’s ‘scribble’ was essential to the vitality of a complex network of communication. ‘I thought I had wrote to John untill I received a letter two Days ago when he Complained I had not Answered his letter of August last. I had to write to Mary of Elizabeth port New Jersey and forgot him, I also wrote to Fathy to Sydney and Neglected writing to you. I find if I dont write immedeatily after I Get a letter that I neglect it altogether. I] Got Fathys letter the Second Day of Chrismas last and I wrote the Same Day’

(Fi 8c). Without linkage through letters, scattered families threatened to disintegrate.

Isabella Wyly in Adelaide was even more inclined to apologise for her ‘scribble’, though her tone conveys self-mockery rather than Fife’s dismay." Isabella was a fluent if imprecise writer, whose thought outpaced her hand. ‘It is as I might say a painfull pleasure to me to begin to write a letter home

for I seem[?] to have so much to say that it would take volumes to write all at wonce’; ‘I realy seem to have so much to say I cannot prevent my pen from racing|?]’. Her zeal as a writer made her self-conscious about the tools of trade, inducing her to castigate as ‘horrid paper’ a rather fancy sheet headed with an engraving by the celebrated S. T. Gill (Wy 2a, 3k, 4i). Letters were no less important for Isabella Wyly than for William Fife, as indicated by her pen-picture of the family in Adelaide, ‘all writing to old Ireland round the table and a comfortable little fire in a comfortable little Cottage’ (Wy 7d). When Isabella and other correspondents apologised for and in reports penned by men rather than women. See also Patrick O’Farrell, Letters from Irish Australia, 1825-1929 (Sydney, 1984), pp. 4-5. 16 William Fife used the word five times, Isabella nine. Of these nine cases, the first was spelt ‘thiss cribble’ and the second ‘this crible’, suggesting that the conventional phrase, rather than the individual word, was being visualised as a unit (Wy rp, 2k).

Correspondence 475 their ‘hasty scribbles’ or ‘hurry’, they were almost invariably disingenuous.

Thus Thomas Doolan pre-empted derision of his untidy and untutored hand by asking the Normiles to ‘excuse my Bad writing for I wrot this note

in a hurry’ (No 8e). The casual words belied a more earnest intent. As Isabella Wyly remarked in a futile attempt to conclude one of her rambling missives from Adelaide, ‘I seem Not not to be able to say envoy[?], when I think of it going 16 thousand miles’ (Wy 2k). Distance lent gravity to the act of composition. The technicalities of postage were perplexing enough to provoke several pieces of advice and comment. Michael Dunne, enclosing testimonials for presentation to the Governor of Queensland, reminded his son that ‘if you cant get to see his Excellency, you must Envelop them’ (Du 4e).'”7 William

Fife was shocked in 1860 by his children’s extravagance in sending an overweight letter, and despite his courteous formulation it is likely that he,

rather than they, had to pay the additional sixpence. He observed that ‘when you write get lighter paper, I am afraid you paid double postage. A

sheet the size of this is large enough only write close’ (Fi 2i).!8 John McCance was equally specific in making arrangements for the writing of letters by his father in Grey Abbey. He asked an educated friend ‘to give him a half or whole Quire of letter paper ink pens &c. and every letter

that he would bring in to you if you would back it and stamp it that is with postage stamps’ (Mc 2e). Though McCance justified this request by stressing the expense of postage, his father being ‘not very plenty of ready Change’, his painstaking reference to stamps betrays fear that his father would be intimidated by the arcane requirements of the Post Office Guide. Concern about the cost of postage was nonetheless predictable, despite the

rebuke that its expression drew from Eliza Dalton in 1853—when the cheapest rate from Sydney was still 11d. ‘Why Should you Speak of triffling

postage to me who Shall always be anxious to hear from you, and also expect that nothing will prevent your writting’ (Da 3b). Other letters showed keen awareness of mailing or transit times, and concern about the possibility of loss. Michael Normile referred repeatedly to the dates of the English mail and the connecting steamer service from Sydney to Maitland (No 7g, 9h, rof, 13c). Biddy Burke emphasised the infrequency of the Brisbane mail, explaining that ‘yea must Excuse me father this is not like Home. One day delayes a Mounth.’ In Adelaide, Isabella

Wyly excused a delayed response by reporting that ‘the mail made some 17 Cf. The Complete Letter- Writer, Containing Important and Instructive Letters (Kilmarnock, circa 1830), which told the ‘young student’ that ‘when you write to a person of consequence, let it be on gilt paper, and enclose it in a cover; do not write the direction on the letter itself, unless it be to go by post’ (pp. 2-3). 18 A further penalty of sixpence would have been imposed on the recipient of an underpaid letter in 1860. The size of Fife’s sheet is unknown, as this letter survives only in transcription.

476 Themes little delay in Melburne so that the Australian mail left before the English one arived’ (Bu 2b; Wy 5a). The most graphic evocation of Australian postal primitivity, by comparison with the impressive network lately created in Ireland by Anthony Trollope, came from Patrick Comber in 1864: ‘Far removed from any town or village, In the midst of a wild and dreary country, it is not always I have an opportunity of sending letters’ (Co 2a). Some writers celebrated rapid or improved services, reflecting the competition between rival routes (Br 2c; Fi 13a; Ha 4a). Yet the dominant tone was distrustful, inducing Michael Dunne to register a letter from Meath, ‘lest, it should Meet, any Mistake’; and causing Daniel Brennan to write unavailingly to Queensland’s Postmaster General when his son’s promised letter and cheque failed to reach Down (Du 6d; Br 2c). The precious gift of writing, and its more crudely negotiable accompaniments, seemed all too vulnerable to carelessness or theft. Irish-Australian correspondence was typically a collective enterprise, rather than a private transaction between signatory and recipient. Several correspondents tried to save money or reduce the risk of loss by entrusting their letters to a friendly passenger. In 1858, the cost of sending a parcel from Adelaide was sufficient to encourage Isabella Wyly to use ‘a Gentleman who is going home in december next’. He had ‘promised to register the parsel in London so as to go safe. I thought it was a nice chance as | should hav to leave the end of the parsel open if I send it by Post|?] here or pay letter weight which would be more than all is worth, but I should not mind that had I not this good chance’ (Wy 5e). In Victoria two years earlier, the McCances had failed to despatch their ‘little percle’ of ‘Gold and speciments’, when a friend changed his mind about ‘goeing home in the ship Red Jacket’ (Mc 1d). The parcel post, with its cheaper rates and provision for compensation, was not extended to the Australian colonies until the period 1886—92.'° The use of personal agents was doubtless more common in the reverse direction. In 1843, Robert Thompson’s dictated letter to Victoria was ‘sent By hand through the acquaintance of Thomas Lawsons wife’, with a remarkably vague direction ‘to Joseph Hammond of Melbourne port Philip Australia. He came By the Ship Neptune New South Wails.’ Since this letter reached the Hammonds, the bearer must have fulfilled his daunting commission. This could not always be expected, as suggested a decade later by Joseph Hammond’s mother. ‘I wrote to you per Mr. Little who left this for Melbourne on the 6th. of November 1853 but up to the present has receved no letter from you. Doutless that you have '9 Queensland was the last Australian colony to join this scheme, six years after South Australia, New South Wales, and Victoria. The Reports of the Postmaster General after 1886 indicate that in most years three or four parcels were sent out of the United Kingdom for each parcel despatched from Australia.

Correspondence 477 not recieved that letter [and] fearing that it has been misled I hasten to write to you per Post direct’ (Ha re, 1g, 6a). Michael Hogan in Melbourne likewise hedged his bets, suggesting that if some friends were ‘Coming out you might send a letter by them along with one by post and then I am sure to get either’ (Ho 2b). In fact, the post was rarely ‘direct’. Since few correspondents in either country would have received regular deliveries to their own homes, news of the arrival of a letter at the post office or at a covering address would often have reached the neighbours before the recipients.2° The impoverished Doorleys relied upon the clergy in both Tullamore and Bolton to ensure receipt of mail from Queensland (Do rh, 4d). Writers such as the Brennans in Down and the Devlins in Armagh named shopkeepers or schoolmasters with covering addresses, perhaps in order to avoid wider publicity through the local postmaster or mistress. If so, Daniel Brennan’s wish to circumvent the Irish ‘bush telegraph’ was subverted, for in a later letter he expressed ‘joy when we got word of a letter in the post office from you’ (Ha 7f; Br

2g, 4a). Michael Hogan was clearly surprised to find that his brother in Tipperary had become respectable enough to receive important mail withOut an intermediary: ‘Not knowing your P. Prst [parish priest’s] Name I wrote to you before Margret Calihan came to Victoria wishing to know

who I might remit you some money through. But I am told to Direct to yourself you Being as well knowing and in as good Oppolense [opulence]

as many in the Parish of Cappawhite’ (Ho 1b). Even the entitlement to receive correspondence in person was a matter of public interest. The arrival of an Australian letter can seldom have passed unremarked. The need for covering addresses was still more pressing in Australia, where most recent arrivals had no settled lodgings or else lived with their employers. The postman for whom Biddy Burke watched out twice daily was delivering to her employer’s address, ‘the Mountview House’ in Brisbane (Bu 2b). William Dalton expressed concern about the fate of a letter addressed to his former servant’s new master in Sydney: ‘Yee say nothg about my last letter. Ned Should have it long as I directed to Mr Gibbins for yee’ (Da 2g). Michael Hogan, though evidently prosperous and settled in an inner suburb of Melbourne, shared Daniel Brennan’s preference for covering addresses and asked for his letters to be directed to acquaintances in town. In his first surviving letter, written over three years after Victoria’s separation from New South Wales, Hogan had given a perplexing direction to ‘N. S. Wales Victoria South Melbourne’. Thereafter he nominated agents such as a ‘friend in hand Little Collins Street? and a publican in Elizabeth 20 Free delivery to all houses in the United Kingdom was not guaranteed until 1897: Kay, Royal Mail, pp. 79-81.

478 Themes Street, before reluctantly reverting to his own post office address: ‘As wil-

liam ryan has left the carriers arms you have better direct your letter to Michl. Hogan South Melbourne’ (Ho rf, 2c, 3f, 4f). Even after delivery, the letter would not normally disappear into the recipient’s private domain. According to a vignette written in 1917, the American letter would soon become public property in the locality: ‘After it has been read and re-read by every member of the family it is passed around the village until every friend and acquaintance is familiar with its contents.’ Distribution was not, however, uncontrolled, for ‘no matter to whom it is addressed, it is always regarded as the property of the mother. It may not be read without her permission.”! Irish-Australian letters were also widely distributed. Both Michael Normile and Michael Hogan routinely circulated family letters among their circle in Australia, so recognising

that the writer’s intention was often to broadcast rather than merely to convey information (No 15c; Ho 4b). Letters from emigrants were still more inclined to achieve public circulation. Mary Devlin in Armagh remarked that ‘thir is grate enquiring when the here of anny letter from that contry’, and William Fife in Fermanagh declared memorably that ‘the News of the letters of Australia runs throug the Country like wilefire’ (Ha 5f; Fi 4a). Other passages in the Hammond sequence confirm the circulation of Australian letters among the extended family, even when this involved for-

warding to America (Ha 2d, 3b). Christy Dunne’s letters to a niece in Meath were sent on to the parental home, ‘where all your letters are Kept’ (Du rire). The lack of privacy in Irish-Australian correspondence is underlined by the frequent reference to information from other sources, which might be used to verify the news in any particular correspondence. Joseph Hammond’s mother thought it ‘very Strange that I can get some word of you through some of our Neighbours’, adding that “Thomas Sinnamon of Killicomain, Now in Milbourn give us an account of you in a Letter to his Father. John Fergus of Portadown, now in Portfairy give us the last account of you which encoraged me to write this Letter.’ Likewise, William Fife relied on connections in Goulburn for confirmation of his children’s safe arrival and success (Ha 8b; Fi 1a, 7g). The readiness with which family news was passed about provided a valuable defence against misleading mes-

sages, which might otherwise have gone undetected in a purely private correspondence. The wider accessibility of these letters did not, however, diminish their

private force for the primary recipient. Patrick Comber told his brother that ‘you cannot conceive what delight it gives me to read a home letter, to a person far removed from it’; Bridget Liptrot in Bolton wrote that she 21 P, D. Murphy, ‘Village Characters. I. The Intending Emigrant’, in Ireland’s Own, xxix (23 May 1917), p. 343.

Correspondence 479 ‘allays have to crie’ upon receiving a letter from her sister in Queensland (Co 2a; Do 7a). Eliza Dalton treated letter-writing as a test of affection, assuring Johanna Hogan that ‘your name Shall be always dear to me, for not forgetting to write me tho in a distant land’ (Da 4a). Letters embodied personal attachment in a form that retained its emotive power long beyond the occasion of writing. William Fife, like the Dunnes in Meath, regarded letters as documents deserving preservation in a family archive. He urged his children to ‘lay By all these Scribbles I have sent you as I do yours and when I have a leisure hour I often look over then’ (Fi 4d). We are fortunate that his children and their descendants, and those of other recipients of letters in this book, shared his inclination. The significance of letters was personal as well as public, historical as well as immediate.” It is self-evident that the internal evidence of letters tends to inflate the importance of correspondence. Although virtually every writer expressed concern about the absence of replies to earlier letters, it might be objected that such reproaches belong to the routine byplay of every correspondence, receding from the mind as the letter is sealed. Yet the urgency and intensity of many Irish-Australian complaints about non-correspondence suggest that, in the absence of other means of communication, the letter was indeed often pictured as a lifeline, and its absence as a harbinger of death. Not every complaint, of course, was formulated in such sombre tones. Writers such as Biddy Burke in Brisbane and Isabella Wyly in Adelaide were particularly versatile in soliciting responses. Isabella stressed the enhanced importance of the mail in the New World, exclaiming that ‘the arrival of the English mail causes such an excitement[?] in th[i]s place’, and reflecting that ‘I often think if our friends in dear old Ireland knew the excitement and delight letters and Papers caused when we receive them here, the would write much oftener than the do’ (Wy 31, 2a). She would try to arouse shame by reciting the statistics of an asymmetrical exchange, giving the number of letters sent in each direction, or the number of years of silence (Wy 3g, 7b, 10a). In 1856, Isabella portrayed herself as ‘ancisly looking out for the next Mail. We have one every Month, so we have every opportunity.’ Two decades later, she was still trying to sustain the same correspondence: ‘And now dear Matilda as the ice is broken I hope and trust we shall corspound [correspond] regularlly’ (Wy 1m, 1ob). Biddy Burke was equally persistent, protesting that ‘the all have given me for a bit of paper but you never mind

John God is good. I constantle watch the postman 2wice a day for my father and Mary Letters but its all in vain.’ She would pout that ‘I suppose my Sister Mary hasent got a Bit of paper to soil on a sister’, that Christmas 22 Letter-writing may also have functioned as a substitute for diary-keeping, enabling writers to give order to their experiences for their own benefit. The correspondents in this book did not, however, allude to this supremely private level of significance.

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would have been still grander ‘If I Could have you letter’, and that her brother was inclined to be ‘Crankey’ without news from Galway. Yet in darker vein, Biddy could ruminate that ‘I got Your letter about 10 days ago which I often wanderd ware You dead or what became of You’ (Bu 2b, 3c, rb, 2e, 3a). The rhetoric of reproach was rich and various. The fear that silence signified death was widespread, in both countries. Writers in Ireland, always aware of the riskiness of migration, were quick to draw the connection. Unsubstantiated rumours of death would leave parents fretting ‘in suspince’ until a denial arrived; prolonged absence of a letter would make them ‘fear that you were dead’, ‘sometimes think that he is dead’, think ‘perhaps she was Dead’, or grow ‘uneasy to now how you are getting along whether ded or alive’ (Du 3a, 9a; Br 7f; Fi 14c; Ha

1a). Likewise, emigrants such as Joseph Hammond and John McCance were uncomfortably aware that their ageing parents might die before writing the next letter: ‘It is so long since I wrote or received any news from Home that I was almost afraid of hearing from home’; ‘You may tell my Father if he is still alive that I felt very glad indeed and very very thankful to see a letter as it was from his own hand’ (Ha 4a; Mc 8i). When death did occur, the family in Ireland were expected to write promptly and resolve

the uncertainty. Edward O’Sullivan in Victoria was desolated when his brother failed to do so. ‘I had not even a letter of My Fathers death from Richd—I only heard it from Richd Donnelly. I never expected Richd would

be so unkind or at least so careless as not to write on that occasion’ (Su

482 Themes 2f). The particular messages expressed in a letter were often subsidiary to

its very existence, the most tangible proof of life available to separated kinsfolk. The scarcity of letters from Australia was the starting point for numerous

laments concerning filial indifference, most notably from Mary Devlin in Armagh (Ha 1c, re, 7a, 7f). Her last surviving letter to Victoria showed how closely affection and its written declaration had become entangled in her mind: ‘Dear Joseph now after having wretten Letter after Letter the long Space of five Long and I must Say antious years wthout ever Receiving one line cheer or gratifying me and still you see I must write’ (Ha 8a). For

Mary Anne Doorley in Bolton, her son’s silence showed that he had forgotten ‘his fond and loving Mother. I thought a Bove the world he could not forget me like he has Done’ (Do rb: 3b). Bridget Dunne in Meath grew ‘very down-harted when she dose be a while from hearing from you’, and William Dalton in Tipperary told one of the reticent Hogans in Sydney that he had given them ‘all up for lost and being ungreatfull but in this I find I was Mistaken So far as you are concrned’ (Du 8f; Da 6a). In other cases silence was interpreted as a sign of anger rather than indifference: ‘Have 1 done anny thing ronge or said anny thing ronge in my letter to not here from you’ (Do 6a). Into the inviting vacuum of a defunct correspondence, writers poured their imaginings of death, failure, rejection, or hostility, hoping by uttering the worst to conjure something better in response. The best response, naturally, was the arrival of a letter. The etiquette of

Irish-Australian correspondence, so elaborate in its formulation of reproach, was perfunctory with respect to apology. Two writers admitted ‘negligence’: “To make up for past negligence I am determined to write you a long and descriptive letter’; ‘Dear Lucy you must excuse me for my long negligence’ (Du 9a; Su 2f). Others pleaded pressure of work: ‘You could not think how buisy I am I may say night and day’; ‘I was extreamely busy.

I often sat down to write to you & could only say a few words when | would have to leave it there again’ (Mc 5f; Du 12a). Even the histrionic Philip Mahony, having observed that his brother-in-law would ‘no doubt think myself amongst the many friends you have got in Australia very ungrateful for not corresponding with you more regularly’, dropped the subject without elaboration (Ma 2a). The receipt of a letter, regardless of its content, provided surer consolation than any protestation of guilt. Correspondence was its own reward. FILLING THE MAILBAG

Consolation could be derived from the delivery of gifts, photographs, and newspapers, as well as letters. Though few of these tokens have survived, the letters in this book refer repeatedly to their transmission. Gifts, though

Correspondence 483 usually sent by emigrants from Australia, also moved in the reverse direction. The presents reaching Australia were mainly small and inexpensive— a collar and a ‘Knot’ from Down, a collar and cuffs from Fermanagh, a beautifully bound Methodist hymnal costing five shillings from the same county, a religious token from Tipperary, and a holy picture from Lanca-

shire (Wy 3h, 5d; Br 2h; Fi 4b, 7c; Da 4g; Do 8d). The only reported souvenir of Ireland was Philip Mahony’s blackthorn stick from a ‘lady friend’ in Cork; but Isabella Scott asked for ‘a few more Vewse of Ireland or I shoul like Dublin as I know more about it’ (Ma 2b; Wy 9e). Shamrocks

are notable for their absence, although Susanna Boyd promised to send Helenah Hammond a leaf from their mother’s grave if she herself were ‘Spared a Little Longer’ (Ha 9f). The traffic in gifts from the colonies was equally varied. Though no reference was made to religious tokens, clothing such as dresses and a silk tie were sent from New South Wales to the Fifes in Fermanagh (Fi 31, 13c, 14c). Isabella Wyly despatched a gold shawl pin

to her brother’s widow, offering it as ‘a token of love’ which was also ‘some thing colonia[l]’. Her other presents included pencil cases, a pocket book, the engraving by S. T. Gill, and a ‘piece’ of her brother’s hair which

she had brought over to Adelaide as a keepsake (Wy 5q, 7b, 8a, 2n, §e, 4h, 3h). Two other emigrants sent specimens of hair, always a powerful token of personal identity (Bu 1d; Mc 1g). Photographs were a still more arresting reminder of physical presence, also serving as an introduction to kinsfolk who might never be viewed in person. Although no reference was made to the transmission of picture postcards, the sending of photographs as enclosures was discussed in no fewer than nine sequences. They were almost invariably designated as ‘likenesses’, ‘liknesses’ or ‘litnesses’, ‘portrait’ being used three times and ‘phostgraf’? only once (Co 3e; Du 11b, 13c; Bu 2g).?? The more elegant term ‘carte’ or ‘carte de visite’, referring to the miniature portraits introduced by Disderi

in Paris in 1858, was used five times in letters written between 1865 and 1873 (Wy 9a; Su 2e; Du ge, 11a, 11b). The traffic in photographs was reciprocal, with 23 reports, promises, or requests concerning transmission from the British Isles, and 19 cases of photographs being sent from Australia.24 The sense of immediacy conveyed by the camera astonished Isabella

Wyly in 1858: ‘I can carsely believe after seven or 9 long years I was to see you once more. I hope for my sake I shall see the reality some day’ (Wy 5b). Yet the camera could be all too candid for the seeker after consolation, providing undeniable evidence of changes that might have been blurred in verbal discourse. Isabella’s aunt, perusing the same photograph, ‘was surprised to see so much change’ in Matilda Wyly, tactlessly 23 Variants of the word ‘likeness’ were used on 35 out of 44 occasions. 24 There was one further report of transmission from Queensland to New South Wales.

484 Themes attributing this to nine years of ‘care and trouble’. Seven years later, Isabella herself asked for ‘a good Cart’ of Matilda since the latest offering ‘looked

so old and I did not think Good’; and she apologised for sending unflattering images of herself and her husband (Wy 6a, 9a, 8c). Other writers remarked self-deprecatingly upon their own ‘forlorn’ looks, ‘care worn thoughtfull Looking appearance’, or surrender to ‘old Father time’ (Du 114; Fi 7c; Su 2e). Australian images could turn an Irish eye askance, leading Daniel Brennan to observe tartly of his son’s ‘robust’ countenance that ‘we

think Queensland is a bad country for a Barber’ (Br 4h). Biddy Burke, fearing a similar response to photographs of her brother if not herself, insisted that ‘my Mother musent cry or but [?put] Herself about when she sees them. I would Have send them a long time ago but I dont want Her to cry anny. She will be surprised wh[en] she see them’ (Bu 2g). With its twin connotations of nearness and separation, familiarity and change, the photograph was often a disturbing token. Newspapers were by far the most popular form of subsidiary correspondence. Being cheap to post yet meaty to read, they provided an excellent foil for the more taxing exercise of communication by letter. Newspapers are mentioned in all but four sequences, with 36 references to transmission from Ireland and 41 cases from Australia.2* These newspapers were only occasionally named: William Dalton in Tipperary sent out copies of two local journals and the London Weekly Dispatch; and correspondents in Australia sent Catholic mouthpieces such as the Melbourne Advocate and the Sydney Freeman’s Journal, as well as country papers and the Sydney

Morning Herald (Da 2h, 2a, 5a; Fi 10a; No 9f, toe). Michael Normile expressed a strong preference for ‘a good catholic paper’ from ‘home’, sig-

nifying his unease with the often sectarian tone of Australia’s Protestant press (No 9f, 10e, 15a). Christy Dunne was even less respectful of the local

newspapers, stating that ‘I would have Sent you one this time but ther is nothing in them worth reeding’ (Du 2c). In most cases, however, no comment was made on the quality of the newspapers exchanged. Normile hoped that his gifts would ‘amuse some of the neighbours for a bit’, and Michael Dunne in Meath sent his son ‘a fue news papers to amuse you’ (No roe; Du sh). Papers were often sent because of their coverage of public affairs, such as the Franco-Prussian war of 1870, local processions, expeditions, and fires, or simply ‘the colloni[al] events’ (Du 8c; Mc 4i, 5d; No 15b; Wy 7b). Other letters drew attention to press reports of the weather or market prices, and two emigrants expressed a specific desire for published news of Irish affairs (Mc 8d; No 6c, 15d, 14b; Wy 1n). Normile left no doubt in his letters that his Irish neighbours in Maitland thirsted for *5 In addition, there is a curious account of a ship newspaper chronicling a voyage of the Dover Castle from Australia to England (Br 3f).

Correspondence 485 Irish news, and he complained that he was obliged to lend incoming papers to twenty or even sixty eager readers (No 11g, roe: 13c). In several cases, the interest of newspapers was enhanced by personal references to the senders or their acquaintances (Fi 5e, 13b; Mc 5c, 5d; Su 2f). Yet, as with other ingredients of the mailbag, the primary pleasure derived from receipt of a newspaper was reassurance of the well-being and goodwill of the sender.

What could be more flattering to the recipient than to benefit from the supposedly ‘troublesome and expensive’ process of repeated mailings (Da

4a)? And what could be more relaxing for the struggling correspondent than to transfer part of the burden of communication to the public press, at the price of a penny or so?

DISCOURSE THROUGH LETTERS

The letter is among the most stylised of literary forms. Rare indeed is the writer independent enough to escape conventional prescriptions, particularly in opening and concluding a letter. The placing of the sender’s address and the date, the wording of the greeting, the choice of message above the signature, even the selection of pen and paper, all carry powerful social connotations. To ignore these nuances is to invite either ridicule or indignation from the reader. Yet no particular code of epistolary conventions has ever prevailed in all cultures or all classes—instead, several codes have tussled for supremacy, using the rhetoric of class distinction or educational

superiority to establish their authority. Innumerable manuals have attempted to codify and illustrate the rules of letter-writing, but none has encompassed the full range of conventions governing popular practice. Before examining the models and influences affecting Irish-Australian correspondence, we must reconstruct the prevalent conventions from the internal evidence of the letters. This exercise suggests a distinctive blend of ceremoniousness and informality, far removed from either Irish or Australian

practice in our own time. The genesis and broader significance of these conventional forms are explored in the final section of this chapter. The strongest formal regularities appear in the initial sentences of salutation, whose elaborate formulation invites comparison with the ‘bowing letter’ of Polish-American correspondence.*® The styles of initial address largely conform to the prescriptions characteristic of nineteenth-century

manuals. Among the 113 salutations, only two failed to embrace some 26 William I. Thomas and Florian Znaniecki, The Polish Peasant in Europe and America (New York, 1958 edn.), vol. i, pp. 303-15. The ‘bowing letter’, a ‘type’ from which ‘all the peasant letters’ allegedly derived, was introduced by a religious greeting, followed by reciprocal references to health, and then greetings or ‘bows’ to each relative. Unfortunately, the prevalence of this ‘type’ is not demonstrated by statistical evidence.

486 Themes variant of ‘dear’.2” The stiff form ‘dear Sir’ was used in ten cases, almost

always being applied to those of higher social status and without close kinship to the writer. In 41 cases, the recipient was addressed by rank or name, as ‘dear sister’ or ‘dear Matthew’. In 51 salutations, the more familiar ‘my dear’ was preferred; whereas extravagances such as ‘my dearest’,

‘my very dear’, ‘my very very dear’, or ‘dear and much loved’ were used in nine instances. Though many manuals insisted that the choice of epithet should reflect the relative seniority or station of sender and recipient, this rule was only faintly observed by Irish-Australian writers.22 The warmer and more familiar styles were applied to elders as well as equals or juniors; children and other juniors were sometimes addressed merely as ‘dear’.?? Seniority was recognised, however, in the choice of ranks (such as ‘dear father’) as against forenames. No senior recipient was addressed by name alone, and very few juniors were greeted only by their rank.*° There was no significant difference between the warmth of greeting employed by male

and female writers, although the most effusive styles of address came mainly from the pen of Isabella Wyly. For many modern correspondents, and for those schooled by nineteenthcentury manuals, the salutation would be restricted to the initial address followed, perhaps, by acknowledgement of a previous letter. Such simplicity and concision would have been deemed grossly discourteous by many

Irish-Australian correspondents. Instead, their narrative was typically preceded by an elaborate sequence of formulaic phrases, enquiries, declarations, and exhortations. These may be classified under five categories. An introductory phrase was commonly followed by a reference to the exchange of correspondence, discussion of the health of sender and recipient, and an affirmation of religious faith. These courtesies often encased a brief message 27 Salutations include greetings to a secondary recipient in mid-letter and exclude cases in which the opening passage has been lost. The salutation is deemed to end at the point where courtesies give place to narrative. 28 A Belfast manual published in about 1840 indicated that an apprentice should address his father as ‘Honoured Sir’, the father replying to ‘Dear Frank’. By 1862, the use of formal address within families was considered outmoded, warmer styles such as ‘My dear and honoured Father’ or ‘My dearly beloved Mother’ being recommended, ‘according to circumstance and feeling’. Even in 1895, ‘My dear’ savoured ‘of a certain intimacy’. The Universal LetterWriter, and Complete Correspondent (Belfast, circa 1840), p. 81; The Practical Letter- Writer (London, 1862), p. 21; [Henry Frith], The Letter Writer’s Handbook and Correspondent’s Guide (London, 1895 edn.), p. xxvii. 29 The salutations have been classified according to the relative seniority (in terms of generation) of sender and recipient. Of the 41 recipients addressed by name or rank as ‘dear’, 7 were seniors, 16 juniors, and 18 of the same generation as the sender. For the 51 who were called ‘my dear’, the corresponding figures were 18, 24, and 9. Among the 9 who received warmer greetings, 2 were seniors, 2 juniors, and 5 equals. 30 Among 48 recipients addressed by their rank alone (excluding the 10 cases of ‘dear Sir’), 26 were seniors, 5 juniors, and 17 equals. Of the 47 greeted only by name, 36 were juniors and 11 equals. Among the 7 recipients who were assigned both name and rank, 5 were of the same generation, 1 senior, and 1 junior.

Correspondence 487 TABLE 5. Percentage of salutations containing phrases in five categories, as used by correspondents of each sex and in letters from each country

In letters from

Men Women UK Australia All letters

Number of salutations 77 36 58 55 113 Percentage containing phrases in each category Introductory phrases 30 39 2284448033 References to correspondence 79 89 82 References to health 69 53 60 67 64 Affirmations of faith 48 36 41 47 44

Messages 4S 56 55 42 49

or proverb. A highly developed but characteristic salutation was that addressed by Richard Thompson to his ‘dear Brother & Sister Joseph & Helenah Hammond’ in Victoria: ‘I embrace this favourable opportunity of scribling these few Lines to you [introductory phrases] once more hoping

that the will find you Both in as Good Health as the leave us all in at present [discussion of health] thank God for all His mercies to us [affirmation of faith]. | received your Letter after a long silence on the 30th of May Being Dated the 29th of September 1844 [reference to correspondence] which Gives us all a Great Deal of Comfort But sory to hear of your Loss But content to Hear of you Being in a situation [message] and your children in Good Health’ (Ha 3a). The order of the five elements was not immutable; few salutations embraced all five categories; and the conventional phrases

were subject to extensive and sometimes playful variation. Even so, the salutations are sufficiently uniform to justify the presumption of a conventional pattern. Ritualised introductory phrases appear in 37 of the 113 salutations, being markedly more frequent in letters from the colonies than from the British Isles (see Table 5). By far the most common formula concerned the writing of ‘(these) few lines’, ‘a few words’, or ‘these lines’ (23 cases). Other popular expressions included taking, embracing, or availing of ‘this (favourable) opportunity’; taking ‘the liberty’, or ‘the notion’; taking the ‘quill’ or the ‘pen in hand’; and sitting down.*! Seven salutations, mainly by Michael Normile, used the grandiloquent preface, ‘I am (have) to inform you’. What these phrases have in common is their heightened and declamatory tone, clearly distinct from colloquial usage.*? A secondary function of the introductory references to pens and bodily position was to help the reader to visualise the process of writing. 31 These four sub-categories appear in 8, 5, 4, and 3 salutations respectively. 32 Nine other phrases occur once only. Note that many salutations employed several ritualised phrases, and so forth, so that the sum of cases in the various sub-categories exceeds the overall incidence in each category.

488 Themes Many of the references to correspondence, which occur in all but 20 salutations, are equally decorous. Admittedly, little ceremony was observed in the 22 apologies for tardiness, or the four allusions to the writer’s earlier

letters. The 20 expressions of anxiety or reproach concerning lapses in correspondence were also individual and colloquial rather than formulaic. By contrast, the receipt of letters was seldom acknowledged without some

glowing adjective or epithet. The arrival of a letter made the recipient happy, pleased, or glad (28 cases); joyful, delighted, or excited (12); consoled, comforted, or satisfied (11); and grateful, thankful, obliged, or indebted (7). Though Normile alone was fanciful enough to derive ‘an ocean of consolation’ from his father’s letters, most writers adhered to the convention that the receipt of a letter should be celebrated with a verbal cascade of emotion.** The quality of letters also elicited a range of compliments

and excited responses. No fewer than 21 letters were ‘(very) welcome’ or ‘welcomed’. Fifteen were ‘kind’, and two were at once ‘affectionate’ and ‘nice’ or ‘fond’.** Irish Australians were punctilious in their expression of gratitude. References to health appear in 72 salutations, two-thirds of the total. Nearly half of these phrases were reciprocal, involving a comparison of the health of writer and reader.*> As many as 28 salutations contain versions of that notorious formula, ‘hoping to find you in good health as this leaves us’, or ‘glad to hear that you are all well as this leaves us all well’.2¢ The conventional qualification ‘at present’, signifying the transience of good health, occurs in 12 salutations. Though ‘good health’ is the dominant phrase (29 cases), variants include ‘all well’ or ‘well’ (16), and a ‘first-rate’, ‘perfect’, or ‘usual state of health’ (8). In nine cases, the reference to physical well-being was linked to general declarations of happiness, prosperity, comfort, contentment, or ‘doing well’.*” Ill-health and death, though mentioned in 28 and 14 passages respectively, were usually discussed in a more particular and less formulaic style. It is worth noting that Irish-Australian affirmations of good health were sometimes purely routine, being followed immediately by specific evidence of illness or affliction. This unconscious irony is particularly common in the letters of William Fife.38 Affirmations of faith occur in 50 salutations, being most prevalent in *3 The content of another letter made its recipient ‘sorry’. In 5 cases, a letter was simply ‘acknowledged’, ‘received’, or ‘read’ without comment. 4 ‘Twelve other phrases were used to characterise letters received. ** Of the 72 salutations, 25 refer only to the health of the recipient’s circle and 14 exclusively to the sender’s circle, whereas 33 statements are reciprocal. °° Finding and leaving coincide in 17 cases. Another 6 cases refer only to finding and 5 to leaving (with various combinations of hoping and hearing). 37 Of these 9 cases, 4 involved the term ‘well’, and 5 ‘health’.

38 For examples, see Br 6a; Ho 4a; Fi 5a, 8a, 9a, 12a, 13a. In one case, the evidence of affliction preceded the routine declaration of good health.

Correspondence 489 letters written by the sub-group of men in Australia.2? No fewer than 37 greetings contain ritualistic expressions of thanksgiving to God for his gift of good health. As P. W. Joyce remarked in 1910, Irish conversation was

punctuated by such utterances. ‘The people thank God for everything, whatever it may be His will to send, good or bad. “Isn’t this a beautiful day, Mike. ” “Tis indeed, thank God.” ‘‘This is a terrible wet day, William, and very bad for the crops.”’ “It is indeed, Tom, thanks be to God for all: He knows best’’.’4° As this parody suggests, variant phrases of thanksgiving were used interchangeably. Irish-Australian correspondents were most inclined to ‘thank God’ or ‘the Lord’ (22 cases); but they also offered ‘thanks to God’ or ‘praise’ in 3 salutations and exclaimed ‘thanks be to God’ or to the ‘Redeemer’ on 12 occasions. Though Catholics were more prone to use embellished forms, the selection of idiom cannot be fully explained by the religion of the writer.*! Indeed, most of these variants have close counterparts in both Catholic and Protestant bibles and manuals of devotion.*2 Thanksgiving was occasionally directed to His ‘goodness’ or ‘kindness’ (3 cases), but more often to his ‘mercy’ or ‘mercies’ (12). These attributes might be amplified with adjectives such as ‘unspeakable’, ‘continued’, and especially ‘kind’.*? In addition to parenthetical exclamations of thanksgiving, the salutations contain 12 prayers, blessings, and pious phrases, together with 8 homilies and other religious observations. Similar phrases recur throughout the letters, but their densest concentration is to be found in the opening passages. The only element of salutations without a pronounced ceremonial aspect is the fifth category, embracing a medley of messages ranging from congratulation to anxiety, from morsels of news to proverbs, from acknowledgement of gifts to plans for emigration. The interpolation of such specific elements within the ritual of greeting occurred in 55 cases, being most common in letters by women writing to Australia. The rituals of salutation characterising the letters in this book were not unique to Irish-Australian correspondence. They adhere closely to recognised stereotypes of the ‘American letter’, such as those reported to the Irish Folklore Commission in 1955. As an aged Tipperary informant recalled, the conventional phrasing had become a standing joke: ‘I remember 39 They appear in 22 of the 41 salutations in this sub-group. 40 PP. W. Joyce, English as We Speak It in Ireland (London, 1910), p. 197.

41 Catholic and Protestant salutations are equally represented among the 22 cases of ‘thank God’, whereas ‘thanks be to God’ is found in 9 Catholic but only 3 Protestant salutations. 42 ‘Thanks be to God’ is the English version of ‘Deo gracias’ in The Garden of the Soul: A Manual of Catholic Devotion (Dublin, circa 1880), p. 218. Though this form is dominant, phrases such as ‘give thanks to God’ and ‘I thank my God?’ also occur in the English version of the Douay Testament, as sanctioned for use in Catholic Ireland after 1791. Cruden’s Concordance indicates that all three forms are used indiscriminately in the Authorised Version. 43 The highly ornamented variant ‘thanks be to God for his unspeakable mercies’ (Ha 2a) echoes 2 Cor. 9: 15: ‘thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift’ (AV). 44 Messages are found in 16 of the 22 salutations in this sub-group.

490 Themes a local wag who used to make fun of the stereotype form of American letters. He used to quote: “(Dear Father and Mother I now sit down and take my pen in hand to write these few lines which I hope will find you both in good health as I am myself at present, thank God for his kind mercies to us all’’.’45 A collector in Mayo offered an almost identical pattern for letters dictated by illiterates to local scribes, in the late nineteenth cen-

tury: ‘Dear so and so. I take my pen in hand hoping the arrival of these few lines will find you in a good state of health, as the departure of this letter leaves us in the same state, thanks be to God for his kind mercy to us all.’ The collector believed that ‘every American letter to and fro was prefaced with that introduction, and its omission would be considered a grave error of taste and courtesy’.*®

On the basis of these accounts of ‘folklore’, one might be tempted to presume that the stereotype was quintessentially Irish, if also exportable to America. In fact, it conformed closely to the ‘general case of letter-writing as practised by uneducated persons’, in the mocking view of an English manual published in 1856. ‘Whatever be the subject of the letter or the occasion of writing, it is pretty sure to begin thus—‘“‘This comes hopping to find you all well, as it leaves us at present, thank God for it.” In the next letter the writer varies the commencement for the sake of change, and begins—“‘I take up my pen to write you these few lines’’.’*”? Four decades later, English pedagogues were still protesting that it was ‘dreadfully illiterate’ to begin a letter with the hope that ‘you are quite well, as this leaves me at present’.*® Although somewhat less ornate than the Irish parodies, these English vulgarisms are clearly variants of the same model. The pertinence of parodic stereotypes to the Irish-Australian case may be tested by

setting each segment of the Tipperary version against kindred phrases among our 113 salutations. The frequency of each element is as follows: ‘I

now sit down (3 cases) and take my pen in hand (4) to write these few lines (23) which I hope will find you both in good health as I am myself (28) at present (12), thank God (37) for his kind mercies to us all (12).’ The ceremoniousness of Irish-Australian greetings conformed to a wider discourse, which may well have been familiar to uneducated writers throughout the British Isles, and beyond. 45 William Corrigan of Grange, in Collectors’ Reports, book 1407, p. 343: Department of Irish Folklore, UCD. For a variant from Donegal, see Collectors’ Reports, book 1411, pp. ‘6 Michael Corduff of Rossport, in Collectors’ Reports, book 1410, p. 138. Arnold Schrier states that a similar ‘standard opening sentence’ appeared in ‘a great majority’ of the IrishAmerican letters with which he was familiar, whether by Catholic or Protestant emigrants: Ireland and the American Emigration, 1850-1900 (Minneapolis, 1958), pp. 24, 175 (note 11). This claim is not supported by any statistical evidence. *? Letter- Writing Simplified, for Those Who Are Not Used to It (London, 1856), p. 5. 48 Frith, Letter Writer’s Handbook, p. xix.

Correspondence 491 The forms of farewell, though also somewhat ceremonious, were less distinctive. A parallel analysis indicates that writers were less inclined to include formulaic phrases concerning health, correspondence, or religion in their conclusions than in their greetings. The concluding courtesies were typically more conversational and less ornamented, abounding with phrases such as ‘goodbye’, or ‘I must conclude’.*? Thus, Biddy Burke: ‘Well now I suppose you will be tirde of reading my letter. I must conclud with fond Love & remaining your daughter & a loving sister & a sincere Aunt untill Death. B. Burke. To her father & mother M. & P. Burke. ++++4+’ (Bu 3j). The most engrossing element of Irish-Australian farewells is undoubtedly the multitude of phrases deployed to suggest intimacy with the recipient. All but ten of the 115 farewells include some depiction of the warmth of the relationship, generating no fewer than 219 epithets all told. The heartiest expressions were ‘affectionate’ (49 cases), ‘fond’ (24), ‘loving’ or ‘beloved’ (20), and kisses, sometimes in cruciform (5). Less intimate terms were even more numerous, including ‘with love’ (32 cases), ‘dear’ (30), ‘kind’ (12), ‘sincere’ (12), ‘true’ (10), and ‘good’ (5).°° In this context at least, women were more inclined to express intimacy than men, and to use warmer phrases when doing so.°*! Irish-Australian expressions of intimacy resembled those recommended in manuals for ‘the juvenile correspondent’, who was urged to use words such as ‘dear’, ‘affectionate’, and ‘kind’, as well as the more severe expressions of gratitude, duty, fidelity, respect, sincerity, and obligation.°2 Only 19 farewells ended with the conventional phrases of modern business correspondence, signifying surrender of possession (‘yours truly’, ‘yours faithfully’, ‘yours sincerely’, and so forth).* Most writers preferred less stilted forms such as ‘your affectionate sister’, the relationship of sender to recipient being specified in 88 cases. Their preference was shared by the manuals, in which a clear distinction was commonly drawn between the stiffness appropriate to business correspondence and the greater intimacy of letters within families. In their goings if 49 Of the 115 farewells (including those preceding a secondary salutation), 79 contain phrases announcing termination. These include versions of ‘no more (at present)’ in 37 cases, ‘I (must) conclude’ (29), ‘goodbye’ (10), ‘farewell’ (6), ‘adieu’ (2), and terms such as ‘finish’ or ‘close’ (5).

50 There are also 11 references to fidelity, obligation, or the like, as well as 9 expressions of bare respect or regard. 51 The 78 male farewells call upon 75 ‘less intimate’ expressions, but only 52 in the ‘heartiest’ category. By contrast, the 37 female farewells include no fewer than 46 in each group. 52 This is based on a survey of letters in The Companion Letter Writer (London, circa 1874), which passed through many editions. Inscriptions such as ‘your most affectionate Brother’ may be found in much earlier models, such as Samuel Richardson’s Letters Written to and for Particular Friends (London, 1st edn. 1741). See the modern edition entitled Familiar Letters on Important Occasions (London, 1928), p. 33. 53 The conventional formulae ‘believe me’, ‘I remain’, and ‘I am’ appear respectively in 13, 44, and 4 farewells.

492 Themes not their comings, Irish-Australian correspondents were attuned to the polite tone of ‘the age’. Formality and ceremony were not restricted to the salutations and farewells. Several writers interspersed their narratives with renewed greetings announcing a change of theme or tone—a technique used to antiphonic effect by Michael Normile with his recurrent incantation of ‘My dear father’. The messages of goodwill to friends and relatives, often laboriously

enumerated by name and rank, also followed a rigid formula in several sequences. On occasion, writers tried to elevate their prose by uttering prayers or blessings, capping a report with a proverb, or even reciting a verse. Both Isabella Wyly in Adelaide and Susanna Boyd in Armagh followed the genteel practice of writing out a triumphal hymn in order to console a widow for her loss (Wy 3k; Ha 9k). One writer, on the eve of his departure for America, went so far as to compose a spoof ballad on the subject (Ha 3e). Otherwise, literary touches were largely confined to scriptural allusions. The derivations of some of these heightening elements are explored in the commentaries. It was a pedagogical commonplace that personal letters should simulate conversation. A manual published in 1801 deplored floridity and the pursuit of elegance, advising that ‘an easy, concise way of writing is the best style for tradesmen’. If their writing resembled ‘conversation’, they would

‘be no more at a loss to write, than you will be to speak to the person were he present’. Other manuals reiterated the importance of an unaffected style imitating, ‘as nearly as possible, the language we should use in discourse’. Some authors even tried to affect the conversational style that they were advocating. A student ‘not accustomed to the use of the pen’ was urged to ‘imagine himself talking to brother Thomas’.°> Another manual advised the writer to ‘fancy your friend or correspondent to be sitting by you; say what you would say if such were the case, and then write it down’, offering ‘a picture of your thoughts’.°* The call for spontaneity through imagining conversation, which if adopted would have rendered further instruction redundant, was prevalent in French as well as English manuals from 1800 onwards.*” Yet the identification of letter-writing with speech required not only imagination but artifice. As Altman remarks, ‘epistolary language is preoccupied with immediacy, with presence, because it ‘4 The Complete Letter-Writer (Gainsborough, 1801), pp. 36-9. This Richardsonian manual provided translations of florid specimens into conversational prose. ° Universal Letter-Writer, p. 4; Letter-Writing Simplified, pp. 3, 7. ‘6 Introduction to Cooke’s Universal Letter- Writer (London, 1860 edn.). *” See Volker Kapp, ‘L’art épistolaire dans les manuels littéraires scolaires du XIX siécle’, in Mireille Bossis (ed.), L’épistolarité a travers les siécles (Stuttgart, 1990), p. 126; Cécile Dauphine, “Les Manuels épistolaires au XIX°* siécle’, in Roger Chartier (ed.), La correspondance: Les usages de la lettre au XIX® siécle (Paris, 1991), pp. 229-31 (‘L’illusion de l’oralité’).

Correspondence 493 is a product of absence’.** The conversational tone could carry conviction only when applied by a skilled rhetorician, deploying memory and prediction to manufacture the simulacrum of presence. Several Irish-Australian correspondents explicitly depicted their writing as a form of conversation. William Fife told his children that he ‘must soon quit talking to yous for want of ro[o|m’, and later that ‘I could talk to you for a year but I must say Farewell for a while’ (Fi 1k, 4e). John McCance drew his ‘long yarn to a close’, and Biddy Burke sat down ‘to have a few words of conversation’ (Mc 5h; Bu 3a). Philip Mahony and Michael Normile, both unusually sensitive in their choice of words, made the artifice manifest. Mahony hoped that his letter might ‘have the effect of a Friendly chat between yourselves in that grand Old Homestead’; Normile exclaimed that ‘actualy my Dear Father I fancy I am speaking to you verbaly while I am writing this scroll to you but my grife I am not’ (Ma 2j; No 11h). By drawing attention to their exercise of imagination, they encouraged readers to collaborate in the deception. For the most part, however, the construction of conversation through letters was unsignposted. As the commentaries upon each sequence have suggested, many Irish-Australian writers were remarkably skilful in conducting conversations across vast gaps in time and space. Their simulation of dialogue and rich use of idiom, reflecting diverse regional accents and local allusions, resist distillation into any common technique or model of composition. We may, however, define certain motifs illustrating the subtlety with which the ‘illusion of orality’ was sustained. The long intervals between despatch and receipt of Irish-Australian correspondence made the problem of Altman’s ‘temporal polyvalence’ unusually acute.°? In order to fabricate simultaneous dialogue, the writer had

to respond to messages sent months earlier and to anticipate responses occurring months later. In addition to maintaining a protracted sequence of questions and answers, the writer had to indicate unflagging sensitivity to the personality of the respondent. The writer’s sharpest images of the reader were drawn from memory, modified by the effect of letters received long after composition. Those retrospective images required constant empathetic adjustment if the illusion of immediacy were to be perpetuated. Indeed the temporal framework of the letter stretched indefinitely in both directions, drawing upon a medley of recollections and inviting contemplation of a range of possible outcomes. The simplest device for achieving immediacy was the evocation of a common memory, inviting reader and writer to coincide in their shared past. For William Fife, ‘recollecton is ever at hand with me’: even in the midst of a neighbourly gathering he would find himself ‘thinking about you’, with his heart ‘also in Goulburn’ (Fi rc, 58 Janet Gurkin Altman, Epistolarity: Approaches to a Form (Columbus, Ohio, 1982), p. 135. 59 Altman, Epistolarity, p. 118.

494 Themes th, 2e). His recollections of the departure of Nixon and Faithy from the quay of Derry are remarkable examples of constructive empathy, crowned by his imagined account of their long sea journey to Sydney. The common memory became the origin of a shared and continuing experience, proving that ‘althoug I parted with you in Body my heart and the affections of a Father went with yous’ (Fi 1b, rd). The manipulation of memory is further explored in the final chapter, with its account of the enduring appeal of ‘home’ as a spiritual rendezvous for separated kinsfolk. Immediacy was also sought in the future, through contemplation of a meeting in either flesh or spirit. Discussion of personal meetings was usually concerned either with practical arrangements for migration, or with vague expressions of enthusiasm. The heavenly meeting provided a more fanciful resolution of the disjunction between writer and reader, who could wallow

together in the prospect of eternal reunion. Fife repeatedly exhorted his children to ‘Strive to meet mee at the right hand of God’, and to reassemble the family ‘in Heaven where we will not have to write to one another nor

no Anxious thoughts’ (Fi 1c, 8e: 4d, 7g, 9f, toc, 11g). Philip Mahony concluded his ‘Friendly chat’ with his brother-in-law by writing that ‘if we all never again shall have the pleasure of meeting here below, I hope we shall in the Glorious Land of Promise’ (Ma 21). Isabella Wyly looked forward to heavenly reunion in no fewer than nine passages, once exclaiming: ‘Oh that day was come. It would be a happy meeting, woul it not’ (Wy 10). The eternal future, like the shared past, provided correspondents with common moments of imaginable communion. There was one further device whereby immediacy could be invoked, in an imagined present. This was the report of a dream, in which separated friends or relatives were united in a moment outside calendar time. Normile

wrote of ‘having a stiff yarn’ with friends ‘at Derry chappel and to my surprise I found meself in Maitland when I awoke’; Kitty Brennan dreamed that her brother in Queensland had ‘brought the Seed corn to the door on a barrow’ (No gh; Br 7f). For some writers, the dream signified not a happy conjunction but a supernatural warning of disaster or death, travelling faster than the promptest telegram. Having ‘been Dreaming of you of late very often and very nasty Dreams’, Normile and his wife both suspected that ‘there might be someting wrong’ with their parents. Bridget Doorley ‘noead [knew] Before i got youar letter that you or some of they Children were eling [ailing] something for night after night i sawe you in my dream’. Most disturbing of all was an ominous dream that Kate Mahony endured shortly before her son’s death in Victoria. ‘Before he got bad at all Kate one night saw her mother in a dream, she thought she had a few angry words with her. Then your mother went straight into the room where he slept, stooped over him & Kissed him. Ever afterwards he was not well’ (No 13a; Do 5c; Ma 3a). Chilling though it seems, this narrative served to

Correspondence 495 unite Kate Mahony and her mother from Cork in bereavement. The symbols of immediacy could be menacing as well as joyful. The discourse of Irish-Australian letters, though neither uniform nor always efficacious, constituted a noteworthy response to the twin challenges of distance and delay. Its forms and conventions were well adapted to the task of bridging the gap in both place and time, so helping to preserve at least the appearance of communion between writer and reader. The ceremonies of salutation in emigrant letters engaged the semi-public world of Irish cousins and neighbours borrowing a letter, or attending a reading. Like the catalogues of former friends and neighbours who were remembered in almost every letter, the forms of salutation signified the writer’s continued participation in a ceremonious culture. Despite radical disparities in verbal content, the epistolary greeting had functions parallel to the decorous exchange of courtesies between neighbours on a country road. The

simulated conversation was conducted in a more private space, using shared turns of phrase, memories, and expectations to reinforce personal bonds. The emigrant reassured the Irish reader by employing an idiom scarcely touched by Australian colloquialism; the writer in Ireland used dialect and familiar phrases to reinforce the emigrant’s fading link with ‘home’. There was no incongruity between the ceremonies of salutation and

the informalities of narration. Both ceremony and informality were required in a discourse with public as well as private elements. Both forms were triumphs of design: the imaginary conversation, as much as the formal greeting, relied upon the reader’s acceptance of a conventional substitute for the inaccessible reality. Both contributed to a powerful ‘epistolary rhet-

oric’. The salutation and the chat, like the physical presence of the letter itself, served as tokens of a deeper connection. MODELS FOR LETTERS

For the post-Famine Irish, the letter was an indispensable agent for sustaining the unity of families and neighbourhoods fractured by emigration. It had become a cultural institution, characterised by a sophisticated set of conventions which few writers felt able to ignore. It is unlikely that the conventions governing Irish-Australian correspondence differed much from those of the ‘American letter’. In each case, the idiom belonged to Ireland

rather than the New World, and the forms of discourse were functional 60 As Hébrard observes, the forms of popular correspondence are closely related to the ‘space’

within which discourse was conducted. He maintains that the appropriate variable for categorising and understanding the writings ‘de l’>homme sans qualité’ is not so much their form as the space within which they are produced and received. This passage appears in the conclusion to Chartier, La correspondance, p. 456; and also in Jean Heébrard, ‘La correspondance au XIX¢ siécle’, in Bossis, L’épistolarité, p. 167.

496 Themes rather than arbitrary. Clearly, these conventions were not newly minted by every individual correspondent. Their widespread adoption was the outcome of a prolonged process of cultural diffusion. What were the models from which those conventions were imitated? How important was formal instruction in governing the writing of letters? No study of the letter as a cultural institution can ignore the relative influence of instruction and experience in moulding the forms of discourse. In searching for the models inspiring Irish-Australian letters, we may also contribute to the broader and neglected study of Irish popular culture. The first systematic attempts to formulate a rhetoric of letter-writing occurred in the eleventh century, with the evolution of the ars dictaminis or modus epistolaris. This loose reapplication of Cicero’s oratorical method entailed a division of the model letter into an elaborate salutation, nicely

graded according to the status of the recipient; an exordium setting the tone with a proverb or passage from Scripture; a narration stating the purpose of the letter; a petition or specific request; a brief peroration unrelated to the request; and an authorising signature from the person dictating the letter.6' Correspondents were urged to restrict themselves to a single theme, while avoiding full development of any argument, and to drop virtually

any element except the salutation and petition, as circumstances demanded.® Indeed, the most striking aspects of the ars dictaminis were its informality and flexibility, combined with its lack of influence upon medieval letter-writers. Despite its manifest irrelevance as a direct model in the nineteenth century, this medieval prescription finds several strong echoes in Irish-Australian letters. For example, the conventional requirement of a formal salutation and farewell, largely divorced from the substance of the letter, might be interpreted as the cultural residue of seven centuries of rhetoric, instruction, imitation, and modification. Although the bendable rules of medieval rhetoric scarcely affected the writers of letters, these rules had a formative influence on the writers of innumerable ‘letter-writers’, circulating between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries in Europe, the British Isles, and subsequently the New World. The lineage of the French secrétaire has been painstakingly reconstructed by Chartier and Dauphin.® The court secrétaires, with their intricate instructions on the modes of address appropriate to different orders, carried the preoccupations of the ars dictaminis to a vast sub-literary au‘' Useful syntheses are provided by James Jerome Murphy, Rhetoric in the Middle Ages (Berkeley, 1974), pp. 194-268; Giles Constable, Letters and Letter Collections (Turnhout, Belgium, 1976); and Alain Boureau, ‘La norme épistolaire, une invention médiévale’, in Chartier, La correspondance, pp. 127-57. °? See the remarkable Rationes dictandi (Bologna, 1135), translated in James J. Murphy (ed.), Three Medieval Rhetorical Articles (Berkeley, 1971), pp. 1-26. °> Roger Chartier, ‘Les “‘secrétaires” pour le peuple?’, and Dauphin, ‘Les manuels’, in Chartier, La correspondance, pp. 159-207, 209-72.

Correspondence 497 dience through abridgements in the chapbooks of the so-called Bibliothéque

Bleue. It is now clear that the secrétaires achieved their popularity not among would-be correspondents but among plebeian voyeurs eager to enrich a diet of romantic novels with class-based fantasies in epistolary form.

Their effect on popular composition of letters in France was negligible. These collections also had a huge circulation in English translation, and no doubt provided entertainment for certain Irish readers. A stronger case might be made for the influence of the more humdrum and businesslike editions of model correspondence springing from Samuel Richardson’s Familiar Letters.** These modest compilations provided a negative response to the extravagance of the secrétaires, and purported to offer practical advice to plebeian correspondents. Several collections in this genre were published in Ireland and eventually Australia, and many English imprints would also have circulated in both countries.** Cribs from Richardson, including model letters unaltered since 1741, were still appearing in 1906. Though Hornbeak speculates that ‘generations of hard-pressed tenants, yearning fathers, irate creditors, and bashful lovers must have seized

upon his models with the realization that here was what they oft had thought, but could never have expressed so well’, there is as yet no evidence from popular correspondence to support this claim.*’ Richardson’s primary purpose was ostensibly to instil moral precepts in the poor, rather than to instruct them in letter-writing.®* In practice, his imagined utterances of artisans and shop assistants may well have been more successful in arousing the curiosity of middle-class readers, just as the exotic courtesies of court correspondence intrigued those of humbler station. The brisk, no-nonsense openings of the Familiar Letters contrast starkly with the baroque salutations of Irish-Australian correspondence. Nevertheless, the conversational tone urged by Richardson and his successors was to play an essential part in the construction of Irish-Australian epistolary narrative. The functions served by the letters appearing in nineteenth-century manuals were largely irrelevant to emigrant correspondence. The manuals con-

centrated upon letters requiring mastery of etiquette, such as invitations and replies; or those seeking specific benefits such as jobs, loans, meetings, and marriages. The negotiations between emigrants and their families were

too complex and subtle to be reduced to a pattern of stock requests and 64 This is Dauphin’s persuasive conclusion, although Janet Altman maintains that the impact of formal models on ‘epistolary practice’ has yet to be established: Janet Altman, ‘Pour une histoire culturelle de la lettre’, in Bossis, L’épistolarité, pp. 106-15. 65 Katherine Gee Hornbeak, ‘The Complete Letter Writer in English, 1568-1800’, in Smith College Studies in Modern Languages, xv, nos. 3-4 (1934). 66 See Universal Letter- Writer; Cole’s Modern Letter- Writer for Men and Women (Melbourne, circa 1900); Dymock’s Complete Australian Letter Writer (Sydney, circa 1910). 67 Hornbeak, ‘Complete Letter Writer’, pp. 123, 125. 68 Richardson’s preface to Familiar Letters (1928 edn.), p. xxvil.

498 Themes responses. Even the Bohemian-American Letter Writer, an unusually practical guide with parallel texts in Czech and English, gave no examples of letters to or from Bohemia.’ The few overseas letters in British manuals

would have created an uneasy sensation if directed to any of the correspondents in this book. A young man ‘relating his safe Arrival at one of the British Settlements’ in about 1840, having lamented ‘the grievances of

the poor wretched slaves, who groan in these islands under a cruel and heavy bondage’, made his ‘adieu’ with the assurance that ‘under whatever sun I breathe, I am, Your ever affectionate [friend]’.”° Three decades later, another manual gave a letter from a young lady in London to Priscilla in Australia, expressing happiness ‘to find that you are completely settled in your newly-adopted country’ and reporting a mutual friend’s departure for Paris on her ‘wedding-tour’.”! The Imperial Letter-Writer was exceptional in publishing four specimen letters from young men in the colonies or ‘gold countries’, mostly with Australian addresses. These specimens touched on authentic emigrant concerns, enclosing money for parents in London, urging a friend to follow in ‘less than a twelvemonth’, and claiming a ‘sweetheart’ from home as ‘the partner of my joys and sorrows for life’.”7 Whereas the first two themes find parallels in Irish-Australian correspondence, the idiom remained utterly alien. The diffusion of elementary education in nineteenth-century Ireland suggests another source of inspiration for correspondents, apart from manuals for the masses. State control of the curriculum and textbooks for national schools, together with growing popular thirst for basic education, might have enabled pedagogues to inculcate particular styles of composition affecting the design of emigrant letters. ‘Certainly, the letters in this book offer ample confirmation of the demand for schooling from both emigrants and their relatives in Ireland. The Brennans in Down referred approvingly to neighbouring children as ‘fine scholars’ who had been ‘at School Since ever the were able and will Soon be able to go to Sitoations’ (Br 5a, 6d). John Fife in Fermanagh promised that ‘Mother will send the Children to Shool immediately’ (Fi 3g), perhaps in response to pressure from his emigrant sister. Michael Normile thrice urged his father and stepmother to keep ‘my Brothers’ or ‘the children’ at school or ‘shool’, promising that ‘I will find a better place for them than to stop in Derry’ (No 5k, 3n, 3t). Biddy Burke gave similar advice concerning her nieces in Galway: “Try & bring them °° Bohemian-American Letter Writer, or Directions to Compose Correctly Letters, Documents, etc., which Occur in the Social Relations and Business Life of the United States (Chicago, 1907). 70 Universal Letter- Writer, pp. 127-8.

“1 Companion Letter Writer, pp. 64-5. ”? The Imperial Letter- Writer: The Gentleman’s Letter-Writer (London, circa 1873), pp. 38-

43. one letter to a married sister ‘in a foreign country, or in one of the Colonies’, was also

Correspondence 499 up well John & dond keep them at home from School’ (Bu 3j). Isabella Wyly made several approving comments on the educational progress of her niece and nephew in Newry, remarking of Edward’s school that ‘a good one it must be... . I read his litle Manly note with such atention and could carsly believe it came from him’ (Wy 2d: 7f, 8c). The clamour of approval for schooling was reinforced by numerous reports of its importance in Australia. After her marriage, Isabella emphasised her determination to give the children a sound education, despite the consequent expense and loss of help at home (Wy rof, rog: 6b). Philip Mahony

was delighted that ‘the Youngsters are growing up well educated’, and proud that his son was proving ‘so clever’ and ‘getting on first class at College in Melbourne’ (Ma 2d, 2e). John McCance tried to make his children ‘as good schoolars as posable’, and to ‘Keep them at the School as much as possable’ (Mc rb, 5g). Likewise, Normile stressed that his niece was ‘a fine girl and going to School every day’, and later that his own ‘youngsters’ were ‘doing very well at school’. Like many emigrants, he was conscious of the neglect of education outside the towns, sneering that ‘there

is plenty Swells in this Country that is worth thousands of £ that dont know the letter B from a Bull’s foot’ (No 6f, 15f, 3n). Two emigrant families even allowed schooling to determine their location. Christy Dunne in Queensland earned praise from Meath by refusing a post that would have denied his ‘children the benefit of education’, and the Hammonds left the bush and ‘came to our present Home to get the Children to school’ (Du

tic; Ha 4c). The letters in this book contain no hint of scepticism as to the value of learning. Education was generally regarded as a pathway to success, and formal schooling as the appropriate pathway to education. Despite their widespread approval of education, many Irish-Australian correspondents had little personal experience of its benefits. Even those who had enjoyed a few years’ instruction, through the developing network of national schools, would seldom have received any lessons in the composition of letters. Model letters seem to have had no place in the reading books prescribed for national schools in the nineteenth century.” Though inspectors recognised the popular demand for writing skills, which indeed they sometimes attributed to emigrant letters, their response was to encourage

instruction in calligraphy rather than composition. In January 1865, a northern head-inspector observed that ‘letter writing is daily becoming 73 No letters appear as extracts in the Third Book of Lessons for the Use of Schools (Dublin, 1853), the Sixth Reading Book (Dublin, 1891), or the Girls’ Reading Book (Dublin, 1887), all published by the Commissioners of National Education during the period of their monopoly of basic readers. One model letter may, however, be found in the fourth of the Royal Readers (London, 1892 edn.), which were sanctioned for optional use in national schools by 1898. A specimen showing ‘the form in which a letter should be arranged’ would have been outlandish to Irish-Australian writers: ‘My dear Henry, We are having a splendid time of it here. ... Write soon, to your affectionate friend, Fred. Brown. To Harry Bush’ (p. 73).

500 Themes more and more general among the humbler classes; and, apart from other considerations, few situations (trifling and unremunerative though they may be) can be filled by persons unable to write a good legible hand’.” Two years later, the same inspector reported ‘that the ability to write and read writing is fully appreciated by the peasantry and small farmers, as it enables them to carry on a correspondence with their relatives and friends in America or elsewhere without the help of a paid or unpaid scribe. Besides, he who employs another to write his letters, puts himself in a very humiliating position, as he thereby makes the village teacher, or perhaps some doubtful friend, the depository of little family secrets.’ The demand for writing skills was soon satisfied by the distribution of millions of Vere Foster’s copybooks, which popularised a bland round-hand for junior girls as well as boys, in place of the plethora of previous styles.”° Advanced pupils were supplied with copybooks including specimen letters for exact transcription. These invariably followed the mundane prototypes in contemporary manuals for the aspirant middle-class, and had no bearing on emigrant discourse. In any case, these innovations came too late to influence virtually any of the writers in this book.” It was only in 1872 that composition of letters became part of the standard national curriculum, the élite sixth class being required ‘to write, with correct grammar and composition, a simple letter on any subject suggested by the Inspector’. Under the new system of ‘payment by results’, the teacher received 1s 6d for each student passing the three-part examination in grammar—in effect, sixpence (or the price of a colonial stamp) for each acceptable letter.’”2 The major Irish handbook for teachers directed them to explain ‘the form in which a letter is to be written, that is, how it is to be begun and ended’. The teacher was to distinguish between various styles of address and termination, although these distinctions were not spelt out. 74 Report of J. G. Fleming, in Commissioners of National Education in Ireland [CNE], 3 1s¢ Report, appendix A, p. 138, in HCP, 1865 [3496], xix. 75 Report of J. G. Fleming, in CNE, 33rd Report, appendix A, p. 169, in HCP, 1867 [3905], XXIV.

76 For responses to Vere Foster’s proposed style, including defences of ‘the angular or pointed style of small hand’ then prevalent among girls, see notebook for 1865, in Vere Foster Papers, PRONI, D 3618/E. 77 Completed copies of Vere Foster’s New Civil Service Copy-Books, Medium series, no. 10 (‘Models for Children’s Letters’), and Alex. Thom’s Head Line Copy Books, no. 9c (‘Civil

Service Hand: Correspondence’), are preserved in Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, EL/ 110/11-12. The specimen letters, dated around 1911 and 1882 respectively, are modestly genteel in tone. 78 ‘Programme of Instruction and Examination for National Schools’, first reproduced in CNE, goth Report, appendix A, p. 59, in HCP, 1874 [C. 965], xix. Successive reports show that the number of passes in sixth-class grammar was only 299 in 1872, rising to 917 in 1873 and 1,718 in 1874. Similar provision was introduced in English elementary schools under the revised code of 1871: David Vincent, Literacy and Popular Culture: England, 1750-1914 (Cambridge, 1989), pp. 43, 89.

Correspondence 501 They were to ‘discourage all attempts at big words or high-flown language’,

and to foster the choice of ‘simple words in common use’. Pupils should begin in fourth class with ‘some homely familiar little matter, that can be despatched in a sentence or two’, such as asking for the loan of a book, or explaining absence from school. Letters were to be composed on slates in class, copied onto paper at home, corrected in red ink or pencil by the teacher, and finally transcribed in fair copy.” By the turn of the century, pupils were inscribing elegant little notes with approved terminations, such as ‘I Remain Dear May, Your loving Cousin, Lillie Winter’.®° Joyce’s hand-

book did not suggest drafting emigrant letters, but there is evidence that these were sometimes used as inspiration for composition. An official reported in 1889 that ‘if you go into one of the national schools any day, and ask a child to write an ordinary letter for you, the letter is invariably written to some friend either in the United States or Canada, or Australia, asking the person to send a ticket to take them out’.®! It seems likely that in Ireland, as in France, primary schools began to inculcate epistolary rules and forms only in response to the prior diffusion of popular letter-writing.* The ‘model letter’ served as a corrective, of doubtful efficacy, to a long established form of vernacular discourse. The idiom of Irish-Australian correspondence was a hybrid. The letters show traces of many cultural models, from which forms and phrases were borrowed at pleasure. We have detected echoes of letter-writing manuals as well as conversation, of English vulgarisms as well as Irishisms. Sermons and prayers fed the imagination of writers seeking to heighten their tone; letters to newspapers, including emigrant letters, may well have supplied sententious generalities; manuals and eventually school exercises may have influenced the forms of farewell. These elements of public discourse were scattered among passages replicating spoken idiom with sometimes startling

verisimilitude, complete with oddities of punctuation and grammar. The semi-public character of popular correspondence exposed both emigrants and those remaining in Ireland to a wide range of letters that might serve 72 P. W. Joyce, A Handbook of School Management and Methods of Teaching (Dublin, 15th edn. 1892), pp. 242-6. Instruction on composition of letters was absent from the rst edition of 1863 but appeared in the enlarged 5th edition of 1876. This included rather grand forms such as ‘My Lord’, ‘Madam’, and ‘I have the honour to be, Sir, Your obedient servant’, which were omitted from later editions such as the 13th of 1888. Another handbook sanctioned by the Irish commissioners, Robert Robinson’s Teacher’s Manual of Method and Organisation (London, 8th edn. 1884), contained no reference to letters under ‘composition’ (pp. 213-14). 80 Composition dated 21 May 1903, from Craigavad, Co. Down, inscribed in Vere Foster’s Ruled Exercise Books, class 4, in Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, G6/1/19. 81 Evidence of Major Ruttledge-Fair, Q 2704, in Report of the Select Committee on Colonisation, in HCP, 1889 (274), x. 82 Jean Hébrard, ‘La lettre représentée: Les pratiques épistolaires dans les récits de vie ouvriers et paysans’, in Chartier, La correspondance, pp. 280-1. In French schools, the drafting of letters became a common exercise in composition only after 1890.

502 Themes as self-replicating models. The contribution of the local ‘writers’ or expert scribes to that process of replication should not be exaggerated, since their employment must have diminished rapidly with the diffusion of literacy and since they exercised no control over the production of letters in Australia. The distinctive vernacular of letters, like dialect speech, developed through reiterated exchange, imitation, and response in kind. Though no universal epistolary style evolved, certain types of design became common-

place enough to leave an unmistakable imprint upon the letters in this book. Like any form of communication serving multiple purposes for diverse

participants, the letter was subject to rich variation in content as well as style. We shall not follow Fender’s example by positing any ‘dominant discourse’ to which ‘by far the greater proportion’ of emigrant correspondence, in some subtle sense, subscribed.** Instead, the remaining chapters synthesise a wide range of responses to the problems of separation, the organisation of migration, life in both countries, and the more abstract questions of culture, identity, and belonging. Yet these variations in response to experience, like the variations in form already discussed, cannot conceal a certain unity of purpose. Without the impulse to sustain social or economic attachments, in spite of physical separation, few letters would have been exchanged. Without a concomitant longing for personal consolation, those letters would never have traversed the private spaces into which we have trespassed. 83 In Fender’s reading of British-American emigrant letters, the ‘dominant discourse’ justified emigration by proclaiming personal success and the superiority of the New World. The numerous counter-examples are construed as ‘fugitive undercurrents’ antithetical to the alleged majority of positive reports, ‘and therefore part of the dominant discourse’. Stephen Fender, Sea Changes: British Emigration and American Literature (Cambridge, 1992), especially pp. 64, 76, 205-6, 246, 289-90.

C H A PT ER I 7 Reciprocity: The Politics of Kinship

Ree NINETEENTH-CENTURY EMIGRANTS AND THOSE THEY LEFT BEHIND,

letters provided almost the only instrument for maintaining connections with separated relatives. Geographical dispersal, though it did not release family members from mutual responsibility, made enforcement of obligations more difficult. The admittedly feeble legal sanctions against defaulting

parents or children could not be applied outside Ireland; and the more powerful injunctions of neighbourhood disapproval created only faint ech-

oes among the dispersed and mobile population of Irish emigrants. For most emigrants, the only effective imperative to act upon their familial responsibilities was internalised. The emigrant who sent home five pounds

to an aged parent, or helped a relative to make the journey to Australia, was inspired not by fear of sanctions but by adherence to a code of obligations and entitlements. This moral baggage did not accompany every embarking passenger, and was always liable to be dumped as emigrants established new links, networks, and responsibilities in the New World. Those who denied or ignored their familial obligations are unlikely to have written home, since the act of writing was itself an important affirmation of dutifulness. The normative notions of familial duty, expressed or implied in emigrant letters, therefore represent the moral code of a biased sample of Irish Australians. The morality of those who fell silent and ignored the appeals of their kinsfolk, must remain obscure. Yet the manner in which some emigrants gave voice to their sense of duty elucidates the operation of Irish morality, when activated. The formulation of appeals for help from

Ireland is equally revealing, since it indicates the strategies that were deemed most likely to influence potential benefactors. Letters express the dialogue of moral persuasion. 593

504 Themes APPEALS

Several sequences in this book contain direct appeals by parents for assistance from their emigrant children, in which highly coloured accounts of parental vulnerability served to arouse the sense of filial obligation. Perhaps the most eloquent petition was Mary Devlin’s attempt to extract gold from her son in Victoria: ‘As I am now comming down the hill of lif and I can make little at winding of warp, I have bing thinking that perhaps you might think of Sending me a Present as that is a Gold Contry, and in deed gold is very hard to be got here.’ This appeal was explicitly framed in terms of mutual responsibility: ‘Joseph if you wear in circomstances Similar to mine I Know what I would dow if I wear in yours’ (Ha 5d). Equally explicit was the cry of another mother, Mary Anne Doorley in Bolton, to her children in Queensland: ‘Let them all But [put] there heds togeder and do there duty to a mother A kind and once fond mother And now only very weakley’ (Do 1c). Such directness from an Irish correspondent may be read as a sign of desperation. Decorum urged that favours should be solicited more circuitously, or communicated by an intermediary. William Fife, intercessor in many delicate Irish-Australian negotiations, twice asked his children to pass on complaints to acquaintances in New South Wales. When William heard indirectly of a chance meeting between his son Nixon and another emigrant, he sent instructions via his daughter that ‘if ever he sees her again tell her that her Cousin is still alive and Stands in need of her Friendship’. Another conversation at home provoked the equally roundabout direction to ‘ask Mary Keenan if she knows anything of Cleary that went out of Enniskillen. His Sister and Mother complains of his ingratitude in sending her any help or with a letter to her’ (Fi 5d, 23). As in the previous case, the chain of complaint had five links, of which the last three were located in Australia: Cleary tamily—William Fife—Fife children—Mary Keenan— Cleary. The likely impact of such indirect appeals was enhanced by the implication of neighbours in both countries, whose collaboration simulated the admonitory voice of communal disapproval at home. Most appeals for assistance were implicit, dramatising the writer’s helplessness without specifically requesting help. The motifs most likely to arouse guilt or supportiveness among emigrants were old age, ill-health, and death. The vulnerability of older people, particularly before implementation of the Old Age Pension in 1909, was a formidable challenge to the social organisation of rural Ireland. Since letters from home were predominantly written by those approaching the age of dependency, the menace of old age was often evoked in the correspondence received by Irish Australians. Those who remained fit and active looked forward with dread to future enfeeblement and the loss of their productive capacity. Mary Anne Doorley reminded her daughter Maria that ‘I am a [word lost] Old Women

Rectprocity 505 [?now]. Loock to my age Maria. May every Blesening on you for youar goodness to me. All my worst fears[?] I never thought once of my days.’ Nearly three decades later, Maria’s sister Bridget was likewise facing old age in Bolton, and thanking God ‘for helping me to Be able to get for my self a liveng or what would i do or what will i do if 1 am not able. To think of it makes me hart eacke [my heart ache]. There would Be nothing for me But the worst’ (Do 1d, 7c). The letters sent to Joseph and Helenah Hammond graphically evoke the loneliness of their ageing mothers. Mary Devlin had ‘few friends living’ and needed comfort from her son Joseph ‘in her old days’. Helenah’s brother, on the eve of his own departure for America, wrote that their mother ‘Enjoys Prety Good Health But is still thinking

of you, and Mee Going away now Sets sore on hir’ (Ha 2b, 3c). William Fife was unusually adept in conveying the penalties of old age without overtly soliciting pity. He averred that he would rather ‘spend the last of my Days in the poor House’ than be a burden to his family at home, and that he was ‘Striving to be resigned and Say thy will be Done O God. My Dear Nixon I have learned By experience that when we Become Old and useless we are only in the road no matter what were we once or Done.’ These reflections were reinforced by detailed accounts of his declining capacity for farmwork as he grew ever more ‘Weak and Feeble’ (Fi 4c, 14b, 10b). Depictions of the withering of parents offered a poignant reminder to children who, however reluctantly, had moved apart from them. One of the dominant themes of Irish-Australian correspondence was the health or illness of the writers, their relatives, and their neighbours. The reiterated assurance that the writers were well, thanks be to God for his mercies, was no empty formula but an essential element of the consolatory function of letters. Conversely, the somewhat rarer enumeration of illnesses

was central to the letter as an instrument of persuasion. The depiction of illness and weakness was more powerful than palpable begging as a means of eliciting both sympathy and material assistance. In the case of William Fife, most moving of all chroniclers of personal suffering, the purpose was probably moral and emotional rather than monetary: his correspondence gives no hint that he either sought or received remittances from his children.

When he wrote that ‘I totter and shake like a man in the Ague’, yet felt ‘Grateful to God that I am so much recovered’, Fife was not begging for money but drawing his children closer in shared gratitude to the Lord. When he pictured his feverish family gathered round the hearth sipping warm punch and being cosseted by his married daughter—‘little Mary as I call her’—he was celebrating the harmony of the home family rather than evoking the unfulfilled duties of those in Australia (Fi r1c, 11e). The principal function of Fife’s narratives of victory over physical weakness was spiritual edification. For most writers, however, reference to personal illness signified not a

506 Themes shout of triumph but a cry for help. Mary Devlin informed her son that ‘my Helth is on the decline but it would be beyond reason to expect it otherwise as I have now Reached within one year of 70—that you see to be the limitt Three Scoar & Ten Byond which is Said to be Labour and Sorrow’ (Ha 8c). Daniel Brennan in Down also provided a sobering and pointed chronicle of parental suffering, observing that his wife was ‘greatly

Failed these last few years’ and that illness had ‘put us to a great dale of expence’ (Br 6a, 7a). The most heart-rending accounts of illness and decrepitude came not from Ireland but from industrial England, where the Doorleys suffered from kidney ailments, thin blood, faltering memory, weak nerves, rheumatism, chronic tiredness, shortness of breath, poor circulation, sore eyes, and cold shakes. Bridget drew the lesson that ‘Maria 1 must loock to my s[e]lf, while conveying the broad hint that her family in Queensland should also look after her (Do 5b, 6b, 7b, 7c, 8c, 9b, 9d). The guilt-arousing gloom of so much correspondence from home was deepened by catalogues of the afflictions of neighbours and relatives, whose sufferings

foreshadowed those awaiting the writers themselves. The Brennans emphasised the cost of medical treatment not only for themselves but for a dying kinswoman, who was reportedly ‘very happy to die only he [her husband] is put to so much expence that its more than he can bare without help’ (Br 7b). Emigrants were regaled with accounts of a favourite priest succumbing to fever ‘amidst the wailings of the poor’, of a daughter whose life had been ‘verry much despaired of’, and even of an aunt who was as yet ‘undying’ (Da 3a; Ha 6b; Br 6b). These sorrowful recitations reminded emigrants that ‘home’ was neither secure nor immutable, but an unstable edifice subject to change, decay, and collapse. Depictions of death were still more eloquent than reports of illness as a

summons for help. The solemnity of dying was occasionally evoked by stylised death-bed scenes, reassuring the reader that the victim had achieved a ‘happy death’. Thus Joseph Hammond was told that his sister’s ‘Bodiley Sufferings Ceased to exist on the 21st. November 1843—at 2 oclock in the morning after being under bodyly Sufferings 3 weeks privious to her death, in a Decline’; Nixon Fife learned that his father had remained ‘Praying to

God to his last moments’ (Ha 2a; Fi 15a). Melancholy was evoked by William Fife’s premonition of being ‘Gathered to my Kindred Dust’, or Susanna Boyd’s promise to send her sister a leaf from their mother’s grave (Fi 4d; Ha 9f). Usually, however, reports of death were brief and unadorned, apart from consoling phrases such as ‘May the lord have mersey on him’, or ‘God Knows it is an ease to him’ (Do 1d; Da rb). The litanies of death were all the more disturbing for their starkness: ‘Margaret Hallady

and Solomon is both dead and Kitty Hallady is dead also and a great manny of the old neighbours’; ‘All old people that you new... at home are nearly all d[?ead and] Buryed’; ‘There has Been a great Deal of Deaths

Reciprocity 507 in this place this winter Especially those that is advanced In life’ (Br 7e; Du 8d; Fi 8d). Mary Devlin was characteristically explicit in attaching personal significance to death’s roll-call: ‘I might tell you of they Neighbours but I do think the %rd of them are ded and a way it a mercy I’m here’ (Ha 7d). Warnings from Ireland of the immanence of death had a dual function, urging emigrants to offer comfort to those yet alive, and also reassuring them that the period of dependency would probably be brief. RESPONSES

The responses of emigrant correspondents to these explicit and implicit appeals for help ranged from silence to sympathy, and from apologies to bank drafts. Silence defies interpretation, but the remaining responses almost invariably implied acknowledgement of the duty of children to support their parents in distress. The simplest response was to offer emotional support through words of consolation. The letters from Australia teem with expressions of regret, sympathy, and hope for those suffering in Ireland. John McCance observed with Ulster dryness that ‘the news of my Fathers

illeness is not very joyful to me’ (Mc 7a). Biddy Burke, by comparison aglow with Galway warmth, hoped that ‘my father is all over illness now & not forgetting My Mother Head. Be careful & get her to keep Herself well raped [wrapped] up in boots.’ She reiterated her concern in a later letter, assuring her mother that she too suffered from headaches and colds and again reminding her to ‘be sure & keep warm boots on’ (Bu 2c, 33). Isabella Wyly was equally punctilious in lamenting illness among her kinsfolk in Ireland, offering her ‘very dear love’ to her sister-in-law’s ailing

mother, being ‘deeply greeved to hear dear Susan was not strong’, and trusting that the ‘Great Being’ who knew all things would ‘not put any thing more upon his Creatures than the can bear[?]’ (Wy 5g, rod). News of death at home was a common occasion for messages of consolation, a form particularly congenial to Isabella Wyly. She experienced ‘a very painful shock’ on hearing of her brother’s death, yet found it ‘a great sorce of consolation to me to here of dear Thomas Happy end’ (Wy 1a, 2c). When

her nephew lost his grandmother, Isabella trusted that ‘your loss was her gain’, being ‘delighted to hear’ that her ‘end was a happy one’ (Wy 7a). Such laments, usually invoking the consolations of eternity, were found in most sequences. Christopher Dunne, learning of his sister’s death, could ‘onley hope we may be as happy as She is’; John McCance interpreted a friend’s death as ‘a loud call for us to be also ready’; Michael Normile reflected that ‘it is all our fate to dye’, and later felt ‘the tears drop from my eys’ upon news of the death of ‘a good neighbour’ (Du 13b; Mc 3b; No 3q, 1of). These phrases, however stereotyped, should not be dismissed as empty words. The formula of condolence often signified powerful

508 Themes emotion, arising primarily from affection for the deceased but sometimes also from guilt and foreboding in the mourner. Filial guilt at failure to fulfil one’s obligations was nowhere more obvious than in apologies for non-assistance. Sometimes these apologies were veiled,

as in the case of one letter from John McCance. He expressed relief that his ‘old parents were still alive but I am very sure they must be very frail indeed at their stage of life’; and he ruminated guiltily that ‘my mind is so confused concerning my old Father & Mother in their old age and I hope the next news I send will be better’ (Mc 8a, 81). More bluntly, Patrick Comber confessed to his mother that he knew ‘that you are thinking me very ungrateful at home not to have sent home some money or sent for any of my uncles family since but God Knows it did not lie in my power to do it as I would wish’ (Co 3d). Likewise, Michael Normile lamented

that ‘I have been a bad son to you dear Father but I could not help it’, regretting that ‘I cant scend you some assistance. It takes all my earning to support ourselfs and little family’ (No 14c, 15d). Normile’s second apology

implied that a man’s duty to his parents was outweighed by that to his own children, the parental burden being shouldered primarily by unmarried offspring. Normile repeatedly observed that his father, having raised a sec-

ond family in Clare, would soon have ‘good healp of your own’ (No 5i, 5], 11g, 12g, 14d). The effect of marriage in alleviating a son’s duty to his parents was also implied in another apology, conveyed by Christopher Dunne on behalf of a friend who could not bring himself to write personally. “He told me to mention he was to send Something to his Father and in Concequence of the dullness of the times he will not be able to Send him anything Sooner than July and that he would Send him what he Could.

He is married and has three Children’ (Du 2c). By citing the burdens of child-rearing, married emigrants hoped to win a sympathetic hearing and forgiveness from their own parents, while also declining to offer them assistance.

This rule of precedence did not, however, absolve married children from their filial duty, if they had sufficient means to support the older as well as the younger generation. This point was sometimes made by emigrants who feared that their married siblings at home might neglect the old people and so magnify their own onus. Biddy Burke enjoined her married brother to ‘take good car’ of their parents ‘while you Have them for the ar the are the nearest friends John’. She also expressed confidence that her sister-inlaw would be ‘as kind to You father & Mother as if she was a daughter of Your owne’ (Bu 2c, 3h). Such observations helped to spread the burden of responsibility and also to assuage the emigrant’s guilt. The search for parental protectors at home extended beyond the immediate family. Agnes McCance wished her widowed mother ‘to look to yourself as it might be that if your pocket was empty you might not have many to look to you’.

Reciprocity 509 She was eager to know the name of her mother’s ‘most atentive friend’, who might act as her agent if the McCances sent assistance through a returning emigrant. William Orr, recipient of most of the McCance letters, evidently became guardian to John McCance’s parents in loco filii. He was asked to ‘be so Kind as to look after the old couple’ and in due course to ‘see that the are interred in a decent manner’ (Mc 1g, 7a). More casually, Philip Mahony asked his wife’s brother ‘to sometimes see my Dear Old Father who now must be fast & I am sure is preparing for I hope a happy Eternity’ (Ma 2k). For the concerned emigrant, it was reassuring to picture parents surrounded by supportive and compassionate kinsfolk and neighbours. The alternative image of old age embittered by isolation and neglect could thus be veiled from the emigrant imagination. The least ambiguous expression of filial duty was cash, and virtually every sequence refers at some point to its transmission. Writers in Ireland sometimes mentioned neighbours who had received remittances, so perhaps

hoping to provoke comparable generosity from their own emigrant connections. Thus William Dalton told Ned Hogan of two recent gifts of £10 and £30, and William Fife wrote that a returned Australian had brought gifts and money to his sweetheart’s mother in Fermanagh (Da rb, 1c; Fi 31). The remittance of money was, for most correspondents, a serious transaction whose completion was eagerly anticipated. The issue could remain in doubt long after announcement of a gift, since cheques and drafts were often sent separately from letters (Do 9a). Mary Devlin gave a minute chronicle of the laborious process by which she eventually received her son’s cheque for £25, which had entailed a ‘great deal of trouble and anciety of mind Concerning all matter before the were finally arranged’. In contemporary terms this was a substantial remittance, equivalent to a year’s

rental on a comfortable farm or the price of a ticket to Australia with generous landing money. The gift had been announced in a letter from Victoria dated 25 October 1853, yet was not received in Armagh until 12 June 1854. The expected courier had reached the district in January 1854, only to deny knowledge of the draft, which was eventually forwarded from London by an intermediary after an exchange of letters (Ha 6a). Daniel Brennan in Down was so alarmed at failing to receive a cheque for £12, from his son Thomas in Queensland, that he ‘wrote to the Postmaster General concerning the same’, as well as notifying both Thomas and a married daughter in Victoria (Br 2c). The vagaries of the post could be worrying to senders as well as recipients, and Michael Normile was much concerned that a gift of £3, which he had forwarded to Clare on behalf of a neighbour, might have gone astray (No 14f). Anxiety about the delivery of remittances had multiple origins. The transmission of monetary assistance was important not only as a lifeline, but also as a symbol of solidarity. Despite the significance assigned to remittances from emigrants, Irish

510. Themes etiquette required that donors should always make light of their own munificence. In forwarding £20 to his mother-in-law, John McCance took great pains to specify the contribution from each member of his wife’s family to this composite remittance, as well as claiming personal credit for initiating the gift. Yet McCance dismissed the family offering of £20 as a ‘small present’; Biddy Burke sent her parents £3 with the flippant instruction ‘for to drink my health & once more’; Isabella Wyly sent her niece half a sovereign ‘as a little present’; and Edward O’Sullivan wrote that a gift of £15 to his brother-in-law was ‘not much but at the same time it may be some help as a little at home is better than a great dale here’ (Mc tc; Bu 3h; Wy 4c; Su tb). The custom of belittling gifts carried different nuances according to the prosperity of the donor. For the domestic servant

Biddy Burke, £3 would have amounted to about a tenth of her annual earnings, so that even a single sovereign for her brother could serve as a token that he was ‘the onely friend I have in that part of the wourld’ (Bu 2b). Isabella Wyly, though a long-serving draper’s assistant in Adelaide who was earning a pound a week by 1856, hesitated to send her niece a second present because ‘I did not like to trust another until I herd if that got safe’. John McCance, when forwarding a ‘small sum’ for his father, apologised ‘that the offering is so small but this is the very hardest time with me’ (Wy 11, 4c; Mc 7a). For these writers, remittances evidently entailed genuine deprivation, so that phrases belittling the gift should be construed as authentic expressions of limited means. In other cases, however, donors emphasised their own prosperity by dismissing a substantial remittance as a mere trifle. Pre-eminent in this rhetoric of mock-apology was Michael Hogan in Melbourne, who sent his brother no less than £30 ‘as a Token of gratitude and I would have sent you More But hearing of your welfare you keeping a Public house in the old Place’. Before long he had sent a second draft of £30, again protesting haughtily that he would have sent still more but for his brother’s reputed prosperity and the uncertainty of ‘the times here’ (Ho rb, 2a). By comparison with the sums of £3 or so sent home by most emigrants, £30 was a small fortune. Although the responses to these particular gifts are not recorded, the etiquette of expressing gratitude is illustrated in other sequences from home. The Doorleys and Devlins were unusually fulsome in their thanks, as one might expect of families in such need and so pertinacious in seeking assistance. Mary Anne took her ‘pen in hand’ to report that the Doorleys had received ‘the money all safe and was very thankful to you and your husband for his kindness’. Bridget acknowledged later gifts from Queensland by affirming that ‘I now god will Bless you for youar chartty [charity]’ and hoping that ‘god will reword you and youar husband and children for it Boath in this worled and in the next’. In her last surviving letter, Bridget again celebrated ‘youar charity to Me. Maria i thank you from My hart’

Reciprocity 511 (Do 3a, 5a, 7a, 9a). Mary Devlin in Armagh, as versatile a petitioner for alms as Mary Anne Doorley in Bolton, conveyed her daughter’s ‘most Sincere thanks for the handsome present that You Sent’. She recited the same formula in acknowledging her own receipt of £25, taking care to thank both her son and his ‘Mistress’ (Ha 6a). Three years followed in which no further news or money arrived from her son in Victoria. No doubt in the hope of reactivating Joseph’s generosity, she resumed her litany of gratitude

with enhanced formality: ‘But to you My Son & Daughter With you all My Dear Grand Children to [too] I do Most Greatfully Acknowledge the Kindness you dun to me in that you have sint me your Money which I did not Expect. But I still say I am thankful.’ In case even this encomium seemed perfunctory, she could not resist adding ‘yet another word about your Kind present and that is that it was in a good time for your Sister Mary Ann was out of Helth at the time’ (Ha 7a). The reiteration of gratitude was a vital element in the campaign for renewal of assistance from Australia. EMIGRANTS IN TROUBLE

The celebrated generosity of Irish emigrants, together with the indubitable vulnerability and poverty of many of their kinsfolk at home, have helped generate an unbalanced model of the international traffic in assistance. The letters in this book indicate that the Irish code of family responsibility was reciprocal, requiring assistance to emigrants in trouble as well as to their parents at home. Although writers from Australia were typically decades younger than their correspondents in Ireland, they too were susceptible, in their capacity as recent emigrants, to accident, illness, and impoverishment. The letters provide ample evidence of the physical afflictions of settlers facing an unfamiliar climate and exotic hazards to health. Their sufferings ranged from Biddy Burke’s ‘dreadfull bad cold in the head’ and Alexander Wyly’s ‘bad cough’, to Joseph McKee’s ‘sad disaster, the dislocation of your shoulder blade’, and the Hogan girls’ ‘feavour’ after arrival in Sydney (Bu 31; Wy 6c; Br 4a; Da 1a). Problems with eyesight beset Michael Hogan in Melbourne and Michael Carrigg in Brisbane, whose family became for Michael Normile ‘an object observation of charity. I scend them a little help

to assist them to ride[?] through their calamity’ (Ho 3a, 4a; No 5c, 6b). Apart from eliciting sympathy, these accounts of illness helped excuse fail-

ure to send money home. As Normile explained when he and his wife became ill, doctors’ fees could be a fearful burden to emigrants without ample means (No 6c, 13b, 14c). Illness could also cause loss of earnings, though Normile reported that during one ‘fitt of sickness’, his kindly ‘Master youst come once a day to see me & gave me my wages as well as if I worked for him during that time & plenty wine to drink’ (No 5\).

512 Themes Death was a recurrent topic for those writing from Australia as well as from Ireland, numerous reports bearing witness to the perils facing even the young and vigorous in the nineteenth-century world. The Wyly sequence conveys as sorry a chronicle of death and consequent privation as any letters from aged relatives at home. Within two years of their arrival in Melbourne, Robert Wyly, his wife, and two children were dead, so that the remaining ‘dear Children were left to do for themselfs’. Before long another son was also dead, his bedside untended by those whose presence might have conferred a happy death: ‘He died alone in Melburne without a frind to soothe his pillow, at leas{t] without a relitave.’ In later years, another cousin lost her husband through drowning, a misfortune that enabled Isabella to show how far her Australian relatives had risen in society: ‘The Goverment gave her £1500 but what was that [?against] his loss’. Isabella’s dirge for the dead extended even to the Wesleyan minister who performed her marriage; though after describing in great detail his preparation for heaven, Isabella realised that she had departed from the epistolary convention of relating information to the reader’s concerns: ‘I think you will say I am wandering from subject to subject but I was so fond of him I cannot but tell you of him’ (Wy 1d, 4e, tok, 8j, 8k). Such discursiveness beyond the bounds of the relevant and functional was unusual indeed in Irish-Australian correspondence. Several other sequences recited almost equally horrific losses. Michael Hogan called upon God to be with his two dead children and to have mercy on the soul of his wife who followed them when still young (Ho tre, 3a). Philip Mahony felt ‘sad and lonley’ after the death of his only son: ‘My life is a misery to me & to his Poor mother after his nineteen years & three months’ (Ma 3b). John McCance, though spared death in his immediate family, acted as informant upon the death of one neighbour from Down and as executor for another. Death, in Australia as in Ireland, left widows and children vulnerable to destitution: ‘But alas for the poor Widow I am begining to think there will be nothing for her’ (Mc 7b, 8e). Faced with bad tidings from Australia, kinsfolk at home responded with the same solemn decorum that greeted news of their own losses. Susanna Boyd comforted Helenah Hammond upon the death of her husband Joseph by hoping that it might ‘Teach you and me that In the Midst of Life we are in the Midst of Death. As for your Sircumstances Strive and be Content and Cast your Care on the Lord And He will take Care of you And your Family’ (Ha 9a). William Fife consoled his widowed son Nixon with authentic sympathy, ‘as I have passed throug[/] the same trial’ (Fi 14a). On one occasion, affliction in Australia prompted an explicit distress call to Ireland. Christopher Dunne, having been injured and put out of work not long after arrival in Brisbane, was obliged to write home that ‘I now want a frend to assist m[e] to get over the presant difaculty untill Such

Reciprocity 513 time as I would be able to make Some recompence’ (Du 2b). The response from Ireland, despite earlier estrangements explored in the commentary, was magnificent: pervasive grief at first news of the accident; thanks to God for his deliverance; and successive remittances for £5, £2, and an unknown amount (Du 3a, 3f, 4h, 71). In addition, Michael Dunne in Meath skilfully extracted testimonials from the local gentry ‘worth £100 to Christy Dunn’, which eventually procured him a place in the Queensland prison service (Du 4d). These remittances and references are the only recorded cases in this book of the transfer of material assistance from Ireland to emigrants already in Australia. In general, the reverse traffic in assistance carried messages of consolation rather than money. FAMILIES UNDER STRESS

The ceaseless exchange of assistance and consolation through letters signified a widespread desire to maintain divided families as economic and affective groups, despite the formidable challenges of distance. The preservation and renewal of intimacy within families preoccupied many writers, who employed various literary devices to supplement the more explicit gifts and exchanges analysed above. Isabella Wyly used coquetry to arouse her nephew’s enthusiasm for correspondence, flattering the lad that he must be ‘almost quite a Man by this time. If you were here you would make me feel quite old. I wish you were, and I should be able to look to you as my big Protector’ (Wy 4a). Several emigrants affirmed their emotional link with Ireland by naming children after Irish relatives. Michael Dunne named a

son John after one brother, tactfully assuring another ‘that you are his Godfather’; Philip and Kate Mahony chose Laurence as their son’s second name because his head resembled that of Kate’s brother Laurence Shanahan; and Michael Normile cited an array of justifications for his daughter’s matronymic: ‘she was born on the 25th. of March last our Leady’s day, therefore I called her Mary [erased: & she is a regular Mary] every way & especily she being called after the old Mothers’ (Du 13c; Ma 3b; No s5e). Among all the words helping to preserve the fabric of Irish-Australian families, the names assigned to ‘young natives’ were perhaps the most evocative.

The pursuit of family unity should be interpreted as evidence of intention rather than accomplishment. The households that gave forth emigrants to

Australia were often deeply divided, and, as argued in the next chapter, conflicts of interest within families could be a powerful agency for emigration. Disputes at home (though seldom in Australia) remained a significant theme in correspondence, inviting emigrants to intervene in the recurrent intrigue of family politics. Biddy Burke remained bitter about her sister’s refusal to see her off from Galway: two years later she was still seeking a

514 Themes brother’s intercession to restore harmony: ‘It built a rock in my Harth [heart] that shall never be seperated. My tears often blinds me to think of it.” Biddy could not resist meddling in a quarrel involving distant kinsfolk, expressing ‘sorrow’ for ‘Mrs Sulvan of Galway for they wreched life her Mother in law is given her. I here she abuses her fine’ (Bu 2h, 3c). Residual bitterness also coloured Patrick Comber’s recollection of home: ‘Mary never sends me a line—at any rate we never pulled well and I suppose she has an old spite for me’ (Co 3e). These cases of disharmony were typically matters for regret rather than redress, an exception being Philip Mahony’s intervention in a dispute between his wife’s niece Kate Shanahan and her stepmother. Mahony, though playing the peacemaker, depicted the stepmother as an evil influence upon Kate’s ‘very respectable’ father: ‘I suppose

other powers are brought to bear on His good intentions & causes a sad change oftentimes.’ Mahony, while purportedly encouraging Kate to be ‘advised by your Father & your fond friends in Lurrig’, in fact played a rather devious part in her attempt to emigrate to Australia against home wishes (Ma tc, 2h, 1d). His ultimate failure to bring her out illustrates the limited ability of emigrants to manipulate home factions. Family conflicts might be exacerbated as well as ameliorated by meddlesome letters. Isaac Herron’s letter to Joseph McKee in Victoria implied that Joseph had spread malicious gossip in both countries about Isaac’s brother.

Herron claimed that ‘there was for 15 months after you landed in that country that I never got a single line from my brother owing to missrepresentations’, and also demanded that McKee should refrain from insinuating a fraternal rift in his letters home (Br 1d, re). Even William Fife, usually so mellow and affectionate, referred reproachfully to neglect from his em-

igrant sons and played favourites among his children (Fi 7e, 51). More characteristically, he sought to maintain his paternal influence through affection conveyed in protective phrases: ‘And When I have wrote my last letter to you, and when I am Gathered to my Kindred Dust, in the Church yard of Magheracross and my Spirit in a World of Spirits, it may be you will in like maner be looking over some of my sayings and advices to you. Now I commend you my Dear Children to God and his protecting Care’ (Fi 4d). Words, written down in letters, were the most powerful weapon for those struggling to defy geographical logic by bringing fractured families into unity.

The dialogue between petitioner and benefactor was sustained by shared acceptance of a moral code, often broken but seldom ignored by those who remained in correspondence. The emotional and material assistance analysed in this chapter usually, though not invariably, involved transference of resources to the elderly from their juniors. This mode of assistance was but one element of the multi-faceted process of negotiation within Irish-

Reciprocity 515 Australian families and networks. Equally important in correspondence were deliberations about further emigration, which typically entailed assistance within rather than between generational groups. Emigrants felt ob-

ligations to siblings and kinsfolk who could not secure a livelihood in Ireland, as well as to their parents. Like all such obligations, these sentiments generated not only acquiescence but resistance, prevarication, and the desire to exercise the power of decision over when, how, and to whom assistance should be given. The organisation of emigration, like the provision of assistance within families, was the outcome of an intricate political process which is analysed in the next chapter. How was it worked?

CHAPTERI8 Negotiation: The Process of Migration

Te EXCHANGE OF LETTERS WAS A KEY ELEMENT IN NEGOTIATING EMI-

gration. Personal decisions about emigration to Australia were the outcome not only of individual preference, but also of advice, encouragement, or discouragement from those with colonial experience. Guidance for po-

tential emigrants took many forms, ranging from handbooks and newspapers to reports from returners. Letters, however, were probably the most persuasive medium, being addressed to an intimate audience by writers whose counsel could not be dismissed as commercial propaganda. Equally important in negotiation were letters sent from Ireland, expressing the eagerness or reluctance to emigrate of either the writer or a third party. The influence of previous emigrants over future decisions arose partly from their

expertise, partly from their affirmation of the collective interests of the family or group in correspondence, but most crucially from their function as potential sponsors. Few Irish emigrants to Australia could afford to spurn both public and private assistance towards so expensive a passage. Private sponsorship through drafts or prepaid tickets was less predominant in the Australian case than the American, reflecting both the relative cheapness of the Atlantic journey and the absence of government assistance for emigration to the United States. Settlers in Australia were typically contributors towards future passages rather than sole sponsors. They might provide assistance towards outfit or inland transportation, deposits for those nominated under the colonial remittance schemes, or brokering services as agents for would-be emigrants. In selecting emigrants, the colonial governments became increasingly reliant on settlers rather than officials, accepting the resultant surrender of central control over ‘quality’, in return for the 516

Negotiation 517 free provision of private protective networks for emigrants joining their family or friends. The mechanics of emigration to Australia were further complicated by the competing attractions of America and other destinations, of which most correspondents were keenly aware. The letters suggest that the decision to choose Australia was typically the result of a prolonged, complex, and coded exchange of information and opinion. ATTITUDES

The letters illustrate eagerness and reluctance to emigrate in roughly equal measure. In the 1850s, the scale of movement was sufficient to suggest a demand transcending individual calculation. Eliza Dalton in Tipperary observed with perplexity that ‘in every Season they are facing the wild ocean particularly to Austrilia’; Isabella Wyly in Adelaide felt that Ireland must be ‘nearly cleared of the Poor People, for there has been so many Emigrants Ships arived here with Miserable[?] Irash’ (Da 4b; Wy 1k). In Fermanagh, connections of the Fifes were said to be ‘Australia mad’ in their eagerness to emigrate (Fi 31). Letters from home include few personal affirmations of eagerness, since most correspondents had passed the age at which migration seemed feasible. The letters from Mary Anne Doorley and her daughters in Bolton are an exception, containing repeated though ultimately fruitless appeals for assistance to reunite the family in Queensland. Several motives were expressed, including Lilly’s ‘very bad health’ and Kate’s ‘very bad husband’. These appeals were, however, subsidiary to the collective interest: ‘Me and them has made up ouar mind to if you Can witout hurting youar selfs. You must go to Margret and Willam And teell them that 1 am only in hops of there granted to Me’ (Do 4a, Ic). The collective interest often acted as a ‘push’ factor, encouraging the removal of surplus household members regardless of their personal preference. This disjunction was fertile of fatalism rather than guilt or resentment, since the priority of collective over individual interests was generally acknowledged. Michael Normile and Nixon Fife were both victims of the remarriage of a father whose best intentions could not procure a livelihood

for both broods of children. Michael remarked ruefully that ‘I did not choose to go far away’; Nixon’s father lamented that ‘I never think of the moment I was obliged to push you away from me my Dear Nixon but the

Silent tears will Flow’ (No rac; Fi 1c). Old William Fife had no doubt about the source of this impulse, reflecting that ‘I have often thought if your mother had Been living that you or any of yous never would have Seen the Shores of Australi’? (Fi 4c). The pressure upon surplus household members to emigrate may occasionally have been construed as coercion. In the case of John Dalton, Australia offered a haven for a returned American

518 Themes from his severe father, who declined to ‘forget the past’ (Da 4f). Usually, however, the emigration of children was treated as a regrettable necessity. Thus Edward O’Sullivan reported that ‘Young Ned would wish to go to America or Australia and he wrote me for my advice. There appears to be a large family of them there, and I suppose Richard will have to allow some of them to emigrate to look for a living’ (Su 2c). With varying degrees of regret or enthusiasm, a multitude of emigrants made for Australia in response to changes in household organisation which rendered their labour redundant, their presence burdensome, or their dependency irksome. Conversely, the household interest sometimes interfered with personal inclination by impeding emigration. William Fife, having accepted the logic of losing his elder son Nixon, was appalled when Nixon encouraged emulation from the only remaining son mature enough to run the farm: ‘He is worth it all, he gives me the light end of every job, I need it now. Dont ask him there unless you want to bring my grey hairs to the grave with sorrow (Fi 2k). William’s appeal could do no more than postpone that evil day, but the delay enabled him to train younger sons in the work of the farm. The parents Brennan, possibly unwilling to lose two helpful daughters before the normal age of withdrawal from unpaid household service, ruled that they should ‘wait another year or Eighteen months on account of Sarah Ann being too young to face the strangers’ (Br 3c). The arrival of a stepmother made Kate Shanahan desperate to join her aunt Mahony in Victoria, provoking the response that ‘you unfortunatly have a Stepmother who may not be the Kindest to you but you have a good Father who has well provided for you and who would not see you wronged’. Kate Shanahan eventually prevailed upon the Mahonys to pay her fare to Victoria, only to find that her services were still demanded by the tyrannical stepmother: ‘I Knew from the tone of Her first letter after receiving the ticket that She would not be allowed to come’ (Ma 1c, 2h). Likewise the Doorleys, despite their protestations of eagerness to leave Bolton for Queensland, were frustrated by the added responsibilities arising from Kate’s marriage to a blacksmith for whom passage money was unprovided. Even death did not quench their sense of subservience to the collective interest, and Bridget Liptrot wrote that ‘it wold Kill me to think of leving’ the remains of her mother and sisters in the ‘simatrey’ (Do 2b, 8e). If children were inhibited by their duty to parents or bondage to step-parents, so parents were held at home by their children: ‘As for William Craig and wife they would not go a[t] all—for the have 3 children’ (Ha 5b). Another married man rejecting emigration to Australia was Isaac Herron, who observed sourly that ‘you seem to think that the country would not answer me and I[ think you are right. I have lost all notion of going now’ (Br 1c). Those who contemplated emigration from Ireland were seldom free spirits.

Negotiation 519 ADVICE

Writers in Ireland were typically petitioners or protesters in the negotiations preceding emigration, while the power of disposal was largely in the hands of their connections already in Australia. Correspondents in Australia were aware that their advice was eagerly awaited at home, and they were sometimes asked directly for guidance. Thus William Fife told his son in Goul-

burn that a neighbour ‘wants your Advice About Sending her Daughter Fanny to that Country’ (Fi 31). Several emigrant correspondents felt their responsibility keenly, and were slow to offer unqualified direction for fear of subsequent censure. Elizabeth Wyly wrote that ‘I should not like to induce anyone. Peoples opinions tast[es] & distastes differ so much.’ She later reiterated that ‘I should not wish to induce anyone to come as many find fault with it at first as I did’ (Wy 2r, 6b). Michael Normile was explicitly fearful

of being blamed for the failure of others, remarking that ‘I have sceen too many of that after People Paying money here for their Pasage and coming out here the curse them and scould them for bringing them here therefore I wount have aney thing to do with them’ (No 7c: 5f). When Kate Shanahan made a second plea for assistance to Victoria, Philip Mahony skilfully evaded individual responsibility by seeking a collective decision: ‘She also appears to think that She will be sent for again. So far J am not in a position to say anything on that matter, as I believe the question is to be considered at a meeting of the full house here’ (Ma 2h). Another device for distancing adviser from recipient was the utterance of generalised judgements defining the categories fit or unfit for emigration, statements often uncannily reminiscent of the maxims littering emigrant handbooks. Michael Normile offered various criteria for selecting emigrants, specifying youth, health, industriousness, regularity, and sobriety as prerequisites for success in Australia, and comfort, convenience ‘to Chappel and market and a good Bed to Lye on’ as sound incentives for remaining in Ireland (No 3), 3s, 5f, 12d, 31). Isabella Wyly, though always willing to provide generalised guidance for her brother’s widow in Newry, stressed that the ultimate judgement must be made in Ireland rather than Australia: ‘I shall alway be able to let you know how things ar getting on before then so you will be able to Judge for your self? (Wy sh). The advice sent home in emigrant letters was doubtless a common topic of conversation in Ireland. William Fife reported back

from Fermanagh that a returned Australian had announced that ‘it is a good place for anyone that wishes to work, but no place for Clerks or Gentlemen’ (Fi 2h). Such observations were designed to provoke either confir-

mation or contradiction, contributing to the cut and thrust of dialogue between Irish curiosity and Australian evasiveness. Attempting to regulate the human flow from Ireland to Australia was a

520 Themes major preoccupation for those who wrote home. Advice concerning the prospects for future emigrants, when directive, was as often discouraging as encouraging. The simplest technique of discouragement was to emphasise the lack of colonial demand for the occupation that the candidate expected to take up in Australia. Thus Elizabeth Wyly stressed unemployment among domestic servants in Adelaide; Patrick Comber reported that Vic-

toria was ‘a bad country for medical men’; Philip Mahony claimed that ‘there are not one hundred young women in the whole of Melbourne Storekeeping’; and Edward O’Sullivan depicted the diggings as swarming with

surplus tradesmen (Wy 6f; Co 2b; Ma rd; Su rc, re). These were not aimless social observations, but specific references to the skills of relatives considering emigration. The rhetoric of discouragement extended to general comments on the colonial economy, which particularly in periods of recession was sometimes compared unfavourably with that of Ireland. The Wyly letters gave a sobering account of Adelaide’s sluggish economy in the late 1850s, reporting that ‘most people finds it a difficulty to get on Just now’, that business was ‘dull’, and that ‘I should never advise you to come while you can live at home’ (Wy 2b, 6f, 6h). Comber was even more dismissive of Queensland’s exaggerated claims to prosperity in the first years of sep-

aration, declaring that ‘you can do twice as well in Ireland as you could possibly do in Q——land’ and that there was ‘nothing like money to be made in it’ (Co 3a, 3d). Other letters cast doubt on Australia’s reputation as a ‘land of Health’ for delicate young women, or warned that male emigrants often had ‘to cook there own rations and wash their own cloths that I know John would not like’ (Ma rb; No 7c). Moral arguments were also used to dissuade unwanted emigrants, most eloquently by Philip Mahony: ‘We are surprised at your G Mother & uncle Lar & aunt Bridget for not throwing a little oil on the troubled waters and to endevour to check that wandering nature So Characteristic to our race’ (Ma 1c). Emigration, by this construction, was the product of disposition as well as rational calculation. Its prevention therefore required appeal to moral as well as economic logic.

Moral appeals, only occasionally deployed against emigration, were more prominent in the rhetoric of encouragement. Admittedly, colonial demand for specific occupations was also cited by way of encouragement as well as discouragement. Isabella Wyly tried to entice her nephew from his Newry shop to Adelaide by averring that ‘there are some nice Stationers Shops here’; Patrick Comber declared that saddling (unlike medicine) did

‘splendidly in this country’; Michael Hogan assured his brother that ‘I know you could do well even by your trade’ as a cooper; and Philip Mahony knew of nobody ‘more Suitable for this Country than Servants at home’ (Wy 4b; Co 4c; Ho 1b; Ma 1d). But many messages of encouragement dwelt upon the moral character required for successful emigration,

Negotiation 521 or appealed to the sense of duty or loyalty of the person whose presence in Australia was being sought. Biddy Burke felt that Queensland was ‘the finest Country in the wourld for young people that takes care of themselves’; Michael Normile agreed that ‘this is a good country for man or woman when they get accustumed to the work of the place and keep from bad Company’ (Bu 1d: 2j; No 12d). Several writers urged friends in Ireland

to join them in order to provide companionship, appealing to sentiment rather than calculation. Biddy Burke was anxious to bring out a substitute sister: ‘I cannot ask anny body when I have no sister but I wish I had & I would not leave her 24 hours there but anny boddy that likes to come out let them wright to me at once.’ If no companion of her own generation could be induced to emigrate, her brother’s daughters would do instead: ‘One of those fine days I shall encourage some of those girls away from them as I intend to live an old maid’ (Bu 1d, 3b). Isabella Wyly yearned likewise for some of her aunt’s ‘deer friends to be neer me and console her’

(Wy 1j). Perhaps the most impassioned appeal to family sentiment, construed in terms of duty, came from the ex-convict Michael Hogan in Melbourne. While piously assuring his brother that ‘whilst my mother was alive I should never encourage you to Come out here’, the recently widowed Hogan asserted his own right to moral support now that his mother was also dead: ‘Dear Brother I am most anxious that you and family would Come out here where I Can make a happy home for you and myself.’ He further maintained that another friend ‘could Serves his parents or friends better in this country than in Ireland’ (Ho 3c, 3b, 4c). Emigration, by this interpretation, was an agent for promoting rather than disturbing family solidarity.

ORGANISATION Emigrant letters document outcomes as well as negotiations, clarifying the means by which prospective emigrants contrived to overcome the impediments of poverty, ignorance, and remoteness. They show that writers in both countries were remarkably well informed about the complex and everchanging regulations governing assisted emigration, and adept at identifying the best available deals. The arrival of the passage warrant or cheque was the eagerly awaited outcome of prolonged dialogue, whereas its nonarrival menaced the unity of families held together by the fragile bonds of correspondence. Emigrants like Michael Normile and Patrick Comber reacted defensively when pressed to pay deposits for further emigrants, ex-

pressing firm resistance and awkward apology in turn (No 7c; Co 2h). Others remained silent while candidates waited, ever more anxiously, for the expected assistance. As John Fife reported from Fermanagh: “There is no Word of Robin Kiney being Sent for to that Country yet By his Children.

522 Themes Bessy had a Bonnet Bought to go and many other things and She would not let Robin Cut the turf Summer last was a year least the would not Stay to Burn them and the are here yet and will be so a longer Day’ (Fi 31). The image of Bessy Kiney, waiting bonnet in hand for the passage warrant, reminds us that emigration was not solely a youngsters’ game. The assistance forthcoming from Australia usually took the form of a deposit, ranging from a pound upwards, which enabled the nominated emigrant to travel without payment of any further contribution to the fare in advance of arrival. Most deposits amounted to less than half of the contract price for a nominated emigrant, yet the usual contribution of four or seven pounds exceeded the normal cost of a full steerage passage to the United States. For many settlers in Australia, nomination imposed a severe burden, in terms of both cost and organisation. The nominator would have to procure a form from the local Clerk of Petty Sessions, provide full identification of the nominee, and arrange for references and action in Ireland. The Victorian procedure was elucidated by Michael Hogan, who arranged for his nephew and two siblings of his servant girl to come ‘through the government immigration’. ‘We considered it the best and cheapest to bring them 3 out on the Same form. If you go to paddy hogans house this girl formerly lived near terry higginsis and any of terry higginsis children will make them out for you’ (Ho 4e). Although most reported assistance involved exploitation of state subsidies, the irregularity with which immigration was funded by the colonial parliaments encouraged some sponsors to purchase private tickets at full

fare. This applied particularly to Victoria, the only colony to which the bulk of nineteenth-century immigrants came without state assistance. When

Hogan was urging his brother Mathew and family to join him, he made light of the extra cost of a private passage: ‘If you wish [me] to pay your way out hear I will do so or either to Come by Imigration. The most speedy way is the way I require for about paying for your passages I matter not’ (Ho 3b). Likewise, when Hamilton McMillan forwarded £25 towards the

emigration of a distant kinswoman and her son, he observed that ‘it is better to Bring them out in one of the passenger Ships as it would delay them too long to wait to the Emigration would be open again’; and his stepfather tried to borrow £70 or £80 to pay for the passage of a friend’s wife and children (Mc 6a, 6c, 71). It is noteworthy that Hogan, McMillan, and McCance all acted as agents for other settlers in organising these tickets, illustrating the importance to sub-literate emigrants of mediation from friends more confident of coping with bureaucracy. Likewise, husbands sometimes made arrangements on behalf of their wives, making it hazardous to infer the profile of Australian sponsors from the names entered in deposit books. Michael Normile, for example, is recorded as the depositor

for Pat Neylon from Clare, yet his role was clearly that of agent rather

Negotiation 523 than instigator: ‘My wife is about Paying her Brothers Pasage to this Coloney. I wount say yes or no about it for he might blame me here after, therefore I wont say annything about it’ (No 5f). Irish-Australian correpondence suggests that the practice of nominating further emigrants should not be interpreted as mere charity, altruism, or dutifulness. As one might expect of actions expressing collective rather than individual decisions, the cost of assistance was not always levied in Australia. A few letters illuminate the mechanisms for raising the fare at home, such as the facilities for free or subsidised emigration offered by the Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners in London. William Dalton in Tipperary reported that ‘there is a free imigration for some young females. I am trying to send out two little girls neices of Peggy Dwyers’. Christopher Dunne seems to have received a private subsidy from a neighbouring gentleman who showed him ‘great Kindness ... when I really wanted it this time twelvemonths six pounds’ (Da 5d; Du 1a). Even when the arrangements and payment were made in Australia, those in Ireland might be held liable for the cost. One of Dunne’s neighbours in Queensland told him ‘that if his Brother and Sister wished to Come to this Colony he would pay there passage on Conditions that the would pay him back’ (Du 2c). The specification of such debts, however difficult to enforce, indicates acknowledgement of collective responsibility for emigration. The Fife letters show that the nomination system could be exploited by candidates in Ireland who used their Australian connections as mere agents, paying the deposit in advance to the nominator. These commercial arrangements tended to undermine the control of those in Australia over future flow, so raising the delicate issue of precedence. Therefore, when initiating such arrangements, William Fife was careful to deny his own responsibility for the ultimate decision: ‘You may Consult with Nixon and Mary Keenan

about it. I dont Bid you do it. I leave it your selves. Yous are the Best Judges.’ Despite this disclaimer, Fife took great pains to specify every step in the process, giving the candidate’s precise age and discussing the choice of colonial destinations (Fi 31, 4a, 5k). When pre-payment of another desposit failed to produce speedy response from Australia, he became agitated: ‘I was wating for the Certificates every Mail that Kept me from writing to you. I was very unhappy. I Kept my mind to myself as well as I could more upon James McCuskers account than Elizas as James had paid his money’ (Fi 6a). These examples warn us against drawing a sharp distinction between Australia and the United Kingdom as sources of assistance. The administrative division masked financial co-operation between aspirants at home and their precursors in the New World. Funding, like migration itself, transcended the oceans of separation. Finding the fare was but one element of preparing for a passage to Aus-

tralia. Despite the statutory requirement of adequate food and drink on

524 Themes vessels carrying government emigrants, previous voyagers sometimes advised them to bring additional supplies. William Orr, draper and informal emigration agent in Co. Down, was sent detailed instructions about such provision from the McCances and McMillans in Victoria. Citing the personal experience of two emigrants, Hamilton McMillan urged a successor

to bring ‘ Cwt potatoes 30 |b flour four or five Doz Salt Herrings & a little Ham, and to have these things put in her day Box and to have it in her Berth, so that she can get it any time on the passage. The Ships Allowance is plenty for a passenger But the above named articles is rather Scarce.’ William Orr’s intercession was also requested in providing emigrants with

‘any thing that they may be Short of’ and in placing their baggage ‘on Board of the Ship’ (Mc 6b, 9b, 6c). Whereas Orr was promised reimbursement from Australia for his services, those in Ireland often had to meet the ancillary costs of emigration unaided. Inland transportation and landing money could be costly extras, requiring ingenious expedients to raise the money. Though Eliza Fife’s passage had been paid for by the state and her sister in Goulburn, father William still had to sell his only horse to equip her for the voyage. ‘I sold the Horse before she went away and I gave her the price of him sowed up in her stays. It was not much I Got for him only

three pounds it was all the remedy I had. I hope she will be able to Get From Syney to Goaburn herself as I gave her ten Shillings to Keep her pocket after paying her fare From Enniskillen to Liverpool’ (Fi 7h). Care as well as cash had to be lavished on emigrants. Although the welfare of women travelling without male escorts preoccupied moralists more than migrants, two letters from Australia expressed mild concern. William Orr was asked to see a woman and her child aboard, ‘as she is not Much accustomed to these things’; and Philip Mahony felt that ‘the greatest dif-

ficulty a young woman would have is in going to London & getting on board a ship but after that She would be all right’? (Mc 6c; Ma 2h). Confidence in the security of unaccompanied steerage passengers was fostered by social as well as administrative factors. Vessels chartered by the state were policed with increasing effectiveness, through the segregation of sleeping quarters by sex and the vigilance of surgeons, matrons, and their armies of assistants. Moreover, many emigrants on individual tickets contrived to travel in the same ship as relatives, neighbours, or guardians. Such was the intensity of migration from certain counties in the 1850s and 1860s that,

on arrival at the quay, emigrants would sometimes discover further acquaintances bound for Australia. Eliza Fife, for example, travelled with a horde of familiar figures as well as her pre-assigned companion James McCusker: ‘Thomas Heaslip is with Eliza and James and two of the Croziers of Ballinamallard and many others From Below Irvinestown. One of them it is Margaret Robinson Elizas Comrade’ (Fi 7a). Michael Normile’s

letter from Birkenhead indicates that his departure in the company of a

Negotiation 525

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FIGURE 58. Emigrants leaving Scott’s Quay, Queenstown, Co. Cork (Lawrence Collection, Cabinet 5258: NLI).

group of neighbours was no accident, but the result of intercession with the Emigration Commissioners by the rector of the parish (No 1c). The punctiliousness of these preparations suggests that emigration from Ireland to Australia was the product of careful, costly, and well-informed planning. Without state assistance no substantial movement could have occurred; yet private contributions and individual ingenuity were equally crucial in getting that movement under way.

THE PASSAGE

The letters in this book tell us little of the experience of the voyage. Diaries and diary-letters of sea voyages constitute a distinctive genre for middleclass passengers in the nineteenth century, but they are rarely found among the surviving correspondence of poorer Irish emigrants. Unlike most letters sent home after arrival, the diary of the voyage provided stylised entertainment rather than functional information or advice, and therefore had little

526 Themes appeal for writers and readers of utilitarian outlook. The few available letters from the port of embarkation are brief notes serving to reassure relatives that the emigrant had got as far as the ship: ‘I have nothing strange

to say’; ‘all well—forgive & forgat’ (Co 1a, 5a). No anticipation of the voyage to Australia can match, in form or spirit, the celebratory verse by Helenah Hammond’s brother upon his departure for Quebec: ‘I am Going to cross the atlantic sea / and try to reach the Land of Liberty’ (Ha 3e). Apart from Michael Normile’s graphic account of seasickness on the boat to Liverpool and arrangements on board the Araminta on his first night, the letters provide no first-hand accounts of the voyage (No tc, rb). Eliza Fife’s initial responses to shipboard life, as passed on by her father, were mundane if plaintive: ‘she says the ship is a very uncomfortable place a hard Bed and the tea not very sweet’ (Fi 7b). Yet indirect references in several sequences suggest that the long journey by sea, and its hazards, were powerful motifs in the Irish imagination. William Fife’s first surviving

letter is dominated by an elaborate imagined narrative of his children’s progress across ‘the Foaming Billows’, depicted as a sequence of emotional

responses to storm, deliverance, and arrival using phrases plucked from fiction as well as biblical texts. Fife, who may never have been to sea, was fascinated by the detail of ship construction, the duration of the voyage, and shipboard life (Fi rd, rh, 7b). Similar interests were evinced by Cath-

erine Brennan in her discussion of a shipboard newspaper, and by John McCance in his meditation upon a shipwreck: ‘We ought to remember that in the midst of life we are in death’ (Br 3f; Mc 4i). It is curious that scarcely any letters from Australia contain recollections of the voyage, though occasional accounts appear of the illness of other passengers (No 30). We may surmise that the voyage was more exciting and alarming in imagination than in personal experience. The emigrant’s immediate reception in the New World was widely regarded as a crucial element in the process of emigration. William Fife envisaged his children ‘Landed in Sydney Strangers in a Strange Land young and unexperienced in the World’; Isabella Wyly likewise remembered herself as having ‘felt a stranger in a strange Land’ upon arrival in Adelaide (Fi rd; Wy th). Those brought over by relatives or travelling with neighbours had a great initial advantage in facing and overcoming that strangeness. The presence of neighbours on the voyage gave heart and comfort to Michael Normile from Birkenhead onwards, and he declared that ‘what ever way the wind blows I am glad of being along with my Neighbours’ (No 1c). The sight of a familiar figure waiting at the docks was still more exhilarating: ‘William O’Dwyer Came to the Cuzco and brought me to his place, he has a splendid hotel. I Can never forget his Kindness to me and his good wife, as nice and as affectionate a woman as | ever meet’ (Co 6a).

Other letters attest to the benefit of having a neighbour from home on

Negotiation 527

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a Sa | — OSS Oe Te co ee FIGURE 59. Emigrants landing at the Queen’s Wharf, Melbourne, 1863 (wood engraving by Frederick Grosse from sketch by Nicholas Chevalier: NLA).

hand to assist with employment, or a ‘Never to be Forgotten friend’ to act as a guide after disembarkation (Br 1f; Fi ra, re). The problem of organising a successful passage ceased only when the emigrant had been passed from the care of home to host. Thereafter, though the collective protection of the family and its networks was not abruptly withdrawn, emigrants were held primarily responsible for their own destiny. AXES OF MIGRATION

The Irish who chose Australia were a small segment of the vast outflow of emigrants from Ireland to Britain and the anglophone New World. Their decision was the outcome not simply of arguments for and against emigration, but also of comparisons between Australia and a range of rival destinations. Every family whose movements are chronicled in this book had

close connections with emigrants settling outside Australia, and the sequences bear witness to the mighty flow of information concerning other axes of migration which reached Irish Australia. During the gold rushes of the 1850s, at least, it was far from obvious that Australia would be viewed

retrospectively as a minor destination by comparison with the United

528 Themes States. The relative virtues and drawbacks of these and other countries were warmly debated, and considerable lateral migration was recorded as for-

tune-seekers followed the latest rumour or enticement from continent to continent. Irish emigrants in Australia were not outcasts stranded irrevocably in their place of disembarkation, but voyagers who typically remained conscious of the possibility of further migration, beyond Australia as well as within its shores. The intimate and complex inter-relationships between emigrants in Australia and elsewhere remind us that Irish Australians were

not an aberrant offshoot, but an integral element of a worldwide dispersion. Readers of these letters are unlikely to accept models of migration which propose radical differences between the ‘stock’ of Irish Australia and Irish America. The wide range of geographical choice exercised by Irish emigrants is illustrated equally well by the circles of the Catholic Michael Normile and

the Protestant John McCance. Normile received news of neighbours in China, the East Indies, and New Zealand; McCance’s stepsons and associates migrated freely between Australia and New Zealand, British Columbia, and still further afield. The frequency of such movements is suggested by his casual tone: ‘Nathaniel is arrived home with us again. He has been mostly in South America but he is little more settled than when he went away and thinks of being off again’ (No 9e, 11c; Mc 8b, 8g, 4g). These reports of transoceanic wanderings usually referred to bachelors, but married men such as Nathaniel’s brother Hamilton would also migrate unin-

hibitedly while their families waited in trepidation (Mc 8b). Several correspondents mentioned the work, wages, or marriages of acquaintances in Britain—always an important option for Irish emigrants, as the Doorley

saga suggests. North America, however, was Australia’s major partner within the Irish world. Though only one of the correspondents in this book continued on to the United States, several letters indicate that movement between the two countries was commonplace. Shortly after his arrival in depressed Brisbane, Christopher Dunne reported that there were ‘a grate many leaving hear for America’; Michael Hogan had likewise written from Melbourne that ‘there are a great many vessels from here to America’ (Du 2b; Ho 2b). Among those moving onwards across the Pacific was John Fife, who after arrival in Nevada sent home letters ‘as short as ever the were. He says little of the Country’ (Fi 9c). He was eventually followed to America by almost all the children of William Fife’s second marriage, making possible a dialogue between those choosing Australia and the United States which lingered long into the twentieth century.

During Australia’s great gold rushes the transpacific traffic had been mainly in the reverse direction: as Eliza Dalton wrote from Tipperary in 1854, ‘the name of the gold mines are So inducing the are even leaving America for that part of the world’ (Da 4b). Both Eliza Dalton and Michael

Negotiation 529 Hogan discussed cases of Irish Americans who moved on to Australia. Eliza’s son John fled first the American climate and then his father’s wrath, before finding refuge in Melbourne; and the son of one of Hogan’s Tipperary neighbours left America to join his brothers on the Victorian diggings (Da 4f; Ho 3d). Otherwise, movement from America to Australia was discussed as a possibility rather than an event. Biddy Burke evidently retained the hope that her sweetheart Martin Fitzpatrick would continue his peregrination to Queensland, remarking that ‘I am verry sorrow that He went to America so Suddon. There is a bad account of it. This is a good Country’ (Bu 2f). When some cousins in America contemplated moving on to Australia, Isabella Wyly exclaimed that ‘I should like to have them very much, for the would be such companions for me’ (Wy 3f). Michael Hogan, while feeling that ‘me brother James acted very unkind when he was leaving Ireland in not coming here as he knew where I was’, probably retained the hope that James might after all ‘Come to me where I Could make a happy home for him for ever’ (Ho rb, 3c). Michael Normile went to great lengths to arrange for his sister Honora and her family to move from America to Maitland, but was told by the Emigration Commissioner in Sydney that no assisted passages were available direct from the United States: “They have no Communication in the way of Emigration the same as we have from home to here’ (No 5b). He continued to hope that they would escape from America and its ‘merciless war’ and to feel that ‘Honora & Husband will come here if they can’ (No 15f, 9b). The competition for Irish settlers between Australia and America did not cease upon their initial reception in

the New World. .

Irish-Australian awareness of the American alternative was fostered by the flow of information about friends and relatives who had settled there.

Much of the information was unadorned by comment, but it served to satisfy or arouse comparative curiosity. Letters from home reminded those in Australia that the flow from Ireland to America remained formidable, even in 1864 during the Civil War: ‘The Emigration to America is Beyon Discription. There cannot Be Ships Got to take them, three thousand has left Dery this spring’ (Fi 5c). Families continued to send half or more of their children to America, leaving the minority in Australia to speculate on the ever-changing contours of family topography. Thus, at the height of

the movement in 1851, Helenah Hammond wondered how her siblings were ‘doing in America and if more has left the Paternal Home’ (Ha 4g). The Hammond letters bear reiterated witness to the human chain that accomplished the peopling of Irish America, chronicling the names of relatives

and beloveds who had been ‘sent for’ by American sponsors (Ha 2f, 5b, 6b). The very term ‘sent for’ suggests that in the American case, as much as the Australian, the decisions that perpetuated the movement from Ireland were collective rather than individual.

530 Themes The comments accompanying many reports from Irish America, whether

favourable or otherwise, helped settlers in Australia to assess their own success in relative terms. Depending on their own circumstances, Australian

readers might feel either gratified or uneasy upon learning that relatives across the Pacific were ‘dowing very well’, in ‘a Comfortable way’, ‘making money’, ‘in great repute’, or ‘in a prosperous way in America’ (Ha 7b; Br

5a, 2e). Equally, their grief might be tinged with complacency when they were told that American cousins had ‘found it very hard to get on’, or that ‘America has very much failed, in consequence of banks closing the peopl

are starving & comming back to Ireland in crowds’ (Wy 3e; Du 12e). Negative reports emphasised the country’s supposedly unhealthy environment and the untimely death of emigrants. Eliza Dalton twice referred to the severe climate of the northern states, which ‘disagreeded’ with one acquaintance ‘as well as with many others’ (Da 3a, 4c). William Fife, whose son John died in Nevada soon after moving on from New South Wales,

gave a bleak account of death in America. One neighbour was ‘dead in America and his children in great want’, and another had died ‘in ten Minutes Sickness it was Disease of the heart’, leaving five children (Fi 2h, gc). Fife could at least be grateful that his son ‘had any Friend or Neighbour to look to him in his last moments’, whereas Isabella Wyly heard that a

relative in America had died in a hiss of bitterness against her married daughter: ‘It was her dying wish that she would not depend on Fanny do what the will but that’ (Fi roa; Wy 3e). America might be a hive of prosperity, but it was also pictured as a place of affliction, sudden death, and disharmony. GOING HOME

Irish emigrants, particularly those who chose distant Australia, have often been portrayed as bridge-burners without practical prospect of ever returning to Ireland. The return motif in the literature and folklore of Irish emigration has been dismissed as either a romantic fiction or a psychological compensation for the reality of permanent absence. By dwelling upon the charms of home in imagination, emigrants mollified the pain of irreversible departure. The letters in this book suggest otherwise. Though only Edward Comber seems in fact to have returned, the letters of other emigrant writers

are replete with reports of the return or prospective return of acquaintances, as well as discussion of their own possible homegoing. No analysis of the process of Irish-Australian migration should ignore the obscure but considerable movement back from Australia, and the constructions that emigrants applied to returning. For Michael Normile in mid-century Maitland, reverse migration seemed

not only commonplace but also a barrier to investment of capital in the

Negotiation 531 Australian economy: “There is Hundreds of them Storeing it up to go home

to the Mother Country.’ Home in the Old World remained an economic as well as sentimental focus, and Normile reflected that ‘there is some of them that adores money before the Almighty such as them that thinks to make a fortune in a few years and go home’ (No roc, 31). Such general analyses were rare in emigrant correspondence, but reports of particular reverse Movements were more common. William Fife mentioned several acquaintances who had come back expressing varied enthusiasm for Australia, including ‘Eliza Beatys Comerade Boy’ who had come ‘home for want of health’ (Fi 3i: 2h). Joseph Hammond’s mother in Armagh mentioned a neighbour who ‘did Visset Ireland and his Friend[s] but is gon back to Australia again’. Bridget McDonnell referred to a shopkeeper’s son

who had recently visited Meath, having ‘got married to his first cousin a Miss O Farrell from Melbourne with thirty Thousand pounds fortune’—a sum equivalent to perhaps a million pounds today, so indeed a startling claim (Ha 7d; Du 9f). The returned emigrant faced contradictory expectations upon resettlement at home: emigration was expected to bring prosperity, yet return suggested failure. Returners were thus faced with the unenviable choice of asserting their success at the cost of being expected to

dispense largesse, or protecting their savings at the cost of surrendering status. Michael Normile’s acute analysis of Bryan O’Loughlin’s return visit to Clare elucidates the strategy of one status-seeker. Michael felt that his father had been deceived by O’Loughlin’s posturings: ‘You spoke of Bryan O’Loughlin in your letter to me that he had so much money as that he did

not know what to do of it. If you believe me the most he could count for himself was from 200 to 250 £.’ He had heard gossip that O’Loughlin had gone ‘home to try to get a fortune at home but that failed him’. Normile drew a sharp distinction between the visitor seeking an easy fortune and the successful emigrant investing his gains in permanent return: ‘If I had so

much money as he said he had and to go home, nobody would ever see me again in New South Wails’ (No 4h). The letters document return migration across many axes, placing the movement from Australia to Ireland in the broader context of Irish dispersion across the globe. Apart from the scattered reports of returning Americans already discussed, there are two graphic portrayals of Irishwomen home from England. Eliza Dalton reported that one neighbour was ‘now married in Hull to a Gentleman of the established Church but She continues

a good Catholic. About 12 months Since She paid us a visit in first rate Style. She wore a Gold Watch and and well it became her’ (Da 4e). In another case, reputed wealth had not begotten conspicuous spending: ‘Mrs. Hynds spent two weeks in the summer time with her sister in Moira. She said her husband earned 30s/ per week. She had plenty of money with her but she did not spend much of it’ (Br 3d). The intricacy of Irish migration

532 Themes ensured that some of those contemplating return found themselves drawn to destinations other than Ireland. A newly-wed cousin of Isabella Wyly’s intended ‘going home shortly, but I soppose that will be to England, for he is Engelish’. Mary Anne Doorley dreamed of her son returning from Queensland to England rather than Ireland: ‘Let me no what he is dowing or dose he Ever Ever speak of Coming to this Contary again. I often wonder whie he dose not rite to me’ (Wy 1l; Do 1g). The route back ‘home’ was further confused by the American connection: one of John McCance’s neighbours, who had reached the Victorian goldfields after a spell in the United States, planned ‘to return to Amarica or home as he calls it’ (Mc 7e). The concept of ‘return’ was itself ambiguous for the migratory Irish. The letters contain fewer reports of reverse migration than reports of its possibility.! The return of neighbours was common enough for them to figure as potential couriers (Mc 1d, rg, 2e; Wy se). Other letters discussed the planned return of close relatives, including a widow whose health was failing and who talked ‘of Coming to Ireland if the Docteors recommends it’ (Fi 5f). But discussion of the possibility of return usually concerned the emigrant correspondents themselves, who were drawn back towards Ireland either by inclination or by emotive rhetoric. Emigrants were bombarded with suggestions of return, ranging from expressions of hope to poignant summonses. Residual guilt might have been aroused even by mild observations such as ‘Judy often talks of you when you wold come home’, or ‘sister Bess wishes to Know of you have any word of coming home’ (Du 3d; Ha 3g). Other invitations were more positive and hearty: ‘Come home I will get yee a good [h]usband. It is a pitty you should Breed in any place but Cloghleigh’ (Da zh). In the case of the Brennans in Down, the appeals to children were evidently less ceremonious: ‘Your father in law was telling me that he intended to send You all word to come home if you could get’; ‘The last letter I sent to Tom I invited him to come home’ (Br rc, 5b). The most insistent appeals, from Joseph Hammond’s mother in Armagh in 1844, highlighted the plight of an ageing parent facing isolation, ill-health, and possibly destitution. Joseph was urged to sell his Victorian property

and ‘Return onse more to the land of your nativity, which would be a Comfort to your mother in her old days as She has few friends living which

would be a great Consolation to her to have you and your Brother John with her at her Decace’. The appeal was amplified by an exhortation to ‘do your Best Endavours to Return home, Before you have much of an increace of fam[ily]’, and a reminder that Joseph’s brother also ‘still Lives 1 The 51 passages referring to reverse movement include 9 reports of return from Australia by acquaintances, 11 reports of possible return by acquaintances (1 of which concerned return

from Australia to America), 9 requests for an emigrant’s return, 11 discussions of possible return by writers in Australia, and 3 general observations. There were also 5 reports of return from America and 2 from England, as well as 1 report of possible return from America.

Negotiation 533 in hopes of Seeing you once more in your native Land’ (Ha 2b, 2f, 2g). For those left in Ireland, reverse movement seemed a practical possibility even in the 1840s, when the sea journey remained hazardous and expensive.

Appeals such as these generated a variety of responses from emigrant correspondents. Joseph Hammond was unusually blatant in spurning his family’s hints and invitations, writing that ‘I would like to hear from Home but I would like better to see you all in Australia for me I will never be in Ireland’ (Ha 4g). Less emphatically, Elizabeth Wyly did not ‘know should I go home now if I could, not unless I took home plenty of money to keep me independant’ (Wy 2r). Most emigrants were tactful enough to express the wish to return, with varying degrees of specificity and enthusiasm. Biddy Burke was ‘Longing for the day that I will be gone down the Bay to meet them with the Help of God’; Isabella Wyly exclaimed that ‘I should like to see, dear old Ireland once more be before I die’; Michael Normile told his father that ‘I hope I never shall dye until I see yea’; and Edward Comber longed ‘to be home again’ (Bu 2c; Wy 1k; No 5}; Co 6b). Such vague half-promises were tempered by the realisation that return was unlikely to occur. Whereas Edward Comber returned to Clare after a year or so, Michael Normile had to confess that ‘I had always a notion that I would

see you but alas I dont think I will be able’ (No 13f). Isabella Wyly and Biddy Burke continued to speak of going home, but even the homesick Biddy was soon restricting her imagined return to a visit with her brother: ‘I might goe that is if Patt comes well [we'll] all goe & see the old sod once more. But I dont supose I could live there now’ (Bu 3g). When emigrants wrote of return, they chose their words carefully, to convey both abstract

desire and practical improbability. There was undeniably a gulf between professed intention and practical determination, reflected in the excess of expressions of possible return over reports of actual movement. This gulf is also apparent in the sexual distribution of those possibly as against actually returning. Whereas most actual returners were male, the sexes were evenly balanced among those specified as potential returners.? Yet the verbal fencings recorded in letters were conducted in an Irish world where return was common enough to render it a credible outcome of negotiation. Decisions about emigration faced virtually everyone reared in Ireland dur-

ing or after the Great Famine. Parents and children accepted that about half of each generation would leave Ireland, and they made their collective decisions on that basis. It is remarkable that the letters in this book give 2 Of the 9 reports of return by acquaintances from Australia, 7 concerned men, none women, and 1 both sexes. Of the 11 reports of possible return by acquaintances, 5 concerned men, 3 women, and 1 both sexes. Of the 20 cases in which a correspondent’s own return was discussed, 4 concerned men, 7 women, and 9 both sexes. In the other 3 cases, the sex of returners was unspecified.

534 Themes virtually no hint of recrimination by parents against deserting children or by children against rejecting parents. Their moral dialogue involved many other appeals to duty and insinuations of guilt, but the injunction upon children to spend their lives in the vicinity of their parents was notably absent. The lack of recrimination provides powerful confirmation of the sensitivity with which decisions about migration were negotiated within Irish families. Emigration ranked with marriage as the most important decision in most Irish lives, and Irish-Australian letters illuminate the com-

plexity of the process by which it was implemented. Like marriage, emigration was expensive, premeditated, calculated, and the outcome of negotiation involving a wide circle of interested relatives and the collection of extensive evidence concerning the available options. Unlike an Irish marriage, it was also reversible and repeatable. The possibility of further mi-

gration ended only with death. The letters that Irish Australians sent and received gave expression to that continuing possibility.

C H AP TER I 9 Origins: Images of Ireland

[* THEIR LETTERS TO AUSTRALIA, THE CORRESPONDENTS IN THIS BOOK

tried to make sense of the bewildering convulsions of Irish society during and after the Great Famine of the 1840s. Their reports upon every aspect of social life, from prices and banking to religion and politics, had several functions beyond mere satisfaction of emigrant curiosity. Writing about Irish events helped those at home to impose order on their own conception of Irish society, in a period when every assumption about normality seemed questionable. Those who survived the Famine and remained in Ireland had to re-imagine ‘home’, if they were not to become aliens in their own country. Their attempts to describe and analyse Irish conditions also served to discourage those in Australia from lapsing into a static notion of the homeland, formed before emigration and at risk of being sentimentalised in retrospect. By helping emigrants to keep abreast of change in Ireland, letters from home renewed the vitality of the Irish-Australian connection. A third function of these reports was to contribute information bearing upon the negotiations analysed in the two previous chapters. Pleas for assistance were reinforced by negative accounts of Irish conditions; summonses to return home were bolstered by positive reports. Although instrumental motives were probably less intrusive in colouring reports from Ireland than those from Australia, they diminish the value of all such accounts as statements of either ‘fact’ or candid belief. No systematic attempt is made in this chapter to verify the accuracy of epistolary comments on Irish conditions, or to sketch an alternative history of nineteenth-century Ireland on so slippery a basis. Such a sketch, though potentially subversive of both conventional and ‘revisionist’ constructions of post-Famine Ireland, would invite dismissal on the grounds of atypicality. Instead, reports in letters are 535

536 Themes treated as clues to the mentality of non-emigrants when in dialogue with emigrants. How did home correspondents assess the well-being of the residual population, having in their minds the accounts of well-being in Aus-

tralia conveyed by emigrant letters? Were those remaining in Ireland captives in a hostile environment, envying those who had escaped to Australia? Or did they find gratification in their inheritance, pitying the emigrants who could not share it? PROSPERITY

Generalisations about home conditions were seldom ventured by correspondents in Ireland, who normally allowed readers to draw broader inferences from specific statements. It is not surprising that the only writers to offer general assessments were the sophisticated Daltons in Tipperary’s Golden Vein and William Fife, whose mastery of rhetoric belied his inferior rank as a small farmer in Fermanagh. William Dalton became increasingly optimistic in his assessments, as the Famine receded. In 1851 he could find ‘no great improvement in this Country Sinc yee left it’; but two years later the country was ‘fast Improving’, and by early 1859 there had been ‘a great

improvement in this Country Booth in the prices and in Conduct of the people’ (Da 1b, 2e, 6b). Both William and his wife Eliza were puzzled at the coincidence of improvement in home conditions and persistence of heavy emigration: ‘Although this Country is much improved Strange to Say the remaining few as discontented’ (Da 4b: 5b). In 1860, William Fife remarked more gloomily that ‘times is much altered in this Country’, a point amplified by his son. ‘My Father is thankfull that yous have Got to that Country When yous Did. The prospect of living in Ireland at the present

is very Dark. There is many in this Country and there is But one Step Between them and Beggary’ (Fi 31, 3d). Yet no general report from Ireland

was so bleak as the scarcely articulate bleat of misery from Mary Anne Doorley in Lancashire, to whom ‘Everry thing’ seemed ‘so Bad that i Could [not] tell you’ (Do tc). The numerous specific reports of agricultural conditions veered between positive and negative according to economic fluctuations from season to season. The letters in this book mainly postdate the Famine and give little

sense of its terrors. It may be that the Famine was so dominant in the memory of correspondents in both countries that discussion of its effects would have seemed painfully redundant. The two direct references are curiously distant and dispassionate, as though referring to an external problem without personal implications. In 1852, Mary Devlin reported drily from Armagh that ‘there is one thing to Mention and that is the loss of our Potatoe crop in Ireland. I blieve this is the 7th year that the have been taking from us’ (Ha 5g). For William Fife eight years later, the Famine had

Origins 537 receded into history as a succession of chronological landmarks: ‘The po-

tatoes was not so scarce Since the year of the Failure as this year. The Turnips is high at present as the year [o]f the publick works’ (Fi 3d). The Famine was rapidly reconstructed into a past episode, but the blight that had caused it remained a present difficulty and future menace. Many letters betrayed lingering anxiety in their references to the ever-fluctuating potato crop. Dalton wrote in 1851 that ‘wee hav still The potatee blight but not So bad’, whereas the crop after next seemed the best ‘for the las twenty years’. By 1858, the fungus as well as the Famine seemed a problem of the past, and Dalton reported that ‘we had not since the potato blight come such a splendid crop as we have this year. .. . The blight is gone this year’ (Da 1b, 2e, 5b). Dalton’s confidence was premature, and William Fife’s letters testify to the recurrence of ‘rotten’ potatoes and wretched crops in the poor seasons of 1859 and 1860 (Fi 1g, 2b, 2d, 3d). In 1865, Fife wrote that ‘there is the best potatoes this year there has been this many years past yet the are begining to rot a litle’; and in the following year Daniel Brennan lamented that ‘there is a great failure in the Potatoe crop this season’ (Fi 6b; Br 2f). In 1876 the fear of blight was still sufficient to generate gratitude for its absence: ‘We have no Blight one the Potatoes or Failure of any kind which is a great Blessing. The are as Good for eating this year as the ever were in the memory of the Oldest man living.’ In the following year, however, the potatoes were once again ‘very bad’ (Fi 12b, 13e). The blackened potatoes that still occasionally lurk in Irish groceries remind us that the blight, and the nightmare, have never ceased to resist relegation to the past. As a sign of well-being, the state of the potato crop had unique emotive force for those reared in rural Ireland. When emigrants read reports of its failure, they envisaged not only a loss of income for producers but also a potentially catastrophic deprivation for consumers. The potato remained a significant element of farm production but failed to recover its pre-Famine status, reflecting the temporary shift to other crops and the secular substitution of pasturage for cultivation. The letters in this book illustrate the diversity of agricultural production even on small farms, and some of the sources of anxiety associated with changing patterns of land usage. The declining demand for wheat and other tillage crops had its greatest impact on large farmers such as William Dalton, who by 1858 was ‘entirely out of tillage thank God... . There is such a glut of forrein corn tillage farmers are not at all well off in this country but graziers are doing well’ (Da 5b: 6b). In Ulster, where oats were no less important than potatoes as both food and fodder, the state of the oats crop was likewise a crucial indicator of well-being. In bad seasons, as William Fife explained, livestock took precedence over people as consumers: ‘I did not make one peck of oatmeal for ourselves, but gave it to the cows and pigs to keep them alive’ (Fi 2b). The letters from Ireland reveal the contrasting impact upon small and

538 Themes substantial farmers of the rapidly increasing demand for livestock. For the Daltons, who raised large herds of milch cows and other stock on leasehold pastures which they cannily snapped up before the inflation of land values, agricultural transformation brought renewed prosperity (Da 5c, 6b). The

Dunnes in Meath also prospered, despite the ravages of ‘the Lung Distemper’ upon their milch cows, cattle, and horses (Du 3c). For humbler farmers, however, the cost of replacing the cows providing domestic milk and butter became ever more burdensome. By 1876 the Brennans in Down were reduced to being owners of a single cow, whose loss would have been disastrous: ‘Dear Freinds we are all well and doing as well as we can. We have one cow at present’ (Br 7a). The Fifes provided a disturbing chronicle of fluctuations in their tiny herd, reduced from three in 1859 to ‘only the brown and spotted heifers this summer’ [1860], and subsequently to a single cow before 1864. In that year, William Fife felt that his children would be ‘Glad to Know that I have Got the second Cow again. Cattle never was such a price as at the present. It is a very small Cow you will Get for ten Guineas’ (Fi 2b, 5g). Keeping a horse for ploughing was equally crucial to the efficient operation of a small mixed farm, but likewise imposed a heavy burden. When Fife had to sell his only horse to provide his daughter with landing money for Australia, it was a loss that he had been struggling to avoid for several years (Fi 11, 2b, 7h). The Fife letters, more detailed than any other sequence in their analysis of changes in the rural economy, also show the importance of pigs, rabbits, and hares (though not, oddly, poultry) as sources of income for the poor (Fi 12b). The market, with its rapidly

fluctuating prices, was keenly studied by the small man as much as the erazier.

Reports of changes in the relative prices of food products, as of live animals, had ambiguous connotations. Every sequence of letters from Ireland was peppered with market prices, fulfilling several functions in correspondence. Small farmers, like the Brennan, Fife, and Hammond circles in Ulster, usually cited high commodity prices in order to underline hard-

ship for the consumer, whereas similar reports from the Dunnes or the Daltons evoked the prosperity of the producer. Daniel Brennan’s statement that ‘there is a sudden rise on flour’ bears a superficial likeness to Michael Dunne’s report that ‘flower rise 5£ per ton in one day here’; but the second report was probably as positive in its impact as the first was negative (Br

2f; Du 8c). Likewise, statistics showing high prices for bacon or butter require variant interpretation according to the writer’s occupation. Susannah Boyd’s statistics showing the extravagant ‘price of our food’ in 1864 underlined the hardship facing a weaving household (Ha 9d). Yet William Dalton’s recitations of rising meat prices in the 1850s were celebrations of his renewed prosperity as a pastoralist: ‘Every thing that grass feeds are as high as they were in Bonaparts time’; ‘Every thing that can be laid on the

Origins 539 grass is gone beyond the value’ (Da 2e, 6b). A high reported price might signify success for a producer, adversity for a consumer, or simply an element in the computation of relative real income for use by a reader in Australia. The post-Famine reorganisation of Irish farming entailed investment in

land and technology as well as in seed and stock. Readers in Australia would have marvelled at the novel uses to which their connections at home

were putting capital. The substitution of capital for labour was no mere economist’s construct, but a self-conscious and crucial element of the management of larger farms. William Dalton, writing to his former servants less than a decade after their departure for Sydney in 1850, claimed that with ‘the farming implements we have got since you left we can do buissness with one third what we had in your time here’ (Da 5b). Smaller farm-

ers like the Fifes had trouble maintaining even a horse and plough, but tried to increase productivity by developing skills, executing improvements,

and so exploiting their own ‘human capital’. Thus William’s son John boasted that when mowing his own corn, as ‘most of the people’ were doing ‘for wa[nt] of help’, he threw it ‘in the face of the standing corn which is the Best Method’. His father was delighted by the achievements of his younger sons, reporting that ‘John can drill the turnips without a leader and plough first rate’, and in later years that Bob could ‘Cut the hay and Build the Corn Stacks and thatch them neater than ever I could take time to Do’. Defying increasing decrepitude, William himself built new walls, gates, and paths such that ‘two carts could come in now in breadth up to the house’ (Fi 3b, 2k, 12c, 21). Despite these indications that farmers and their sons continued to acquire valuable skills, Fife and other correspondents complained that the quality of hired labour had declined as a result of emigration. Fife lamented in 1865 that ‘if you cannot do your own work within yourself in this Country it will be undone. America and Aus-

tralia has taken all that is of any use’ (Fi 6b). In similar vein, William Dalton told his emigrant servants and shepherds that their replacements were ‘a Set of robbers’ who could not be trusted with the keys to his barns: ‘Often I told the ruffins yee left after yee that I wished to god I Kept one

of yee at home and gave him a hundred pounds ayear I would put three in my pocket’? (Da 2b). The shift away from labour-intensive sectors of farm production was thus attributed not only to price movements but also to the diminishing quality and supply of hired labour. The farmer’s renewed pride in his holding, and readiness to invest money and effort in its improvement, reflected the revival of land values after the Famine slump. This unmistakable sign of economic regeneration was mentioned in several letters, though usually with negative connotations. Dalton

reported in 1859 that ‘land is not to be got for love or money in this country’; fifteen years later Michael Dunne wrote that ‘land has become

540 Themes very dear & some convient eanugh [convenient enough] has changed its owners’. These changes were often forced by creditors, enabling upstarts such as ‘Pady Kelly’s son who used to make the brooms on Emlough bog’ to secure farms once held by respectable men (Da 6b; Du 12f). Repossession

of land, over-mortgaged in periods of ready credit, also accounted for the rapid changeover of farms reported by John Fife in 1860: ‘Our Loan Funds or Loan Banks with the unfavourableness of the Seasons has Destroyed our Country. There was Eight hundred and twenty Decrees taken out at last Sessions such is the state of our County’ (Fi 3d). The damage done by unscrupulous financiers was confirmed by Dalton’s observation that the Scullys and Sadleirs, notorious initiators of the Tipperary Joint-Stock Bank, had been ‘all knocked to pieces. They robbed the country with their Bank.’ The soaring price of land, as reflected in rental, was naturally deplored by all but the few whose speculative acquisitions were well timed (Da 5c). Yet tales of massive outlay on leaseholds served to inspire respect rather than pity for the investor, in the sometimes overt tussle for status between emigrant and stay-at-home: ‘I was very glad to hear you have a piece of land. We also have a great lot of grass land fifty acres in Nockglass & as much is [222] Stoholmack[?] at four pound per acre’ (Du 12g). As evidence of prosperity, expenditure was more impressive, if less reliable, than saving. While farming preoccupied those writing from southern Ireland, Ulster correspondents were equally concerned with the volatile and fluctuating trade in textiles. In 1843, it was reported from Armagh that ‘the weaving never was as Bad as at present here’. Yet in the following year, Daniel Devlin wrote that ‘the waving Business is doing well in this Country at present and provisions on a reasonable Scale’. Thirteen years later, however, his widow lamented that ‘the waving Tread is Lower than it has been been this Manny years’, and even in relatively favourable seasons such as 1864 it was hard ‘to make a living by weaving’ in the same locality (Ha Ia, 2c, 7e, 9b). Subsequent testimony from neighbouring Co. Down suggests a slight improvement. In 1865, Isaac Herron wrote that ‘trade is greatily improved in this country’, by contrast with ‘the wretched state of trade’ hitherto prevailing over ‘a number of years’. He declared that ‘the Cotton trade is better at this time than ever it was in my day of weaving and for the Cambrick I suppose you Know all about it from other letters’. Next season Daniel Brennan confirmed this positive image of Irish industrial performance, so reinforcing his fruitless appeal to his children to return to Ireland: ‘Weaving trade continues to do well’ (Br 1b, rd, 2f). Yet the textiles industry remained susceptible to violent and unpredictable changes in demand, which always threatened to ruin investors and impoverish weavers. These fluctuations were evident in the demand for flax, which again became an important product, for many small farmers in Ulster, in response to the blockage of cotton imports during the American Civil War. In 1864, Fife

Origins 541 remarked sagaciously that the boom in flax production would ‘do a Great Deal of Good or a deal of harm’, subsequently reporting a decline in production (Fi 5c, 6b). Catherine Brennan noted reflectively that many farmers had ‘indulged themselves too deep for the purpose of rasing large sums by it’, being ruined by the combination of reduced demand and a poor crop (Br 3b). Such reports of failure would have conveyed a dual message to emigrant readers, indicating the ready availability of capital in post-Famine Ireland as well as the riskiness of investing it. As in other matters, no Irish portrayal of the state of trade was so negative as the Doorleys’ descriptions of the cotton industry in Bolton: ‘very bad’, ‘slack’, ‘verry Bad’ (Do 3a, 5d, 6b).

In the Irish-Australian dialogue of economic well-being, the most telling

evidence of post-Famine regeneration at home was the improvement in wages. Most emigrants spent at least their early years in Australia as hired workers, and were therefore curious to compare earnings with their counterparts in Ireland. This curiosity was expressed with characteristic vigour by Isabella Scott (newly married to a draper), when attempting to persuade her nephew (an apprentice shop assistant) to emigrate to South Australia. ‘Do you go home ever[y] Sunday. How long have you to serve before you ar out of your time. What ar you getting per week and do you live in the house. Excuse my questions but you know for what motive I ask’ (Wy 7h). Edward Wyly’s response is unrecorded, but the portrayal of wages in letters from Ireland was overwhelmingly favourable. The four specific reports of

farm wages were all positive, indicating that ‘mens hire here is greatly raised’ above the rates familiar to emigrants: ‘To give you an idea how hirein going on here Butler of Ballicurran is paying 18s a week to ten men

he hired in Golden on Sunday and their diet’ (Du 8c; Da 5b: Du 4h; Fi 2h). The trend in wages for weavers was less clear, since employers demanded ever larger pieces from outworkers as factory competition intensified. As Susannah Boyd remarked in 1864: ‘Hard it is to make a living by weaving for the webs is so long and wages little though wages is a little better these last few Months than the have been for some years.’ Not content with this general assessment, she set out the precise rates and sizes for pieces of different material, concluding that ‘now Dear Sister you can see

from this how we are Doing’. The improvement continued into 1865, promping Isaac Herron to state that wages for cambric weaving were ‘pretty good. There is 11s for a 9° of Macouns and a good many other houses is paying more’ (Ha gb, 9c; Br rb). Most reports suggested that wages were high enough to provide a satisfactory livelihood for the diminishing population of those to whom employment was available. The post-Famine transformation of the Irish economy, as evoked in letters from Ireland, posed formidable challenges to the residual population. Price fluctuations favoured the alert producer and investor, but threatened

542 Themes the well-being of consumers and wage-earners. The reports in letters testify to hardship as well as happiness, conveying clearly the ambivalent consequences of economic change for different groups in the population. Yet the majority of reports are positive, suggesting a vigorous economy providing novel opportunities for those who remained. Since the emigrant faced a similar combination of opportunities and risks, the outcome of the dialogue concerning relative well-being was uncertain. The home economy, recovering from disaster, had acquired some of the attributes of the ‘New World’ with which it was competing for human capital. COMFORT

Well-being is signified not merely by earning power, but by the range and quality of accessible goods and services. The letters from Ireland are replete with references to the amenities that made life comfortable for those who survived the Famine. In their treatment of diet, clothing, recreation, housing, communications, and the physical environment, Irish correspondents

revealed some of the compensations that Ireland offered to the residual population. With few exceptions, these accounts were positive rather than plaintive. They reminded emigrants of the home comforts that they had put behind them. If references to the economy indicated unexpectedly vigorous change, those to diet and clothing suggested that pre-Famine preferences were slow to fade. Changes in production failed to stimulate matching changes in declared taste, as illustrated by the absence of reference to meat consumption. When correspondents wished to evoke the charms of an Irish kitchen, they wrote of tea or porridge rather than beef or bacon. William Dalton was delighted to find an arriviste landholder consuming ‘a little bowl of yellow male stirabout’ by the roadside. He was correspondingly scornful of pampered students at Maynooth College who had ‘a nough to eat and Drink and their education and 25£ a year to Cloath them. Where it not for this wee would have those fellows rosting potaties in the ashes as they Were reared’ (Da 5c, 6d). This taunt had a double edge; but the pretension was ridiculed more savagely than the potatoes. William Fife’s letters document the dietary delights of Fermanagh: meal from a sack of corn, ‘a cup of good tea’, ‘warm punch’, a ‘tumbler of punch and cup of tea’, ‘the old porridge and plenty of Good milk’ (Fi re, 2c, 11e, 2e, 7b). Deprivation meant potatoes without buttermilk, as John Fife indicated in his analysis of the ‘very Dark’ prospect in 1860: “There is many in Ireland will be Glad of potatoes without milk before the New ones comes.’ In Protestant Ulster, degeneracy was epitomised by indulgence in luxuries such as tobacco and whiskey, though another correspondent was not above terminating a letter because he was ‘dry for a smok’ (Fi 3d, 9b, 13c; Ha 1g). Drink, so often

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