Descendants of Samuel O'Hara

      Samuel O'Hara, born ca. 1827 ¹ in Killinkere Parish, County Cavan, Ireland; died 29 Nov 1907 ^{2, 10} Glen Innes, NSW, Australia; buried Anglican Section "A", Glen Innes General Cemetery. He married (1) on 2 Mar 1854 ³ in the Bailieborough Presbyterian Church, Bailieborough, County Cavan, Ireland, Martha McAuley born ca. 1830; died 14 Dec 1892 ^{2, 11} at Glen Innes, buried Glen Innes Cemetery, daughter of Andrew McAuley and Elizabeth ³. He married (2) in Glen Innes in 1900 ¹², Emma Davidson. It has been said he had a third marriage between 1893 and 1900 but such has not been confirmed ¹⁷.

Emigration

       Twelve months after their marriage in Ireland Samuel and Martha O'Hara emigrated to Australia, departing from Liverpool in England on the Truro and arriving on the 26 May 1855 at Moreton Bay (Brisbane) accompanied by a born during the voyage daughter Eliza. ^{6, 7}. Their emigration to Australia was sponsored by Samuel's brother-in-law Hugh Wauhop, formerly of County Caven and of the Strawberry Hills locality in the inner Sydney suburb of Surry Hills, who was married to Samuel's sister Mary ⁵.
        No doubt the original intent was that Samuel and Martha would accompany to Australia four female first cousins, two other female relatives by marriage, and Samuel's sister Eliza, also sponsored by Hugh Wauhop, with Samuel acting as their male protector. As it eventuated the others departed Plymouth in England on the Mangerton two months after Samuel and Martha. The thinking is that late in 1854 or early 1855 for some reason Samuel had an expectation they may not be leaving for a few months and, it was apparent to him a departure if left until then would likely mean the baby Martha was expecting would be born early in what could be as long as a five month voyage, thus having a reduced chance of survival compared to a birth on terra firma. Apart from cautions by the immigration authority to intending emigrants, that because of the risk emigrants should regulate marital relations to ensure children were not born during the long voyages to Australia, Samuel would have had direct knowledge from letters home to Co. Cavan from his sister Sarah of her experience two years earlier of having a baby born during such a voyage when with husband and first cousin Thomas O’Hara she travelled from Plymouth in England to Moreton Bay on the Florentia arriving there after a passage exceeding five months during which there were 17 deaths on board of whom 12 were children.
        The suggested scenario is that upon become aware Martha’s baby would likely be born early during a later departing voyage, Samuel would have contacted the Colonial Land and Emigration Committee (CLEC), the authority responsible for arranging assisted immigration to NSW and chartering the immigrant ships, either through an agent in Ireland or by a letter direct to London, and requested that his and Martha’s departure be brought forward by several months to permit the expected baby to be born after arrival in Australia instead of on the high seas. Perhaps he just asked for a departure as soon as possible. It is suggested the request was considered favorably with the result they were offered and accepted passage on the earlier departing Truro even though as it turned out baby Eliza (named as Martha in their arrival immigration record) was still born on the high seas.
        An interesting upshot of their earlier than originally intended departure was that the emigration authority in London must have overlooked removing them from the passenger list for the 2 months later departing Mangerton resulting in the issue of tickets/passes in their name that were then used by two others to assume their names and travel to Australia on that ship. So in the official immigration records Samuel and Martha are listed as arriving in Australia on two different ships two months apart! ²⁰

Settlement in Australia

        The state of Queensland did not come existance until 1859 thus at the time of Samuel and Martha's arrival at Moreton Bay it was still in the colony of New South Wales. It is not known when they made the move south except that it was before 1857. Perhaps it was around the same time Samuel's sister Sarah and her husband Thomas O'Hara who arrived in Australia at Moreton Bay in 1853 moved south. Thomas and Sarah's third child was born at Burnett River in July 1856 but by the time the next child was born in September 1858 Thomas was working as a shepherd on Glen Innes Station in the area where Samuel and Martha were destined to also later live out their lives.
        It is even possible after arrival they moved directly to Sydney by ship and spent some time in the Surrry Hills locality of Strawberry Hills, where Samuel's brother-in-law and emigration sponsor Hugh Wauhop who arrived in Sydney from Co. Cavan in 1841 is recorded living and owning houses from at least 1848, and where in 1856 he built a licenced hotel signed "The True Irishman" in no longer existing Sarah Ann street  ⁹. Perhaps implying such is the naming by Samuel of his Glen Innes district rural farming and grazing property "Strawberry Hills" after that locality that at the time of the original subdivision was named in the singular Strawberry Hill but later became pluralised to Hills. Samuel may have even worked there during 1855/56 on the construction of the Hugh Wauhop hotel for which a licence was applied for in March 1856 but not granted until 12 Sep. 1856 before he moved further south to employment in the Wollongong district. The place of abode of his sister Eliza O'Hara, who arrived in Sydney on the Mangerton 2 months after he and Martha arrived at Moreton Bay, was stated as Strawberry Hills when she married Thomas Wilkinson in Sydney on 22 Mar 1859. Samuel was recorded as a witness at the marriage. However as the birth of Samuel's first Australian born child Mary was registered at Wollongong on 6 Jan 1857, when Samuel gave his occupation as "labourer", it seems likely he would have been only visting Sydney for the happy event as the births of his next two children Samuel Jr. in 1858 and Andrew in 1861 were also registered at Wollongong. By the time of the registration of the birth of the next child Robert in 1863 he and Martha had joined his cousin Thomas O'Hara and Samuel's sister Sarah in the Glen Innes district of New South Wales where they prospered and remained living for the rest of their lives.

Children of Samuel O'Hara and Martha McAuley were:
     1.    i.     Eliza O'Hara
     2.    ii.    Mary O'Hara
     3.    iii.   Samuel O'Hara
     4.    iv.   Andrew O'Hara
     5.    v.    Robert O'Hara
     6.   vi.    Sarah O'Hara