Revised Nov. 2, 2002

Table of Contents:

1. A convict family
2. Gold!
3. A bad time and place to be Irish
4. Children on the stage
5. 'Festive little Maggie Moore'
6. 'They were an era'
7. End of a marriage
8. Phantom cable cars?
9. J.C. Williamson
10. Harry Roberts
11. Voices of the period
12. Playbills
13. Music

A convict family

Poverty was rampant in 19th-century Ireland, even before the potato famine, and many Irish were being convicted of petty crimes of desperation -- stealing a shilling, for example -- and being exiled to far-away Australia in what was euphemistically called "transportation." Bridget Whelan, born about 1817 in County Kildare, Ireland, was sentenced to 7 years' transportation for larceny in 1839 and arrived in New South Wales, Australia in 1840. By the time she left Australia in nearly 10 years after her sentencing, she had three daughters by two different men, one of whom she may not have married.
Redmond Burke may have been a bounty immigrant -- a free settler who is given a grant by the British government to help him settle in Australia. He arrived on a ship called the Lalla Rookh (named after a popular fictional character of the mid-19th century) and made his way to Sydney, where he became the father of Bridget's oldest child, Mary, born March 16, 1844. He was buried in Sydney on Feb. 11, 1845, having died at the age of 35. There is no marriage record for Bridget Whelan and Redmond Burke in Australia.

From his convict record, a few details are known about James: he was unable to read or write; he was 5 feet, 4 3/4 inches tall, with brown hair and gray eyes; his complexion was sallow and freckled; and he had a diagonal scar under his right eye, and two scars on the center of his forehead. He was unmarried at the time, as Denis was; Owen, however, was married and had a son. Owen's description is very similar to James': 5 feet 4 1/4 inches, sallow and freckled, brown hair, gray eyes. His nose inclined to the right side and he had a long scar extending from the right side of his nose down the cheek, as well as a scar inside his left wrist and another inside the top of his middle finger. Denis' height was not recorded, and his coloring was darker than that of his brothers: brown hair, dark hazel eyes, dark ruddy and freckled skin. He had a scar over his left eyebrow and another under his left eye, a mole on his left cheekbone, a scar on the back of the little finger of his right hand and a scar on the front of both his legs. Denis and Owen could both read and write, according to their records, whereas James could not.

Their sentences may have been blessings in disguise. They got out of Ireland before the potato famine struck in 1845; surely if they had not been transported to Australia, they would have either starved to death or had to leave anyway on their own dimes.

James and Bridget's marriage took place in the Church of England, although both were Roman Catholics. Their first daughter, Delia, was born on July 14, 1846, and Ellen on Aug. 23, 1848. Bridget would have served out her sentence in 1846; James in 1848. It's easy to imagine that they would have preferred to return to Ireland, had the famine not made this suicidal, but that they didn't want to stay in Australia, a land full of bitter memories of involuntary exile and servitude. 1848 happened to be the year gold was discovered in California, and many Irish convicts from Australia were heading for San Francisco.

My link to Bridget Whelan: (the numbers are Ahnentafel numbers)

1 Me
3 Margaret Helen RIEHM
6 John Rex RIEHM Sr
12 John M. RIEHM
25 Mary A. BURKE

51 Bridget M. WHELAN

The Sullivan connection comes from Bridget's second husband, James E. Sullivan.

Created 20 Feb 1999 by Reunion, from Leister Productions, Inc. Revised January 10, 2003