Hamilton

I am planning to publish on this site an essay written about my Great-Great Grandfather Capt. Augustus ‘James’ Courbarron. It details more clearly his early life, apprenticeship in the merchant navy, his career and family life in Sydney.

Included will be letters written to him from his family abroad and letters he himself wrote whilst on his voyages and at home. It also gives great insight about life in the late 19th century/early 20th century Sydney. I’m looking forward to publishing this as his story is truly interesting to read.

Also, I am in the process of scanning in a collection of very old photographs which will put faces to the names in these posts, many of them are over 100 years old but excellent in quality. In all, I am very enthusiastic about putting all this Hamilton family history together and I hope it is all of assistance, and interest, to other family historians.

The essay will be titled ‘He only ever went to sea’ and will appear as a seperate page.

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Mary and the children were not always left behind in Sydney while James was at sea, at times he took them along on voyages. One particular event that made an impression on Mary was when James took her back to Ireland to visit his mother’s family at the family seat of ‘Brownhall’ in County Donegal.

Mary was greatly impressed at the welcome given to them on their arrival at the large imposing house. She wrote how “all the servants were lined up outside and tugged their forelocks as we were introduced, the maids curtsied”. A grand dinner was held in their honour and the family, ever mindful of the fact that Mary was a Catholic in a Protestant house, refrained from discussing religion but the topic of politics was freely raised.

One one voyage, when Mary-Helen was a baby, she crawled too close the edge of the deck and was saved just in time from falling overboard by a sailor.

Mary was widowed at the age of 37 when James died at their home in Birrell Street Bondi. What followed in her life became the source of much family speculation. Shortly after Jame’s death his Hamilton relations at Brownhall sold the private family residence of St Ernans. The then owner of the estate, James Hamilton, arranged for a collection of items including some valuable silver pieces, to be sent to Mary and the children so that they would have some security after her husbands death. What happened to these valuable items has never been clear; it is thought that Mary sold off the items and ‘dissipated’ the money after she had become involved with a rather shady character of a man.

In 1908 Mary, and Mildred, travelled to the northern NSW town of Kempsey where some of Mary’s siblings had moved to live. During her time there Mary gave birth to a girl she named Kathleen, the child was also given the surname Courbarron. Given that James had been dead for four years it is obvious that he was not the childs father. It is thought that she was fathered by a man, of apparent ill repute, who had met Mary shortly after James’ death. It is also acknowledged that this man was involved in Mary’s decision to sell her husbands valuable family heirlooms.

However, not ALL his family heirlooms were sold by Mary. I shall write about those in another post.

Mary lived with Kathleen at Bondi until her death in 1926. Mary is buried beside her husband James at Waverley Cemetery in Sydney.

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Mary Morrissey was born in Killarney Ireland in 1867. Her father Edmond and mother Honora lived, according to family information, ‘five miles from Blarney Castle’. It is not known what her father’s occupation was. The family emigrated to Australia under the ‘assisted immigrants’ scheme and left Plymouth at the end of June 1881 on board the Peterborough arriving in Sydney July 17th.

Mary (13 on arrival ) was the eldest child in a family of ten children whose names and ages were (as listed on arrival in Sydney): Edmund 4, Denis 3, Ellen & Julia (twins)6, John 9, Kate 12, Margaret 1, Micheal 11, Honora (infant) and parents Edmond, 33 and Honora, 38. It is believed that baby Honora was born during the voyage to Australia as her name was not listed on departure from Plymouth but she was listed on arrival as ‘infant’.

The family settled at Wooloomooloo, a dockyard suburb, in Sydney. In 1887/8 Mary met Capt. Augustus James Hamilton Courbarron. The family are not too sure how the couple met but seeing as Mary lived near the shipyards and Augustus was a ship’s captain we assume they met ‘in the area’. In 1889 the couple’s first child, daughter Mildred Gertrude was born at Waverley. According the the family Mary and James set up house in Waverley prior to marriage - very unusual for the time!. This is where Mary lived whilst James was at sea.

In 1891 a second child, James, was born. In 1893 the couple married at St Stephans Uniting Church which, at that time, was located in Phillip Street Sydney. Mary was Catholic and James was Protestant so obviously some understanding was made as their children were eventually baptised as Catholics.

After the birth of James it was not until 1897 until their next child, Mary-Ellen (known as Molly) was born. This is due to the fact that James spent long periods of time away from home at sea; in 1900 their fourth and last child, Frederick, was born at Birrell Street Bondi.

Having to spend long periods of time at home without her husband proved to be a strain on Mary, and at various times in his letters to his Aunt Helen de Veer, James refers to Mary’s bouts of ‘extreme tiredness’ and of her ‘feeling poorly’. Just prior to Molly’s birth the couple employed an Irish maid/servant named Biddy to assist with the house and children. She remained with the couple until Jame’s death.

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