John McPhee Family Bernard McPhee

A supplement to John McPhee and his Family 1982 - 2007 Third Edition - online

Memorial to the McPhee and Loney Pioneers of the Natimuk district Erected on 1 December 2002, on the occasion of the centenary of the death of John McPhee, this memorial recalls the pioneering endeavours of the McPhee family and the Loney family in this Natimuk district, especially John McPhee and his wife, Bridget McPhee, and her parents Samuel Loney and Catherine Landrigan. John McPhee came from “Killiechonate”, on the Inverlochy Estate, Shire of Inverness, Scotland where he was born in 1833, and Bridget Loney was born in Melbourne in 1845, her parents Samuel and Catherine Loney having come from Whitechurch, Tipperary in Ireland in 1839. John McPhee is listed in 1863 as living at Nurrabiel in the first book of ratepayers in the newly erected shire of Horsham. John McPhee is buried in this Natimuk Cemetery, and so are his wife’s father Samuel Loney, his two daughters Janie and Alice, and his brother Archibald McPhee who died in June 1876. Bridget McPhee died in 1923, and is buried at Kenmare. John McPhee’s father, also John McPhee, who was born in Inverary Scotland in 1796, died at Little River in 1867 after just 14 years in Victoria. His wife Charlotte MacArthur had died in Scotland. This memorial plaque recalls also the family of John and Bridget McPhee: John, Alice, Janie, Charlotte (married Billy Brasier of Rainbow), Kate (married George Hassall of Wootong Vale and Coleraine), Archie (married Mary Murphy

of Natimuk), Jimmy (married Julia Murphy of Natimuk), Margaret (married Harry Sisson of Natimuk), Mary Ellen (married James Bernasochi of Walhalla), Robert (married Bridget Liston of Beulah West), Emily (married John Murphy of Natimuk), and Hector (married Katie Liston of Beulah West), and this memorial recalls the fifty six grand children of John and Bridget McPhee. This memorial plaque recalls also the Aboriginal neighbours and friends, and at times protectors, of the McPhee family, especially the people of the Glenelg and Wimmera tribes, at the juncture of whose territories the McPhees once lived. This memorial recalls these following other McPhee neighbours, relatives and friends of early Natimuk: Michael Healy, Alexander McPhee, Jane, Samuel, Robert and Eugene Loney, Fabian Ryan, Agnes Ryan, Tom and Mary Murphy, Alec Scott, Mrs Lamont, Rev. Thomas Barrett, Ronald Cameron and Jessie McPhee Cameron, Michael Jackman, Henry and Frances O’Bree, William Kenny, Charles Wilson, Hector A. Wilson and members of the Natimuk Agricultural and Pastoral Society with whom John McPhee worked for the development of the Natimuk District, including E. Haustorfer, J. McClure, G. Klowss, L. Lange, A. E. Beard, W. Nichterlein, J. Naismith, W. Kubale and T. Blight.

John McPhee Family

Introduction Welcome back to readers of the 1982 book: “John McPhee and his Family”. This new booklet, which I am calling “John McPhee Family” is meant to complement the 1982 collection. The new booklet contains material which I had prepared for the Natimuk Memorial Day in December 2002, and I have added to that Souvenir Booklet some ten pages of photos, old and new, with explanatory captions. A new section provides information of the Scottish historical origins of the McPhee family in Lochaber, and another article places the Garrett Liston family in a Limerick context. There has been an important development regarding photographs: following a visit to New Zealand and following conversations with Margaret Johnston from near Dunedin, and with Bob Stewart in Levin, we have concluded that one of the 1860 McPhee and Stewart photographs in Margaret’s possession is definitely a photograph of Alexander McPhee (who married Bridget Cunningham) later of Natimuk and Bealiba, and not a photograph of John McPhee as previously thought. (See page 18, in the book: “John McPhee and His Family” Edited by Bernard McPhee 1982). Other than this, there seems to be no extant photograph of Alexander McPhee, brother of John McPhee of Vectis and Natimuk. Thanks to Jane McPhee Fennessy at Blue Vapours Publishing in Gertrude Street Fitzroy for her skill and energy in putting this book together. I am a happy person now that these photographs can be held and owned by everybody, especially by friends, relations and studious young people of the John McPhee families. Bernard McPhee [email protected] 17 December, 2008

Page 1

John and Bridget McPhee, 1898

Contents John McPhee’s Scotland before 1853 Samuel and Catherine Loney McPhee Reunion of 1982 Picture Scottish Origins of our McPhee family Photo Album Thomas Liston of Limerick McPhee the Explorer Robert Campbell Scarlett McPhee Tom & Mary Murphy The Murphy Story Tom Murphy’s Letters Natimuk Properties John McPhee’s Dwelling Footnotes to Clement Article John T McPhee and the Gartland Family

2 7 11 13 15 23 26 28 30 30 34 36 37 38 40

John McPhee Family

John McPhee’s Scotland Before 1853 The places of interest to visit are: Corriechoille, on the South side of the River Spean. Leave from Spean Bridge, and go along the well-marked road to Corriechoille House, a most beautifully fitted Bed and Breakfast. John ‘Corriechoille’ Cameron

‘Corriechoille’ in 1985

The proprietors of the B&B will guide you out to the sparse remnants of John Cameron’s first dwelling, in the pine forest of today.

Cameron who was known as the Lochaber Drover or Corriechoille Cameron. He was both master and kinsman to John McPhee. (You could read the little booklet on John Corriechoille Cameron entitled: “The Lochaber Drover ‘Corrychoille’”, by Alistair Cameron, FSA (Scot.) 16 pages, No date.)

The main house at Killiechonate, 1985

Remnants of Cameron’s first dwelling

When John McPhee (father of John McPhee) married Charlotte MacArthur in 1826, his address was given as “Corriechoille”. Whether he meant the new house, now called Corriechoille House, or whether he meant the older stuff in today’s pine forest, shown on maps of the 1750’s, we don’t know. Plenty is known however about the John

Page 2

Killiechonate, on the same side of the Spean River, and back from Corriechoille towards Spean Bridge. John McPhee lived at Killiechonate for most of his youthful twenty years in Scotland. Apparently the MacDonells and the MacDonalds who were in the main house there were ‘factors’ or managers of the Inverlochy Estate for the Lairds, firstly the Gordons and then, from 1836, for Lord Abinger. When the McPhees lived there in their separate cottage, the

John McPhee Family

main man was Captain John MacDonell. The census of 1841 and 1851 lists all the McPhees present on those dates, and with them MacArthurs and others. The big house standing on the site today, was built in 1836, and today it is a kind of guest house, not so well kept, and with dogs, and Corporately owned. The Cemetery of Cille Choirill contains a splendid monument to the MacDonald hero of Culloden from Killiechonate.

and in “Cille Choirill Brae Lochaber” by Ann Macdonell and Robert MacFarlane, a pamphlet style production from Lochaber, 1980)

Vin McPhee in Glen Roy, of the Parallel Roads

Cemetery and Cameron Chapel, Cille Choirill

Cemetery at Cille Choirill. On the opposite side of the Spean River, and some distance South from Roy Bridge. You will see headstones of MacArthur, McPhee, Cameron, Stewart, Beaton, MacDonald, MacDonell, McNab, MacKillop, many others, and the restored chapel in memory of Cameron, the restoration of which was done by the late Ann Macdonell. Ann MacIntosh presently caretakes the cemetery and chapel. Corriechoille Cameron is buried here. Charlotte MacArthur, John McPhee’s wife, would certainly be buried here. She died about 1845, after the birth of her last son Archibald McPhee. Roman Catholic Bishops and Archbishops made this their last resting place, including Archbishop Grant, a relation of Ann Macdonell of Spean Bridge. Stuart Macdonald numbers the buried at Cille Choirill as: “thousands”. (You can find details of the cemetery in “Back to Lochaber” by Stuart Macdonald, The Pentland Press Edinburgh 1994 commencing on Page 255, John McPhee Family

Glen Roy. This is a most extraordinary and marvelous Glen. John McPhee describes the main feature of its wonder: “the three parallel roads on each side of the Glen.” In some ancient past, the glaciers delayed in the glen three times, leaving these wondrous parallel marks. On account of this, Glen Roy in now a declared Nature Reserve, so that the parallel roads will never be lost to sight. Ronnie Campbell lives in the Glen, and is the Honorary Warden of Glen Roy. Make sure you meet him if you go to Glen Roy, or to Scotland at all, for that matter. As you enter the Glen at Bunroy, you will pass a little inconspicuous mound, and a small monu-ment commemorating the last site of the castle of the MacDonells of Keppoch, and the site of the last great Highland inter-Clan battle between MacIntosh and MacDonell of Keppoch. The latter won. But it is still today all MacIntosh land. Every McPhee will have heard his parent or grandparent say: “Remember that you are related to the MacDonells of Keppoch”. Marie O’Shea of Mount Martha is certain that those are the words as she received them from her mother. There must have been some historic kindness to be remembered.

Page 3

John McPhee’s Scotland: Before 1853 be relatives of John ‘Corriechoille’ Cameron, Ann said. John McPhee adds: “Others were a servant girl and a herd boy”. These could be Alexander McKenzie an unmarried shepherd and either Catherine Cameron or Catherine McMillan, both unmarried servants. Ronny Campbell and Bernie McPhee at the housekeeper’s cottage in Glen Roy, 2001

Housekeeper’s Cottage. John McPhee tells of the terrible ordeal he suffered in the blizzard of 1850. Finally, after taking ten hours to cover the three miles, he found safety at the little cottage where the house-keeper for Mr John ‘Corriechoille’ Cameron was anxiously waiting. You can see the remnants of that little cottage today. Ronny Campbell measured out the distances for us, as we followed John McPhee’s desperate path, down the slope from the track, his feeling blindly down along the edge of the turf wall, feeling for the eaves of the cottage, the door, kicking the door, the hot whisky, the relief. Ronny Campbell and I posed for a photo, with me imitating my grandfather’s kicking at the almost buried cottage’s door. In grandfather’s account of these events, we see a very human side of John Cameron who came to the housekeeper’s cottage very soon to see how John McPhee was, other young men having lost their lives that day and night in the force of the storm and snow. Cameron speaks with them about the days of the famine in earlier times, and the nearness of starvation then. Cameron died in 1856, after the McPhee family had left for Australia. Ann Macdonell told me that Donald Cameron and his wife Morag were the people at this little cottage where John McPhee found safety. They would

Page 4

Ruins of “Achavaddie”, Glen Roy

Drover MacArthur’s residence. A little deeper into Glen Roy stands the ruin of the former house of some grandeur called ‘Achavaddie’, the home of the Drover MacArthur. The MacArthurs are really important in the McPhee history. By 1850, this ‘Drover’ Alexander MacArthur, tenant of MacIntosh, had come upon bad times, and so the vast grazing lands of the Glen Roy were now utilized by John ‘Corriechoille’ Cameron, to whom MacArthur was related. Now there is no simple way of explaining how all these people of Lochaber: McPhee, Cameron, MacArthur, were connected, but for a start it is undisputed that John ‘Corriechoille’ Cameron was a cousin of ‘King’ Cameron of Penola in South Australia. And also in Australia, at Penola, ‘King’ Cameron of Penola was related to Donald MacArthur of Penola and Lightning Ridge. It appears too, that “Corriechoille” Cameron’s mother (Ann MacArthur of Breanbach) and John McPhee’s wife (Charlotte MacArthur of Stronaba) were closely related. It is certain that Donald John McPhee Family

MacArthur of Penola was quite closely related to Charlotte MacArthur McPhee. One suspects that John McPhee’s mother (Ann Cameron) and John Corriechoille Cameron were connected by some affinity and relationship too. By this time in 1850, John Corriechoille’s own fortunes were not as great for the man who was once the greatest cattle dealer in Europe, they said. A further relational thread is established when we see that an Alexander McPhee was best man at the wedding of Ewan Cameron of the Inch farm and neighbour to Corriechoille farm, when Ewan married Katherine McPhee. Ewan was a cousin of both John ‘Corriechoille’ Cameron and of King Cameron of Penola. Ewan came to Australia in the early 1850’s. The late Alan MacArthur of Mont Albert Rd, Canterbury, Victoria, had made a good study of the MacArthurs in Lochaber and in Australia.

and in piteous flight stumbled upon the poor cottage of O’Brien, who was a Cameron, of Braegach in Glen Roy. O’Brien (or O’Byrne, sometimes) saved him, fed him, all that, and set him on the shortest road through the Glen towards Aberdeen Shire. The Earl of Mar left O’Brien his ring. “Come to me if you ever need help.” Well, one day, he did need help, naturally enough, because he had befriended the enemy of the local heavies, so he fled to Aberdeen Shire to the Earl’s Castle, and the ring identified him, and saved him.

The stone of Montrose and Alisdair MacDonald

The outline, which remains of O’Brien’s Cottage in Glen Roy

O’Brien’s Cottage. Remember how John McPhee said that he passed by the remnants of O’Brien’s Cottage, and he said of that house that is was: “well known in Scottish history”. You can still see the remnants of that house. Both Ronnie Campbell and the late Ann Macdonell had directed me to this treasure. I said to Ann: “Why is it famous in Scottish history?” She told me that it went back to the time of the First Battle of Inverlochy in 1431 when the Earl of Mar lost the battle against the Keppoch MacDonalds, John McPhee Family

Sharpening stone. A little off the beaten track, one can see a large stone, with a very regular rectangular cut in the side and top. This is another of those relics, which connect Glen Roy with the very history of the Highlands. It is said that, on the eve of the surprise 1645 attack upon the old Inverlochy Castle, the forces of Montrose used this stone to sharpen their swords. It seemed to work. They thrashed the defenders of old Inverlochy. Three hundred Camerons were with the Marquis of Montrose in this crucial battle in the Wars of the Covenant. It is with some misgiving as a McPhee that one reads of this because Montrose’s great soldier and charismatic leader of his forces, was none other than Alisdair MacDonald, son of Kol Kitto MacDonald the slayer of the last chief of the McPhee (Macfie, MacDuffie) Clan on Page 5

John McPhee’s Scotland: Before 1853 the Island of Colonsay in 1623. I’ll bet that John McPhee sat on this stone many a time as he meditatively watched the docile Cheviots belonging to the great John Corriechoille Cameron. Mary MacKillop’s footsteps. In a letter home to Australia of February, 1874, Mary MacKillop mentions her visit to Lady Gordon at Drinnin in the Western Highlands. Then, after she visited Fort William, Mary MacKillop went to the Braes of Lochaber, and commented on the poverty she found in the old parish of her father Alexander MacKillop. “I saw a number of fine old homesteads, which had once been the happy and hospitable residence of good old families, quite deserted, and their former occupants either dead, or obliged to leave in poverty, for other countries.” (This extract is taken from Page 175 of an old biography of Mary MacKillop entitled: “Life of Mother Mary of the Cross Mackillop 1842 - 1909” by Rev George O’Neill, Pellegrini and Co., 1931) Then Mary MacKillop mentions the thrill of her visit to Glen Roy in these words: “Just imagine my going, accompanied by Father MacDougall, to a wild, grand glen – the home of five wonderful and eccentric Highlanders, all brothers (MacDonald of Cranochan). I really must preserve particulars of this visit until I see you.”

Page 6

Mass stone at Cranachan, Glen Roy

Two other Monuments. As you are leaving Glen Roy, pause for a moment to look at the old Mass Stone at Cranachan. Beautifully carved on the side of the rock is a chalice and host. Ann MacDonell notes that the incision on the rock was made by D C McPherson, who died in 1880. And then, if you are energetic, you can make your way to the Mass Stone on the summit of Mael Doire. You have to set off from Roy Bridge to get to this site, and take provisions for the journey, and be fairly fit. The author of this note, and his brother Michael McPhee, the former a little overweight, with uncertain knees, climbed the overgrown hill to see where they used to attend Mass in the olden days. You could see the Red Coats approaching, from any direction. It was bad news if you were caught apparently.

John McPhee Family

Samuel and Catherine Loney Port Phillip & Wimmera Pioneers Reprinted from Volume IV of Pioneer Profiles, A Port Phillip Pioneers Group Project, Compiled by Maree A. Posthuma.

In 1839, a young couple, Samuel and Catherine Loney, left their home in Tipperary, Ireland to come to the Port Phillip District. Samuel Loney had married Catherine Landrigan on 1 August, 1839, in St Mary’s Church, Cloqheen, in the Parish of Ballylooby. Sometimes Catherine’s name was written as Lonnergan. The young married couple arrived on the “Westminister” to the Port Phillip District on 16 December, 1839, in the first year of the administration of Charles La Trobe, and also the year of the arrival in Melbourne of the first Catholic priest of the district, Rev. B. Geoghegan. The Loneys were devout Catholics. Samuel Loney is said to have taught himself to read by following the words in the Bible, esp-ecially the Gospels, which he knew so well. Samuel Loney purchased land in Melbourne, between Lonsdale Street and Little Bourke Street, along a laneway called Cohen Place today: in the 1860’s it was called Ferguson’s Parade and by 1870 it was called Brown’s lane. It is East from Exhibition Street. Loney mortgaged the property twice, in 1866 and 1869, repaying the mortgage each time. He sold the land in 1871 for 205 Pounds. Today on part of this property stands the Chinese Museum. Loney owned three cottages on the land.

John McPhee Family

Samuel Loney followed his occupation as a tailor for nine years in the infant settlement of Melbourne, and Catherine was a mantle maker, or dressmaker, and then they ventured northwards, where Samuel took a position with Firebrace, owner at the time of the Vectis Station. He worked for the Wilson Brothers, when the Vectis Station and estates came to that family. One of Loney’s earliest appointments was to Dooen whence the family traveled by bullock dray, and the place where the Loneys lived in 1851 at Dooen was known as Loney’s Corner at the Longeronong Road intersection, up until this was recorded in the 1940’s. As a shepherd for the Wilsons, Samuel Loney had to shift continually from one outpost to another, to Hindmarsh, Albacutya, Dimboola, St Arnaud, Avoca, Darragan, Norton Creek, and Nurrabiel, and he always took his wife and small children along with him. Alicia, Elizabeth, Jane and Bridget had been born in those Melbourne years. Many times he had to walk between these distant work places. To guard against highwaymen on these lonely journeys, Sam and Catherine hid gold coins in the dripping, which they carried in jam tins dangling from their covered wagon. Jane Loney had been born in 1842, and Bridget Loney was born on 12 June, 1845, and baptized by Father Richard Walsh in Saint Francis Church in Melbourne on 23 June 1845. On 23 June, 1995, a group of grand-children of Bridget Loney’s, principally from the McPhee and Murphy families, gathered to attend Mass

Page 7

Samuel and Catherine Loney: Port Phillip & Wimmera Pioneers in the same Church of St Francis in Lonsdale Street Melbourne, to recall devoutly the 150 years to the day since that Baptism so long ago. Bridget Loney had fifty-six grand children, of whom the author of this article is the fifty-fifth. In his first years working in these distant places in North Western Victoria, as a shepherd and tailor, Sam Loney brought his family back to Melbourne again once a year, so that they could receive the Sacraments in their beloved Church.

the other daughter Jane with her, and returned to her husband’s side at Lake Hindmarsh. Jane gave her parents details of how the girls had been so poorly treated in Melbourne, no school, and no kindness, from the landlady to whom they had been entrusted. Catherine took the coach back to Dimboola, and Samuel Loney met her there, and took her and Jane home to Lake Hindmarsh, by bullock dray. This was their sad and lonely trip back to their little home.

When the Catholic community had Mass celebrated for them for the first time in Horsham in 1857, it was Jane Loney who was among the helpers and caterers for the refreshments after-wards. She would have been about sixteen years old at the time. It had only been a few weeks before this, when her parents, Samuel and Catherine Loney had walked from Horsham to Ballarat, carrying their daughter Mary Ellen, and taking her to the Catholic Church for Baptism. As a result of the Loney’s visit to Ballarat, the priest, Father Madden, went soon afterwards to minister to the people in distant Horsham.

On one occasion, when they were comfortably settled in their home, in a lovely clump of trees and undergrowth, fires began to rage all around them. Fortunately for them, their shepherd’s hut was a substantial and solid structure. The children who were there at the time, kept filling saucers and dishes of water for the many birds, some of whom came right into the little room. The fires miraculously passed by. They believed that the good mother’s prayers were answered that day. And the children loved the long trips to Melbourne at first, and later to Ballarat, for the Sacraments, and the family made these trips into a long picnic. They looked forward to the annual pilgrimage to Melbourne with feelings of keen pleasure. Catherine Loney, whose tastes had been moulded by the rustic scenery about her, is known to have appreciated especially the Burnbank locality (near Lexton) where they would camp on route.

In 1871, when he sold the property in Lonsdale Street, Loney left Janie and Mary Ellen in Melbourne, to be educated. He paid in advance for them, for their board and the school costs. He paid for everything that the girls would need, and a good supply of clothes and shoes. The children had been in Melbourne for about twelve months, when word reached the Loney parents that one of the girls was very ill. At this time the Loneys were living up near Lake Hindmarsh. When she heard this worrying news, Catherine Loney set off walking through the rough country to Dimboola, carrying a few necessities she had thrown together for the journey. From Dimboola, after some time waiting, she was able to catch the coach to Melbourne. But in Melbourne, she was told that the sick daughter, Mary Ellen, was dead and buried. She had died from neglect. Catherine Loney could do nothing, but she took Page 8

Later on, the Wilson Brothers asked Samuel Loney to go to another outpost on their extensive properties, that of Darragan, where he continued with his trade of tailoring, which he did by candlelight, and with shepherding Wilson’s sheep by day. While living at Darragan, the Loney family started to receive frequent visits from John McPhee, another Wilson employee. The Darragan Creek became a favourite pasture and grazing for the sheep under McPhee’s care. So in 1864 John McPhee married Bridget Loney. The marriage, which was celebrated at the home of John McPhee Family

Mr Michael Healy at Natimuk, with Father Thomas Barrett officiating, was recorded in the Stawell Catholic Parish. Bridget Loney and John McPhee made their home at Nurrabiel, and lived there for nine years. The passage of time saw the Samuel Loney family gradually accumulating properties around Dooen, on the site of Glover’s shop of the 1940’s, and the block of the Presbyterian Church, and around Horsham, and helping his son-in-law to get better land at Natimuk. Jane Loney married James Hammond at Pleasant Creek in 1861. James had come to Australia from Norfolk, England. Like nearly everyone else in the area, Hammond had been working for the Wilsons. He was a boundary rider at the Vectis Station at the time of his marriage. Catherine Loney died in March, 1877, at the home of her daughter Jane O’Donnell in Horsham. Jane, whose husband Hammond had died, was by then married to her second husband John O’Donnell. Jane was to live for another forty years in that small house behind Weight’s funeral parlors. There is a picture of Catherine Loney in the wonderful book by the local historian Rev JF Coughlin in his: “Horsham Parish Centenary Booklet”, and the photo is reproduced on page 41 in the book: “John McPhee and His Family”, published at Port Melbourne by Bernard McPhee, in 1982. Samuel Loney was accidentally killed in 1883. This is how it happened: Samuel Loney’s youngest two sons Robert, aged twenty three, and Eugene, aged twenty, were working with their father at Darragan, where it seems they were clearing some land. Robert recalled that it was about 10.30 in the morning when the accident happened. His father Samuel had been talking away cheerfully to him a little while before, about some land to select, said Robert afterwards. Samuel and Robert had been working on their section of clearing, about a mile from where Robert was engaged in cutting limbs from a big tree. After he had seen to Eugene’s going off to look at some other section, Samuel Loney approached to where Robert was

John McPhee Family

Bridget McPhee, at Kenmare, 1911

working. By the time Robert saw Samuel approaching, and had called out to him of the danger of coming so close, it was too late for Samuel to avoid a giant limb, which fell. Robert ran to him – “Father, can you speak?” he said. He called for Eugene, who was attracted by the loud cries and at once ran back, and then they both together tried to get the big limb off him. But they could not move it. And Eugene added: “My father did not move.” Samuel Loney had been in Victoria for some fortythree years, and he died when he was only sixty-six years old. He did not leave a will. His son James applied to administer his estate, but James also died before this could be affected, so Samuel Loney Junior got permission to administer the estate. The deceased’s estate showed that Samuel Loney had a bay mare called “Poll”; he had a black mare called “Gipsy” and he had two bay horses called “Prince” and “Chance”. Samuel Loney had owned a block of land in Richmond, what is today 12 Albert Street Richmond. In Horsham he owned land on the corner of Firebrace Street and O’Callaghan’s Parade. And he owned a single block in Urquhart Street Horsham. - Bernard McPhee

Page 9

McPhee Reunion at Bob & Helen McPhee’s, Watchupga Nov ‘82

On this page and the next is a photograph of the wider McPhee family at Bob and Helen McPhee’s Watchupga home and includes grandchildren of John and Bridget McPhee and many of the great grandchildren and other descendants including members of the Hassall, Herrick, O’Keefe, Liston, Brasier, Murphy, Kelly and Sisson families. Page 10

John McPhee Family

This very happy Watchupga gathering was also the occasion on which the book John McPhee and His Family was launched. The book John McPhee and His Family was produced largely at the initiative of Bob McPhee of Watchupga. John McPhee Family

Page 11

More of 1982 Reunion, Watchupga

Sisson - McPhee Wedding 1898 Harry and Margaret Sisson in front of Presbytery at Horsham

Page 12

John McPhee Family

Scottish origins of our McPhee family By Bernard McPhee John McPhee, (grandfather) came from Inverness Scotland to Australia with his father John McPhee, whom we have of late been calling “John Inverary McPhee” (1796 – 1867), because of the information on his death certificate, recorded by Mr Ewen MacPherson of Little River. The first undisputed Scottish documented information about John Inverary McPhee comes from his Certificate of Marriage to Charlotte MacArthur in 1826. Anyway we know that John Inverary McPhee’s parents were Duncan McPhee and Ann Cameron, and the Census of 1841 reinforces the fact that John was not a native of Lochaber. But he married Charlotte MacArthur of Stronaba in Inverness, and from then on at least he lived in Lochaber. Our New Zealand relatives have kindly provided the only photo extant of John Inverary McPhee.

McPhee of Lochaline and Glendessary It is widely considered most likely that this same Duncan McPhee and his wife Ann Cameron were also the parents of Hugh Donald McPhee whose widow and descendants came to Australia and then on to New Zealand in the 1850’s. So we know the names of Duncan McPhee’s parents also. In latter times they lived at Lochaline in Ardnamurchan, but in all probability they came from Glendessary on the North side of Loch Archaig before this, and fit in neatly with the genealogical evidence amassed by Somerled MacMillan about McPhee families from that area who, after the battle of Culloden were dispossessed and scattered.

Lochaber from 1826 to 1853 When, after his marriage to Charlotte MacArthur in 1826, John Inverary McPhee went to live at Killiechonate in Lochaber, and there he was in the household of the MacDonalds at that residence. (Stuart MacDonald notes that John McPhee Family

Donald MacArthur of Limestone Ridge in South Australia was a close kinsman of the MacDonells of Keppoch, and we know that he was a close kinsperson also of the Charlotte MacArthur just mentioned.) The MacDonald at that residence was John MacDonell Killiechonate commonly called John Dubh Aberarder, and his wife Catherine most interestingly was the daughter of Colonel Alexander MacDonell Keppoch, the 16th Keppoch Chief, who died heroically at the Battle of Culloden. Catherine died at the age of 90, three years after John Inverary McPhee had moved to Killiechonate. Why is all this important? Because in our family there was the saying: “Remember the MacDonells of Keppoch”, or in another way of saying it: “Remember that you are related to the MacDonells of Keppoch.” Killiechonate is a long standing residence for MacDonells of Keppoch. Stuart Macdonald in his ‘Back to Lochaber’, The Pentland Press, Edinburgh,1994, notes that families in Lochaber had been there in roughly the same places for centuries.

McPhee and MacDonell McPhee had been connected with MacDonell from the very beginning in Lochaber. As far back as about 1400, a certain Miss McPhee who was the daughter of McPhee of Glen Spean, married the 2nd Chief of the Keppoch MacDonells and thence she was to become the mother of two Keppoch Chiefs (the third and fifth Chiefs), and the grandmother of two Keppoch Chiefs (the fourth and sixth Chiefs) and the mother in law of the first Captain of Clan Cameron, Allan of the Raids, who built the Chapel at the Cemetery of Cille Choirill in Lochaber, just over the Spean River from Killiechonate.

Page 13

Scottish origins of our McPhee family by Bernie McPhee The MacDonells were entrenched in Lochaber, on both sides of the Spean River, and the McPhees were embedded in Lochaber with them even from the earliest times, and starting this intimate association soon after the death of the First Lord of the Isles when the Keppoch MacDonells were granted the Lordship of Lochaber. One can only presume that the McPhee of Glen Spean family of Angus McPhee had been in Lochaber for hundreds of years before this, to be noble enough to marry into the family of Alexander Carrach MacDonell Keppoch, whose grandmother was Margaret Stewart, the sister of King Robert II King of the Scots. It is not unreasonable to conclude from the smattering of evidence available that before they were ever in Lochaber, the McPhees were in Islay, in fealty and sword service to the MacDonalds, before the MacDonalds were Lords of the Isles.

And here in 1841 we have John Inverary McPhee living a charmed life, as were other McPhee families in Lochaber, those who were still under the special patronage or protection of the remnant of the MacDonells of Keppoch, and under the protection of the Camerons, until in 1853, after the death of his wife Charlotte MacArthur, John Inverary McPhee brought all his seven children to Australia. In 1841, according to the Census of that year, there were 337 MacPhee people in 45 family groups and others singly, registered as living in Lochaber, and most of them were still there in 1851. Eighty per cent of all these MacPhees were registered as having been born in the area in which they were found to be living in 1841. Six of these 337 MacPhee people were born in the 1750’s. It was only later, in the years 1852 to 1855 that Lochaber lost hundreds of McPhee emigrants to Australia.

Return to Lochaber. At the dedication of the Church of St Margaret in Roy Bridge in 1932, are Archbishop McIntosh of Glasgow, with Crozier and Mitre, a native of Moidart, and Archbishop MacDonald, on his right in the picture, a native of Roy Bridge.

Page 14

John McPhee Family

Photo Album Left: Samuel Loney, born in Tipperary Ireland in 1819, arrived in Australia on 16th December 1839. Loney died at the Darragan Creek in 1883. This photo is by McDonald of Bourke Street East, Melbourne in 1871 Right: John McPhee, born 1865 and Charlotte McPhee, born 1867, the two eldest children of John and Bridget McPhee. Photographed by Thos Wyatt, Warrnambool Portland and Mount Gambier in 1868

Jane Loney, born in Melbourne in 1842, daughter of Samuel and Catherine Loney, who married James Hammond in 1860 at Pleasant Creek, and after Hammond’s death, married John O’Donnell in 1878 at Horsham. Photographed by Thos Wyatt, Warrnambool Portland and Mt Gambier about 1862

John McPhee Family

Bridget Loney, born in Melbourne in June 1845, daughter of Samuel Loney and Catherine Landrigan, who married John McPhee at Natimuk in 1864. This is perhaps the earliest photo of Bridget Loney McPhee; it was taken by Thos Wyatt, Warrnambool Portland and Mount Gambier about 1865

Page 15

Left: Jim Loney, born at Horsham in 1850, second son of Samuel Loney and Catherine Landrigan. Jim married Agnes Ryan, daughter of the well known Lanty Ryan family of Natimuk in 1877. Jim died in 1884. Photographed by Thos Wyatt Warrnambool Portland and Mount Gambier about 1880.

Right: Samuel Loney born in 1853, third son of Samuel Loney and Catherine Landrigan. Photographed by C.B.Herbert, Stawell and Horsham.

Eugene Loney born 1863, sixth son of Samuel Loney and Catherine Landrigan. Eugene was generally called ‘Hugh’. Photographed by C.B. Herbert, Stawell and Horsham.

Page 16

Sarah Fox, born 1871, daughter of Elizabeth Loney and John Herbert Brazer Fox. Elizabeth Loney, born 1843, Sarah’s mother, was the second child of Samuel Loney and Catherine Landrigan. Sarah married William Cummins in 1913. The photo was taken at studio of E Sands of Bourke Street East, corner of Swanston Street in Melbourne. John McPhee Family

Bridget and John McPhee. This is a copy of a photo which had been in the possession of John McPhee’s sister Margaret Lloyd of Dunedin, and then Westport in New Zealand and made available by Margaret’s great grand daughter Zelda Paul of Para Para Umu, New Zealand. One notices the striking resemblance of Bridget McPhee in this photo to her daughter Emily McPhee, later Murphy. Below: Alexander McPhee, second child of John Inverary McPhee and Charlotte MacArthur, born in Lochaber 1830, died at Donald Victoria in 1902. This photo taken at Geelong 1860, at the time of wedding of Isabella McPhee to James Rollo Stewart. It was previously thought that there was no photo extant of Alexander.

John McPhee, born 1833, son of John Inverary McPhee and Charlotte MacArthur. This photo by Allan Studio, 318 Smith Street, Collingwood.

John McPhee Family

Page 17

Archibald McPhee of Natimuk, 1845 to 1876, youngest son of John McPhee and Charlotte MacArthur. This photo of Archibald McPhee taken at Jennings Brothers Gray Street Hamilton New Zealand. It must have been taken about the time his two sisters Margaret and Isabella married and went to live in New Zealand.

Archibald McPhee of Natimuk with his daughter Margaret Elizabeth McPhee. Archie had married Agnes Elizabeth Jenkins from another Natimuk family. There was a second daughter, Charlotte Ann Agnes McPhee. The photo taken at studio of J and A Smith, Photographers, Horsham, in 1875 a year before Archibald McPhee’s untimely death.

Below: Henry and Elizabeth Jenkins, parents of Agnes Elizabeth Jenkins. Henry Cox Jenkins, born 1824, came from Gloucester in England, had worked at Sorell in Tasmania, and at Wellington in New Zealand before accepting a position with Wilsons at Vectis Station. Henry and Elizabeth Jenkins had eight other children. The photo was taken in 1902 for their 50th wedding anniversary. Henry died in Horsham in 1908.

Agnes Elizabeth Jenkins, born in Geelong in 1853, who married Archibald McPhee in1872 at Horsham. After Archibald’s death in 1876 Agnes Elizabeth McPhee married David Henderson. Agnes was the mother of six daughters, one of whom was Lilian Rosina McPhee whose granddaughter Merle Houlden provided this photo of Agnes.

Page 18

John McPhee Family

Left: John McPhee, who is identified by his birthplace as John ‘Inverary’ McPhee, born 1796 and died at Geelong in 1867. John brought his family of seven children to Victoria in 1853. This is the only extant photograph of John McPhee, and it was taken in Geelong in 1860 at the time of John’s daughter Isabella marrying James Rollo Stewart, and before the Stewarts left to live in New Zealand.

Below: Emily Johnston, the aunt of John, Margaret, Archibald, Isabella, Anne, Robert and Alexander McPhee. “The younger ones in the family were taken care of by my aunt, Mrs Emily Johnston; she was like a mother to us, caring for us and educating us.” Photographed by A.B.Taylor, Escanaba, Michigan. On the back of the photo is the handwritten address: Mrs Emily Johnston, Racine College, Wisconsin USA.

Below: Bessie Drummmond, known as Aunt Bessy, Mrs James Drummond, from 10 Bank Street Blairgowrie Scotland, about 1860, with message on the back of photo: “Give our best respect to yourselves and to all enquiring friends…a Newspaper will accompany this.” Photographed by A.F.McKenzie, Birnam, Perthshire Scotland.

Father Donald Forbes, Catholic Parish Priest in Brae Lochaber in Scotland from 1826 until 1878. Parish records show that he baptized some of the McPhee children, including John McPhee. This photo is from Ann MacDonell of Spean Bridge, Scotland 1985.

John McPhee Family

Page 19

Isabella Stewart, born in Scotland in 1835, sister of John McPhee and second daughter of John McPhee and Charlotte MacArthur. The photo taken in Geelong Victoria at the time of her wedding to James Rollo Stewart. Isabella and James Stewart lived at Milton New Zealand. James died in 1881, Isabella in 1910.

Margaret Lloyd, born in Scotland in 1828, sister of John McPhee and first child of John McPhee and Charlotte MacArthur. Margaret McPhee’s marriage to William Lloyd was in Geelong Victoria and this is where her first three children were born. The photo taken by Burton Bros Dunedin New Zealand.

Below: Margaret Lloyd with her son Wynne Lloyd, 1866. This photo by The London Portrait Rooms, Princes Street, Dunedin. Wynne Lloyd who was born in 1864, died in 1889. Margaret had shifted from the Dunedin area by this time and was with her husband William Lloyd at Westport where he was in business as a shipping and commission agent known as Lloyd, Taggart and Co.

Wynne Lloyd, son of Margaret McPhee and William Lloyd. Wynne Lloyd sent this photo to his cousins in Natimuk Victoria from Westport NZ, with the following note on the back: “Yours truly, Wynne Lloyd, 28th February 1881.” Robert Alexander McPhee his cousin at Natimuk later wrote on the photo; “Wynne Lloyd, before his health failed.” Wynne came from NZ to live at Natimuk for health reasons, but he was to die at Natimuk, deeply lamented especially by his young cousins, Emily, Alice and Janie McPhee, only eight years after sending the above photo.

Page 20

John McPhee Family

Kate and George Hassall and family. Back row: Rowley 1894, Kathleen 1895, Robert 1901, John 1898. Front row: Bill 1906, George Snr 1861, George 1911, Kate 1868, Lottie 1906, Louie 1904. This photo taken about 1920.

Right: James Hughbert McPhee and his brother Hector Alexander McPhee. This photo taken at Mont Albert about 1941, at the home of their niece Lottie Hassall Knowles.

James and Julia McPhee. James Hughbert McPhee was the second son of John and Bridget McPhee. James was born at Nurrabiel in 1872 and he married Julia Theresa Murphy, sister of Mary and Jack Murphy, at Natimuk in 1897. This photo taken by their son James Thomas McPhee of Box Hill.

John McPhee Family

Jack and Emily Murphy and family. Back row: Jack Murphy, Marie O’Shea, Monica Wilson, Michael Mack Murphy, Alice Guthridge. Front: Jack Murphy, Emily Murphy. This photo is from Michael Guthridge of Endeavor Hills.

Page 21

John McPhee born at Natimuk about 1870, eldest son of Alexander McPhee and Bridget Cunningham, later of Bealiba. John was always known as ‘Johnnie Sandy’ McPhee. He died at Bacchus Marsh in 1950. This photograph taken by Charlie Farr, Maryborough about 1895

Mary Ann Jane McPhee, wife of Robert Campbell Scarlett McPhee. Mary Ann’s parents were M Riley and Anne Lyons of Far North Queensland. They married in 1873, but Mary Ann died two years later. Mary Ann was photographed by JW Wilder, East Street Rockhampton Queensland about 1874

Emily McPhee and Mary Ellen McPhee. Mary Ellen married James Bernasochi in 1905, and was living in Cook Street Abbotsford at the time. Emily and Jack Murphy meantime had commenced farming in the Mallee. Left: Emily McPhee and Margaret McPhee. Emily married Jack Murphy in 1907 and Margaret married Harry Sisson in 1898. This photograph is by Yeoman - Opposite Eastern Market, Bourke Street Melbourne about 1905.

Page 22

John McPhee Family

Thomas Liston of Limerick Three Liston Families to Australia in the 1800’s If you visit ‘THE GRANARY’ in the city of Limerick, Ireland, and you ask about the LISTON family, be sure to say that the Liston family you are interested in is the THOMAS LISTON family. According to Rev Michael Liston of Cratloe in the Diocese of Limerick who knows about these Liston things, our Thomas Liston, who came from Ardagh, and more specifically from the TOWNLANDS of Glensharold, was of a family of Listons who in six hundred years, had not moved more than a hundred yards from that same family place. And there is a book that you might consult: “West Limerick Families Abroad” by Kate Press and Valerie Thompson, Melbourne 2001. Brian O’Shaughnessy kindly pointed me towards this great book. Well, what about our own family of Liston? Start with THOMAS LISTON, born about 1750, West Limerick, who married Bridget Cuddie (sometimes written as ‘Cuddihy’) born about 1760, from West Limerick.

Thomas and Bridget Liston had three sons: Thomas Liston, James Liston and Garrett Liston: s 4HOMAS ,ISTON born about 1800, West Limerick, occupation farmer, married in 1834 in Athea Limerick to Ellen Ahern, born about 1800 in Ardagh. Came to Australia in 1863. Their children were Ellen who married James Skelly, Mary who married John Jess, Thomas who married Margaret Ahern and Patrick. Thomas Liston died at Horsham Victoria in 1892. s *AMES ,ISTON born about 1800 at Ardagh. Came to Australia in 1843, and soon after he married Agnes Smith. They had five children: Margaret who married Luke Fay, Mary who married Owen Roberts, Garrett who married Jane Leahy, Luke and Jim. James Liston died at Beaufort Victoria in 1911. s 'ARRETT ,ISTON born about 1800 at Ardagh, County Limerick, married about 1843 to Bridget Hayes, born about 1820. Garrett Liston died at Geelong in 1891.Ten children as follows: Thomas Liston, born 1845 at Ardagh Ireland and he came to Australia with his parents in 1853. He was a farmer at Drung Drung near Horsham at the time of his marriage to Mary Leahy in 1881. Mary Leahy his wife was born in 1860, and died at Beulah in 1935. Thomas and Mary Liston had eleven children as follows: Thomas who married Ann Britt, Mary who married Tom Ryan, John who married Norah Landrigan, Bridget who married Robert McPhee, Rose who married Maurice Brennan, Catherine who married Hector McPhee, Jane who married Gerard Glowrey, James, Alice and Gerald who married Catherine McPhee. James Liston who married Mary Sullivan of Cork in 1871

The Beulah West family of Tom and Mary Liston,1950

Elizabeth Liston, born 1849, who married John Burke in 1869

Above: Back- Tom Liston, Bridgie McPhee, Gerald Liston, Rose Brennan, Jack Liston. FrontAlice Liston, Mary Ryan, Janie Glowrey, Katie McPhee

Bridget Liston who married Patrick Shaw in 1888

Left: James Liston, died 1933

Ellen Liston who married Alex Way in 1887

Mary Liston who married Andrew Wall in 1875 Garrett Vincent Liston who married Mary Heffernan in 1872 John Liston who married Nell unknown. Margaret Liston who married John Toner in 1899 Michael Liston born 1855 died 1935

John McPhee Family

Page 23

Mary Liston, nee Leahy, wife of Thomas Liston in the photo on left.

Thomas Liston of Ardagh, born 1845, grandson of Thomas Liston of Limerick, father of Tom Liston, Katie McPhee and Alice Liston, all pictured below.

Garrett and Jane Liston of Cressy, Victoria. Garrett is a son of James Liston the first of the Liston brothers to come to Australia in 1843, and a grandson of Thomas Liston of Limerick. Jane Liston’s maiden name was Leahy, and she is a sister of the Mary Leahy pictured above, the wife of Thomas Liston.

Joan Liston, Tom Liston and Tom McPhee. Tom Liston, centre, is a son of Thomas Liston from photo above and he is a brother of Katie and Alice shown in the photo below. Joan is his daughter (later Joan Ryan), and Tom McPhee is his nephew. Photo taken in Rainbow, on a Sunday morning.

Katie McPhee and Alice Liston, at Mont Albert Victoria.

Page 24

John McPhee Family

Watchupga and Natimuk Reunions

Above: Watchupga 1982. Bernadette McPhee, Jim McPhee, Moira Ryan, Helen Forster, Paul Forster, Lance Ryan.

Left: Back to Natimuk, 1947. Centre row, left to right: Rev. Fr. T. Linane, Robert McPhee, Bridgie McPhee, Alice Scott, Hector McPhee, Emily Murphy, Jack Murphy.

John McPhee Family

Page 25

McPhee the Explorer Robert Campbell Scarlett McPhee, brother of John McPhee The very good extant photo of Robert C Scarlett McPhee shows the written identification on the front of the print: “Dad’s brother Robert”. This was written on the photo by John McPhee’s son, Robert Alexander McPhee. The photo itself was taken in a studio in Rockhampton in Queensland. The special reporter who interviewed Robert C Scarlett McPhee in Roebourne in 1887, described him as:

Robert McPhee

The birth of Robert Campbell Scarlett McPhee is recorded in the Old Parish Register of Scotland in 1841 for the district of Lochaber, or Kilmonivaig, in Inverness. Robert C Scarlett McPhee was the son of John McPhee and Charlotte MacArthur of Killiechonate, and was a younger brother of John McPhee. In 1873 Robert Campbell Scarlett McPhee married Mary Ann Jane Riley, the daughter of M. Riley and Anne Lyons. They had a child, whom they called Edith Mary. But Mary Ann Jane died in 1873, and Edith Mary died in 1875. Norah McPhee comments: “Perhaps this is why he Went Bush. It sounds sad. Burdett, the writer of the book The Odyssey of a Digger had also lost his wife before he met up with McPhee. Perhaps that was why they teamed up together, having this kind of bereavement in the past, in common.”

Page 26

“an Australian colonist of 36 years standing, having arrived in Victoria just prior to the gold rush.” “He is a short wiry man, about 50 years of age, who has had his share of exposure and hardship, which fall to the lot of the explorer or gold seeker. He has a keen grey eye, small regular features, and a firm mouth, and seems to be cut out for a leader of men.” “As a bushman he is almost unrivalled…”

This is from information provided by Dr Cathie Clement, and is located in the same source as for Footnote Number 29 on p 28. In his book, The Odyssey of a Digger, (Lib. No 994/Bur in the Battye Library, Perth) Burdett says, on Page 130: “With Mr Price was a patriarchal-looking old chap…this man was MacPhee, one of the original twenty-four intrepid men who had journeyed all the way across Australia from East to West. “Burdett again, on Page 132: “The courage of those twenty-four pioneers was tremendous, and now, one of the friendliest and wisest of them John McPhee Family

all was right there in front of me. Poor old Mac, how weak and frail he was as I helped him out of the boat.” And later (on Page135), Burdett refers to McPhee’s: “thin and wasted shoulders”.

How did the child Robert McPhee come to be called Robert C Scarlett? He was named Scarlett after the owner of the Inverlochy Estate, the Lord Abinger, whose family name was Scarlett.

Burdett pays this tribute to Robert C Scarlett McPhee on Page 213 of The Odyssey of a Digger: “Dear old McPhee, possibly the greatest of them all, died in the Nullagine district, still optimistically chasing his rainbow’s end.” Page 213.

Abinger had only come into the Estate a few years before the little Robert’s birth, having purchased it some time after the tragic 1836 death in London of the Marquis of Huntly of the Gordon Clan.

De Havelland, in his book Gold and Ghosts (Hesperian Press Carlile 6101 WA 1985) copies something of the sentiments of Burdett in referring to McPhee’s “rainbow’s end” when he says on Page 41: “McPhee, the discoverer of the gold bearing creek named after him, left the area for Nullagine still chasing the rainbow’s end. Before he died, he and his two blacks, Thursday and Friday, found two rich patches of gold. One gave up three thousand ounces within a few days, the other slightly more. All the gold was won on the surface.”

The widowed Lady Gordon went to live at Drinnin, where, coincidentally, she was visited by Mary MacKillop on her journey to that part of the world in 1873. And Queen Victoria herself visited and stayed a few days at the new Inverlochy Castle in 1873, twenty years after the McPhee family had emigrated to Australia. Little Robert C Scarlett McPhee came close to a silver spoon to put in his mouth. Dr Cathie Clement published a short biography of Robert C Scarlett McPhee in the Boab Bulletin, the journal of the Kimberly Society. She has very kindly given the McPhee family her permission to reprint her article. Dr Cathie Clement is a consulting historian who specializes in the history of Australia’s North-West and is currently vice president of the Kimberly Society and Editor of the Boab Bulletin. On the next page is her article on Robert C Scarlett McPhee, otherwise known as Robert C Scarlett Macphee.

Left: Father Anscar (Pat) McPhee OSB at the Kimberly creek named after his grand-uncle

John McPhee Family

Page 27

Robert Campbell Scarlett McPhee An Early Kimberley Prospector Robert C. Scarlett Macphee,1 prospector and drover, contributed greatly to the creation of Western Australia’s reputation as a gold producer in the 1880s. He failed to grow rich, however, and was once said to have found more gold patches than anyone else and benefited the least thereby.2 Born in 1840, in Killachonate in the Lochaber district of Scotland, Macphee emigrated to Victoria with his parents, Charlotte (nee McArthur) and John McPhee, arriving on 16 June 1853.3 He then spent some time in Geelong before embarking on a series of exploring trips that included penetration of the Barcoo and Herbert country in Queensland. These trips led to the opening of extensive tracts of pastoral land.4 The extent of Macphee’s activities in the Northern Territory during the 1870s is unknown but it is possible that he participated in an ill-fated overland expedition in which Price Wynnal Cox tried to take a mob of pedigree horses to Port Darwin from Queensland in 1874–75. Cox was a brother Dillon Cox who had done earlier overland travel.5 In September 1880, R.C.S. Macphee rode into Pine Creek in the Territory with 74 horses from Townsville.6 Like Frank Hann, who had driven cattle to Pine Creek from Lawn Hill station in north Queensland in October 1879 and July 1880, he was subsequently hailed as one of the men who pioneered the road to Port Darwin.7 Macphee’s standing was further enhanced when he contributed £20 to assist parties to search for gold in the Margaret River area and then helped the Northern Territory Prospecting Association to lobby for additional support from the government.8 If Macphee had a personal interest in prospecting at this time it would have been ancillary to slaughtering livestock on the Margaret diggings, taking part in horse racing, and travelling to Queensland to purchase horses and cattle which he then drove back

Page 28

to sell to buyers in the Territory.9 This pattern of activity saw him reach Katherine in June 1881 with 184 head of cattle and, just over a year later, working with one of the Scrutton men, bring saddle horses, draughts and cattle to the Elsey and Pine Creek.10 A cryptic note in the local newspaper in July 1881 indicates that Macphee may have had a wife with him in the Territory at this time and that the couple suffered the loss of a child.11 No other evidence of a marriage or children has been found, however. In February 1883, Macphee served on the Progress Committee at Port Darwin Camp where one of his fellow committee members was Philip Saunders whose recent discovery of gold in the Kimberley was about to be widely publicised.12 A few months later, whilst working as a stockman on Springvale station, Macphee was engaged by Alfred Giles to examine the country between Newcastle Waters station and the head of the McArthur River with a view to reducing the distance travelled by cattle leaving the Queensland route.13 The route proved impractical but, during subsequent work, a Daly Waters Aborigine guided Macphee and the Daly Waters station-master to water that proved a great boon to the Daly Waters station.14 Early in 1885, showing the versatility common to many nineteenth century colonists, Macphee established a store at Abrahams Billabong and promptly sold out to William Hay.15 He then bought horses that Nat and Gordie Buchanan had overlanded from New England to Katherine16 and apparently piloted the Durack cattle drive ‘over a difficult pinch across the Victoria–Ord River divide’.17 A longer trip followed in September 1885, when Macphee rode from Port Darwin with three Aboriginal males to prospect where Saunders had spoken of finding gold around the head of the Ord River.18 As they rode, colonial newspapers began reporting that a party led by Charles Hall and John Slattery had discovered payable gold on what became known as Halls Creek.19 As might be expected, other small parties set their sights on the Kimberley.

John McPhee Family

Macphee found strong indications of gold on the head of the Ord and, around Christmas 1885, payable gold on the head of the Mary River. Over the next six months, he made occasional trips to Cambridge Gulf to buy rations and pilot new arrivals up his track to the diggings. One of these men, William O’Donnell, a more entrepreneurial type than Macphee, found some shortcuts on the way back, named one of the creeks along the way after Macphee, and wrote out a description of the track so that others might reach the diggings without a pilot.20 Macphee meanwhile discovered payable gold at the spot known as Macphee’s Gully and reinforced his reputation as one of the more credible prospectors in the Kimberley.21 As the water on the diggings dwindled during the “Dry”, Macphee wrote to a friend in the Territory trying, without success, to prevent an untimely rush to the Kimberley.22 He also called a meeting of the scattered diggers to devise mining regulations, pending the appointment of a warden… 23 Knowing that a rush was inevitable, Macphee then promptly went back into the meat business, purchasing cattle from the Duracks and others to butcher them at the various camps on the goldfield.24 He persevered with this business for five months before selling out to Peter Fox and going back to prospecting.25 Early in 1887, Macphee fitted out a strong prospecting party and struck south-west from Halls Creek trying to reach the head waters of the Oakover River. The route was too dry for the horses and a deviation had to be made via the Fitzroy River to the coast.26 They reached Mulyie station in April, went on to search for gold at the head of the De Grey River, and finally reached Roebourne in July.27 With only their horses and tools left, they nevertheless impressed local landholders who, on the strength of Macphee’s reputation, secured £300 from the government to subsidise the continuation of their search for both gold and other valuable minerals.28

River. It was concluded that these indications were tending toward the south where other prospectors had found good indications of gold on the Murchison River. Macphee wanted to push on in that direction but could continue to access the government subsidy only if he took his party back to do more prospecting on the Oakover River.30 This life of prospecting continued, broken by the occasional droving trip, as Macphee moved between the remote mining camps and towns of the Pilbara and the Kimberley.31 He worked around Nullagine with an old Kimberley mate, John Schlinke, and found an alluvial gully on the De Grey River before returning to the Oakover River. Another old Kimberley mate, August Lucanus, joined them there in 1891, and they prospected around Marble Bar, found Pantomine Patch, and went to the Shaw River and Bamboo Creek where Schlinke remained behind to work a quartz claim. For the next six months, Macphee and Lucanus prospected without finding gold and, early in 1892, they camped on Cooks Creek, a tributary of the Nullagine, and were forced to sit out two days of cyclonic conditions when a willy-willy struck. Macphee then developed inflammation of the bowels and lay ill for several days before dying on 12 March.32 His obituary spoke of his good-heartedness and, as prospector A.D. Edwards observed in 1896, ‘no history of the goldfields would be complete’ without reference to the deeds of Macphee and the other ‘original prospectors’ of Western Australia.’33 Cathie Clement Footnotes on this article can be found on page 36.

Roper River, Kimberley and Pilbara of RCS McPhee

Katherine Wyndham

At this time, Macphee was described as a short, wiry man who was unrivalled as a bushman and seemed ‘to be cut out for a leader of men’. He and his party found good prospects of gold on the De Grey in August and then began prospecting southward from Roebourne.29 Over the next three months, they found indications of gold north of the Hardy River, between the Hardy and the Ashburton, and on the eastern branch of the Lyons John McPhee Family

Darwin

Kununurra Roper River Area

Derby Broome Port Hedland Roebourne Nullagine Pilbara Area

Halls Creek Kimberley Area

GREAT SANDY DESERT GIBSON DESERT

WA

Alice Springs

NT SA

Page 29

Tom & Mary Murphy Thomas Murphy Born 1843. Died January 25, 1910. Buried at Natimuk Cemetery Mary Murphy nee Crowley Born 1839. Died January 15, 1924. Buried at Natimuk Cemetery Thomas and Mary Murphy were married by Father Foley at North Gate Chapel Church, Cork, Ireland, on September 13, 1863 Thomas and Mary Murphy and two children, Richard and Charles, sailed from Liverpool on December 19, 1868 on the Viameria, which seems to have landed in Melbourne, and then sailed on to Portland, arriving on April 7. 1869

Eight other children were born in Australia to Tom and Mary Murphy. Three of these children married McPhees: Mary Murphy (born at Balmoral on 15-9-1874) married Archie McPhee, Julia Murphy (born at Natimuk on 25-10-1886) married James McPhee, John Murphy (born at Natimuk in 1881) married Emily McPhee. Also: Alice Murphy (born at Natimuk on 4-3-1879) married Alex Scott, and her twin sister Ellen Murphy (born at Natimuk on 4-3-1879) married Gordon Wickbold. These notes on the Murphy family were kindly provided to me by Mary Herrick, the late granddaughter of Tom and Mary Murphy.

Photo shows Mary Herrick with other cousins and connections of the McPhee and Sisson families

This is the Murphy Story Melbourne to Portland The passage from Melbourne to Portland was very quiet. We had started with a good few of our friends there and it would be our turn next to leave the old Viameria. It seemed like leaving a second home, we had got so used to the old ship, and the sailors and all. Even the old doctor seemed to have a few good points about him when it came to leaving.

Page 30

We were going to Tom’s sister, Mrs Julia Brennan, for a start. She lived at Coleraine, and it was arranged that we should go by bullock-wagon from Portland. Tom saw two carriers who were starting for Coleraine – Lear and Patchen were their names – and they got our belongings and made me and the children as comfortable as possible in one of the wagons and off we set.

John McPhee Family

Portland to Coleraine

Arrival at Brennan’s

It was a long journey, through forest and wild country, but the teamsters were young and hearty, and made light of any mishaps that came their way. They were full of fun and devilment, and of course, they never missed an opportunity of taking a rise out of us new chums.

We got to Brennan’s that night, and glad we were to get to the end of our journey, I can tell you. Bullock wagons aren’t quite as soft and comfortable as a feather bed, even if it is upholstered with all the acts of thoughtfulness and kindness that our good friends Lear and Patchen, could think of. I’ll never forget how good they were to us, and they were only two young fellows at the time; one would not expect them to think of all the little things they did for us. We stayed at Brennan’s for a spell for a few weeks; then Tom started out to find work, so that we could settle down on our own.

A stranger to supper Oh! But they had a great joke with me the night I saw the first kangaroo. It was after supper, and the men were sitting around a fine, blazing camp fire. They had fixed up a nice tent for us and the children, so that we need not be climbing up into the wagon. The children were playing about, but after a while they got sleepy, so I took them off to bed. At the same time young Patchen went off to have a look at the bullocks, and the dogs put up a fine lump of a bush kangaroo. Patchen managed to kill it, and then he thought he would have a lark with me, so he brought it back to camp with him, and propped it up with sticks between my tent and the fire. Then he strolled up to the fire, where Tom and Billy Lear were still smoking and talking, and poked it together and put on some more light wood, that made a fine blaze, and showed up the kangaroo nicely. I had lain down with the baby, and must have dozed off, but the blaze of the fire soon woke me up, and I looked out through the flap of the tent, and the Lord save us! – Yes! Sure enough, it must be him; there he was, tail and all; and I could almost swear that I could see his horns! I let one unearthly yell out of me, and dived into the bed and covered my head. Tom and Billy Lear thought there must be a snake in the tent and they came running over, but, of course, what they saw was the kangaroo propped up, and they guessed Patchen had been playing a joke on me. It took a lot of persuasion on their part to make me come out and see for myself, and many’s the laugh they had at me afterwards about “how the devil nearly had me” that night.

John McPhee Family

Towards Coleraine It was a nice fresh morning when Tom started off, in good spirits, with his “bluey up”. He stepped it out nice and lively till he got to the crossroads outside Coleraine. There he stopped, and said to himself: “Well now, which way will I go?” He couldn’t make up his mind. Seeing a bit of straw on the road, he picked it up, and, says he: “Straw shows which way the wind blows; I’ll follow the straw!” With that he let it go, and he turned into the road it landed on; and a good wind it was indeed, that guided that straw, for the road led to Wootong Vale, at the time owned by Mrs Hassall, as good and kind a Christian lady as ever lived. At Hassall’s Tom called at the homestead and got a job as handyman about the place. He was a very green new chum indeed, at the time, about horses and implements, or anything like that. You see, he had always lived in the city at home, and worked in a printing office, but, of course, he never let on. He gave them to understand he was a good all-round farm hand; but to tell the truth, I don’t think he could tell one end of a set of harness from the other. He used to be in a quandary at times how to do something or another, but he would always get out all about it, without them hardly knowing that he was trying to find out things. Tom soon made friends of all the men, but Jim Ryan (or “Yankee Jim” as they called him, because

Page 31

This is the Murphy Story he came from California) made a special pal of him, and he would always tell him the best way to go about his work, and help him in many ways to get used to station life. Ryan himself was a jovial, lively man; the devil himself could not beat him playing larks on his mates, but he never tried to take a rise out of Tom, so the two became life-long friends. Many’s the change came and went, but their friendship always stood the test. Mrs Hassall’s kindness After a short time Mrs Hassall told Tom to fix up a little cottage that was close to the homestead and bring us to live there. Many and many happy days we spent on that station; there we met some of the best friends any man or woman would wish for; indeed, no-one could possibly be a better friend than or kind employer Mrs Hassall proved herself be to us, and to many scores of people like us. At that time, people were all free and easy; the squatters and their families never made distinctions between themselves and their employees. Mrs Hassall herself, many’s the time, went to the outlying shepherds’ or boundary riders’ huts, and nursed the wives or the children through any sickness, with as much care and kindness as she could ever show to one of her own station in life. Then there were the Messrs Swan, who lived on the adjoining station; they were very good, too. And Parson Russell – ah! he was a good man! (Church of England.) A picnic day, and our son Dan I remember when my third son, Dan, was born. (Daniel Murphy was born on 7-2-1869) He was not very strong; we used to have some nursing of him. When he was about a month old there was to be a picnic, given by the squatters about for all their station hands, and that was the kind of picnic it would do your heart good to go to, where everyone, young and old, squatter and servant, went out in the best of spirits and good feeling for everyone, with a firm intention to get the utmost pleasure they could out of the day. Page 32

Mrs Hassall came to me, and said: “Get the children ready for the picnic Mrs Murphy; we will be starting early, as we must meet the other station people at the ford. Tom will drive you and the other girls from the kitchen.” “Oh Ma’am”, I said, “I don’t think I had better go with the baby!” Besides, I thought to myself, there would be too many squatters and fine people there for the likes of me. You see, it was my first picnic amongst them. She would not hear of my staying at home: “Roll your big shawl round the baby, and he’ll come to no harm; indeed, I think it will do him good out in the fresh air all day”, she said. So I got ready, bright and early, the morning of the picnic and about nine o’clock we started in buggies and carts and some on horseback; and then, when we met the other station lots at the ford, I tell you it was a pleasant sight indeed; everyone so happy, and one team trying to beat the other for first place on the road. Parson Russell’s kindness But back to Parson Russell. We had not been long on the picnic ground, when he came up to me and asked my how I was and if the baby was getting stronger. “Let me have a look at him”, he said, so I opened the shawl, and he had a good look at him. Then he covered him up again, and said: “Mrs Murphy, there will be Mass in Coleraine next Sunday. Be sure that you get in, and get that child christened. I can see that he is not very strong, so you must not neglect to have him baptized”. You see, it was only at intervals that we had Mass at Coleraine at that time. I never forgot it for Mr Russell; he said it so kindly for me. Then Mr Russell took me up to the tent that the young ladies had for opening the hampers in, and getting things ready for the table. There he got me to a comfortable seat, and brought his wife and sister-in-law, Miss Mittson, to see me. Very nice ladies they were too. In no time at all the young ladies were round me, nursing the baby, and they gave me a cup of tea straight away. After that day I knew all the grand people as I used to think of John McPhee Family

them as they really were - kind, good friends to us all. Parson Russell afterwards became Canon Russell; he was coming back from a trip to England, when he got pneumonia and died, poor man, just in his prime. He was a great loss to his Church, and to all who knew him. He was, indeed, a true follower of his Divine Master. Mrs Hassall’s friends Many ladies and gentlemen from Melbourne used to visit at Hassall’s in those days. One of them was a very great lady indeed – the late Janet Lady Clarke herself. She used to come there when she was a young lady, also many others; and a right jolly holiday they would have too. There would be kangaroo hunts, picnics, and races got up for their pleasure. All the young ladies about would ride as well as the best of them. Miss Etta Hassall was a lovely figure in the saddle, and she could jump a fence as easily as a bird could skim over it. She married Mr Cunningham, at that time a banker in Melbourne, but I think they have been in England for some time now. Her sons are in Geelong, I think. If they take after either their father or their mother, they must be very nice young men. I saw them once when they were school boys. They were very nice boys at that time, but it must be over twenty years ago. Somehow, the years do not seem long to look back on! It was at Hassall’s that we met another good friend, J.G.; he is a small squatter now himself, down about the Giant’s Rock, but at that time working for Mrs Hassall. He gave Tom many a helping hand when he wanted one. He was a shrewd man, and always could give the best advice to Tom, but Tom himself deserves all that he can get, for he was always kind and generous to his friends. I have never seen him since we came up here to the Wimmera, 30 odd years ago, but we used to hear of him at times. A good many from down Coleraine way came up here the same time that we did. Some drifted away for a time, but a couple are left.

John McPhee Family

1869 – 1874 The following details, written by Thomas Murphy, help to fill in the years after Tom and Mary left “Wootong Vale” and before they selected land at Natimuk. The Mrs Hassall mentioned so endearingly by Mary Murphy had been a widow since 1862, when her husband James Hassall (fifth son of Rowland Hassall and Elizabeth Hancox) had died. James Hassall and Catherine Payne Lloyd of Cobram in Victoria had married in1836. James and Catherine Hassall of “Wootong Vale” had a family of ten children, the youngest of whom was George Earnest Hassall, born in 1861. George Earnest Hassall was later to marry Catherine Bridget McPhee of Natimuk. When Mrs Hassall sold “Wootong Vale”, Tom and Mary Murphy and their children moved to another station owner, Mr Peter Armytage, of “Caviar” Dunkeld, near Balmoral, where they remained, until they were granted land which was part of the Vectis Estate, Allotment 87, Parish of Natimuk, County of Lowan, 1874, where they lived for the remainder of their lives. Tom Murphy’s Story We were fortunate to be allotted the block we applied for, close to the Wimmera River. It had to be fenced and cleared, which was a back-breaking job, grubbing out huge trees and burning the lovely timber, when it is so scarce and expensive today. On leaving Balmoral, Mr Armytage gave me one hundred ewes and three hundred Pounds, which was the first of my income, which from then on steadily increased, thanks to Mr Armytage. As there was no house on the block, we had two or three large tents erected on the banks of the Wimmera River. Having five children, the wife had her hands full baking bread and cooking meals in a couple of camp ovens, it was very comfortable having the river so close; we also had a couple of cows, a few fowls and sheep in the paddock, fish in the river and rabbits in abundance.

Page 33

This is the Murphy Story But there were many times we thought of giving up, but we were comforted by the fact that our many neighbours all around were facing the same problems and hardships. Eventually there was enough ground cleared to start cultivating, with the two big horses and the five furrow plough, and with one who had a half bag of seed wheat on the shoulder and walking up and down the furrows throwing the wheat with each hand, first to the left and then to the right. Later on I got a seed sower, which we thought was wonderful. It was a start. Then we got a wagon and a small machine, which would toss the seed out. It was pulled along by the horses. Then came

the stripper, made by Beard and Sisson’s foundry, which would put the wheat into a big heap and then, by turning the handle on a heavy winnower with big saws, the winnower would shake the wheat down one chute, the chaff down another and the husks into another. All the family generally helped in this loading up of the harvest. The heat, the dust and the flies were very annoying, but all would be refreshed when the big lunch basket came along. It did not take many years to build a neat log home, stables and outbuildings, each year seeing more improvements, and lovely horses, ewes and modern machinery and the deed of our own farm in our possession.

Tom Murphy’s Letters Letters Of Tom Murphy, Selector Allotment 87, Parish Of Natimuk County Of Lowan

Letter 1 Natimuk 25th June, 1880 Hon. J.C.Duffy esq Minister of Crown Lands Melbourne Dear Sir, I wish to apply to the Government through you to exempt me from paying any more rents on my selection as I consider that I have paid about what it is worth, that is ten shillings per acre. It’s a very thickly timbered piece of country. Myself and wife and children are this last five years grubbing and clearing about twenty-five

Page 34

acres, and wasn’t a quarter of an acre that you could plough without grubbing. I had over three hundred Pounds when I came on the ground and that was all gone before I got my certificate of improvements, and after I got my renewal of lease I had to borrow two hundred Pounds from the Ballarat Banking Company to enable me to get farming implements. So I have as much as ever I can do to pay the interest on the loan, twenty Pounds per year payable every six months. At the same time I am sure that I can make a home now if the rents are taken off me. Sir, you can send any land officer from Horsham or elsewhere to inspect the quality of land and the truth of my statements. I have a wife and eight children to provide for and if we are put out of this our home there is no knowing what we will do. Trusting that you will give my request your earnest consideration, I have the honour to be Obedient servant Thomas Murphy Natimuk P.O.

John McPhee Family

Mr Murphy said that he had applied to the Bank of Ballarat who held his lease on mortgage to do this, but

Letter 2 Natimuk 28th Feb. 1881 Hon Richardson esq. Minister for Lands Dear Sir, In answer to Circular of 22nd inst to know if I am going to pay my rents that I am in arrear, I beg to inform you that I cannot nor owent be able to keep my selection if I can’t get transferred under the Land Act 1880. The Ballarat Banking Company holds my lease on mortgage for two hundred Pounds and I can’t pay rent and interest, which is fifty Pounds per year. I have a family of ten and all my children are young and they are attending State School 1623 within one mile of my selection and if I am forced to part with my land it will be a great misfortune to them and me, as we as we will be thrown destitute on the state. If it is possible that my lease could be redeemed from the mortgage by the Government, paying over to them the rent I have paid on my land, and I to pay into the Receipt and Pay Office, Horsham the balance, and grant me a new lease under the Land Act 1880, then I would be sure of a home for myself and children and would for ever pray and thank them. My land, when I took it, there wasn’t a quarter of an acre I could plough without grubbing and clearing, and now I have 50 acres cultivated. I remain Dear Sir your most obedient servant, Thomas Murphy (Note: the recipient of the letter observed that the word “owent” in Tom Murphy’s letter would mean “won’t”.)

they could not do so unless he paid two rents of the three overdue. He said he couldn’t pay and asked the Dept of Lands to wait until “after the harvest”, that is 1/3/1882, when he would pay three rents together. A note, made by the Lands Department, at bottom of this summary of Tom Murphy’s letter, made the following observations: “Under the Land Act of 1880 Mr Murphy’s payments were reduced from thirty Pounds a year to fifteen Pounds a year. He did succeed in having lease transferred.”

Letter 4 Natimuk 25th July, 1881 Secretary of Lands Melbourne Sir, In reply to communications of 18th inst stating that I can’t be granted such a long time to pay my rents and asking me to send my licence to have it transferred under the Land Act 1880, that I would like very much to be able to do. But the Ballarat Banking Coy holds my lease on mortgage & ownt consent to it being transferred unless I will pay two of the back rents & that I can’t do it at present unless I will sell my horses and Farming machinery & them at one half their value, and if I did that I couldn’t get on with my farm at all. But if you could get my lease from the Ballarat Banking Company and transfer it under the new Act 1880 it would be the means of keeping me and my family in a home. I have a young helpless family, eleven in all, the eldest only sixteen years and the youngest six weeks. So I hope that the Department will do what they can for me. I am Sir Yours truly,

Letter 3

Thomas Murphy

Date of letter: 13/7/1881

P.S. If you can’t do this please leave the rents lie over until 1st March. But I would rather come under the Act, as I want a home for my family.

To Minister for Lands

T Murphy

In this letter, Mr Murphy referred to a letter he had received from the Department of Lands, asking him to transfer his lease under the new Land Act 1880 if he could not pay his overdue rents.

Post Office Natimuk

SUMMARY

John McPhee Family

On the bottom of this letter there was a hand written note from the recipient in the Lands Department, who observed that: “Ownt – another Irish way to spell won’t”.

Page 35

Natimuk Properties McPhee, Scott, Murphy, Hassall

aR er

m

im W r

ive

Vectis Homestead

A McPhee 71

J McPhee 72

A McPhee

QUANTONG

A Wilson 32B, 34 ay

w gh Hi k u e m tim im Na W To


P Scott 77 H Scott 78

Old East Natimuk Station

H Scott 85

mm Wi era er

Riv

Natimuk -

H Scott 86 T Murphy 87

Balmoral ad Hamilton Ro

T Murphy 87 State School No. 1623

Moody's School Road

J McPhee 134

D Hanan 88A

D Hanan

D Hanan 118

136 Moody's School Road

A Murphy George Hassall

DARRAGAN

Page 36

John McPhee Family

John McPhee’s Dwelling Connangorach Swamp HORSHAM NATIMUK VECTIS SOUTH Moody's School Rd

LOWER NORTON

Darragan Pits Rd uha

j rad

Rd

WONWONDA NORTH

Henty H

n Rd Low er N

NORADJUHA

ighway

a

rsh

Ho

o m-N

orto

19.3km

7.5km Wonwonda - Toolondo Rd

Nurrabiel Church Rd

Jallumba Mockinya Rd

8km

MOCKINYA

Natim u

k - Ha

milton R

d

NURRABIEL

Miss Williamson's Rd

Connangorach Swamp

3.4km

TOOLONDO This map is not to scale. From Natimuk, go towards Horsham a short distance, turn right into the NatimukHamilton Road, travel 19.3km to Nurrabiel Church Road, turn left, and go 7.5km to the Nurrabiel intersection, turn right and travel 8km along this road, which is now called the Won Wondah Road. Continue south until you come to Miss Williamson's Road, turn left and go for 3.4km, straight mostly, but you take a left at little dog leg, and straight again into the gate of the Connangorach swamp. John McPhee's dwelling would have been on the side of the swamp opposite the entry point you have made. John McPhee was a Wilson employee from 1860 to 1873.

John McPhee Family

Page 37

Robert C Scarlett McPhee: An Early Kimberley Prospector FOOTNOTES by Cathie Clement 1 The surname spelling used above matches that in R.C.S. Macphee’s signature but differs from the spelling used by other members of the McPhee family. It is hoped that readers may be able to offer insight into this inconsistency and perhaps add details to this brief biography, which has been compiled at the request of Vern O’Brien for the Genealogical Society of the Northern Territory Inc. The information will be used to compile a entry which will be added to the Pioneer Register established by the Genealogical Society. 2 The Nor’-West Times and Northern Advocate, 26 March 1892, p. 3, copy provided by Peter Bridge. 3 Bernie McPhee (great nephew of R.C.S. Macphee) to Professor Jack Cross (University of South Australia), 20 September 1996, in response to ‘Any Queries’ in MacFie Clan Society of Australia Newsbulletin, 1995. 4 The Nor’-West Times and Northern Advocate, 26 March 1892, p. 3. 5 ‘Any Queries’ in MacFie Clan Society of Australia Newsbulletin, 1995. This query was submitted by Professor Jack Cross who suggested that ‘McPhee the Overlander’ was probably either R.C.S. McPhee or Duncan McPhee. The latter man became a station manager in the upper Territory.

23 September 1885, p. 3. 20 The North Australian, 11 June 1886; and Government Gazette (WA), 15 July 1886, pp. 423–4. 21 Victorian Express, 17 September 1887; The West Australian, 12 July 1886, p. 3; and Clement & Bridge (eds), Kimberley Scenes, p. 160, citing R.T.S. Wolfe’s recollections. 22 NTT&G, 28 August 1886. 23 F.D. Burdett, The Odyssey of a Digger, Herbert Jenkins Limited, London, 1936, pp. 173–83, 211 and 235–6; PROWA, Acc 527, CSO, 3227/86; and PROWA, AN5/Derby, Police Department, Acc 738/1 and Acc 738/2, Occurrence Books, entries for 3 July 1886. 24 Clement & Bridge (eds), Kimberley Scenes, pp. 170–1 and 214; Durack, Kings in Grass Castles, pp. 318–9; NTT&G, 2 October 1886 and 27 November 1886; and PROWA, MN71/3, Acc 4587A/1, Diary of M.P. Durack, 1886, entries for 17–22 July and 15–18 August. 25 NTT&G, 25 December 1886; Clement and Bridge (eds), Kimberley Scenes, p. 217; and The Western Mail (WA), 8 June 1939, p. 11, copy provided by Peter Bridge. 26 The Western Mail, 20 August 1887, p. 26; and The Victorian Express, 23 July 1887, copies of these articles, and subsequent articles for this period, provided by Peter Bridge.

6 Overlanders (or drovers) arriving in N.T. 1879–1883, index compiled by members of the Genealogical Society of N.T. from original records held at Australian Archives Darwin.

27 May Anderson, ‘Pioneers of the De Grey’ in Helen Weller (ed.), North of the 26th, [Vol. 1], The Nine Club, East Perth, 1979, p. 83; and PROWA, Acc 527, CSO, 2723/87.

7 ibid.; and Northern Territory Times & Gazette (NTT&G), 13 November 1880, copy provided by Vern O’Brien.

28 The West Australian, 27 July 1887, p. 3; and The Western Mail, 10 December 1910, copy provided by Peter Bridge.

8 NTT&G, 6 November 1880 and 27 November 1880.

29 Victorian Express, 13 August 1887 and 17 September 1887, copies provided by Peter Bridge.

9 ibid., 18 December 1880, 8 January 1881, 9 July 1881, and 10 September 1881, copy provided by Vern O’Brien. 10 Overlanders (or drovers) arriving in N.T. 1879–1883; and NTT&G, 15 July 1882. 11 NTT&G, 9 July 1881, p. 1. 12 ibid., 24 February 1883. For Saunders’ notes and publicity regarding his prospecting trip, see Cathie Clement & Peter Bridge (eds), Kimberley Scenes: Sagas of Australia’s Last Frontier, pp. 63 and 65–70. 13 NTT&G, 9 June 1883, and 4 August 1883; and Peter Forrest, Springvale’s Story and Early Years at the Katherine, Murranji Press, Darwin, 1985, p. 43. 14 NTT&G, 4 August 1883 and 15 September 1883. 15 ibid., 28 March 1885 and 16 May 1885. 16 Bobbie Buchanan, In the Tracks of Old Bluey: The Life Story of Nat Buchanan, p. 111.

30 PROWA, Acc 527, CSO, 290/88. Macphee’s three-months-long diary was published in instalments in The Western Mail on 4 February 1888, p. 11, on 11 February 1888, pp. 9 and 12, and 18 February 1888, p. 20. 31 G.H. Lamond, Tales of the Overland: Queensland to Kimberley in 1885, p. 67; Victorian Express, 19 May 1888, copy provided by Peter Bridge; and PROWA, AN5/Derby, Police Department, Acc 738/3, Occurrence Book, entry for 8 September 1888. 32 Clement and Bridge (eds), Kimberley Scenes, pp. 38–42; Certificate of ‘Death in the State of Western Australia, Registration Number 536/1892 in the Roebourne District’; and The Nor’-West Times and Northern Advocate, 26 March 1892, p. 3. 33 The Western Mail, 24 January 1896, copy provided by Peter Bridge.

17 Mary Durack, Kings in Grass Castles, 1985 edition, pp. 287–8. It is noted that, although Mary Durack refers to this man as Jock McPhee, he is likely to have been R.C.S. Macphee. 18 Victorian Express (WA), 17 September 1887, copy provided by Peter Bridge; and Public Records Office of Western Australia (PROWA), Acc 527, Colonial Secretary’s Office (CSO), 3223/86. 19 Victorian Express, 19 September 1885; and The West Australian,

Page 38

John McPhee Family

The Wedding of Harry Sisson and Margaret McPhee, Horsham 1898

J Mitchell Archie McPhee

Tom Murphy

John McPhee Family

V. Housten

N Bannar

A. Housten Chill Murphy

V Bannar

Jim McPhee

The last shearing at Vectis station, c.1892

Page 39

John Thomas McPhee and the Gartland Family

Wedding of John Thomas McPhee and Catherine Moya Gartland 1953 Left to right: Hector McPhee, Katie McPhee, Maurice Gartland, Cath McPhee, John Thomas (Jack) McPhee, Moya Gartland, Jim McPhee, Dot Gartland, Elizabeth Gartland and Michael Gartland.

Birthday gathering for Bernie Gartland, 40 years old, 1997 Back row left: Christopher McPhee, Mary Gartland, Cath Gartland, Bernie McPhee, Edna McCallum, Robbie McPhee, Moya Gartland, Marie O’Sullivan, Michael Gartland. Front row left: Helen McPhee, Bernie Gartland, Betty McPhee and Anthony Gartland.

John T McPhee and the Gartland Family

Page 40

This photo of John (Jack) McPhee taken at Pullut, Victoria. Jack was always very proud of his Scottish heritage.

John Thomas McPhee, the eldest son of Hector Alexander McPhee and Katie Liston, was born on 20th October, 1920 at Rainbow in Victoria. With his parents Hector and Katie McPhee, Jack McPhee lived at Pullut, Yaapeet, Beulah, Seddon and Mont Albert, all in Victoria. John T McPhee and the Gartland Family

In 1953 Jack married Catherine Moya Gartland at Oakleigh Victoria. Moya McPhee died in 1999. R.I.P. In the following pages are pictures of Jack with his parents, his sisters and brothers, and his doubly close cousins the McPhees of Kenmare, and some other relations and contemporaries. Page 41

Hector McPhee over three years cleared the land at Pullut, put in a new dam and, with help from his brother Robert and his nephew Billy Brasier, he connected his new dam to the main channel with a mile long new channel through a neighbour’s property. Hector took the above photo of his vegetable garden towards side of the house; he said: “We grew lovely vegetables and melons, and the garden was pure white sand.”

Jack and Jim McPhee at Pullut in 1926 on the front verandah of family home.

Page 42

John T McPhee and the Gartland Family

Jack and Jim McPhee at the Pullut farm in 1926.

Katie McPhee with Jim and Rowley 1926 at Pullut

John T McPhee and the Gartland Family

Page 43

Katie McPhee (left, holding Jean McPhee) and Lottie Hassall (who later married Adrian Knowles, and here seen holding Rowley McPhee). Front left: Jack, Jim, Bob, Tom and Mary McPhee.1927

Hector McPhee drives his T Model Ford. Jack McPhee in back seat.

Page 44

John T McPhee and the Gartland Family

Visitors to Pullut 1929. Back row left: Alice Liston, Hector McPhee holding Marie, Katie McPhee, Laura Muldoon, Maurice Brennan, Rose Brennan, holding Cath. Front: Jim, Rowley and Jack McPhee.

Putting down the Channel at the Kenmare property, about 1914. Robert and Hector McPhee involved in the work.

John T McPhee and the Gartland Family

Page 45

Bridgie and Robert McPhee, with Katie and Hector McPhee (back row right) and their children of the 1920’s in front right, together with Mrs Miller (back row second from left) and her three older children. Mr and Mrs Miller had been conducting the post office and wine saloon in Kenmare since 1910.

Inseparable McPhee (Liston) cousins in 1920’s. Back row left: Mary McPhee, Jim, Jack and Bob McPhee. Front row: Jean, Rowley and Tom McPhee.

Page 46

John T McPhee and the Gartland Family

Hector McPhee (born 1887) sitting, and holding Marie; with his oldest brother John McPhee (born 1865); and Laura Muldoon, with Hector’s other children from left, front: Jim, Rowley, Jack. This photo taken at the Pullut farm, about 1927.

This photo was taken in 1929, soon after the family of Hector and Katie McPhee sold the Pullut farm and bought the ill-fated Raggett’s farm at Yaapeet, slightly to the North of the town of Rainbow. Hector later described this sale as: “the biggest blunder of my life”. From the left: Marie, Jack, Cath, Jim and Rowley.

John T McPhee and the Gartland Family

Page 47

Back row left: Laura Muldoon, Marie McPhee, Katie McPhee, John McPhee who had been born in 1865 and was the oldest brother of Hector McPhee. The children in the front row are Rowley, Jack, Cath and Jim McPhee. The photo is taken about 1929.

From left: Hector McPhee, Rowley, Cath, Michael, Jim and Marie. 1932

Page 48

John T McPhee and the Gartland Family

Frank Hallam pauses in front of McPhee family business, Beulah 1937.

This group of relatives, mainly from the area of Shepparton Victoria, includes Jack McPhee who was visiting from Beulah, and it includes Wally O’Dea, grandson of Archie McPhee of Shepparton who was to die in the War over Germany only a few short years after this picture was taken. Back row left: Norah McPhee, Gerald Liston, Unknown, Wally O’Dea, Cath McPhee, Jack McPhee, Leo McPhee, Desmond O’Dea. Front: Brian O’Dea.

John T McPhee and the Gartland Family

Page 49

Katie McPhee and children 1937 at Beulah Victoria. Back row left: Jim, Katie holding Bernie, Rowley McPhee. Front: Robbie, Cath, Michael McPhee

Hassall visitors to Seddon 1941. Back row left: Rowley McPhee, Sheila (Clancy) Hassall, Katie McPhee, Hector McPhee. Front: Marie McPhee, Robbie McPhee, George Hassall, Michael McPhee.

Page 50

John T McPhee and the Gartland Family

Young Beulah McPhees with friends 1939. Left: Robbie McPhee, Bernie McPhee, M.Compton, Terry Lowe, Maureen Lowe.

Last photo of family all together taken at Beulah, perhaps late in 1939. Soon after this time, Hector with Jim and Rowley moved to Melbourne. Jack was already employed with the State Savings Bank of Victoria at the Beulah branch. Katie McPhee stayed on in Beulah for a while to tidy up affairs with the business and the property, and then early in 1940 and with the younger children, she joined Hector and the boys in Melbourne. Back row left: Marie, Jim, Jack, Rowley. Middle row: Michael, Katie, Hector, Cath. Front row: Pat, Robbie, Bernie.

John T McPhee and the Gartland Family

Page 51

Pat McPhee and his cousin Vincent Liston in 1940 at Beulah West.

Cousins gather at Beulah West in 1942. Back row left: Tom McPhee, Robert McPhee, Rowley McPhee (in RAAF uniform) Gerald Liston, Marie McPhee, Frank Liston, Norah Liston, Bridgie McPhee. Front: Vincent Liston

Page 52

John T McPhee and the Gartland Family

Jack McPhee and his cousin Bob McPhee came on their war-time leave to Seddon, the Melbourne suburb where Hector and Katie lived for a while before moving to Mont Albert. Back row left: Jack, Jim, Hector McPhee, and cousin Bob McPhee. Front: Michael and Cath McPhee.

During the War, Jack McPhee (left) and Rowley McPhee were both serving in New Guinea. They ran into one another just the once while they were there, and so this photo was taken.

John T McPhee and the Gartland Family

Page 53

Family Group at Mont Albert in 1949: occasion was Baptism of John Joseph O’Sullivan. Back row: Joe O’Sullivan, Tony O’Sullivan, Mr J.J.O’Sullivan, Michael McPhee, Mrs J.J.O’Sullivan, Rowley McPhee, Marie O’Sullivan holding baby, Katie McPhee, Cath McPhee, Lottie Knowles, Hector McPhee, Rita O’Sullivan, Brian O’Sullivan. Front row: Roger Hartnett, Jim Knowles, Pat McPhee, Martin Hartnett, Bernie McPhee, Catherine Knowles.

Family Group in 1949 at Mont Albert. Back row: Joe O’Sullivan, Michael McPhee, Marie O’Sullivan, Bill Roberts, Cath McPhee Owen Roberts, Katie McPhee, Rowley McPhee, Hector McPhee. Front row: Jack McPhee, Bernie McPhee.

Page 54

John T McPhee and the Gartland Family

At Donvale Victoria in 1956. A family gathering on occasion of Michael McPhee taking his final profession of religious vows. Back row left: Monica McPhee, Rowley McPhee, Cath Gartland, Molly Buckley, Frank Hurst at back, Moya McPhee, Julia Young, Marie Gartland, Marie O’Sullivan, Owen Roberts, Alice Liston, Ann Liston, Bernie McPhee, Molly Hurst, Hector McPhee, Michael Matthew McPhee, Katie McPhee, George Parsons, Mrs George Parsons, Rose Brennan, Maurice Gartland. Centre row left: Betty McPhee, Pat McPhee, Robbie McPhee, Margaret Glowrey, Jack McPhee, Joe O’Sullivan with daughter Ann Maree, Bill Hassall, Lottie Knowles, Rene Hassall, Eileen Hassall. In front: Damian O’Sullivan, John O’Sullivan.

Hector and Katie McPhee’s family in 1997. Back Row: Jack, Michael, Robbie, Bernie. Front Row: Cath, Pat, Marie, Jim and Rowley John T McPhee and the Gartland Family

Page 55

John Thomas McPhee and the Gartland Family John Thomas McPhee, married Catherine Moya Gartland. Hector James McPhee, married Bernadette Young. Rowland Joseph McPhee, married Elizabeth Gartland. Marie Therese McPhee, married Joseph Bernard O’Sullivan. Catherine Cecelia McPhee, married Maurice Gartland. Robert Vincent McPhee, married Helen Sandra Waugh. Michael Peter (Matthew O.Carm.) McPhee, ordained priest in 1973. Bernard Paul McPhee. Leo Patrick (Anscar OSB ) McPhee, ordained Priest in 1964

The Gartland Family The parents of Moya, Betty and Maurice Gartland were Michael Gartland and Elizabeth Carey. Elizabeth Carey was descended from a Matthew Middleditch who came to Australia in 1824, and whose son George Middleditch came across to Melbourne from Tasmania in 1851. George Middleditch married the Irish Catherine Anne Fitzpatrick, and their daughter Catherine married Maurice Carey, father of the Elizabeth Carey who was to marry Michael Gartland at North Fitzroy in 1921. Here is a brief sketch of those families: MIDDLEDITCH, GORMAN, FITZPATRICK, CAREY, GARTLAND

Back left: Elizabeth Ann (Carey) Gartland, Catherine (Middleditch) Carey. Front: Mary Ann (Fitzpatrick) Middleditch.

Page 56

John T McPhee and the Gartland Family

Matthew Middleditch married Catherine Gorman on 4 October, 1831 (Ref.No. 1761)

Children of Matthew Middleditch and Catherine Gorman

Matthew Middleditch, Convict, came on the ship “Chapman” to Tasmania in 1824. He was tried at the Norfolk Quarter Sessions on 10 Dec 1823, and sentenced to seven years gaol. He was transported for pig stealing. He spent some time on a hulk. Once for housebreaking, he had spent eighteen months in Ipswich. His mother was at Nature Place, Stanton, Bury St. Edmunds. John Middleditch his Uncle, kept the sign of the Ram, Norwich. Matthew lived last in England at Stanton.

Children of Matthew Middleditch and Catherine Gorman were:

Catherine Gorman, Convict, came on ship “Providence” to Tasmania in 1826. She stole tablespoons from her master, and received seven years gaol sentence on 30 June 1825. Francine Smith, a descendent, said: “You will notice she left a child at home with her mother. We wonder what happened there.” Here is what was recorded on the official files: Catherine Gorman, Mid-London, Gaol Delivery 30 June, 1825 – 7 years. 5ft 4 ¾ ins, brown hair, light grey eyes, age 27, servant of all work, cook, get up linen, wash. Native place London. Single with child. Offence – stealing tablespoons from her master. Catherine Middleditch (nee Gorman) died in 1876 aged 83. Born London. Father and Mother unknown. Ref. No.11966

William Middleditch. Died at Williamstown Vic in 1887, aged 58 (Ref.No. 15966) George Middleditch. Born in Tasmania in 1832 The two brothers came from Tasmania to Melbourne on the ship “Shamrock”. George Middleditch married Mary Anne Fitzpatrick in 1864. Ref.No. 625 Mary Anne Fitzpatrick was born in 1842 at Armagh in Ireland. Mary Anne’s parents were Hugh Fitzpatrick and Elizabeth McMahon, from County Tyrone. Mary Anne Fitzpatrick came to Australia in 1857. George Middleditch is noticed in the book: “Victoria and its Metropolis 1888”, page 675. Here is an extract from that book: Middleditch, George, Williamstown, was born in Tasmania in 1832, and came to Victoria in 1851, where he was employed at Cole’s wharf in the first slaughter-house built in Melbourne. He afterwards went to the Forest Creek diggings, and then to Bendigo where he worked in Ironbark Gully, and stayed there about seven years. He was next employed for three years in the Mallee country. About 1871 he went to New Zealand and engaged in farming there, but returned to Melbourne in 1877, and took up a selection in Gippsland, where he remained until 1887 when he came back to Melbourne and purchased the Beach Hotel at Williamstown, containing about ten rooms, where he has since commanded a steady trade.” He died in 1888 at the Alfred Hospital, Prahan, aged 53. In Ref.No. 3241 George’s father is shown as Matthew Charles Middleditch. There were ten living children when George died, and their ages were as follows: Lizzie (later Pullen) 23 years, George 21, Tom 19, Kitty (later Carey) 18, Maud 14, Arthur 12, Bert 9, Teanie (later Pike) 6, Margaret (later Day) 3.

John T McPhee and the Gartland Family

Page 57

Children of George and Mary Anne Middleditch t


&
MJ[BCFUI
.JEEMFEJUDI born 1862. In 1888 she married Richard Pullen. (Ref.No. 8541) (In marriage record Elizabeth is spelt “Middlewich”.) Elizabeth and Dick had the children as follows: Annie Pullen, who married Swanell. Swanell died at 40. There were no children. Agnes Pullen, who married Penhall. Annie and Agnes were twins. Agnes had a daughter Amy Delves. Bert Fred Ethel The Pullens lived at Richmond and used to visit the Gartland family at Oakleigh, as did Elizabeth’s sisters, Aunty Teenie (Christine Pike) and Aunty Margaret Day. t

(FPSHF
.JEEMFEJUDI born 1864. t
A
nna Middleditch, born 1865, in the Wimmera. (Ref.No. 15900) t

$
BUIFSJOF
,JUUZ
.JEEMFEJUDI born in New Zealand in 1867 married James Edward Carey, son of Maurice Carey and Elizabeth Selway, in Victoria in 1889. (Ref. No.3344.) Maurice Carey born Portsmouth in England in 1844. Catherine Middleditch Carey died at Kew in 1929, at age 59. (Ref.No.14838) James Edward Carey was an upholsterer. He was born in Portsmouth England on 18 March 1867. He worked at his trade with FOY & GIBSON at their Smith Street Collingwood business. The family lived variously at Collingwood, Carlton and finally Kew. James Edward Carey died in 1944 at Oakleigh age 77. (Ref.No. 11559) Page 58

t
'
SFE
.JEEMFEJUDI, born 1872. This Frederick Hugh Middleditch died at Orbost.(Ref.No. 2775.) Fred fought in the Boer War and received medals for bravery in that conflict. Later, Fred received this following letter from his sister Kitty, written from 528 Canning Street Carlton, and dated April 11th, 1917: Dear Fred, Just a few lines, hoping that you are still keeping well and to let you know that I am sending that parcel along. I will send it by Railway to Jack in c/o Williams Carrier to Orbost Station. You have not sent me your bank book yet: tomorrow is your pension day. I am taking seven weeks out of your pension so I will have two pounds to bank for you tomorrow. We have had terrible weather here for Easter but the last couple of days has been lovely. Arthur was here last night; he is still trying to get into the railway unit. He says if they don’t let him go he will make them give him his discharge. I will now say good bye with best wishes from all. I remain your affect Sister Kittie (Kittie is Catherine Middleditch who married James Carey.) t
.BVE
.JEEMFEJUDI born 1874 t
A
rthur Edward Middleditch, born 1876, Melbourne. (Ref.No. 17630) Married to Lil. Arthur was in the Australian Army, in the Great War. t
B
ert (Alfred John) Middleditch, born 1878, Married Kit (Catherine), Berwick, (Ref.No. 13620). Children of Bert and Kit: Keith Middleditch married Jean. Daughter Sandra, and daughter Pam who lives in Tasmania. Sandra Middleditch married McNeil. McNeills lived in Sale.

John T McPhee and the Gartland Family

t
"
OOJF
$ISJTUJOB
5FFOJF
.JEEMFEJUDI born 1882, Ref.No. 629, married Joe Pike, of Gippsland, at Berwick, in 1905. (Ref.No. 6605) This family lived in Orbost. Children of Teenie and Joe: Jack Pike (died about 1983) married Phyllis. Jim Pike married Ethel. Elizabeth Carey Gartland used to meet her cousins Jack and Jim Pike quite frequently, and was closer to them that all the Middleditch relatives. Francie Smith, a cousin of theirs, said that Jim Pike was still alive in the 1980’s. Christine Pike and Margaret Day were the ones left alone with their widowed mother Mary Anne Middleditch, and her new husband John Bruton of Armagh, whom she married in 1890. (Ref.No. 3488.) t
.
BSHBSFU
.BHHJF
.JEEMFEJUDI born 1885, (Ref.No. 16180,) married Frank Merson Day, at Carlton North in 1909, (Ref. No. 3229.) Maggie’s daughter Francie writes to Marie Gartland in 1985: “Mum was born on 2 Sept 1885, so you will be able to know how different in age she was from your mother (i.e. Elizabeth Ann Carey Gartland). If I remember it wasn’t a great lot. In photos we have of my mum the hair was always up, and all those lovely long dresses with wide lace collars and cuffs and they always seemed to be dressed up at home. Auntie Teanie and Mum were the last two at home with Grandma (Catherine Fitzpatrick Middledditch Bruton) and when Auntie married Uncle Joe, Mum was alone with Grandma and Granddad Bruton. She must have been lonely but there seemed to be so much going on in those days, they didn’t notice the loneliness. Mum used to ride to Orbost and then at times a crowd of them would go to dances out at Cabbage Tree, which is on the highway now, but in those days it was just what they called it, a bridle track, one horse track, and from what Mum told us, they had a wonderful time.

John T McPhee and the Gartland Family

I often wonder how many of the family went to Murrangower in those very first years after leaving Williamstown. Mum had two sons, George and William who went to Williamstown. George took over the Black Rd Hotel. It is still there in Tuyford Street. I think its 50 or 40. Jim and Et have seen it.”

Children of Catherine (Kitty) Middleditch and James Edward Carey

James Carey and Catherine Middleditch with daughter Elizabeth Carey.

t

+BDL
$BSFZ born 1903. Died in 1930 at Cheltenham sanatorium. Family lived at Kew at the time. t

&MJ[BCFUI
"OO
$BSFZ who married Michael Gartland in 1921. Elizabeth Carey used to visit her grandmother at Murrangower, near Orbost, where her grandmother, Mary Anne (Fitzpatrick Middleditch) Bruton lived with her second husband John Bruton who had a hotel in that town, and where the young Michael Gartland would stay when he came into town. That’s how they met of course. Elizabeth Carey and Michael Gartland were married at Saint Brigid’s Church North Fitzroy on 9 July 1921. At the time of her marriage, Elizabeth was living at 30 O’Grady Street North Carlton. She was 31 years old. Michael Gartland gave his address as Orbost. He had been born at Hacketstown, Ireland on 24-12-1883. He was 38 years old. Page 59

Michael Gartland’s Family

Family of Elizabeth Ann Carey and Michael Gartland

Michael Gartland’s father was Michael Gartland, son of Bryan Gartland (Gortlan) a shop keeper of Hacketstown, and his mother was Catherine Mary Byrne daughter of Matthew Byrne, a Ballybrack farmer and Mary Toole who died 30.5.1886. Michael Gartland.

Michael Gartland had four brothers: Bernard, Matthew, Nicholas and Nicholas Patrick. t
#
FSOBSE
BOE
*WZ
(BSUMBOE lived in Western Australia and had the family: Cedric, Mary, Monica, Kevin, Kate and Clare. t
M
atthew and Ann Veronica Heffernan Gartland lived in Ireland and had the family: Kitty and Gerry Rodgers of Newry, Co Down: Billy and Teresa Gartland of Artane Dublin; Jack and Nora Gartland of Kiltegan, Co Wicklow; Nicholas and Maura Gartland of Ballybrack, Hacketstown, Co Carlow; Michael and Dympna Gartland of Enniscorthy, Co Wexford; Tom and Kitty Flynn Gartland of Ardmore, Co Waterford. In 1979, Kitty Rodgers in Newry, N.Ireland, wrote to Moya McPhee, her cousin in Australia; Moya’s son Michael McPhee had just visited Kitty and the others in Ireland. Kitty wrote: “How my father (this was Matthew Gartland) would have loved to have seen him. Many times he told us of his parting with your father (Michael Gartland of course) when he was emigrating to Australia, how he ran along the platform holding his hand as the train was moving out of the station. He said he knew he would never see him in this world again. (Letter of 8-7-1979) Matthew Gartland died on 15 July, 1951.

t
.BVSJDF (married Catherine McPhee) t
/JDIPMBT (married Daphne Stewart) t
.PZB (married Jack McPhee) t
Dorothea (married Bryan Hart) t
#FUUZ (married Rowley McPhee) and t
.BSJF After Elizabeth Ann Carey’s mother Catherine died in 1929, her father James Edward Carey then came to live with his daughter in Oakleigh. Pa Carey, as he was known, died in 1944.

t
Nicholas Gartland: born 1889, died 1890 t
N
icholas Patrick Gartland: born 1890, died 1912

Page 60

Michael and Elizabeth Gartland and family, from left: Betty, Nick, Marie, Moya, Maurice and Dot.

John T McPhee and the Gartland Family

Copies of this publication can be obtained via the author. [email protected]. This book can be found online at www.familyjohnmcphee.com

PUBLISHING

Printed at Victoria University Printing Services, Footscray, January 2009.

209 Gertrude Street Fitzroy Victoria 3065 Australia www.bluevapours.com.au