In the 19th century, England's "Black Country" in the West Midlands, near Birmingham, earned that unflattering name through the soot and pollution which covered the area from the heavy industries and coal mines clustered in and around its major towns.

And this was the very street, Quarry Street, where our ancestor, Mary Gaffey (nee Torley), lived and died in 1861, migrating there after the death of her husband Daniel in Ireland.

From Mary’s death certificate, we know she was born about 1803  – where is unknown, but she lived most of her adult life in a rural area near Newry, County Down in Ulster. The Torley/Turley name is common in the area around Newry and the parish of Clonallen, but given the paucity of Catholic Church registers of the time, her baptism record unsurprisingly hasn't been located.

Mary and husband Daniel lived the life of poor tenant farmers just two kilometres from the village of Mayobridge, where they raised their family of six boys and one girl (one boy, the first William, appears to have died in the 1830s). The remaining children survived the deprivations of the Potato Famine of the 1840s – but husband Daniel probably died in the 1850s (again, no records have been found so far) - maybe as a victim of the infamous Potato Famine of 1845-1852.

It’s likely Mary was widowed when she was in her late 40/early 50s, as on her eldest son Patrick’s 1857 Australian immigration papers, his father was listed as "Dead, and Mother living at Bellstone [Bilston], Stafford". Mary had by then followed Patrick o England to be with a relative, John Torley,^[6] after the death of her husband. She then moved with her younger sons to the Quarry street area, which, as described above, was hardly salubrious.

Mary’s older children, led by Patrick who settled in Australia in 1858, had set about making new lives for themselves in a new world– so Mary decided to join them. Her immigration, and that of 20 year old Daniel and 15 year old Bernard had been sponsored by Patrick who had established himself in the colony. He had earlier brought out his brothers William and James, and also planned to bring out his sister, Mary Ann, but she stayed in England and married there. His mother's character references for immigration were supplied by Pastor James Terry & John Torley, watchmaker, of Oxford street, Bilston, Staffordshire, England.

While Mary, Daniel and Bernard waited to set sail for New South Wales, they lived at 2 Quarry Street, Bilston, where, just before Christmas, in 1861, Mary was struck down by typhoid fever and influenza, dying on December 21^st. Her substandard living conditions would have contributed significantly to her ill health - risk  factors for typhoid include limited access to clean drinking water, and poor sanitation. 

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[1] NSW Govt. Archives. Index to assisted immigrants arriving Sydney and Newcastle 1844-1859 - however, there was an age limit of 50 for assisted immigrants, so probably Mary's age of 50 at the time of the application was misleading.
[2] Mary’s death certificate at Bilston, in Staffordshire, is hard to read - her age at death in 1861 may have been with 53 or 58.
[3] Clonallan Parish Records (baptisms)
[4] Persons on Bounty Ships (Board's Immigrant List), 1857
[5] Simon Briercliffe, https://uptheossroad.wordpress.com/2015/10/19/slums-of-the-black-country-quarry-lane-bilston/
[6] The 1851 Census gives a listing for John Torley, clockmaker, and his wife Bridget, both aged 55 and born in Ireland, living 32 Oxford Street, Bilston