Mary Morrissey Pt 2
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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