Denis Higgins was born in Castlemagner in 1787. A shepherd/labourer, he married Honora (Norry) Murphy in 1822, he 35, she 19 and they had 5 children in the next 6 years; John (1822), Mary (’23), Catherine (’25) followed by Joanna and Denis Jnr, both of whom died in childhood.
Circa 1820, the introduction of the steel plough resulted in massive unemployment and acute privation and although Geoff O’Donoghue has posthumously pardoned Denis of sheep-stealing, he was, nonetheless, dispatched to Sydney Cove aboard the ‘Governor Ready’, arriving down-under on 16th January, 1829 after a journey of 117 days.
Now most felons were sentenced for seven years for stealing sheep but Denis got ‘life’! Was this for sheep plural in lieu of the singular although one report refers to ‘felony of sheep’ which is ill defined but leaves a bit to the imagination. Sadly, the record of Denis’ court case went up in the flames of Dublin Castle in 1922, thus denying an answer to this conundrum.
Denis spent his first couple of weeks in Australia residing at the Hyde Park Barracks, a rather grand ‘boarding house’ built in 1819 by convict architect Francis Greenway.
He was then assigned to a prosperous and ambitious farmer George Bowman JP,MP whose property ‘Archerfield’ was at Richmond, about 40 miles from Sydney, on the Nepean River.
After seven years in the colony, convicts were then able to petition the Governor to grant a passage to Australia for his family.
Honora and Catherine, now 13, set sail from Dublin for NSW on 1st September, 1838 aboard the ‘Margaret’ (365 tons). John,16 and Mary, 15, failed to get on board. He married in 1841, she in 1840 and that’s the last we know of them.
Did they ever keep in touch with their mum and dad ? We hope so.
So Denis, presumably expecting Norry and their five children must have been devastated when only one of his children arrived. Remember a letter and a reply could take up to a year for the round journey so Denis may not have known what to expect.
Re-united after ten years and now working near Singleton in the Hunter Valley (think coal, wine and race horse studs), they had another three children, Ellen Agnes(1843), Frederick (1845) and William (May, 1847) who predeceased Denis who died at age 60 in the January.
Catherine married in 1843 and bore 12 children, the last arriving when she was 44. She died at age 87.
Norry married again in 1849 to a farmer, Robert Barber and they had a daughter, Mary Ann.
Mary Sullivan (nee Higgins) who lives on the Kanturk/Mallow road is related to Denis.
John Maloney
Perth, Western Australia, February 2018