|
JOHN FOLLY MARINE PRIVATE
- FRIENDSHIP
- this story is under review by Membership Team
#8115 Val Heel traces her family line
back to the Friendship,
The maternal side of my family is
descended from John Folly or Foley who was born in
England in 1749 and died in Hobart on 19 March 1830. He
was a stonemason and bricklayer who joined the First
Fleet vessel Friendship in Portsmouth as a
marine. He has been described as uneducated, honest,
hard working and very kind. History records him as being
the builder of many structures in Sydney before sailing
to Norfolk Island on Supply in 1790 as part of
another first fleet. As a marine, stonemason and
bricklayer he helped establish the first colony there
too. Again, history records him as building many
structures on Norfolk.
John Foley left that infant colony to
return to Sydney in April 1791 on board Supply,
to obtain his discharge from the Marines. Foley returned
to Norfolk Island on Atlantic 26 October, 1791 as
a settler and later added constable and land
holder/farmer to his many job titles. On his return he
was employed by Governor King to continue laying bricks
and pitching stone at 1/- per day 1793 saw Foley
appointed constable at Cresswell Bay and West Point
Streams. He was granted 60 acres of land at Drummonds
Run, now known as The Cascades. John Foley added to
his holdings by leasing 15 acres at West Point Run for
2s6p rent per year for 21 years commencing 12 August,
1801
John lived with Catherine Heyland/Hyland,
and though no archival record of marriage has as yet
been found, they were said to have been married in 1792.
They became the parents of John Foley, born 7 November
1792, and James Foley, born 1 February, 1795. Through
James came my line of descent
Catherine Heyland, who was born in London
in 1753, and died in Hobart on 18 October 1824, came to
Australia on board the Lady Juliana a vessel of
the second fleet. The transcript of her trial before
Mr Ashurst on 2nd April 1788, along with
William James, alias Levi, and Ann Allen, states they
were charged with counterfeiting coins (shillings and
sixpences) on 7 March 1788.
William James and Catherine Heyland were
found guilty and sentenced to death. William James was
hanged in June 1788. Documents at the time indicate
that he was, as he stood on the gallows, still declaring
that Catherine was not involved, despite the fact that
she was found with newly made fake coins secreted in her
cleavage. Catherine was sentenced to burn at the
stake. She received a stay and was then granted a
reprieve and accepted transportation for life. The
reprieve came about due to King George III recovering
his wits, an event which was said to have been wildly
and widely celebrated throughout the nation. Apparently
nineteen other women were reprieved at the same time
with only fifteen accepting transportation as an
alternative.
On arrival in Sydney in May 1790,
Catherine was sent to Norfolk Island on the Surprise.
By July 1792 she had 102 rods of cleared ground at
Sydney Town and was independent of Government stores.
Catherine was granted a conditional pardon by Governor
Hunter in 1796. John and Catherine Foley and their sons
lived at Drummonds Run in a four-roomed wood and stone
cottage built by John. Their furniture was all crafted
by John from local pine. They farmed diverse crops and
kept a few animals.
John Grant, a gentleman convict, was
assigned to John Foley as a servant. He was an educated
man and tutored the sons of John and Catherine after
long days working on the farm. He described his master
and his wife as being very caring of and kind to
himself. Whilst exiled on Phillip Island, a small island
near Norfolk Island, Grant kept his journals by writing
on banana leaves. He also undertook, in gratitude it
seems, to compose a letter to Governor King requesting
payment to John Foley for his toils in the new colony.
Apparently he did not receive the promised one shilling
per day. In reply Governor King claimed that, in fact,
Foley was in debt to the Colony for subsistence supplies
given him until he became self sufficient.
The Foley Family departed Norfolk Island,
for Van Diemens Land on board HMS Porpoise on 26
December, 1807, as part of the second embarkation. They
arrived in the Derwent River in January, 1808. John
Foley was granted 40 acres of land in Queensborough near
Browns River, some of which is now Kingston Beach Golf
Course. There John and Catherine farmed and again became
self sufficient so that by 1819 they no longer required
government stores.
John died on 19 March 1830, Catherine
having predeceased him on 18 October 1824. Both were
buried in St. David’s Church Cemetery, Hobart. John
apparently remarried after Catherine’s demise as his
grave stone, which no longer survives, indicated Anne as
his wife. Some early records suggest that he sired a
daughter in that marriage.
John and Catherine’s youngest son, James
Foley, married Mary Shurburd in 1813. Mary was the
daughter of William Shurburd and Esther Thornton both
convicts who arrived on Lady Juliana with the
Second Fleet. Their second daughter, Elizabeth Foley,
previously married to a John Pearce, married the
somewhat colourful Thomas James McGrath in 1840. That
union produced James Thomas McGrath in 1841, one of six
siblings.
James Thomas McGrath married Abigail
Rosina Head in Hobart in 1860. One of their family of
eight sons and two daughters, Thomas Edwin McGrath was
born in Hobart in 1864. My grandparents, Thomas Edwin
McGrath and Martha Alice Thompson married in Liverpool
in England in 1884. My mother was Alice Martha McGrath
the eleventh of their fourteen offspring and had been
born in Melbourne. Alice Martha McGrath married Alfred
Edward McCabbin in Bowen, Queensland in 1926 and I am
the fourth child of six in that family.
References:
Cramer, Yvonne. (compiler) This
Beauteous, Wicked Place - Letters and Journals of John
Grant, Gentleman Convict. Canberra. National Library of
Australia. 2000.
Keneally, Thomas. The Commonwealth of
Thieves - The Sydney Experiment. Sydney. Random House
Australia. 2005.
Schaffer, Irene and McKay, Thelma. Exiled
Three Times Over - Profiles of Norfolk Islanders exiled
in Van Diemen’s Land 1807-13. Hobart. St David’s Park
Publishing.
Rees, Sian. The Floating Brothel : the
extraordinary true story of an 18th- century
ship and its cargo of female convicts.
Sydney, Hodder Headline Australia Pty
Limited. 2001
|
