Michael Farrell: building a life

Life in Cork

Michael Farrell was the first Farrell in the family to arrive in Australia. There is much we don't know about his life, but there is enough to get some idea of his character and the impression he made on a Bengal-born military officer who would become one of Australia most famous explorers.

Michael was born about 1808 in Brandon, County Cork, Ireland, and died in Adelaide 5 July 1850. He was a free settler, a convict and a carpenter. His profession would also attract some of his descendants, though not his raucous first-born Richard from whom we descend.

His death record suggests a birth in 1808 but the names of his Catholic parents are not known.

Prior to his departure for New South Wales, Cork’s economy had gone into decline. The end of the Napoleonic Wars contributed to a slump with prices for agricultural produce falling. Cork Harbour no longer regularly hosted the Royal Navy and that caused a decline in the provisions trade. Unemployment rose and was exacerbated by an influx of migrants from economically depressed rural areas. 

The growing Colony of New South Wales looked attractive for the young carpenter. Michael’s parents may have encouraged the move and may also have travelled the 30 kilometres from Bandon to Cork Harbour to see him off, guessing that they may never meet again.

Arrival In Port Jackson

On 25 May 1827, the Mariner arrived in Port Jackson with some free settlers and '158 male prisoners, having lost two on the passage’. The guard was an attachment of the 39th Regiment under Ensign Charles Sturt who would later become famous as an explorer. Michael, as we shall see, made a positive impression on Sturt.

In Sydney, Michael met others who had arrived from Cork at St Mary’s Chapel near Hyde Park the hub of Catholic activity under the leadership of Cork-born Father John Therry. Therry’s interest in Australia had been ‘aroused by the transportation of Irish convicts’ and he arrived in 1820 and as a ‘farseeing pastor making up for years of neglect’. One of his aims was to build a church and perhaps he took an interest in those of who the skills to help him build it.

Michael gets into strife

However, within a year, Michael had got himself into trouble. He was charged with being an accessory in a case of murder and robbery. The trial process lasted from April to August and he was ultimately found guilty in the Supreme Court of receiving stolen jewellery following a house robbery during which the owners’ servant was murdered.

William Regan was convicted of the murder and Father Therry encouraged him to write down the names of those who held the stolen property before his execution. Regan also a native of Cork and stone-mason, named Bartholomew Taylor and with a little more reluctance Michael Farrell. Regan’s trial detailing his shooting of James Davis made compelling reading in the papers.

The case that entangled Michael.
Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser
Monday 14 April 1828

Charges against Taylor were initially dropped for lack of evidence, but Frederick Hely, superintendent of convicts, was keen to pursue testimony showing that the pair had tried to sell the stolen goods. In June 1828, the Police Bench examined Taylor ‘a prisoner of the Crown, and until very lately assigned to his wife’ and Farrell ‘a youth of but a few months knowledge of the Colony … [and] a lodger in Taylor's house.’

Captain Sturt was a character witness for Farrell and stated that he knew him as a ‘carpenter's mate and that he bore the character of an orderly, honest man’. John Flood, Farrell’s employer, also attested to his ‘good character for honesty and industry’. Taylor was sentenced to 14 years transportation at Norfolk Island and Farrell to seven. Sturt’s reference when combined with Farrell’s youth, the fact that he was a boarder with Taylor and the suggestion that Regan had been reluctant to mention him may have helped confirm a lighter sentence.

Charles Sturt (1795-1869) Explorer, replica by
John Michael Crossland, oil on canvas, circa 1853.
National Portrait Gallery NPG 3302 used with permission.
Without him, Michael and Catherine may not have married.

Farrell's stroke of luck

Farrell made two petitions for pardon. The first less than six months after his transportation, a professionally written form letter, was quickly rejected.

The second came about by a stroke of good fortune. 

Captain Sturt happened to be stationed at Norfolk Island for a short time and after meeting Mick took the initiative in writing to Governor Burke on 22 February 1832 that ‘Farrell’s conduct has been so exemplary on Norfolk Island and his executions of his duties so satisfactory that I am convinced he erred more from pliancy of disposition…’. The pardon was granted by Governor Bourke three days later. 

Farrell’s pardon document has some luck for us also. It includes a description of him; 5 feet 5 ¼ inches tall, sallow complexion, brown hair and grey eyes. He had a scar on his left hand (perhaps showing he was a righthanded carpenter) and a tattoo on his left arm - ‘MFIN’. ‘MF’ refers to Michael Farrell himself and ‘IN’ may refer to a loved one. He did not arrive in 1828 as a convict so it is not clear whether the tattoo was made in Cork or on Norfolk Island.

Catherine Ahern leaves Cork

Back in Cork, Catherine Ahern was one of a group of 202 girls and young women removed from the Cork House of Industry and Foundling Hospital and dispatched to Sydney on the Red Rover in April 1832. The plan was to solve two problems: the care of orphaned girls and the lack of industrious women of marriageable age in New South Wales. The Red Rover was celebrated on its arrival in Sydney on 10 August 1832 as the first emigrant ship carrying solely non-convict women. The Sydney Gazette hoped that the women, ‘who presented … a neat and respectable appearance will be so treated by the families who apply for them, as to effect that important amelioration in the moral condition of our working population, which the measure is intended to accomplish’. Indeed.

Catherine made arrangements for employment as a housemaid with Mrs John Paul of George Street, not far from where Michael was living. Perhaps Michael and Catherine met at St. Mary’s at one of Father Therry's matchmaking events. In any case, they were married at St Mary’s on 19 February 1833. The marriage and arrival of several children, starting with our ancestor Richard on 16 February 1834, did ameliorate Michael who kept out of serious trouble for the rest of his life. In 1837 Catherine’s sister may have joined them perhaps to help with the growing family.

Mick and Catherine's marriage - witnessed by new friends.
The place was St Mary's Chapel. It became a Cathedral after their marriage.

Catherine kept in contact with several of her Red Rover companions; they showed up as witnesses at one another's weddings and children's baptisms. Michael's companions seem to have been other builders including John Mazagora a son of free settler Constable John Massagora whose family arrived in 1816. John and Mick both worked for Francis Reynolds a 'respectable builder in Kent Sreet'.

Adelaide calls

In 1846, immigration to Adelaide from other Australian Colonies increased as a result of the Colony’s mineral wealth. Steady work was available in the building industry and the Colony’s population rose from 22, 000 in 1846 to 63, 000 in 1850.

The Farrells got in early and arrived on board the Emma from Sydney on 28 April 1846, listed as ‘Farrell, M. Mr and wife and 3 children’. Up to that point, Catherine had given birth to seven children. Some may have died before they left for Adelaide and some may not have travelled with them perhaps staying with Catherine's sister. 

Charles Sturt was also in Adelaide and helped encouraged its development before leaving on an expedition in 1844. Although there is no evidence that he encouraged Michael to make the move it is possible.

In Adelaide, two more Farrell children were born; Anne and Thomas. 

The scourge of tuberculosis

At this time tuberculosis was a common cause of death in the Colonies. It was probably in Adelaide that Michael contracted tuberculosis which killed him in 1850 and his young son Thomas in 1852. 

There is no record of the burial of either Michael or Thomas although West Terrace Cemetery believes they buried there  -  it was the only cemetery in town and it has unmarked Catholic graves for which there are no records. Michael's undertaker was a neighbour in Currie Street, Adelaide. John Groser had been declared insolvent in 1846 as a carpenter and presumably found that the dead paid better than the living.

There is also no evidence of what happened to Catherine after the death of Thomas in 1852. Her daughter Anne was in Bendigo soon after her brother’s death. She was only about seven years of age so perhaps her mother took her there and perhaps she married again.

Michael may have been naive but benefited from Therry’s community, his marriage and the help of Charles Sturt who recognised his good nature and honoured the hopes the young carpenter felt when he left Cork Harbour.

Revised 9 November 2018.