Mary Cain - WordPress.com...Mary Cain made her mark ‘X’. 6 Bond of Friendship Mary Cain - Scotland - 2-The Lancaster Gazette of 31 August 1816 lamented the ‘melancholy fact’

Bond of Friendship Mary Cain - Scotland

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Mary Cain

Date of Trial: 26 April 1817

Where Tried: Glasgow Court of Justiciary

Crime: Theft

Sentence: 14 years

Est YOB: 1794

Stated Age on Arrival: 23

Native Place: Glasgow

Occupation: Servant

Alias/AKA: Mary Kain, Mary Crummy (m)

Marital Status (UK):

Children on Board:

Surgeon’s Remarks: Industrious

Assigned NSW or VDL NSW

The Caledonian Mercury of 5 April 1817 advised its readers that two young women were included in those indicted

to stand trial at the Glasgow Circuit Court which was scheduled to meet on 23 April. The two women in question

were Mary Cain or Kane and Jean Hume.1 A report of their trial was carried in The Scots Magazine.

Jean Hume and Mary Cain were next convicted, on their own confession of theft, and of being habit and repute

thieves. The former was sentenced to seven years, and the latter to 14 years transportation, her bad character

being much aggravated. Jean Hume said to her fellow prisoner on leaving the dock, “You’ll get a black man

when you go over.”2

The Caledonian Mercury’s report of the trial detailed the actual crime – theft of goods from a milliner’s shop in Bell

Street – described elsewhere as some red-striped gingham.3 It is from the same newspaper we learn that, on 30

May, four of the Friendship women who had been tried in Glasgow, including Mary Cain and Jean Hume, had

been ‘sent from the jail here to Leith, to embark for the hulks’.4 It is more than likely that Mary and Jean continued

their association as messmates on board the Friendship. Both impressed Peter Cosgreave, the ship’s Surgeon,

who described them as ‘industrious’. Within a year of arriving at Port Jackson Mary Cain became Mrs. Crummy.

On behalf of Barney Crummy and Mary Cane, Samuel Marsden, Senior Chaplain, applied on 5 October 1818 for

the reading of banns in anticipation of a happy union. Both were listed as ‘prisoners’, the groom having arrived

per the Morley.5

Approval was given and the couple married at St. John’s Parish Church, Parramatta on 2 November 1818,

witnessed by Elizabeth Carkett and Charles McClean. Of note is the very neat hand with which the groom

[recorded as Cumming] signed the register. Mary Cain made her mark ‘X’.6


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The Lancaster Gazette of 31 August 1816 lamented the ‘melancholy fact’ that there were no less than eighty-

seven prisoners in the Castle awaiting trial at the Assizes, many of them ‘charged with crimes of the most heinous

nature’ ...7 The court’s demanding workload was echoed in the Hull Packet in its preamble to the account of the

proceedings. Under the heading ‘Extensive Forgeries’ it reported:

To-day commenced the trials of the numerous prisoners confined in this gaol, and prosecuted at the instance of

the Governor and Company of the Bank of England, for forging Bank of England notes, for uttering notes

purporting to be of the Bank of England, knowing them to be forged, or for having them in their possession with

the guilty knowledge of their being forged, or without lawful excuse.8

Included in the list of prisoners dealt with on 31 August 1816 was Barney Crummy, an Irish labourer who, in May

of that year, had been arrested and charged with ‘uttering to Mary Baylis at Liverpool, a forged note of one pound,

knowing it to be forged’ and who had since then been held in the Castle awaiting trial.9 He was found guilty and

was sentenced to 14 years transportation.10 As Barney Crummy he was one of eight Lancaster convicts who were

removed to Woolwich and received on 28 October 1816 on board the prison hulk Bellerophon from which, just

over a year later, he was transferred to the convict transport Morley on 18 November 1817.11 The Morley departed

England’s shores on 18 December and reached Port Jackson on 10 April 1817.12 In accordance with a directive

from the Colonial Secretary’s office of 18 April, Barney Crummy was included in the list of 30 Morley convicts sent

to Parramatta for ‘general distribution’ at the Reverend Samuel Marsden’s magisterial discretion.13

On 29 July 1819, by which time Mary and Barney had been married for just over two and a half years, Barney

took up his pen, and in his neat hand, composed a petition addressed to His Excellency Lachlan Macquarie, etc.

The humble Petition of Barney Crummy,

Showeth

That Petitioner came to the Colony by the Ship Morley 1st Brown Master under Sentence of Exile for Fourteen

years – and is in the Employ of Richard Grimshaw as his Government Servant endeavouring by good Conduct

to merit the approbation of his superiors.

That Petitioner being a Man of honest and Industrious deportment, and having a Wife to support with every

prospect of a Family, humbly implores your Excellency will take his Situation into your Favourable Consideration

and be graciously pleased to extend unto him the Indulgence of a Ticket of Leave and for such mark of your

Excellency’s Benevolence.

Petitioner as in Duty bound will ever Pray

Parramatta

July 29th 1819

A Justice of the Peace (signature illegible) added a notation to the petition.

As it appears to me the Petitioner is a well behaved steady and industrious Man I beg leave to recommend him

to Your Excellency for the Indulgence of a Ticket of Leave.14

The petition was successful as evidenced by the 1822 general muster return. Following Mary and Barney through

the 1822 and 1825 musters highlights the vagaries of the record taking/transcription.15

Year Name Classn Vessel Sentence Employment

1822 Cane, Mary Convict Friendship 14 Wife of B Cruming

Crummy, Henry T L Morley 14 Constable

1825 Kain, Mary C Friendship 7 Wife of B Cumming

Crummy, Barney T L Marley 14 Constable


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Three years later the Crummys were counted in the 1828 New South Wales census still residing at Parramatta.

Bernard is listed as a householder; Mary is still listed as a convict; and the family includes five young children. It

is interesting to note that, while by necessity the parents had married at the Parramatta Anglican parish church,

they and their children were all listed as Roman Catholics.16

Records show that four more children were added to the family – Mary (A) (1830), Bridget (1831), William (1833),

and George (c1836).17

Within six months of each other Barney Crummy and Mary Cain obtained their certificates of freedom, issued

respectively on 1 November 1830 and 28 April 1831.18

While ideally the preservation of law and order in the colony would have been devolved to a detachment of free,

and worthy upright citizens, the lack of such a resource, combined with the somewhat disdained nature of policing

duties, left the authorities with little option than to recruit convicts to the role of constable. But not just any convict

– there was some effort made to select the best of what was regarded as a bad lot. Given the general calibre of


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candidates, and the demands of the job, the attrition rate, through resignations and dismissals, was high. At

various times between 1821 and 1837 Barney Crummy held one of the positions of Constable at Parramatta. By

Government and General Orders on 8 December 1821 the Colonial Secretary announced that:

His Excellency the Governor, at the recommendation of H.G. Douglass Esquire, MD, JP, is pleased to make the

following appointments in the Police Establishment at Parramatta – viz –

Bernard Crummy to be Constable in lieu of Edward Dillon resigned.19

Weekly returns were completed for the allowances paid to the Constables in lieu of rations. Thus Barney Crummy

(also listed as Cromey) signed for having received 6/8 for himself, 2/6 for his wife and 1/3 for each child, which in

1822 totalled a weekly allowance of 11s 8d.20 He apparently acquitted himself well, assiduously carrying out his

duties. In March 1822 he was involved in a raid on the house of William Warren and the seizure of spirits that

were being sold without a licence.21 In early July of that year, having been found guilty of a particularly vicious

burglary, George Barke was executed.22 He had been arrested by William Wells, District Constable of Parramatta,

assisted by a party of constables. For his ‘meritorious Exertion in apprehending bushranger George Barke (and

the approver Dennis Donovan)’, Wells was rewarded with a conditional pardon; the four constables, of whom one

was Bernard Crummy, each received £5 for assisting in the arrest.23 Bernard concluded 1822 by breaking up a

group of men he found gambling. He gave chase, but all but one got away. The Parramatta Court records show

that this poor man was sentenced to fifty lashes and was confined to barracks.24 Bernard Crummy was

recommended for a further reward in October 1823, this time for having arrested two absconders, the request

being lodged by the Parramatta Magistrates Court to Darcy Wentworth, Treasurer of the Police Fund.25 He was

not so fortunate when he and another constable, George Cooper, were assaulted in the execution of their duty

when they tried to arrest Thomas Donnelly and James Stafford.26

However, there was one party who was not impressed by Constable Bernard Crummy. So strongly did this party

feel about the Parramatta constabulary generally, and Bernard in particular, that in 1826 it used its undoubted

influence to mount a sustained and vicious attack on both. The party in question was the newly launched

newspaper, The Monitor, first published on 19 May under the editorship of Edward Smith Hall and Arthur Hill,

whose mission was to espouse the poor, the oppressed and the cause of any convict, however so vile, who

suffered punishment contrary to the law.27 The first direct reference to Bernard Crummy in the pages of The

Monitor was in an article of 21 July. It concerned a woman who was fined for having offered lodgings to a convict.

Mary Kane of Parramatta, a widow with a young family, was about to treat with a prisoner Thomas Mortimore,

whose good conduct (so Mortimore represented the matter to the poor woman) had procured him the privilege

of sleeping out of barracks as to letting him a back room in her house to sleep in … One evening, the said

Mortimore called on Mrs. Kane about the lodging, when about half-past eight o’clock Crummy the constable

entered the house and took in custody the said Mortimore, and warned the widow to appear the next morning

before the Bench. Accordingly she appeared, and Crummy, deposing to finding Mortimore in her house at half-

past eight P.M. she was fined ten dollars. – For a poor woman with three small children to find ten dollars is no

easy matter. She went home, and in order to raise the money sold her pig at a very great loss. She paid the fine

and the constables put it in their pockets. The distraction of her mind prevented work going on. Her credit with

the Baker was gone. To raise bread for the three infants therefore she pawned her clothes. Now, as oppressive

laws defeat their own end, and by driving their victims to despair create more crimes than they prevent, we

expect to hear of the people who advanced bread on the widow’s clothes brought up for turning pawn-brokers

without a licence – of the widow turning harlot or concubine in order to provide food and pay off her rent – and

all for what? Because a free woman has a prisoner in her house after eight o’clock?

At this point The Monitor, ‘absolutely choked with grief and indignation’, seeks to win over its readers to its cause

by posting some questions and putting forward some possible scenarios.

Are poor desolate widows to become the prey of the officers of this new Inquisition? Is it anything but mockery

to say, that the widow has her remedy at law? Will Lawyers who are so scarce in the Colony they cannot do half

the work they are paid for, devote their time to a poor widow who will never be able to pay them a shilling? Why


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should not Widow Kane be allowed to let a lodging or use hospitality to a man who craves a lodging as well as

the Justices themselves? Even in persecuted Ireland, the owner of a hovel can give the use of his house to

anyone who craves hospitality; and whether Mortimore were bond or free upon what law, human or divine, can

the woman be punished for giving him shelter at half-past eight in the evening? Suppose (which however we

understand is by no means the case) that Mortimore wanted to marry Mrs. Kane, is it reasonable that a free

woman should be punished with a fine of ten dollars because she feels it prudent to listen to the overtures of an

industrious man, in whom she thinks she might find an honourable protector for her children and herself? It will

be alleged … that Mortimore and Kane are both bad characters – now the reverse is true, but .supposing it to

be true, what then? Are not such persecutions as those under consideration enough to make any one a bad

character? 28

A point of clarification - the Mary Kane referred to was not Mrs. Mary Crummy (née Cain) who, in 1826, was not

a free woman on two accounts - her certificate of freedom was not issued until 1831 and she was still a married

woman. The Mary of the above and the following account was almost certainly Mary Kane who had arrived on the

Francis & Eliza in 1815, was by 1822 free by servitude, and who had married at Parramatta, and presumably was

now separated from Hugh Kennedy.29 The Monitor of 4 August recounted an item published in The Sydney

Gazette the previous week.

“Mary Kane or Kennedy, a free woman (who having deserted her husband, lives in a state of adultery with

another man, keeping a house of ill fame,) appeared under summonses, to answer for harbouring Sophia Frazier

and James Higgins, two prisoners of the crown tippling.

Bernard Crummy, constable, deposed of his going to the accused’s house, where he found the two prisoners of

the crown; the woman Frazier was intoxicated and sitting on the side of a bed with Higgins; there was a tumbler

with about half a pint of spirits in it and a glass before them on the table. He took them in charge and confined

them. Benjamin Ratty, constable, corroborated the above on oath.

The Bench (notwithstanding the case being clearly proved, and the accused being so frequently brought forward

for similar offences,) in consideration of her poverty, and having a large family, admonished her severely against

a repetition of such conduct, and discharged her.

Sophia Frazier, for wilful and corrupt perjury in the above case, proved by the Rev. Mr. Marsden, the gaoler, and

two constables. Ordered 3 months to the factory, in No.3 class.”

Having set the scene The Monitor continued, providing some commentary, and its own dramatic interpretation of

the raid on Mrs. Kane’s house. Once again Bernard Crummy’s role was rigorously scrutinised.

This is the same woman whom we mentioned in our last number but one, as having been had before the Bench

by Crummy … And the worthy Crummy, having tasted the sweets of the fine levied on that occasion, was in

hopes, it seems, of extracting another ten dollars from a lone woman; but this time he failed …they [Frazier and

Higgins] went to call on Mrs. Kane …[and]…had scarcely seated themselves before the indefatigable Crummy,

who hates fines, and does everything for pure love of morals, darted into the house like an eagle, pounced upon

his prey, transfixed the terrified turner with one set of talons, and grasped the shrinking factory inmate with the

other set; and as he flew away with them to his imperial nest (the watch-house) gave orders to the petrified

widow to appear before His Majesty’s Justices once more, for “harbouring convicts”. Accordingly, the three

culprits appeared next morning – the widow and the turner were dismissed; but the factory-inmate was so

frightened at Crummy’s claws and huge wings, as to have lost her recollection; for she was sentenced to three

months imprisonment in the place where she was already imprisoned, for “wilful and corrupt perjury”; and that

too proved (according to the reporter) by no less authority than that of the principal chaplain of the Colony, His

Majesty’s Parramatta gaoler [Marsden], the worthy Crummy, and another hater of fines.

The Monitor concluded its article with a personal attack on Bernard Crummy, questioning his fitness for his role

as constable.

While we recommend the constabulary to be better paid, we should at the same time wish those who are tolerably

paid, to do their duty. Crummy above mentioned, is lame from a broken leg, and though he does very well to spy

about widow’s houses, and increase his salary by a few forfeits, yet we think he ought not to receive 52l a year

as a road constable, because it requires an active man to perform the duty. Some time ago, the alarm of bush-


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rangers induced Sir Thomas Brisbane to make six new constables at Parramatta. It was intended by the

Governor they should be active, able bodied men, because they were to be patrole constables. Crummy, though

lame, contrived by good management to be one of the six. Three out of the six have never been employed on

the roads at all. They remained comfortably in Parramatta, and never had sight of a bush-ranger. Of these three

Crummy is one.30

Much of page 5 of the 11 August 1826 issue of The Monitor was devoted to highlighting examples of what it

identified as corrupt and bullying standover tactics employed by the constabulary. A long litany of such instances

was capped off by a most timely letter to the Editor received from John England, the publication of which he hoped

‘some person or other may give me some advice how or in which was I may recover my property’. He explained

that in 1824 his house had been searched for stolen property, Bernard Crummy being one of the constables

executing the warrant. They took away 18 yards of Irish linen, 3 Irish linen shirts and 1 Irish linen shift. The case

against him eventually lapsed through want of witnesses, and the death of the prosecutor. England then applied

to the magistrates at Parramatta to have his property returned, and received an order from the magistrates to go

to Bernard Crummy, who held the property. The shirts and shift were returned, but only 8 yards of the Irish linen

was handed over. He tried unsuccessfully on many occasions to obtain the remainder. Finally Crummy offered

him a deal. If England gave him one third of the remaining linen, Crummy would let him have the balance.

England’s letter concluded – ‘I am a free subject, and consider myself much aggrieved, and beg you will lay the

statement before the public’.31 As a postscript – John England was subsequently brought into the Parramatta

Court by a constable (Crummy?) and asked if he had written the letter. On admitting authorship, he was threatened

with prosecution at which point, ‘Crummy the constable being present, begged the Magistrates to protect him, and

acknowledged to having one piece of Irish linen in his possession, but did not know what to do with it’.32

We do not know if and how The Monitor’s campaign affected the Crummy family, and particularly Bernard’s career

prospects. It was business as usual when, in January 1827, he brought one Mrs. Armstrong before the Parramatta

Court.

Mrs. Armstrong was brought forward, charged with keeping a disorderly house. Brown and Crummy heard

fiddling and dancing at 10 o’clock last night. Mrs. Armstrong is notorious for keeping a house of ill-fame. Ordered

to find sureties to keep the peace.33

In 1828 Bernard Crummy, holding a ticket of leave, was again commissioned as a Constable effective from 11

October, in place of a Wm. Comber who had been promoted. Four years later, in December 1832, he resigned,

to be replaced, notably, by ‘a native of the Colony’. Bernard Crummy was back on the books from 29 August 1834

to replace a man who had been transferred.34 The final mention of Bernard’s career was a notice in the

Government Gazette on 4 January 1837.35

No reason was cited and nothing has so far been found to explain what might have led to his dismissal or what

happened to him thereafter.

At the time of her husband’s ‘disappearance’ Mary Crummy was still living at Parramatta. In fact, in 1832 Mary

(and not Bernard) had been listed as one of those with a claim to an allotment in the Parish of Field of Mars in

accordance with the following Government Notice of 12 January.36


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Mary Crummy’s Allotment37

The town grant was registered in the name of Mary Cromie, but referred to elsewhere as ‘Mary Crummy’s

allotment’.38 Further details of the grant are given in the 1841 Grants and Leases Register.39


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In her own right Mary Crummy kept herself out of the news (unlike the references to her in connection with the

newsworthiness of some of her children). However, the following July 1845 newspaper item suggests that she

was a bit of a prickly character.

Mr. McCrohan appeared on summons, to answer for a breach of the Town Police Act, in allowing a goat whereof

he was the owner to stray and go at large in a certain street. It appeared that the prosecution had its origin in the

complaint of an elderly gentlewoman named Crummey, whose greens having been “cabbaged” through the

carnivorous tastes of Mr. M’s goats, she resolved to have revenge on him by giving him turn-ups before their

worships. The defendant pleaded not guilty, and accused his adversary of a wilful prevarication of truth, in

dignifying a handful of mere sprouts, with the appellation of greens, and produced a “small” witness in the shape

of a little girl, who held the rank in the establishment, of whipper-in to the rampant animals, to prove that them

never having been out of her charge, it was wholly impossible for them to have been in the complainant’s garden,

and further that Mrs. Crummey was generally known to be a most crusty sort of personage. Unfortunately

however, the Female Goatherd, although well armed in such damnatory adjurations as frightened Billy and

Nanny goats, was perfectly ignorant of such oaths as were required in a Court of Justice, and her evidence was

therefore deemed inadmissible – and the defendant fined in the lowest penalty.40

At the age of 72, Mary Crummy died at home at Parramatta on 11 May 1867, the cause of death being (1) old age

and (2) debility. The informant was her son George Crummy. The funeral was held on 13 May and Mary was

buried at the Roman Catholic Cemetery, Parramatta. Of note is that Henry Shepherd, her son-in-law, was one of

the witnesses to her funeral. The certificate also names her parents as James Cain, labourer, and Mary

(unknown), and states that Mary had been born in Belfast.41

FUNERAL - The Friends of MARY the beloved wife of the late BERNARD CRUMMY, of Parramatta, are

requested to attend her Funeral; to move from her late residence, Grose-street, at 4 p.m. THIS DAY, Monday

13th May.

As noted above, the trail of Bernard Crummy goes cold at the point of his dismissal from the Parramatta

constabulary in December 1836. He may have been the ‘Crummey Mr. Bernard’ featured in a list of unclaimed

letters for the month of 1844 held in the General Post Office, Sydney. Unfortunately the entry does not include

any further information, e.g. line of work and/or location.42 His wife Mary was a widow when she died, indicating

that Bernard had died by sometime before 1867.

Mary and Bernard had nine children for most of whom birth/baptism records have been located.

Sarah Crummy

Sarah Crummy was born on 12 August 1819 and baptised at St. John’s Parramatta on 30 January 1820.

She married Pierce [aka Pearce] Lyons at Parramatta on 16 April 1837.43 The groom, son of John and Mary Lyons

(née Page), had been born at Wilberforce on 30 December 1811 and baptised on 20 September 1812 at St

Matthew’s Church Windsor.44 I have not located any children born to this couple. Pearce Lyons died on 6 March

1870 and was buried two days later, the cortege leaving his residence at Church Street, Parramatta. The following

notice was published a year later, marking the first anniversary of his death.45


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His widow died some eighteen years later. The Daily Telegraph of 16 November 1888 carried a very brief notice.

LYONS, - November 7, Sarah Lyons, of Grose-street, Parramatta, aged 67.46

At the time of her death Sarah was possibly living in the same Grose Street house where her mother had lived.

The corresponding death registration gave her age at death as 70.47

John Crummy

The birth of John Crummy was registered at Sydney in 1821, and his baptism on 11 November 1821 was

registered at St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church.48 At the age of about 34 John Crommy [sic] married Emma Pate

in Sydney in 1855.49

Emma was about four years younger than her husband, having been born on 27 February 1825 to Reuben Pate,

a tailor by trade, and his wife Mary Taylor, whom he married in 1824 and who was a free woman to whom he

became assigned.50 From a trawl through TROVE, Reuben seems to have spent much of his time before the

Courts, and in the late 1820s had been sent to serve time at Moreton Bay. On one occasion in February 1845 he

was bound to keep the peace towards his wife, and one month later he was convicted on the evidence of his wife

for drunkenness and put to the treadmill for 12 hours.51 In 1848 he was summoned to answer a complaint of having

assaulted his wife but ‘as the happy couple seemed to have adjusted their differences’, the case was dismissed.52

Mary was also had up on some charges. In April 1841 she was convicted of being a common scold. As this was

not the least of her numerous flaws, nor the first time she had figured before a Quarter Sessions Jury, the

Chairman decreed that leniency would be a mistake and sentenced her to six months in the Sydney gaol.53Thus

the Pate household was hardly a stable environment in which to bring up children, and Emma herself proved to

be a bit of a handful. In its inimitable style, in June 1852 Bell’s Life in Sydney reported on a dispute between two

women – Emma Pate and Ellen Black.

BLACKENING A PATE – A lady of gaudy-flaunty exterior in the matter of flowers and blonde whiskers, who lisped

her name, Emma Pate, in tones mellifluously melting, appeared upon the floor of the court with all the innocent

gracefulness on an anemone in a flower pot, to rebut the calumnious asseveration of a Mrs Ellen Black, who

selecting Mr Wm. Roberts as her legal buckler, forthwith mounted the rostrum trebly armed, (as the Poet says:-

“Thrice is he armed who has his quarrel first”) with the resolve to go the animal, the whole animal, and nothing

but the animal, so help her the police magistrate. The fair ones were, it appeared, close neighbours, and at one

time close friends and bosom confidantes; but the green-eyed monster had, with his poisonous breath, nipped

their intimacy in its bud, and implanted in their once affectionate hearts the insidious plant of deadly animosity.

How, when, and where the first breach occurred we know not, but a recriminatory duel was had recourse to,

during which the gentle Emma expressed a lady-like anxiety materially to shorten Ellen’s allotted period of

existence. To prevent such irreparable calamity befalling the community, Sussex-street in particular, the latter

sought the protection of Mr Dowling, who after having heard a sample of the eloquential accomplishments of

either party, with the advice and consent of Mr. C H Chambers, dismissed them to fight it out.54


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This, then, was the family into which John Crummy, a journeyman butcher, married. However, judging by the birth

years of two children, he and Emma may well have been together for some time before they formalised their

relationship. Son John Richard Crummy was born on 10 February 1847 and baptised two months later at St.

Philip, Sydney.55 The birth of Sarah H Crummy was registered in 1849. Both were recorded with parents John and

Emma.56

An 1856 death registration for a John Crummy aged 34 has not been verified but possibly records the passing of

husband and father, but we know from her death certificate that John predeceased his mother.57

Emma Crummy was listed in the Sydney Sands Directory from 1858 to 1869, in Sussex Street, close to the Erskine

Road intersection, and earning her living as a laundress.58 Unheralded, her death was registered in 1869.59

There are a few loose ends in the account of John and Emma that need to be tidied up. The first concerns a young

man by the name of James Delprado whose death and funeral arrangements were published in February 1866.60

If this James was Emma’s son, who was his father? And if he was her only son when he died, when had Emma’s

son John Richard Crummy died? The answer to the second question probably lies in the following death

registration for a John Crummy for 1849.61

The clue as to the paternity of James Delprado is found in his death registration.62

James Delprado had been born in the colony in 1822 to free immigrants Manuel Del Grado and Ellen Casey.63 A

cabinet maker by trade, in July 1845 Manuel married Elizabeth Australia Brown by whom he had a large brood of

children.64 He died in 1867. However, before he married, he and Emma Pate had a relationship which resulted in

not only a son James who was born in 1841 but also a daughter Mary Anne, whose birth was registered in 1844.

It was as Mary Anne Macnamara that this daughter died in October 1920.65 It is likely that when John Crummy

married Emma Pate he ‘acquired’ a ready-made family.


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This leaves one daughter unaccounted for – Sarah H – whose birth was registered in 1849. Could she have been

the subject of the following notice?66

From the death registration we see that Sarah Crummy was 20 years old when she died, which does tally with

the birth registration.67

But who was the man purporting to be her uncle? We know that in 1869 and 1870 James Watson was living and

operating a boarding house at 145 Clarence Street.68 We also know from the NSW Government Gazette that on

1 July 1869 he had been declared insolvent, and that he was also a master mariner.69

By 1871 the boarding house at 145 Clarence Street was being run by a Patrick Curry.70 What happened to James,

and if/how he was directly related to Sarah Crummy has not yet been established.

Mary Cain/Crummy outlived her son John by almost 20 years, and died the year before her daughter-in-law.

Between them, John Crummy and Emma Pate presented Mary Cain/Crummy with four grandchildren. Did she

get a chance to meet her grandson John Richard before he died? Did she get to know Sarah whose funeral

arrangements were organised by James Watson? Did she know about/meet her two step-grandchildren, one of

whom died just before her, but the other of whom lived to 1920?

Catherine Crummy

The arrival of Catherine Cruming [sic] was registered at Sydney with her baptism at Parramatta on 21 November

1823 being recorded in the register of St Mary’s Roman Catholic Church, Sydney.71

In a hand very like her father’s, Catherine signed the St. John’s, Parramatta marriage register on 5 April 1843.

With the consent of her parent, presumably her mother, as her father was apparently not on the scene by then,

she had married James Russel, a bachelor of the parish, who signed the register with his mark ‘X’.72


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Five years or so later, on 12 September 1848, James again applied his mark – this time to a newspaper notice.73

Where did she go? Why did she go? Did she return? At this stage I have not located anything definitive that might

answer these questions except that she was alive, aged 40, when her mother died in May 1867.74

James Crummy

James was probably born towards the end of 1825 but we do know that he was baptised on 9 January 1826. As

with his elder siblings, the baptism was recorded in the St. Mary’s Roman Catholic register.75 He was in trouble

from an early age, first ‘visiting’ Parramatta Gaol at the age of 16.76. The following newspaper report of 1844 is

evidence that his fists were his weapon of choice.

James Crummy and James Oakley were brought up charged with being engaged in a pugilistic encounter in

Pennant-street. Inspector Fox had come upon them in the midst of their diverting employment, and bore them

from the field of fight to the dreary cells of the lock up. Oakley it appeared was so drunk that he could just about

stand long enough to be knocked down again, and he appeared at the bar “with all his blushing honours thick

upon him”. Crummy received the character of an idle and disorderly gentleman, having no visible means of living,

and whose sole employment was walking the streets, leaning against the posts, rolling in happy luxuriance on

any spot of grass that he could find in the town, and in fact living like a gentleman, and on his mother. He was

sentenced to two months in the House of Correction, and his adversary was fined six shillings for being drunk.77

Four months later, James was again brought up before the Parramatta Police, this time charged by one James

Kelly with –

… first, having grossly hurt his feelings, by discharging at him a copious shower of stones, and then, secondly,

answering Kelly’s remonstrances against this proceeding by suggesting a fight, whereby, if Kelly did not take

satisfaction out of him, he (Crummey) would make him ever afterwards hold his place by sending him home such

an altered man as his nearest connexions would be puzzled to recognise him, as he purposed, in the first place,

to put his nasal organ out, by fracturing and displacing it towards the left side, so as to prevent him, on further

occasions, turning it up in derision; then to remove several of his “ivories” down to the stomachic region; and

finally to conclude by bringing up both of his organs of orison …

The Police having informed the Court that Crummey was a very crusty sort of character whenever he had been

spoken to on account of his indulging his pursuit of knowledge, by insulting every one whose respectability of

appearance caused them not to belong to his particular circle of acquaintance … and that the discovery of his

ways and means of living was a problem which was a difficult of solving as the perpetual motion, it was

considered that the extremely useful and beneficial enactment, the Vagrant Act, in one of its clauses referred to

his particular case, and he was sentenced to three months’ stone-breaking, as he had appeared to have a taste

towards mineralogy in the gaol.78

In fact it was in the pursuit of ‘mineralogy’ that James, trying his hand at the diggings, found himself yet again in

trouble with the law if he was the James Crummy indicted in December 1852 at Bathurst. This man had been

charged at Sofala with committing a highway robbery in December 1851 but had been released on bail and

subsequently absconded. He was found and apprehended at the Abercrombie diggings and forwarded to Bathurst

for trial. Found guilty, he was sentenced to three years hard labour.79 Further stints behind bars followed, during

which it was recognised that James Crummy was mentally unstable. The records for Darlinghurst Gaol include a


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12 April 1864 entry for James Crummy noting that he was en route from Goulburn Gaol to Tarban Creek Lunatic

Asylum.80 As far as is known James Crummy did not marry. He was most likely the James Crummy whose death

at the age of 47 was registered at Ryde in 1873 and who was buried at the Gladesville Asylum cemetery.81

Richard Crummy

Richard, third son of Mary Cain and Bernard Crummy, was born about 1827/28. No record has been found for his

birth/baptism, but for the 1828 census he was recorded as the youngest member of the Crummy family as a one-

year old.82 Like his older brother James, Richard first came to the attention of the law at a young age as reported

in the local press in 1844. Which of his brothers was involved, and who had been previously unceremoniously

dunked in the horse trough, is not specified, but it is interesting to note that their mother Mary was egging them

on.83

And again like his brother James, Richard was ever ready to use his fists, but he did so in a ‘professional’ capacity.

He would have been about 18 when he and ‘Clark the Butcher Boy’, both local boys, challenged each other for

the honour of being crowned Champion of Parramatta. The fight took place in September 1845 in a paddock about

three miles out of Parramatta and was covered by Bell’s Life.

APPEARANCE OF THE MEN

On stripping, a good opportunity was afforded of estimating the physical qualities of the men, when it was easy

to perceive that Crummy was, at least, a stone heavier than his antagonist, who, however, appeared in excellent

condition, and his bearing displayed perfect confidence. The odds at starting were 6 to 4 on Crummy, and at this

price, some bets were staked.

THE FIGHT

[The fight lasted 5 Rounds, the final being reported as follows]

Round 5th and last – Crummy came up piping like a frog in convulsions. The butcher seemed to think it had

lasted long enough, and went in evidently determined to put on the finisher – a severe rally which lasted seven

minutes, when Clark caught Crummy a slashing chopper under the ear, which knocked him off his legs and

completely stunned him. On time being called Crummy was still insensible.

Clark’s appearance showed the superiority of his training, to which he did justice by his fighting. He is now

considered by his Parramatta friends a second Dick Curtis. It is their intention to offer to back him for £100

against any man of his weight (10 stone) in the colony.84

Bells Life entertained its readers with a report of a later fight that took place near Parramatta on New Year’s Day

1848 in which Richard Crummy fared better.

On the morning of that day, two native youths, named Cromie and Mobbs, met on the Windsor Road, near to

Mr. W. Best’s, to try their powers for £5 aside. After various preliminaries were arranged, each party appointed


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an umpire, who also chose a referee. On the men being brought to the scratch, it was plain Mobbs had materially

the advantage in height and reach, although Cromie appeared to have more muscular strength … The fight

lasted two hours and fifty-five minutes. Cromie seemed not the least injured, with the exception of his left eye

being closed up, and walked home, a distance of three or four miles; whereas Mobbs had to be assisted off the

ground by two men, and carried into town, having been so severely punished.85

Apart from the inherent risk to the life and limb of the combatants, all those involved in staging, participating and

watching these prize-fights had to keep a wary eye out for the law. As Bell’s Life reported in August 1848, the

speedy arrival of the ‘Parramatta Traps’ at the scene of one of Richard’s bouts resulted in an abruptly premature

end and a visit to the Police Office.

THE RING

FIGHT BETWEEN DICK CRUMMIE AND TOM FORSTER

FOR £10 A-SIDE – BEAK INTERFERENCE

Shortly after sun-rise on Monday Morning, while bowling along towards Parramatta on the box of Hudson’s drag

the WATER WITCH tooled between Windsor and Sydney by that civilest of whips Tom Lane, we were passed by

a troop of equestrians and a motley throng on foot, hurrying in the direction of Coulton’s and evidently scenting

“sport”. Enquiry soon satisfied us that a “Mill” was on the TAPIS, so bidding farewell to Tom we followed in the

track of the living stream which flowed towards Baulkham Hills, the arena fixed for the MELEE. The combatants,

whose pugilistic pretensions were about to be submitted to the test, were Dick Crummie and Tom Forster …

Before the men entered the ring ominous whisperings were rife that the Parramatta Traps were on the trail, and

preparations were accordingly expedited in the hope of quietly settling the affair without any such undesirable

interruption.

As the matter was brought to an untimely close it would be useless to particularize the rounds. On the termination

of the 6th, up to which time Crummie was “all there,” and apparently reserving himself in anticipation of a

prolonged contest, the ring was unceremoniously entered by Mr. Chief Constable Ryan of the Parramatta Blues,

who backed by a body of his myrmidons, not only compelled the heroes to “hang fire,” but intimated a polite

intention of accompanying them on their return to town. Completely dumfounded, the belligerents sulkily resumed

their skins, and bidding a sorrowful farewell to the disappointed spectators, trudged slowly ahead, flanked by a

rear guard of the Traps en route to “chokee.”86

Nearly eighty years later, the Windsor and Richmond Gazette, in its “Sidelights from Hawkesbury” series,

published an item in which the author George G. Reeve recalled the many notable Hawkesbury bare-knuckled

boxers of the 1850s – none of whom were ‘equal in prowess, strength and durability’ to the brothers Harry and

Joe Teale. As mentioned in the article, Richard Crummy fell victim to Joe Teale.87 In July 1850 Bell’s Life

commented on the Teale/Crummy fight.

Teale, on entering the Ring, wanted one pound of ten stone; while Crummy, we believe, had the advantage of

five or six pounds. For activity, determination, and resolution, Little Joe has scarcely a fellow. This is his third

public appearance in the P.R.: 1st - Defeating Jem Johnstone on the Glebe, near Richmond; 2nd – Bill White, at

the same place; and lastly, Crummy, with the additional honour of having polished off several roughs by way of

practice.

Crummy can have no pretensions to the character of a Pugilist, and we sincerely recommend him to turn his

attention to some other occupation, whereby he may earn an honest and comfortable living.88

Apparently the fight with Joe Teale did put an end to Richard’s boxing aspirations. But whether he earned an

honest and/or comfortable living is questionable.

In January 1850 Richard Crummy was brought before the Parramatta Bench charged with having, on 16

November 1849, assaulted Sergeant Faul, the officer in charge of the immigration depot. As Faul was locking the

depot gates a man whom he identified as Richard Crummy pushed him down and forced his way in. A scuffle

ensued during which Faul was struck on the head and the attacker escaped. The day before the court appearance

Richard’s mother turned up at the Police office ‘to compromise’ the matter. Quite what Richard was doing breaking


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into the immigration depot was not explained. He was sentenced to pay a fine of £5 or 2 months imprisonment in

default.89

Over the next twenty-five or so years nothing further has been found for Richard Crummy. He either kept a very

low profile in Parramatta, or more probably, he left the district perhaps to try his luck on the goldfields.

An item in the April 1878 Cumberland Mercury suggests that Richard, as did so many men of his time, had a bit

of a drinking problem. It was reported that Richard Crummy had been brought up for drunkenness ‘for the first

time during nine months’, but was discharged.90 He was similarly charged in June 1884 and was held overnight at

the Parramatta Gaol. He was then described as a labourer, born in 1828, 5’ 6” tall, with a stout build, fresh

complexion, brown, balding hair and blue eyes. At some stage he had lost the first joint of the middle finger of his

left hand and had acquired a scar on his forehead.91

We find that in January 1889 Richard Crummy, a single man then aged 60 who could both read and write but was

at the time presumably out of work, applied for and was issued with a Railway Pass which he used on 7 January

to travel to Bathurst.92

By 1897 he was in Sydney, and it was there that he was killed in an accident on 22 June 1897. The shocking

incident was widely broadcast in newspapers across New South Wales and interstate. The Evening News of 24

June gave the most detailed account

THE FATAL RUNAWAY

THE INQUEST ON CRUMMY

The adjourned inquest touching the death of an elderly man named Richard Crummy, who was fatally injured on

the 21st instant through being knocked down by a trolly belonging to Messrs. Foley Brothers was continued, and

concluded yesterday. Two carters, named Patrick Maguire and James Lowney, were present in custody on a

charge of having caused deceased’s death.

Mr. Lyons appeared to watch the proceedings on behalf of both men. William M’Ritchie, an engine-fitter, who

was working close to the parcels office at the railway station on Monday, deposed that he witnessed a dispute

between Maguire and Lowney. The latter inquired who moved his van away, and no reply being vouchsafed, he

made an attempt to move a trolly in charge of Maguire. The latter made a blow at Lowney with his whip. The

'swish' frightened the horse attached to the trolly, and it bolted. Both men made an attempt to stop the animal,

but without success. John Henry Hibberd, clerk in the parcels’ office, who was also an eye-witness of the

occurrence, stated that it was Lowney who had the whip. During the progress of the dispute Lowney took the:

whip out of Maguire’s vehicle. In picking up the whip it touched the horse, which immediately started. Maguire

sought to seize the horse’s head. He held on to one of the shafts for about twenty yards, when he fell. Lowney

also made an attempt to stop the runaway. John Bottrill, fireman in the tram-way service, stated that he saw

Maguire move Lowney’s van from the platform. Lowney on coming out of the parcels’ office pulled Maguire’s

trolly out, with the object of taking the berth Maguire had usurped: Maguire, however, jumped off, and made a

blow with his whip at Lowney. It missed its intended mark, however, and struck the horse attached to the trolly.

To the Coroner: The tram did not frighten the horse. Lowney threw his whip into his own van before pulling the

trolly out. Alfred M’Kenna, drover, deposed that deceased was crossing from the west side of George-street

when he was knocked down. He threw up his arms as the horse came upon him: The near side shaft struck him

on the side of the head. Constable Scott deposed that he saw deceased knocked down, and went to his

assistance. Constable Arnold stated that the runaway turned into Sussex-street, at the corner of Hay-street.

Witness followed. Lowney overtook him in Sussex-street. Maguire afterwards came up and said he was in charge

of the trolly.

Constable Travers deposed that when he charged Maguire and Lowney they made no reply. James Lowney,

carter, living at Kensington-street, after having been duly cautioned, stated that he was in the employ of Foley

Brothers. On Monday he was at the railway station. After backing his cart up to the platform, he went in search

of a truck. On returning he found that his vehicle had been removed. Maguire’s trolly was backed in close by.

Witness pulled Maguire’s trolly a little to one side to enable him to back his (witness’s) van into the platform.

Maguire asked him what he was doing. He didn’t see Maguire get off the trolly. Witness did not know what


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caused the horse to bolt. Maguire did not have a whip in his hand. Witness then went on to describe what

followed. To Mr. Lyons: He had no quarrel with Maguire on the Monday: Patrick Maguire, also in the employ of

Foley Brothers, after having been duly cautioned, denied moving Lowney’s van from the platform, or that he had

a whip in his band. As he jumped off his trolly the horse bolted. Witness did not know what caused the animal to

start. He tried to stop the horse. After other evidence had been heard, the jury returned a verdict of accidental

death. Lowney and Maguire were taken before a magistrate, and discharged from custody.93

The Cumberland Free Press also reported the fatal accident, focussing on the victim’s injuries and connection

with Parramatta.

A Runaway Fatality

DEATH OF AN OLD PARRAMATTAN

The death of Richard Crummy, 70, which occurred in the Sydney Hospital on Monday, was the subject of an

inquest by the City Coroner (Mr. J. C. Moore J.P.) at the Coroner’s Court Chancery-square, Sydney. Mr. A.H.

Conroy, instructed by Mr. M.J. Brown, appeared to watch the proceedings on behalf of James Lowney, and Mr.

H.A. Lyons attended as the legal representative of Patrick Maguire. Lowney and Maguire attended in custody.

George Crummy, brother of the deceased, residing at Charles-street, Forest Lodge, stated that his brother was

a native of Parramatta, and an unmarried man. According to the evidence of Dr. Barnes, one of the resident

medical officers of the Sydney Hospital, deceased was brought to that institution between 1 and 2 o’clock on

Monday, and after being examined, was found to be suffering from fractured ribs on both sides of the body, a

compound fracture of the left thigh, abrasions of the face and head, and other injuries. Death in his opinion was

due to shock, the result of the injuries mentioned. This opinion was borne out by Dr. G.H. Taylor, Government

pathologist. An adjournment was made to allow the police to make further inquiries into the circumstances

surrounding the fatality.94

It was Richard’s brother George Crummy who notified the arrangements for the funeral which was to take place

on 23 June.95

It was also George Crummy who was the informant for Richard Crummy’s death certificate. He confirmed that

Richard had never married, and had no children. He stated that Richard had worked as a miner and, interestingly,

that their father Bernard Crummy had been a Gaol Warden. George was one of the witnesses of the burial. The

other was Edward August Langeschwerdt, husband of George’s sister-in-law, Mary Belcher.96

The account of Richard Crummy closes with two memorial notices placed by his brother George, the first

commemorating the first anniversary of Richard’s death and the second published four years after his death.97


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Mary (A) Crummy

Mary’s baptism on 12 April 1830 was recorded in the register of St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church and her arrival

was also registered at Sydney.98

She was possibly the Mary Crummy ‘a young girl living at Mr. Ellison’s, on the Kissing Point Road’ who, while

living with the Ellison family, was called as a witness in a domestic violence court case. If so she would have been

about eleven, and was perhaps working as a domestic.99 This is possibly the same Mary Crummy who, ten years

later in June 1854, married Henry Shephard.100

Henry, who was born about 1821, together with his wife Mary, ran a boarding house at 15 Sussex Street from at

least 1863 until Mary’s death in on 2 July 1866.101

A corresponding death registration indicates that this Mary was, prior to her marriage, Mary Crummy daughter of

Bernard Crummy and Mary Cain, and that she predeceased her mother Mary by a year.102

Thereafter Henry relocated to 29 Sussex Street and died aged 53 in January 1874. At the time of his death he

was an employee of the ASN Company.103

According to Mary’s 1866 death notice, she was survived by four children. Who were they? At least two can be

identified from the following NSW Government Gazette notice of 28 February 1874.104


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Two daughters born to Henry and Mary, both given rather attractive names, were Sophia Amanda, registered in

1857, but born on 31 August 1856, and Cecilia Philomena, registered in 1859, was born on 18 February 1859.105

At the time of their father’s death they would have been about 18 and 15 respectively.

On 1 October 1878, at the age of 22, Sophia married Francis Barton Warham at St Patricks Church, Sydney.106

Francis had been born in London in 1853 and emigrated to Australia with his parents and siblings on the British

Empire, arriving on 7 February 1859. Sophia died of puerperal convulsions on 22 March 1880. She was delivered

of a still born baby boy.107

Cecilia Shepherd did not marry. She was only 18 when she died on 30 August 1877.108

The identity of the other two children referred to in Mary Shepherd’s death notice has not yet been established.

Had they, in fact, died before Bridget Lyons sought the ‘goods, chattels, credits and effects’ of her late brother-in-

law? Clarification may be provided by a copy of Mary Shepherd’s death certificate. And the question arises, as it

did with the offspring of John and Emma Crummy – did Grandmother Mary have a chance to get to know her

Shepherd grandchildren?

Bridget Crummy

The youngest of the Crummy daughters, Bridget was born on 12 November 1831 and baptised on New Year’s

Day 1832, as registered at St. Mary’s Church, Sydney.109 It is suggested that she married a James Hayes in

January 1849, the registration rendering her surname as Commins. I have not followed this up, but the district

code ‘LD’ denotes that this was a Catholic ceremony and was recorded in the register of St. Mary’s, Sydney.110

Whatever may have happened to Bridget in the interim, by the mid-1860s, as Bridget Hayes, she was involved in

a suspected murder case – one William Henry Smith of Seven Hills, in the district of Parramatta, being accused

killing his wife in July 1865 by pushing her into the fire. At the time Mrs. Smith was wearing a petticoat which had

been given to her by Bridget Hayes, described as housekeeper of the accused. At the subsequent trial William

Smith was acquitted.111 Three years later William Smith and Bridget Hayes were involved in another matter that

came before the courts, and which was reported by The Sydney Morning Herald of 14 March 1868.

Edward Smith, alias Edward Crummy, and William John Williams were placed in the dock charged with having

stolen one ring, the property of William Henry Smith, and one locket, the property of Bridget Hayes, at Seven

Hills on the 23rd November last. The first prisoner pleaded guilty and was removed to await sentence. William

John Williams pleaded not guilty. Mr. R.B. Smith appeared for the defence. Mr. Foster, for the prosecution, called


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the first prisoner Smith, alias Crummy, whose evidence went to show that, on the day in question, both the lads

(neither of whom were more than nineteen years of age) proceeded to the residence of William Henry Smith, a

farmer, at Seven Hills, and effecting an entrance through the window, forced open a box in the bedroom and

abstracted thence the articles named in the indictment, which said articles were subsequently surrendered by

the prisoner Williams … William Henry Smith and Bridget Hayes (the mother of the prisoner Smith, alias Crummy,

the latter being Mrs. Hayes’s maiden name) identified the stolen property. … For the defence it was endeavoured

to be shown that Williams, although proceeding to Seven Hills in company with Smith, alias Crummy, did not do

so with the intention to commit robbery, but had been promised the jewellery as security for a loan he had

advanced to his accomplice. Several witnesses were called, and testified to the previous good character of the

prisoner Williams … the jury, without retiring, brought in a verdict of guilty. His Honor, in passing sentence, dwelt

upon the extreme youth of both prisoners. The sentence was – imprisonment with hard labour for nine months

in Darlinghurst gaol, for Williams; and confinement, under the same condition, and in the same place, for three

months for Smith, alias Crummy. The latter had been four months in gaol, awaiting trial; the former had been at

large on bail.112

From the account we can deduce that Edward Crummy was born to Bridget about 1849, father unknown or at

least not acknowledged. No birth record has been located for Edward. It is not clear whether Bridget is still Smith’s

housekeeper, or whether her status had been ‘upgraded’? It is interesting to note that Edward is known by both

Smith and Crummy surnames. It is also of note that his partner in crime was able to garner witnesses to speak

on his behalf; no such people testified on behalf of Edward. And while Williams had been bailed, this had either

been disallowed in Edward’s case or no-one was prepared to stand surety. In Edward’s case, this was the start

of a life of petty crime during which he became very familiar with the inside of the Parramatta Gaol. It is from one

of his ‘visits’ – in 1882 – that we have a description of Edward – he was then 5’ 6½” tall, of stout build, with a fresh

complexion, brown hair and blue eyes, with no distinguishing marks. Furthermore, we find that he had been born

at Wilberforce in 1848.113

On 3 January 1871 a woman by the name of Bridget Hayes placed a notice in The Sydney Morning Herald.114

It seems such a coincidence that two women of the same name were contemplating marriage at the same time,

one who had married a John Hayes and, from the Hayes/Commins record mentioned earlier, and one who had

married a James Hayes. Interestingly also is the fact that the marriage registration for Mrs. John Hayes gives her

family name as Smith.115

‘Our’ Bridget, described as a widow and domestic servant of Grose Street Parramatta, was married on 13 February

1871 to John Lyons, bachelor and labourer of Macquarie Street, Parramatta. Both bride and groom were in their

early 40s.The marriage was conducted by the Reverend William (Francis Xavier) Bailey at his residence in Burton

Street, South Head Road, Sydney, in accordance with the rites of the Free Church of England. One of the

witnesses was Sarah Lyons, widowed sister of the bride.116

The choice of minister is interesting. Dr. Bailey was regarded as a ‘shady’ character and many questions were

raised as to his practices including marrying underage couples. Why, The Protestant Standard asked, do so many


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couples (four hundred a year) ‘leave their neighbouring ministers of their own denominations to be married by a

strange minister of a microscopic sect, in his own house, his servant being witness and giver away?’117

In November 1872 Bridget gave birth to a daughter, Sarah Catherine, and in 1874 she and John Lyons became

parents to a son.118 We have seen from the account of her sister Mary that in February 1874, as the appointed

guardian of her two nieces, Bridget applied for the administration of her late brother-in-law’s property.

For much of their married life Bridget and John Lyons had to deal with other family matters, including the

troublesome and troubled Edward Crummy. In February 1874 he was charged with attempting to commit suicide,

two months later he was found guilty of drunkenness and disorderly behaviour. Indecent language earned him a

stiff fine in August 1878 and another was issued for drunkenness again in October 1878. 119 More seriously was

an assault on his step-father in 1885.120

Edward Crummy was complained against by John Lyons for having violently assaulted him. Defendant was the

step-son of complainant, and had lived at his house till the quarrel. The complainant’s face was badly scarred,

caused he said by his unnatural relation having bitten him. Defendant did not appear to answer to the summons,

and a warrant was order to issue.

John Lyons died on 10 July 1889 and his funeral was held two days later.121

The death of Bridget Lyons on 22 November 1891 was registered at Parramatta. There was no announcement in

the newspapers to mark her passing. She had died at home in Grose Street and the informant was stated to be

Edward Crummy Son (Illegitimate) also of Grose Street.122

Son John William Lyons had died in infancy in 1876. However, aged 19 when her mother died, Sarah Catherine

married the following year to William Thomas Muir.123

Where, when and how Edward Crummy’s life ended has not been established. He continued to offend – in

February 1889 he was fined 20s and seven days for each charge of drunkenness and obscenity. He was the

victim of a malicious wounding in Neich’s Hotel, Parramatta, on 21 November 1891, but the jury recommended

mercy for the offender ‘on the grounds of provocation’. Edward’s last reported (but not necessarily the last!)

offence, for which he was described as ‘an old resident of Parramatta’ was the theft in April 1895 of a scythe which

earned him 14 days imprisonment.124

William Crummy

Very little has been discovered at this stage about William Crummy. Under the name of William Crommie his 1833

birth/baptism was registered with St. Mary’s Cathedral.125


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Did William try his luck on the goldfields? Could he have been the William Crummy charged with Patrick Donnelly

on three counts of assault/malicious wounding at Yackandandah in January 1855. Donnelly was found guilty but

Crummy was acquitted.126 Was he one of the parties in dispute over rights to shares in a mining venture?127

And/or did he, together with a John Pearce, apply for a lease to mine gold at the Trunkey [Bathurst] gold field?128

William is recorded on his mother’s death certificate as one of her surviving children and aged 32 in 1867.129 Two

possible NSW BDM death registrations have been located but not followed through. However, when compared

with the corresponding records in the Ancestry Death Index, the William Crummy whose death was registered at

Young can probably be discounted given the recorded father’s name.


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George Crummy

No birth/baptism record has been located for George, the youngest of the Crummy children, born about 1836

when his mother Mary would have been about 42 years old. Like his older brothers he found himself in trouble

with the law, so it is refreshing to start off this account with an act of his heroism. In August 1851 an inquest was

held at Parramatta on the body of four year old Sarah Brown, who had died as a result of her clothes catching fire

(unfortunately a not uncommon occurrence). The jury heard that George Crummy and Sarah’s older sister tried

desperately, but in vain, to put out the flames by throwing water over the victim.130

In the Crummy tradition it was not too long before George found himself in court. On 3 May he was found guilty

of assault and sentenced to six months imprisonment at Goulburn Gaol. He was released at the end of October.131

Shortly before his mother’s death George appeared before the Parramatta Bench as the defendant in the case of

Bridget Maher v George Crummy. He was charged with and found guilty of using threatening language and

ordered to enter into recognisances, with sureties, for his good behaviour for six months – thus avoiding another

stint in gaol.132 He was not so fortunate in November 1876 when he was charged with double offences –

drunkenness, for which he was to be fined 10s, or gaol for 24 hours, and indecent exposure, which earned him a

fortnight in prison.133 At this time the gaol authorities recorded a description of the man. He was about the same

height as his brothers – 5’ 7” and like them was of stout build. At some stage he had broken his right leg and his

nose, he had scars on his left and right eyebrows, had lost his front upper teeth, and had marks on the left side

of his face, his chest and his back – a readily identifiable person!

In between his court appearances it seems that George had ambitions as a gold miner in the Tambaroora and

Turon mining district, if he is the George Crummy who was listed in a Notice to Applicants for Gold-Mining Leases,

published in the NSW Government Gazette in July and August 1876 and advising that the following lease had

been declared void, ‘the Lessees having failed to execute and take delivery thereof when called upon to do so.134

A relatively minor offence in 1879, resisting a constable in the execution of his duty, resulted in a fine of 10s or 48

hours behind bars.135 But for the following crimes, a repeat of previous offences, George was once again locked

up. He was received into the Parramatta Gaol on 24 March 1880 and released on 23 October.136

It was no doubt a relief to all that George finally seems to have sorted himself out, and found regular and honest

employment. A May-June 1891 NSW Government Gazette report shows that George was a government

employee, working as a labourer for the Sydney Tramways Maintenance Branch, and earning 7s. 6d. per diem.137

The Tramway Branch was established in 1880, but it was not until 1890 that the Maintenance Branch was


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established, so George would have been one of its early staff members.138 And as well as securing a regular job,

he also acquired a wife.

On 6 August 1892 bachelor George married spinster Elizabeth Margaret Belcher at the Anglican St. Barnabas

Church, George Street. The groom was aged about 56 and his bride about 35. The ceremony was witnessed by

E.A. and M. Langeschwerdt, brother-in-law and sister of the bride.139 Elizabeth Margaret Belcher had been born

at Camperdown in 1856, eldest daughter of James Elijah Belcher, a brass founder, and Margaret Elizabeth Wright.

Her sister, Mary Belcher had been born at Camperdown in 1864, and married Edward August Langeschwerdt in

1887.140

Within the family and their circle of friends George’s wife was known as Lizzie, as shown by the notice they

published in 1898 in remembrance of George’s brother Richard.141

However, by the turn of the century the relationship between George and Elizabeth had evidently broken down.

On 3 and 6 January 1900 George placed the following two notices in the personal columns.142

By ‘two businesses’ was George referring to the upkeep of two households? In other words, had he and ‘Lizzie’

been living separately, and by 1900 George was not able and/or not prepared to maintain both, nor, according to

the second notice, was he prepared to underwrite any debts his wife may incur.

It is unlikely that Elizabeth Crummy returned to her husband, and certainly at the time he died on 8 November

1901 she was living in Ourimba, a small township on the NSW Central Coast, about 78 kms north of Sydney. The

death certificate records that George, an old age pensioner, formerly of George Street, Camperdown, had died of

cerebral apoplexy at the age of 65 at the Prince Alfred Hospital. ‘Unknown’ was recorded in the column for

information about his parents. The details of his marriage to Elizabeth Margaret Belcher were correctly recorded

as was the fact that they had no children. The funeral was held on 9 November, E.A. Langeschwerdt being one

of the witnesses of the burial at Rookwood Cemetery. His sister-in-law, the widow Elizabeth Crummy, certified the

details of the certificate.143

The death of 61 year old Elizabeth Margaret Crummy, on 19 June 1919, at Stockton, New South Wales, was

announced in The Sydney Morning Herald.144 According to one source she died at the Stockton Mental Hospital.145

Her body was brought back to Sydney for the funeral, and she was buried at Rookwood on 21 June in the same

plot as her parents, James and Margaret Belcher.146


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At least four of Mary Cain’s children did not marry, and those who did were not blessed with large families. She

could not, therefore, lay claim to having become the matriarch of a colonial Crummy dynasty. But, for better or

worse, she and her family certainly made an impression on the contemporary Parramatta community.

.

NOTES

1 Caledonian Mercury, 5 Apr 1817, p.3. 2 The Scots Magazine, 1 May 1817, p.75. 3 Caledonian Mercury, 28 Apr 1817, p.3. Convict Records, Felicity Cannon, Community Contributions – Jean Hume,

https://convictrecords.com.au/convicts/hume/jean/66940. 4 Caledonian Mercury, 31 May 1817, p.3. 5 Ancestry, New South Wales, Australia, Colonial Secretary’s Papers, 1788-1856, Series: NRS 937; Reel or Fiche Numbers: Reels 6004-

6016, p.97. 6 Ancestry, New South Wales, Australia, St. John’s Parramatta, Marriages, 1790-1966, Vol 1, Baptisms 1790-1825, Marriages, 1789-

1823; Burials, 1790-1825. According to Mary Crummy’s death certificate, she and Bernard were actually married at ‘Bayley Park, near

Campbelltown’. Bayly Park was the Cabramatta property established by Nicholas Bayly - B. H. Fletcher, 'Bayly, Nicholas (1770–1823)',

Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/bayly-

nicholas-1758/text1959, published first in hardcopy 1966, accessed online 22 June 2019. 7 Lancaster Gazette, 31 Aug 1816. 8 Hull Packet, 24 Sep 1816, p.4. 9 Evening Mail, 16 Sep 1816, p.1. Manchester Mercury, 11 Jun 1816, p.2. 10 Morning Chronicle, 19 Sep 1816, p.4. Also included in the same trial schedule, found guilty of possession, and sentenced to 14 years

transportation, were Mary Bridge, Sarah Hassal and Sarah Gordon, who would become fellow passengers with Bernard’s future wife. 11 Ancestry, UK, Prison Hulk Registers and Letter Books, 1802-1849, Bellerophon, Register, 1802-1834. 12 Free Settler or Felon? Convict Ship Morley 1817, https://jenwilletts.com/convict_ship_morley_1817.htm. 13 Ancestry, New South Wales, Australia, Colonial Secretary’s Papers, 1788-1856, Series: NRS 937; Reel or Fiche Numbers: Reels

6004-6016, p.116. 14 Ancestry, New South Wales, Australia, Colonial Secretary’s Papers, 1788-1856, Series: NRS 900; Reel or Fiche Numbers: Fiche

3163-3253, p.84. Richard Grimshaw arrived per Glatton in 1803. By 1814 he was a Constable. He died, a lunatic aged 56, at Parramatta

in 1822 – Biographical Database of Australia (BDA), Biographical report for Richard Grimshaw. 15 Ancestry, New South Wales and Tasmania, Australian Convict Musters, 1806-1849, New South Wales, General Muster 1822, General

Muster A-L, 1825. 16 Ancestry, 1828 New South Wales, Australia Census (Australian Copy) (NRS1273) 1828 Census Householders’ Returns, Parramatta.

The first Catholic Church at Parramatta was not opened until 1837. 17 Mary Crummy (née Cain) death certificate. Ancestry, Street and Muir Family Tree, https://www.ancestry.co.uk/family-

tree/person/tree/111874438/person/320092807434/facts. I particularly acknowledge the research undertaken by the custodians of this

family tree. 18 Ancestry, New South Wales, Australia, Certificates of Freedom, 1810-1814, 1827-1867, (NRS 12210) Butts of Certificates of Freedom,

1830, November and 1831 April. 19 Ancestry, New South Wales, Australia, Colonial Secretary’s Papers, 1788-1856, Series: NRS 898; Reel or Fiche Numbers: Reels

6020-6040, 6070; Fiche 3260-3312, p.7. 20 Ancestry, New South Wales, Australia, Colonial Secretary’s Papers, 1788-1856, Series: NRS 898; Reel or Fiche Numbers: Reels

6020-6040, 6070; Fiche 3260-3312, pp.13-324. 21 Ancestry, New South Wales, Australia, Colonial Secretary’s Papers, 1788-1856, Series: NRS 897; Reel or Fiche Numbers: Reels

6041-6064, 6071-6072, p.183. 22 The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, 12 Jul 1822, p.3. 23 Ancestry, New South Wales, Australia, Colonial Secretary’s Papers, 1788-1856, Series: NRS 898; Reel or Fiche Numbers: Reels

6020-6040, 6070, 6072; Fiche 3260-3312, p.150. 24 The Daily Telegraph, 31 Mar 1940, p.10 – featured in page headed up “Real Life Dramas of the Courts”. 25 Ancestry, New South Wales, Australia, Colonial Secretary’s Papers, 1788-1856, Series: NRS 897; Reel or Fiche Numbers: Reels

6020-6040, 6070, 6072; Fiche 3260-3312, pp 26-26a, 27. 26 The Australian, 8 Jul 1826, p.4. 27 M.J.B. Kenny, 'Hall, Edward Smith (1786–1860)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National

University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/hall-edward-smith-2143/text2729, published first in hardcopy 1966, accessed online 15 June

2019. 28 The Monitor, 21 Jul 1826, p.3. 29 BDA, Biographical report for Mary Kane.


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30 The Monitor, 4 Aug 1826, p.3. James Kirton (Kerton) had arrived in 1808 per Admiral Gambier. By his own admission he had been in

frequent trouble with law, but claimed in a letter to The Monitor printed in two parts (7 and 14 August 1826) that he was a victim of

persecution. Along with Mary Kane, who was a neighbour of Kirton, The Monitor took up his cause. 31 The Monitor, 11 Aug 1826, p.5. 32 The Australian, 16 Aug 1826, p.4. 33 The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, 23 Jan 1827, p.3. 34 The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, 31 Oct 1828, p.1. New South Wales Government Gazette, 26 Dec 1832 [Issue

No.43], p.481. The Sydney Herald, 4 Aug 1834, p.4. 35 New South Wales Government Gazette, 4 Jan 1837 [Issue No.256]. p.16. 36 The Sydney Herald, 23 Jan 1832, p.4. 37 NSW Land Registry Services, Historical Maps, https://nswlrs.com.au/Historical-Records-Online#Historical Maps. 38 For example, in a sale notice – ‘on the south by Mary Crummy’s allotment”, The Sydney Herald, 1 Feb 1839, p.4. 39 Ancestry, New South Wales, Australia, Registers of Land Grants and Leases, 1792-1867, Parramatta Town Grants, 1841-1859, State

Records Authority of New South Wales, Registers of Land Grants and Leases; Series: NRS 13836; Item 7/841; Reel: 2702. 40 Parramatta Chronicle and Cumberland General Advertiser, 19 Jul 1845, p.2. 41 NSW Births Deaths & Marriages (NSW BDM), Death certificate 1867/007010. The Sydney Morning Herald, 13 May 1867, p.8. 42 New South Wales Government Gazette, 7 Jan 1845 [Issue No.2], p.20. 43 NSW BDM, Marriage registration 17/1837 V183717 130. 44 BDA, Biographical reports for Pierce Lyons, John Lyons and Mary Page. 45 The Sydney Morning Herald, 8 Mar 1870, p.8; 25 Feb 1871, p.1. 46 The Daily Telegraph, 16 Nov 1888, p.1. 47 NSW BDM, Death registration 8234/1888. 48 NSW BDM, Birth registration V18211179 128. BDA, Biographical report for John Crummy. 49 NSW BDM, Marriage registration 496/1855 V1855496 138. 50 BDA, Biographical report for Emma Pate, 51 BDA, Biographical report for Reuben Pate. Various TROVE entries including The Australian, 20 Feb 1845, p.4 and The Sydney

Morning Herald, 12 March 1845, p.2. 52 Sydney Chronicle, 7 Mar 1848, p.3. 53 The Australian, 13 Apr 1841, p.2. Free Press and Commercial Journal, 14 Apr 1841, p.3. 54 Bell’s Life in Sydney and Sporting Review, 19 Jun 1852, p.2. 55 Ancestry, Australia, Births and Baptisms, 1792-1981. 56 NSW BDM, Birth registrations 83/1847 V184783 32A, 2022/1849 V18492022 25A. 57 NSW BDM, Death registration 443/1856 V1856443 120. Mary Crummy death certificate. 58 City of Sydney, Sands directory, https://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/learn/search-our-collections/sands-directory/1858-1869. 59 NSW BDM, Death registration 634/1869. 60 The Sydney Morning Herald, 8 Feb 1866, p.1; 10 Feb 1866, p.12. 61 NSW BDM, Death registration 1134/1849 V18491134 140. 62 NSW BDM, Death registration 167/1866. 63 BDA, Biographical report for Manuel Del Prado. For further information on the Delprado family refer to Ancestry, Stephen Brown

Family Tree, https://www.ancestry.co.uk/family-tree/person/tree/56828943/person/36014784987/facts. 64 NSW BDM, Marriage registration 151/1845 V1845151 30B. The Sentinel, 9 Jul 1845, p.3. 65 NSW BDM, Death registration 15523/1920. 66 The Sydney Morning Herald, 12 Apr 1870, p.8. 67 NSW BDM, Death registration 440/1870. 68 City of Sydney, Sands directory, https://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/learn/search-our-collections/sands-directory/. 69 New South Wales Government Gazette, 6 Jul 1869 [Issue No.146], p.1705. 70 City of Sydney, Sands directory, https://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/learn/search-our-collections/sands-directory/. 71 NSW BDM, Birth registration 438/1823 V1823438 125. BDA, Biographical record for Catherine Crummy. 72 Ancestry, New South Wales, Australia, St. John’s Parramatta, Marriages, 1790-1966, Vol 04, 1839-1856 (No 1-345). 73 The Sydney Morning Herald, 13 Sep 1848, p.3. 74 Mary Crummy (née Cain) death certificate. 75 NSW BDM, birth registrations 545/1825 V1825545 127 and 561/1826 V1826561 128. BDA, Biographical report for James Crummy. 76 Ancestry, New South Wales, Australia, Goal Description and Entrance Books, 1818-1930, Description Book, Parramatta, 1839-1842. 77 Parramatta Chronicle and Cumberland General Advertiser, 5 Oct 1844, p.2. 78 The Star and Working Man’s Guardian, 8 Feb 1845, p.2. 79 Bathurst Free Press and Mining Journal, 23 Oct 1852, p.2.


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80 Ancestry, New South Wales, Australia, Gaol Description and Entrance Books, 1818-1930, Entrance Book, Darlinghurst, 1861-1864.

Tarban Creek Lunatic Asylum operated from 1838-1668, becoming the Gladesville Hospital for the Insane (1869-1914) and subsequently

the Gladesville (Mental) Hospital – Research Data Australia, https://researchdata.ands.org.au/tarban-creek-lunatic-1915-93/164329. 81 NSW BDM, Death registration 6664/1873. Australian Cemeteries Index, https://austcemindex.com/inscription?id=15791832. 82 Ancestry, 1828 New South Wales, Australia Census (TNA Copy). 83 Parramatta Chronicle and Cumberland General Advertiser, 16 Mar 1844, p.2. 84 Bell’s Life in Sydney and Sporting Reviewer, 13 Sep 1845, p.3. Dick Curtis (aka the “Pet of the Fancy”) was born in London in 1802

and died there in 1843. He was considered to be one of the greatest bare-knuckle lightweights of the Prize Ring days. He was unbeaten

during his boxing career, except for his last contest – Cyber Boxing Zone, http://www.cyberboxingzone.com/boxing/curtis-dick.htm. 85 Bell’s Life in Sydney and Sporting Reviewer, 8 Jan 1848, p.2. 86 Bell’s Life in Sydney and Sporting Reviewer, 19 Aug 1848, p.2. 87 Windsor and Richmond Gazette, 20 May 1927, p.5. 88 Bell’s Life in Sydney and Sporting Reviewer, 13 July 1850, p.2. 89 The Sydney Morning Herald, 18 Jan 1850, p.2. 90 The Cumberland Mercury, 13 Apr 1878, p.3. 91 Ancestry, New South Wales, Australia, Gaol Description and Entrance Books, 1818-1930, Entrance Book, Parramatta, 1883-1884,

Description Book, Parramatta, 1884-1886.to 92 As well as being issued to immigrants seeking employment in the outer metropolitan/country areas, these passes were also issued for

charitable reasons to people born in the Colony – BDA, http://www.bda-online.org.au/files/IN4_RailwayPasses.pdf. 93 Evening News, 24 Jun 1897, p.5. 94 Cumberland Free Press (Parramatta), 26 Jun 1897, p.11. 95 Daily Telegraph, 23 Jun 1897, p.5. Confusingly and incorrectly, the Evening News of 22 June carried a similar notice, but mistakenly

referred to Richard Crummy as George’s father. 96 NSW BDM, Death certificate 1897/003701. Ancestry, Carrington Family Tree, https://www.ancestry.co.uk/family-

tree/person/tree/10811659/person/1108224099/facts. Edward August Langeschwerdt married Mary Belcher in 1887. 97 Evening News, 21 Jun 1898, p.6. The Daily Telegraph, 21 June 1901, p.1. 98 BDA, Biographical report for Mary Crummy. NSW BDM, Birth registration 1488/1830 V18301448 128. 99 Parramatta Chronicle and Cumberland General Advertiser, 23 Mar 1844, p.2. 100 Empire, 27 Jun 1854, p.2. 101 City of Sydney, Sands directory, https://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/learn/search-our-collections/sands-directory/. The Sydney

Morning Herald, 3 Jul 1866, p.1. 102 NSW BDM, Death registration 806/1866. Note: At least one Ancestry online family tree suggests that Mary Crummy married Robert

Hamilton Whisker in 1856 at Chippendale, and there is indeed a marriage registration to support this – NSW BDM, 861/1856. This same

family tree lists Mary Whisker as dying on 7 May 1903, at Redfern and being buried at Rookwood. However this Mary Whisker was

apparently born about 1839 and her death registration records her parents as being James and Elizabeth – NSW BDM, 7604/1903,

Ancestry, Shennan Family Tree, https://www.ancestry.co.uk/family-tree/person/tree/41578532/person/19963793800/facts. 103 NSW BDM, death registration 83/1874. The Sydney Morning Herald, 8 Jan 1874, p.8. 104 New South Wales Government Gazette, 3 Mar 1874 [Issue No.50], p.669. 105 NSW BDM, Birth registrations 73/1857 and 601/159. Ancestry, Mahony Family Tree, https://www.ancestry.co.uk/family-

tree/person/tree/6814733/person/6551237494/facts. 106 NSW BDM, Marriage registration 1048/1878. 107 Ancestry, Mahony Family Tree, https://www.ancestry.co.uk/family-tree/person/tree/6814733/person/6551237494/facts. Australian

Town and Country Journal, 27 Mar 1880, p.42. 108 The Sydney Morning Herald, 4 Sep 1877, p.1. 109 NSW BDM, birth/baptism registration V18312014 127. 110 Ancestry, Street and Muir Family Tree. NSW BDM Marriage registration, 22/1849 VV1849 96. 111 Empire, 14 Nov 1865, p.3. Freeman’s Journal, 16 Dec 1865, p.793. 112 The Sydney Morning Herald, 14 Mar 1868, p.5. 113 Ancestry, New South Wales, Australia, Gaol Description and Entrance Books, 1818-1930, Description Book, Parramatta, 1881-1883. 114 The Sydney Morning Herald, 5 Jan 1871, p.6. 115 NSW BDM, Marriage registration 2881/1865. 116 NSW BDM, Marriage certificate 1871/000157. 117 The Protestant Standard, 14 Oct 1871, p.6. William Bailey arrived at Tasmania, a convicted forger. He subsequently became a

teacher and preacher and gained a licence to conduct marriages which was not renewed after he was sentenced to 6 months

imprisonment in 1871 for marrying a minor - T. B. McCall, 'Bailey, William (1806–1879)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National

Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/bailey-william-1731/text1905, published first in

hardcopy 1966, accessed online 22 June 2019. 118 NSW BDM, Birth registrations 15303/1872, 17201/1874.

http://www.bda-online.org.au/files/IN4_RailwayPasses.pdf


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119 New South Wales Police Gazette and Weekly Record of Crime, 4 Feb 1874 [Issue No.5], p.33. The Cumberland Mercury, 4 May

1878, p.6; 31 Aug 1878, p.4; and 26 Oct 1878, p.4. 120 The Cumberland Mercury, 13 Jul 1885, p.1. 121 Evening News, 13 Jul 1889, p.4. The Sydney Morning Herald, 11 Jul 1889, p.12. 122 NSW BDM, Death certificate 1891/012348. 123 NSW BDM, Death registration 9086/1876, Marriage registration 6190/1892. 124 The Daily Telegraph, 25 Feb 1889, p.7. Evening News, 28 Nov 1891, p.6. The Daily Telegraph, 4 Apr 1895, p.3. 125 NSW BDM, Birth/Baptism registration 170/1833 V1833170 126. 126 Ovens and Murray Advertiser (Beechworth), 17 Feb 1855, p.5. 127 The Mining Record and Grenfell General Advertiser, 22 Jun 1867, p.3. 128 New South Wales Government Gazette, 3 Sep 1875 [Issue No.236], p.2709. 129 Mary Crummy (née Cain) death certificate. 130 The Sydney Morning Herald, 21 Aug 1851, p.3. 131 Ancestry, New South Wales, Australia, Gaol Description and Entrance Books, 1818-1930, Entrance Book, Goulburn, 1848-1869. 132 The Sydney Morning Herald, 25 Jan 1867, p.5. 133 The Cumberland Mercury, 11 Nov 1876, p.3. 134 New South Wales Government Gazette, 22 Aug 1876 [Issue N.290], p.3266. 135 The Cumberland Mercury, 29 Mar 1879, p.8. 136 Australian Town and Country Journal, 27 Mar 1880, p.10. Ancestry, New South Wales, Australia, Gaol Description and Entrance

Books, 1818-1930, Entrance Book, Parramatta, 1878-1881. New South Wales Police Gazette and Weekly Record of Crime (Sydney :

1860-1930), Wed 29 Sep 1880 [Issue No.39], p.363. 137 Ancestry, New South Wales, Australia, Government Gazettes, 1853-1899, 1891, May-June. 138 NSW State Archives & Records, Tramway Branch, https://www.records.nsw.gov.au/agency/4845. 139 NSW BDM, Marriage certificate 1892/001254. 140 Ancestry, Ann Winship Family Tree, https://www.ancestry.co.uk/family-tree/person/tree/83073856/person/42483572698/facts. The

Sydney Morning Herald, 24 Sep 1887, p.1. 141 Evening News, 21 Jun 1898, p.6. 142 The Daily Telegraph, 3 Jan 1900, p.10. Evening News, 6 Jan 1900, p.1. 143 NSW BDM, Death certificate 1901/014611. 144 The Sydney Morning Herald, 20 Jun 1919, p.8. 145 Ancestry, Ann Winship Family Tree. 146 The Sydney Morning Herald, 21 Jun 1919, p.10. Find A Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 27

June 2019), memorial page for Elizabeth Margaret Belcher Crummy (1857–19 Jun 1919), Find A Grave Memorial no. 188437119, citing

Rookwood General Cemeteries Reserve Trust, Rookwood, Cumberland Council, New South Wales, Australia ; Maintained by

alisonc1109 (contributor 48349597).

https://www.findagrave.com/

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/188437119/elizabeth-margaret-crummy

https://www.findagrave.com/user/profile/48349597


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SELECTED SOURCES

Genealogy Websites

Ancestry

1828 New South Wales, Australia Census (Australian Copy)

1828 New South Wales, Australia Census (TNA Copy)

Australia, Births and Baptisms, 1792-1981

New South Wales and Tasmania, Australian Convict Musters, 1806-1849

New South Wales, Australia, Certificates of Freedom, 1810-1814, 1827-1867

New South Wales, Australia, Colonial Secretary’s Papers, 1788-1856

New South Wales, Australia, Gaol Description and Entrance Books, 1818-1930

New South Wales, Australia, Government Gazettes, 1853-1899

New South Wales, Australia, Registers of Land Grants and Leases, 1792-1867

New South Wales, Australia, St. John’s Parramatta, Marriages, 1790-1966

Online Family Trees

UK, Prison Hulk Registers and Letter Books, 1802-1849

Other Websites

Australian Cemeteries Index, https://austcemindex.com/

Australian Dictionary of Biography, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/

Biographical Database of Australia (BDA), http://www.bda-online.org.au/

City of Sydney Archives, https://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/learn/search-our-collections/city-archives/

Convict Records, https://convictrecords.com.au/

Cyber Boxing Zone, http://www.cyberboxingzone.com/

Find a Grave, https://www.findagrave.com/

Free Settler or Felon? https://www.jenwilletts.com/

New South Wales Registry of Births, Deaths, Marriages, https://www.bdm.nsw.gov.au/

NSW Land Registry Services, https://nswlrs.com.au/

NSW State Archives & Records, https://www.records.nsw.gov.au/archives/

Online Newspapers

British Newspapers (Findmypast)

Caledonian Mercury

Evening Mail

Hull Packet

Lancaster Gazette

Manchester Mercury

Morning Chronicle

The Scots Magazine

TROVE

Australian Town and Country Journal

Bathurst Free Press and Mining Journal

Bell’s Life in Sydney and Sporting Reviewer

Cumberland Free Press (Parramatta)

Empire

Evening News

Free Press and Commercial Journal

Freeman’s Journal

New South Wales Government Gazette

New South Wales Police Gazette and Weekly Record of Crime

Ovens and Murray Advertiser (Beechworth)

Parramatta Chronicle and Cumberland General Advertiser

Sydney Chronicle

The Australian

The Cumberland Mercury

The Daily Telegraph

The Mining Record and Grenfell General Advertiser

The Monitor

The Protestant Standard

https://austcemindex.com/

http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/

http://www.bda-online.org.au/

https://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/learn/search-our-collections/city-archives/

https://convictrecords.com.au/

http://www.cyberboxingzone.com/

https://www.findagrave.com/

https://www.jenwilletts.com/

https://www.bdm.nsw.gov.au/

https://nswlrs.com.au/

https://www.records.nsw.gov.au/archives/


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The Sentinel

The Star and Working Man’s Guardian

The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser

The Sydney Herald

The Sydney Morning Herald

Windsor and Richmond Gazette

© Leonie Fretwell, 2019

Documents

Mary Cain - WordPress.com...Mary Cain made her mark ‘X’. 6 Bond of Friendship Mary Cain - Scotland - 2-The Lancaster Gazette of 31 August 1816 lamented the ‘melancholy fact’