My great great grandmother, Margaret Hennessy, was born at Kurrajong NSW, on the 15th August 1854.
She was the daughter of : Micheal Hennessy – born 1807 in Tullow, Cork, Ireland; and Hannah Sherwood, born 18th January 1818 in North Richmond, NSW. The couple married at St Peter’s Catholic Church, Richmond NSW, on the 14th December 1836. I have no data at all on Hannah Sherwood and her family for now, other than what is listed here.
Micheal Hennessy was born in the small village of Tullow, Co. Cork Ireland. His mother Bridget, ran a boarding house, his father, Andrew, died when Micheal was a small child. When Micheal was 25 an incident occurred which was to change his life forever.
A guest at the boarding house reported a theft of his money and pointed the finger at Micheal and his mother Bridget. When police called to investigate Micheal was found to have been caught in a room of the house ‘in a compromising position with a woman of rather advanced years’. The case was well reported in the local paper.
Micheal was tried, found guilty (he professed his innocence throughout) and sentenced to transportation to the colony of Australia as a convict. His mother escaped with ‘a warning and bond’.
Micheal Hennessy is the first of my ancestors that I have found to be a convict. He was given his certificate of freedom in 1835 and chose to settle in the bushland region of Kurrajong in western Sydney. It was in this area that he met Hannah Sherwood, who had been born in nearby North Richmond. The couple married on the 14th December 1836 at Richmond. Both were Catholics.
Their children were:
Thomas – born 23rd December 1837; William – born 12th July 1840; Sarah – born 1841; Mary – born 18th May 1845; Hannah – born 1846; Johanna – born August 1847; Micheal – born 24th October 1849; Ellen – born 1st April 1852; Margaret (my gg grandmother) – born 15th August 1854; John – born 1856, and Ann – born 25th June 1859.
My GGG Grandfather Micheal Hennessy died on 11th April 1859, just prior to his youngest child’s birth. He is buried at St Gregory’s RC Cemetery Windsor, NSW.
Hannah Sherwood died 30th July 1884 at Orange, NSW.
My gg grandmother, Margaret, died 1934 at Willoughby, NSW.
Here is a photograph of one of the very last convicts transported to Australia, taken in the 1870′s. Just to give you an idea of how Micheal would have appeared during his time as one of Her Majesty’s Convicts.
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