Patrick Sheedy is my great great grandfather. he was born in Oakhampton in Co Tipperary on the 4th Dec. 1815, son of John Sheedy and Mary Burke. Along with my Mother and Sister I have been recording details of his life for ten years. 출장마사지
When first writing to all of the surviving members of 2nd generation Australian descendants of Pat Sheedy – in an attempt to locate his shipping record – I was told stories of a common thread, even though the families had been spread through out Australia and some families had no contact with the original homestead family.�
some of the stories we where told….
� Pat Sheedy was arrested by police for shooting some troopers and he was given his land here in Australia as a ticket of leave incentive.�
Pat Sheedy’s family were all Fisherman from the River Shannon.�
Pat Sheedy was a White Boy [though no-one really knew what this meant]�
Pat Sheedy was arrested when he went to recover the family cow which was the only family sustenance and it had been taken to the pound .�
Pat Sheedy was involved in a mutiny when he was coming from Norfolk Island�
Pat Sheedy was involved in a mutiny, the captains throat was cut and the boat was sank.�
Pat Sheedy came on the same boat as his wife – who begged him never to go back to sea.� 신용카드현금화
Pat Sheedy came on the same boat as his wife and swam to shore.�
Pat Sheedy came on a boat and scuttled it at the Basin and that was why everyone laughed at the Mahogany Ship legend.
Pat Sheedy had a son called Scuttler Sheedy and this was because his father scuttled a boat.[don’t know why the others were called Plunkett and Chang!!]�
That Pat Sheedy was in the Eureka Rebellion with Peter Lalor�
The consensus was that he was a Whiteboy� and that he was at Eureka�
My grandmother often told this to her children, and she lived with her father on Pat Sheedys original land, which was sold a few years after his death and re-purchased 13 years later by his son Martin Sheedy.�
So faced with a daunting array of information I put it aside because I couldn’t even find his marriage.�
Slowly we pieced the information together from the children’s births [which were in the Killarney district of Victoria,] – on all of the births;information, and details fluctuated about Pat,his age, marriage,birthplace: – one said Ireland, some said Tipperary, some said he married in Koroit, some said Port Fairy. We searched for marriages in both places and could find nothing.�
Then we hit the jackpot when we located his marriage in Warrnambool and it said his parents were John Sheedy and Mary Bourke and that he was born in Newport in Ireland c. 1826. So we hurriedly sent away to Nenagh Heritage Centre and eagerly awaited a reply.�
Meanwhile, we found Pat’s death at Killarney and it said that he was born c. 1840, that he died on the 2 Jan 1886 and that he was buried at Tower Hill and his parents were James Sheedy and Bridget Meagher.�
Major confusion;- the first two children were called this so we thought this must be the right parents – and we had just sent to Ireland for the other parents!!�
Then I found an obituary for Pat in the Warrnambool newspapers. – [the one and only page missing from the Port Fairy Newspapers that covered Pats death was MISSING!] and it stated that he died on the 26th December 1885!! More confusion – how could he die a week earlier than stated on his death certificate?? So we hunted around and found his burial records – they said he was buried on the 28th of Dec. 1885 at Tower Hill – so that was two pieces of evidence that Pat Sheedy died in Dec 1885 and not Jan 1886 as stated on his death certificate.We then looked for a will – which was a negative result – but his wife had taken out letters of administration after his death and on these it stated that he died on the 26th Dec. 1885. [3 bits of supporting evidence!! This was a major triumph in those days when we had so little to go on!!] I then located the ORIGINAL burial records for Tower Hill and it said he was buried next to his son Patrick on the 28th Dec. 1885.So we now had four sourcesto state that Patrick Sheedy died on the 26th Dec 1885 as opposed tothe Jan date that was stated by law on his death certificate!! 신용카드현금화
� Around this time we received� back the records from Ireland.� All three of us wrestled around the kitchen trying to get it off each other – finally giving in to age and handing over to mum [only cause she threatened not to babysit for us!!] and the birth records stated that Pat was born in 1815 in the townland of Oakhampton ,parish of Newport, Co of Tipperary. His parents were John Sheedy and Mary Burke and it also listed other siblings some of whom were born at Birdhill [near Oakhamton]. So Pat was ten years older than he stated at marriage!!! And as for Birdhill – here I learnt a very important lesson. Mum had told me once earlier on that her property [the original land of Pat Sheedy] was called Birdhill. We laughed and thought it was because of all the seagulls [we live near a beach] and were disappointed that we didn’t have a homestead name like BallyCastle, or something that would tell us where he was from.�So ‘old Pat would have been grinning at our stupidity methinks !
Still now at least we knew that Pat Sheedy was born 1815, and not1826 and 1840,as he had stated! and he was the son of John Sheedy/Mary Burke and not James Sheedy / Bridget Meagher, the latter being who he stated. He died a week earlier than he should have and he couldn’t remember where he married !!�
So we searched for ships. We located the�available shipping arrival of every Pat Sheedy on every coast of Australia. We located the deaths and marriages of every Pat Sheedy in Australia. We found the ship his wife- to- be came on and he wasn’t with her [unless he worked on it]. She had arrived in Portland in 1854 but had come to Port Fairy on another boat – a coastal trader – so perhaps he came on that. We searched records for it.�We searched all the convict records to NSW and found no trace of it. We wrote to every Sheedy in the Counties of Clare, Tipperary and Limerick and those we could find in Australia. We left no stone unturned..� Except a very important rock. We neglected to look seriously at Tasmanian records !�
One day whilst searching in the GSV in Melbourne I located the Irish Transportation Records which had just been released and idly noting the Sheedys – which I always did on anything I searched. I saw a Patrick Sheedy convicted at Nenagh Co Tipperary, 1845. I knew before I read another word that it was our Pat. My hair stood on end !!�
I got so excited I nearly forgot to write the information down. I raced through all the references, dying to race out and ring Mum, then I realised I had to view microfilm.� ….arrrgghhh … Time was running out, they would be closing soon.� 신용카드현금화
I managed to write down the Ship, petition notices, ships references before closing.�
It said that Pat Sheedy was sentenced at Nenagh in 1845� for appearing in arms and firing at.�
That he was sent to TASMANIA per Ratcliffe in 1845. His age was out a little, but you can bet I made superman look like an amateur when I hit that phone box. It was the longest 3 hour trip home in my life.�
� We sat and inspected the information in the manner of a jewel expert inspecting the finest stone. We turned it over and around and upside down – it was discussed and ideas were tossed about, all the while waiting for a reply from State Archives in Tasmania to our query re Convict records on Pat.�
We all loitered inconspicuously around the letter box for days.-.6 weeks actually. We cursed the mailman, we cursed the archives office.. we cursed each other for getting there first. But eventually the big day came and there it was – this wondrous piece of information that might contain the secrets we were after !!� Pat stated on his convict record that he was the son of John Sheedy [matched his marriage record] who was alive at the time of Pat’s sentencing at native place, [no mother listed – she must be dead] that he had brothers, Michael and John alive, also, same place, and a sister Bridget.[these tallied].� He was sentenced and transported with James Naughton. He was sent to the infamous Port Arthur district� of Saltwater river for 21 months and after that he was sent to the convict depot.�
He had stayed out of trouble for the first few years , obtained his prison pass 3, allowing him to find work for himself but still being under the auspices of the convict department. – and right there at the bottom of the page – ABSCONDED. Of course it couldn’t be as simple as 1850 could it -no – it also had a 1 through the 0 – so it was either 1850 or 1851. But we had come to expect this type of thing by now!! Pat had served only 5 years of his fifteen year sentence.�
We had cousin, Sarah Willis, who went to Ireland for a trip and she kindly went off to Nenagh Heritage Centre and found the details of Pat’s conviction for us. He was arrested at O’Briens Bridge for attempting to ambush a party of policemen,[as opposed to troopers] along with James Naughton [McNaughton] and another man who got away. He was sentenced to death but it was commuted to transportation over the seas to Van Diemans land for 15 years [lucky for us].� 신용카드현금화
Sarah took photos of the gaol and found that the only man who ever escaped from Nenagh Gaol was lodged in the same cell with Pat Sheedy. He joined together bed sheets, lowered them from the window, rumplestiltskin style, and promptly fell to the ground, breaking both his legs. It didn’t stop him, he crawled across a compound, climbed a ladder into the women’s compound, crawled across that and climbed over another wall. Sadly he was found nearby the next day as far as he could crawl….�
We are still trying to locate what happened to Pat’s father and brothers and sister Bridget from when they were in Newport area in 1845.
� We found Pat Sheedys arrest at Eureka Stockade.
� We have been able to substantiate most of the family stories.
� We are still trying to locate how Pat got out of Tasmania. One of the last people he went to visit was a Richard or Reverend� Waycroft or Waycross, Waycott / Weycott� or similar and this man was also visited by another absconder around that time. There was a Richard Waycross who manageda small hotel in Tasmania and he was the same man who John Mitchell [Young Irelander Fame]visited, dressed as a priest, just prior to embarking on the boat that was to take him to America and freedon.
� Many of the men who were transported per Ratcliffe managed to escape Tasmania. .some were recaptured, some not.� 신용카드현금화
It is our belief that there was an organised system or network of sympathisers that assisted� to get prisoners out of Tasmania, this is also around the time of the organised escape of one of the Young Irelanders.�John McNamara, who was the Mayor of Sydney, was the same man who assistedJohn Mitchell in his escape out of Tasmania.Mcnamara owned his own fleetof vessels, and had sent down several in Mitchel’s escape attempt priorto his last and sucessful attempt.For Futher information on Patrick Sheedy and his family.see Sheedy-Pat
There were 6 Sheedy Brothers who were sent to NSW between 1803 – 1840 for political crimes – they were exiled. Some of their children were subsequently sent out also. The first family were members of the United Irishmen and kept a diary, but that is another story……..