St Mary Magdalene, Woolwich, in 1845, around the time Mary's eldest
child was baptised there before Mary and her husband William set sail
for the antipodes.. Mary Wilson (1817-1864)
This block will be replaced by LeftMenuGaffey (orByrnes) when the page is served from a server.
- Birth:
- ?26 September 1817, Kells, Co. Meath, Ireland[1]
- Parents:
- ?Margaret and William Wilson
- Death:
- February 20, 1864 at Rawbelle, near Monto Qld, of dropsy[2]
- Burial:
- Old Rawbelle Station[3]
- Marriage:
- 1. William Sexton (1844, County Meath, Ireland)[4]
- Children:
- (Margaret) Mary Sexton (1845 - 1930)[5] ,
- William Sexton (1847-1917)[6]
- Sarah Sexton (1851-1902)[7]
- Joseph Sexton (1853-1936)
- Marriage:
- 2. Francis Burns (probably de facto)[8]
- Children:
- James Byrnes [9] [born SEXTON] (1857-1932) married Grace Pobar, 1882, Toowoomba
We
can't really be sure that a child born in County Meath in Ireland in
1817 named Mary Wilson, the daughter and William and Margaret Wilson is
our Mary.... Once Mary left for the southern hemisphere, no
records noted her place of birth, so we are reliant on the fact that her
marriage licence in 1844 was granted in the County of Meath - and this
was the only christening of a Mary Wilson around the right time in
Meath. So, it's probable but not certain that the Mary born to the
Wilsons is the child who went on to marry an English soldier and start a
life south of the equator.The town of Kells, in County Meath in Ireland is known to both
tourists and scholars as the home of the Abbey of Kells from which the Book
of Kells takes its name. However, the legendary document had long
gone from Kells (to Trinity University in Dublin) by the time Mary was
born, the second of two daughters, in the village of Kells to William
and Margaret Wilson.
Mary was next mentioned in official records with a licence for her to
marry. Presumably a licence, instead of the more conventional (and
cheaper) banns was necessary because the bans would have required a
longer delay for the wedding.
Mary's husband was an English soldier, William Sexton. After many
years in England's American colonies (the West Indies and the territory
which was to become Canada), William's regiment had come back to be
based in Ireland from 1843-45. The only official record of their
marriage is in the Marriage Licence Bonds, for the Church of Ireland
(Anglican) Diocese of Meath, in 1844 (no date or any further information
is given). At that time, Mary was 27, with William some years her
senior.
Mary first appears in our official Australian records in September,
1845 when she gave birth to a daughter on the Pestonjee Bomangee,
a convict ship contracted by the British Government to transport
convicts to Van Dieman’s Land. The vessel which took them to the
southern hemisphere was a 10 year old a three-masted wooden barque of
just under 600 tons. It was built for East India service, and undertook
a number of journeys between the United Kingdom and the Australian
colonies, in later years being used for the transportation of convicts.
William, an Army private, was part of the Pestonjee Bomangee's
Army escort made up of a Captain of the 65th Regiment of Foot, a
lieutenant, four non-commissioned officers and 41 rank-and-file of the
65th. Also on board were six woman (including Mary) and six children -
and another soldier, Private Francis Burns, destined to be Mary’s second
partner.
Before the ship had even set sail, Mary gave birth to their first
child, a girl, Mary Margaret (the child's name is sometimes reversed
even on official documents). The journal of the ship's surgeon makes
interesting reading, with his comments on the extreme weather conditions
at the start of its voyage, and on the health of the convicts. Mary
herself on at least two occasions after the birth of her baby, was
admitted to sick bay, suffering "obstipatis", possibly a post-natal
complication. After three days treatment, Mary was deemed "cured" by the
Surgeon.
below: an extract from the ship's surgeon's journal referring to Mary's illness after giving birth to her first child:
After the ship arrived in Hobart, the ship's master registered the birth. However, the child had previously been baptised in Woolwich, before the vessel had lifted anchor and headed south to start the journey. The Woolwich baptism register recorded her name as "Margaret"[10], while the Tasmanian paperwork renamed her as "Mary".
Copy of the baptism entry for Mary's
daughter at St Mary Magdalene, Woolwich, courtesy of Sexton family
researcher, Margaret Pope.(The PB before the left hand column
indicates it was a private baptism, probably because neither Mary nor
William were residents of the parish.)
The regiment, and the Sexton family, returned to Sydney from Hobart before sailing on to Wellington, New Zealand later in 1846.
Mary's second child, a son William, was born in Wellington in 1847,
followed by Sarah in 1851, Joseph in 1853, and James in 1857. This
youngest child was most likely the child who became known as James
Byrnes, taking the name of Mary’s second partner, Francis Burns.
right: Wellington in the 1850s, at the time when the Sexton Family lived in Tinakori Road
Mary and Francis weren’t legally married (Mary’s first husband died in New Zealand in 1865 after Mary's own death) – and although Mary’s death certificate gives ‘Sydney’ as the place of marriage to Francis, no marriage registration has been found so far. It’s probable Mary and Francis deemed it advisable to leave New Zealand for Queensland soon after the birth of young James in 1857.
In the early 1860s, Mary and Francis, along with her children, lived and worked on the property Rawbelle, in the Monto/Gayndah district of Queensland, where Francis was employed as a shepherd. Mary, a housekeeper at Rawbelle, died at the young age of 46, soon after the family made the move from New Zealand to the much harsher country of the sheep property.
Her death certificate, which spells her surname as BURNS, gives her
husband's name as Francis Burns. It says Mary was born in Ireland, of
unknown parents, and had five children living. She died of dropsy (an
ailment of the kidneys), from which she had suffered for six months
before her death at Rawbelle. She was buried in an unmarked
grave in a little cemetery beside the banks of the Nogo River.
Notes on the
history of [Old] Rawbelle station say that:
"Nothing
now remains to mark the site except a peaceful little graveyard, in
which sleep two former managers of Rawbelle, two other white men, a
white woman, and a Chinaman".[11]
Mary was that white woman.
****
left: For anyone with an interest in the actual location of Old Rawbelle station and the little cemetery accessed from Monto (about 70kms away), this "mud-map" drawn by a local in 1999, may be of interest.
above: The lonely cemetery at Old
Rawbelle Station. Mary’s unmarked
grave is at the far right of the burial ground.
right:
a plaque now mounted at the Old Rawbelle cemetery, presumably by one
of Mary's descendants. Given the paucity of Irish records, we're
not sure where the detail about her birth came from, but it will be a
subject of continuing discussion and research by those interested in
her tale.
[1] Church of Ireland baptism records, Irish Family History Foundation
[2] detail from Death certificate of Mary Burns, 1864 (Queensland Registrar of Births, Deaths & marriages)
[3] as above
[4] Notes from Surgeon’s Report on Pestonjee Bomangee ( Tasmanian Archives, Admin 101/59 reel 3206) refers to Mary as the wife of Pte Sexton; and Qld death certificate of Mary’s son James Byrnes, 1932
[5] Surgeon’s Report as above.
[6] William Sexton’s Queensland death certificate, 1917.
[7] Birth certificate of Sarah Sexton, 1851, New Zealand.
[8] Mary’s death certificate, as above.
[9] Marriage certificate of James Byrnes and Grace Pobar, 1882 (Queensland BDM) and James’ death certificate 1932 (Queensland BDM)
[10] for this information on the birth of Mary's first child, I'm indebted to family history researcher, Margaret Pope, The baptism can be found in the1845 baptismal records of the Parish of Woolwich, page 199.
[11] Souvenir of the Centenary of the Central and Upper Burnett River district of Queensland, 1848-1948, page 21