My Latest Discovery - The George Cuthbert who went to Australia

Recently I found that a long-lost Irish first cousin twice removed ended up in Australia. Below is a copy of an article that I've submitted for publication in the Ontario Genealogical Society Toronto Branch's newsletter, The Toronto Tree.

OGS Course on Ancestry Leads to Family in Australia!

While doing a search on Ancestry - during the recent OGS Toronto Branch course “Hands-On Ancestry.ca Library Edition” - I came across a George Cuthbert, born in Bray, in a database entitled Victoria, Australia, Deserter, Discharged, and Prisoner Crew Lists, 1852-1925.   Not the kind of list on which one hopes to find a relative!  But Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland, was the birthplace of my father and several generations before him, and so I knew that there was a good chance that this George could be mine.   

I had discovered some time ago that my great grandfather, Robert Cuthbert’s brother, George Christopher Cuthbert, a ship owner and sea captain, and his wife, Emily Roe, had five children in Bray:  William ( b. 1867, died at age 7 days), a second William (b. 1868), George junior (b.1870), Richard (1871-1922), and Robert (b. 1872).  And I knew that the children’s mother, Emily, had died in 1872 giving birth to the fifth son Robert.  

Sadly in 1886 their father, George Christopher, also died, leaving his four surviving children as orphans, the oldest just 17 years of age.  In his will, George Christopher named William Roe, most probably his wife’s father, as guardian of his minor children. (See https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KZ5H-NHR)

  

Although I’ve traced the descendants of fourth son Richard until that line expired, for a long time I was unable to find out what happened to the other surviving sons - William the second, George junior, and Robert - since there seemed to be no marriage or death records for them in Ireland.  

Eventually Robert turned up on some War Office records in the National Archives at Kew at http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/record?catid=693568&catln=6 showing among other things that he served in the military, for many years in far-away Ceylon and Hong Kong! 

And, now thanks to the Ancestry course, I have found George!!   According to the Register of Deserters on Ancestry, at age 20, able seaman George Cuthbert - along with 8 others ranging in age from 19 to 29 -  deserted the ship, the Banklands #93779, in October 1888 in Victoria, Australia.  Searching the wonderful Crew List Index Page (CLIP) site at http://www.crewlist.org.uk/data/vesselsnum.php, I found that the Banklands #93779 was a barque, 1197 tons, International Code Signal K.R.T.W., registered in Liverpool.

Perhaps George chose Australia because his father’s brother, William Cuthbert, a Master Mariner, had gone there in 1852, returning to Ireland in 1861 with tales passed down through the family of his adventures at the Gold Rush at Ballarat and a gold ring, engraved with a pick and shovel, bearing the words “With these I got it”.  While in Australia in the 1850’s, William had served as Captain of the ship Courier.  A crew list with his name and signature may be seen on the Mariners and Ships in Australian Waters site at http://mariners.records.nsw.gov.au/1854/10/022cou.htm .

But back to the story of George.  After living in Australia for seven years, in 1895, George - using his mother’s maiden name, Roe, as his middle name, so it certainly is him -  married Barbara Brown.  

Continuing the search on Ancestry, I found that Barbara and George had at least 6 children:  Ellen Emily(1896-1970), Barbara (1898-1968), Alice Maud (b. 1900), George William (1902 -1911), Eleanor Victoria (b. 1905) and Margaret Roe (b.1908).  

Since their son did not survive to adulthood, it seems that the Cuthbert name in this branch died out in 1911.  That this loss was felt intensely by the family is evidenced by the In Memoriams placed in the newspapers for years after the death.  For example, in 1930 in The Age newspaper in Melbourne, found on line on the excellent Australian newspaper site Trove at http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/202455731?searchTerm=%22George%20and%20Barbara%20Cuthbert%22&searchLimits=, they wrote:

“In loving memory of our dear son, George William Cuthbert, who passed away 12th July, 1911, age 9   years.

“His memory is as dear to-day

“As in the hour he passed away;

“It's sad, but true, we wonder why

“The best are always first to die.

“Inserted by loving father, mother and sisters, George and Barbara Cuthbert, Eastern Road, Albert Park”.

While there is evidence that some of the daughters eventually were married, so far I haven’t located their actual marriage records, or the birth records of any children they might have had.  But according to the death records I’ve found so far, Ellen Emily died in 1970 as Emily Ellen Howard Merison, and Barbara died in 1968 as Barbara Clarke.  And a Law Notice in The Age on Trove at http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/203838845?searchTerm=%22George%20Roe%20Cuthbert%22&searchLimits=exactPhrase=George+Roe+Cuthbert%7C%7C%7CanyWords%7C%7C%7CnotWords%7C%7C%7CrequestHandler%7C%7C%7CdateFrom%7C%7C%7CdateTo  concerning George Roe Cuthbert’s death in 1934 reads as follows:

“AFTER the expiration of fourteen days from the publication hereof APPLICATION will be made to the Supreme Court of Victoria, that LETTERS OF ADMINISTRATION of the ESTATE of GEORGE ROE CUTHBERT, late of 157 Eastern Road, South Melbourne, in Victoria, Wharf Laborer, deceased, intestate, may be GRANTED to Alice Kine, of Crlchton-avenue, Port Melbourne, married woman, being a daughter of the said deceased.”

There are a few Merisons and Kines, and numerous Clarkes, in the current Australian phone book on line at http://www.whitepages.com.au/?entryType=R which might be worth pursuing.  If I persist, I may come up with some living descendants if there are any.  But the fact that I got this far, adding a whole new generation to my tree in such a short time, is a entirely due to taking the OGS Toronto Branch Ancestry course.  Although I had used Ancestry Library Edition for many years, I signed up since I thought there must be something more to learn in a three-week course, and I’m certainly glad I did.

Captain Cuthbert to the Isle of Man in 1843

Some months ago I learned that the National Library and Archives of the Isle of Man was planning in early 2011 to give internet access to all Manx Newspapers held by Manx National Heritage from 1793 to 1960.   See http://www.gov.im/mnh/heritage/library/imuseum.xml  

The Isle of Man is located in the Irish Sea between Ireland and Great Britain.  One of the Cuthbert ships, an 87-ton schooner, official number 19891, called the William and Margaret, presumably named after my great grandparents William Cuthbert and Margaret (nee Dalton) Cuthbert, was built at Peel on the Isle of Man in 1846.  So I e-mailed the Isle of Man Library and asked them to let me know when the newspapers would become available on line.  I thought that there might be an article about the launch of the ship at Peel.

Recently I received a message from the Library stating that, while the newspapers are not yet available to the public, they were enclosing a copy of a shipping notice from page 3 of the Manx Liberal newspaper of April 1st, 1843, that might be of interest.  

Arrivals

The notice shows that on March 30th, 1843, a ship called the Elizabeth and Mary, arrived at the port of Ramsey, Isle of Man, from Carlisle, with a Cuthbert as captain.  This could well be William Cuthbert (baptised 17 Jan 1779  - died 8 Oct 1843), father of my great grandfather Robert Cuthbert.  On the same day, a ship called the William and Margaret arrived at the port of Ramsay from Bray with a captain named Gerrard.  Since it came from Bray, the home of our Cuthbert family, there must have been some connection with our ship, the William and Margaret, official number 19891, although ours was supposed to have been built in 1846, three years after the 1843 newspaper article.  

Departures

The shipping notice also lists ships that departed from Ramsey that week, including on March 31st, 1843, the William and Margaret, sailing for Whitehaven with a Cuthbert as captain, most likely the same Cuthbert who had arrived in Ramsey the day before.  This has to be one of our Cuthberts since the Cuthberts made many voyages to and from Whitehaven in England to pick up coal for their coal importing business in Bray.    

The elder William died in Bray on October 8th, 1843, at age 64, and so he would have still been living in March 1843.  His sea captain sons, George, William junior and Richard would have been 24, 19 and 14 respectively in 1843, perhaps a bit young to have been a captain in 1843.  When the rest of the newspapers go on line, maybe I can pin down for sure which of our ancestors was the Cuthbert in question.  In the meantime, it’s wonderful to think that back in 1843 these small sailing ships were able to sail safely to and from the Isle of Man away out in the middle of the Irish Sea.

Christopher Cuthbert’s Grandson, Robert Cuthbert, in 1901 Census of Ireland

Yesterday, June 3rd, 2010, the 1901 Census of Ireland became available for free on the internet. All thirty-two counties for both 1901 and 1911 are now available on the National Archives of Ireland website at http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/ 

If you go to http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/search/ and enter the search terms 1901, Robert Cuthbert, County Dublin and Age 65, you will find Christopher Cuthbert’s grandson, Robert Cuthbert (my great grandfather), on Rutland Square East.  Click on his first name and you will find him listed at http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Dublin/Rotunda/Rutland_Square_East/1331824/ along with all of the residents of 1 Rutland Square East.  Click “show all information” to see the complete transcription.   

I took some photos of the large Georgian house at 1 Rutland Square when I was in Dublin a few years ago and will attempt eventually to put copies on this Cuthberts of County Wicklow blog or somewhere on the net, maybe on Facebook.  The house is now used as a school.

If you click on Household Return (Form A) you will get to the handwritten form at http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai003770895/ where you will see Robert with his daughter, Annie (Cuthbert) Vodrey, who is shown as head of the family.  By that time, Annie was the widow of the late Frederick Vodrey, the famous Irish art potter who had died in 1897.  Their children, Frederick Cuthbert Vodrey, age 8, and Eileen Gladys Vodrey, age 7, are there at 1 Rutland Square, along with five boarders or paying guests and two domestic servants.

Annie’s signature is at the bottom of the form.  She has signed as Annie Marion Vodrey, although on her 1867 birth registration she was listed as Margaret Cuthbert and on her 1891 marriage she was shown as Annie Margaret Cuthbert.

Other relatives of the Cuthberts may be found on the 1901 census of Ireland. So happy searching everyone!

Christopher Cuthbert’s Son, William Cuthbert, and his Family

In my March 13th, 2010 post, I wrote about Christopher Cuthbert’s son, Charles Cuthbert, and his unfortunate marriage to Hannah Darling.  At the present time I have no additional information about Charles or his descendants, if any.   

So I’ll leave Charles for now, and in today’s post I’ll write about Charles’s brother, William Cuthbert (my great great grandfather) and his wife and family.

On Sept 24th, 1812, William Cuthbert and Margaret Dalton were married by licence in St. Paul’s Church (Church of Ireland) in Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland.  The Dublin Consistorial Office marriage licence books that I saw at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City in 2007 (Film # 0,100,227) say that the licence was issued September 23rd, 1812;   that William was a Gentleman from Windgates, County Wicklow;   and that Margaret was a spinster from Dublin. Since she is shown as being from Dublin, rather than from County Dublin, could this mean she was from Dublin city?

William had been baptized on January 17th, 1779, in Christ Church Delgany.  The baptism would likely have taken place not long after his birth and so he may have been born in early 1779.   The burial information for St. Paul’s Church cemetery in Bray says that William Cuthbert (grave number 305) of Church Terrace died October 8th, 1843, at age 63 which would make his birth around 1779 or 1780. 
(See http://homepage.eircom.net/~genbruce/MyGenealogy/6Stpauls1.html  and http://homepage.eircom.net/~genbruce/MyGenealogy/6Stpauls8.html )

From her age at death in 1879 (84), Margaret would have been born around 1795.  Her place of birth is not yet known for certain.  The Bray Historical Society has no records of Church of Ireland Daltons in Bray in the 1700s, although there were C. of I. Daltons in Bray in the 1600s.  Margaret’s  parents are not noted in the St. Paul’s marriage register, nor are the names of the witnesses.   

William and Margaret had eleven children, all baptized in St. Paul’s Church in Bray.  I found the following dates of their baptisms in the St. Paul’s Church Register of Baptisms, Burials, Marriages when I was at the Representative Church Body Library in Dublin in October 1999:

Elizabeth on November 14th, 1813;  

Eleanor in October 1st, 1815;  

Robert Benjamin on October 5th, 1817 (died young);  

George Christopher on September 5th,1819; 

Jane on October 7th, 1821 (died young);  

William on April 4th, 1823;  

Jane on June 25th, 1826;  

Richard on Feb. 1st, 1828;   

Susanna on November 13th,1831;  

Robert (my great grandfather) on October 12th, 1834;  and 

Margaret on June 10th, 1838.  

All nine of the children of William and Margaret Cuthbert who survived to adulthood were married, many of them in St. Paul’s Church in Bray. 

On January 1st, 1836, at St. Paul’s, their oldest child, Elizabeth,  married David BEGGS, Gentleman, of St. Mary's, Dublin.

Seven years after that, in 1843,  William died at age 63, before seeing the rest of his children married.

On June 12th, 1847,  at St. Paul’s, their second child, Eleanor, married Benjamin BUCKLEY, a farmer of Kilmurray Parish, Delgany, son of John Buckley, a farmer.

On December 7th, 1854, their eighth child, Richard married Margaret CAREY, in the Parish of Lusk, north of Dublin, daughter of Thomas Carey, ship owner and merchant.  After Margaret’s death on January 13th, 1879, Richard married Elizabeth Mary Westropp McDONALD of Farran Kelly on May 6th, 1880, at 1 Manders Terrace, Dublin, daughter of Francis McDonald, Esquire, of Farran Kelly, Delgany, Co Wicklow. 

On March 13th, 1855,  at St. Paul’s, their seventh child, Jane, married Francis CAREY of Rogerstown House, son of the same Thomas Carey who was father of Margaret Carey.  And on the same day at St. Pauls, ninth child, Susanna married John DOYLE of Graystones, south of Bray, a grocer, son of John Doyle, also a grocer.     

On May 13th, 1862 at St. Paul’s, sixth child, William, married a widow, Eleanor CARROLL (nee DALTON), of Bray, daughter of John Dalton, grocer.  After her death, he married widow Annie Macfarlane (nee Davidson) at Carlisle Road Presbyterian Church in Londonderry on April 29th, 1869, daughter of Daniel Davidson, a ship’s captain.  William and Annie lived in Londonderry for a time where Annie owned a hotel named the Neptune.

  

On February 24th, 1866, fourth child, George Christopher,  married Emily ROWE in the Registrar's Office, Kingstown (now Dun Laoghaire), daughter of William Rowe, farmer.

On September 7th of the same year, 1866, tenth child, Robert (my great grandfather) married Maria BEGGS, daughter of Ebenezer Beggs, coach proprietor, in St. Kevin’s Church in the Parish of St. Peter in Dublin.

And on November 13th, 1871, the youngest child, Margaret, married Ralph VALENTINE, merchant, son of Thomas Valentine, farmer, in the Parish Church, Parish of Bray in the County of Wicklow (not sure if this was St. Paul’s or Christ Church, Bray, which was built in 1863.

My aim has been to trace the descendants of these marriages down to the present day.  In a number of cases I have been successful in finding living relatives in various parts of the world including England and Jordan!  Now we can share information about the history of our family

In a future post, I’ll write about the coal business which Margaret (Dalton) Cuthbert continued to operate after her husband William’s death, transporting coal in her own sailing ships from Whitehaven in England to the harbour in Bray, just south of Dublin.   

Some of William and Margaret’s sons obtained qualification as Master Mariners (ships’ captains) and sailed to ports as far away as to the gold rush at Ballarat, Australia, in the 1850’s, and to Quebec City, Canada, in 1861.  Their exploits as seafarers will also be the subject of some future posts.

The Sad Case of Cuthbert v Browne

 In many families there are tales which are handed down from generation to generation as family lore.  In the case of my Irish ancestors there are several such stories passed down by my father:

- about the ship’s captain who travelled to the gold rush at Ballarat in Australia and back again to Ireland in the 1850’s;

- about the two brothers who were said to have ridden with the Charge of the Light Brigade on 25 October 1854 during the Crimean War;

- about the great uncles who were coal merchants and won a court case in the 1860’s against the Earl of Meath; 

- about the widow who sailed to St. John’s, Newfoundland, in the 1870’s with Governor John Hawley Glover and his sister, and lived in Government House as a companion to the Governor's sister; 

- about the loss of the family-owned sailing ships in a storm in the 1880’s;  

- about the family link to Frederick Vodrey, the famous Irish art potter, in the 1890’s.

All of those stories I plan to write about in more detail later on.  

But this story, the sad tale of Cuthbert v. Browne,  was not passed down from earlier generations, perhaps because it happened so long ago that it was forgotten until I chanced to find a reference to it in an old newspaper in Dublin.    

I first learned about the case in September 2006 when I was in Dublin’s Pearse Street Library searching through the Irish Newspaper Archive, the world's largest online database of Irish Newspapers, on the library’s computer.  To my surprise I came upon a notice in the Freeman's Journal of Wednesday, February 7th, 1821, which read: 

“CAUTION

“The public are hereby cautioned against giving Credit to HANNAH CUTHBERT, otherwise DARLING, my Wife, as we have separated and I am determined not to pay any Debts which she may contract.

“CHARLES CUTHBERT

“Little Bray, County Dublin”

Although the newspaper database is available for free in the Dublin libraries it is otherwise a pay site.  However the first page of each issue is available as a sample for free on line.  Because the notice happened to be on page one of that issue, it may be seen from any computer by entering the date 07/02/1821 and the Freeman's Journal as the publication in the “Quick Cover Search” at

http://www.irishnewsarchive.com/index.php

Searching further through subsequent issues of that same newspaper, I found an article about the Cuthbert v Browne court case on pages 3 and 4 of the Wednesday, July 2nd, 1823 edition.  The article is extremely long, the equivalent of over 10 typewritten pages in length, and goes into great detail about the case and what led up to it.  The story as written in the Freeman's Journal would make a wonderful play and I would love to tackle it someday, perhaps by using Playwriting 101.  But if some famous Irish playwright decides to take up the challenge, I ask only that the names of the participants be retained so that the Cuthbert name will be immortalized in literature throughout the ages.

I had already obtained the information that Charles had married Hannah Darling in April, 1820, although at the time I first discovered it I may not have known that Charles was a brother of my ancestor.  Luckily I never throw anything out, a habit which sometimes can be a blessing as well as a curse.  When I was at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City in March 2003, I had found a record of the issuance of their marriage licence in the Dublin Consistorial Office marriage licence books c 1630-1825 (Film # 0,100,227) which showed:

Name - Charles Cuthbert 

Designation - Bray, Gentleman 

Wife - Hannah Darling 

Designation - Dublin, Spinster

Date of Licence - 1 April 1820

Parish - St. Peter

A record of their marriage is also in the International Genealogical Index (IGI) at 

http://www.familysearch.org/eng/search/igi/individual_record.asp?recid=100119358661&lds=1&region=2&frompage=1

(although the birth dates given there are only a guess and no source information is given); 

on the Irish Genealogy site at http://churchrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/details/98b5d20709269?name=cuthbert&name2=&location=&dd=&mm=&yy=&type=&diocese=DUBLIN&parish=ST.+PETER'S+C.of+I.&century=&decade=&sort=&pageSize=10&submit=Search; and

in the Appendix to the Thirtieth Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records in Ireland, page 249. 

While the lengthy Freeman's Journal newspaper account is fascinating to read, a considerable effort would have been necessary to summarize it.  However in August of 2009 by chance when I was Googling the name Charles Cuthbert, I came across a post on British-Genealogy.com under the heading “Google Books Treasure Hunt” at http://www.british-genealogy.com/forums/showthread.php?t=29584&page=3&29584-Google-Book-Search-Treasure-Hunt/page3=   From this post I learned that Charles’s court case was written up in a book entitled The Annual Register of 1824.  This book is fully searchable on Google Books at  http://books.google.com/books?pg=RA1-PT35&dq=The%20Annual%20Register%20for

%201824&lr=&id=UXZdAAAAIAAJ&output=text

The court case write-up is on page 35-36 and can easily be found by using the search term Cuthbert, or by clicking on this URL:

http://books.google.com/books?lr=&output=text&id=UXZdAAAAIAAJ&dq=The+Annual+Register+for+1824&q=cuthbert

What follows is an outline of the case before the Court of Common Pleas, Dublin, presented mainly in the style it was originally written in the 1824 Annual Register.  But since there is such a tangle of relationships, making the proceedings somewhat difficult to follow, I’ve inserted the name of the actual person involved where a pronoun or legal term such as “plaintiff” and “defendant” is used.

The characters in the drama are:

Charles Cuthbert -  my great great great uncle, the plaintiff and wronged party.  The outcome of the case was that he was awarded £ 800 in damages.

Hannah Darling - Charles’s estranged wife

John Henry Browne - his evil brother-in-law, the defendant

Elizabeth Darling - John Henry Browne’s wife and a sister to Hannah.  Her first name isn’t mentioned in the write-up but I found it since their marriage is recorded in the International Genealogical Index (IGI) and can be found by entering their names at

http://www.familysearch.org/eng/search/frameset_search.asp?PAGE=/eng/search/ancestorsearchresults.asp

Archibald Browne - a brother of the defendant

Mrs. Archibald Browne (nee Cuthbert, first name unknown) - sister of Charles Cuthbert  

William Cuthbert - my great great grandfather, a man of upstanding moral character, called as a witness in the case 

Mrs. Darlington (formerly Mrs. Darling) - mother of Hannah and Elizabeth

Mr. O'Connell - lawyer representing the plaintiff, Charles Cuthbert

Mr. Wallace - lawyer representing the defendant, John Henry Browne

Here follows the write-up of the case from the The Annual Register of 1824:

Court Of Common Pleas, Dublin. 

Cuthbert v. Browne.

This was an action on the case for deceit. The declaration stated, that, the plaintiff (Charles Cuthbert) being unmarried, the defendant (John Henry Browne), on the 20th of March, 1820, intending to deceive Charles, did represent Hannah Darling to him as being a chaste, virtuous, and well-conducted maiden; 

that, in consequence of such representation, the plaintiff (Charles), on the 20th of April, 1820, married the said Hannah Darling; 

that the defendant (John) then knew, that the said Hannah Darling was not a chaste, virtuous, and well-conducted maiden, but, on the contrary, had been debauched and defiled by himself; and 

that in six months and three days, after the marriage, she was delivered of a child. 

There was another count, which stated, that the defendant (John) encouraged the plaintiff (Charles) to marry the said Hannah Darling, and represented her to Charles as being a chaste, virtuous, and well-conducted maiden; whereas she was not chaste, virtuous, or well-conducted, but, on the contrary, had been debauched and defiled. 

The damages were laid at  £ 2,000 [i.e., the amount that was being asked for, to compensate the plaintiff, Charles].

Mr. O'Connell stated the case on the part of the plaintiff (Charles). The parties, said he, are brothers-in-law; the wife (Hannah Darling) of the plaintiff (Charles) is the sister-in-law of the defendant (John) [fn1].   The defendant (John) has eight or ten children by the one sister (Elizabeth), and at least one by the other (Hannah); he holds a lucrative employment on the coast of Wicklow, and, by the seizure of smuggled tobacco, has realized something considerable. The plaintiff (Charles) is a farmer, and lives at Bray, in the county of Wicklow; 

Archibald Browne, a brother of the defendant, had married a sister of the plaintiff's (i.e., a sister of Charles) in the year 1816 [fn2] , and thus an intimacy commenced between the parties. The plaintiff (Charles), in consequence, became acquainted with Hannah Darling, the defendant's wife's sister [i.e., she was John’s wife, Elizabeth’s sister]. 

Hannah’s mother  who had married a Mr. Darlington [fn3] , gave encouragement to the addresses of the plaintiff (Charles) to her daughter (Hannah), and in the year 1817 everything was arranged for their marriage. 

At that period, however, the defendant (John) caused the marriage to be broken off. This produced a coolness between them (Charles and John), which continued for two or three years, until 1820, when the defendant (John) appeared to be anxious for the marriage to take place. 

John met the plaintiff (Charles) one evening in the town of Bray, and addressing him abruptly, said, " Your sister [whose name I still haven’t discovered] is married to my brother (Archibald) ; why will you not give me your hand ? You think it was I that broke off your marriage, but you are mistaken; I am your friend; Hannah is at my house, and a better girl never breathed; give me your hand — come home with me and you shall see her." The plaintiff (Charles), trusting in the sincerity of this language, gave the defendant (John) his hand, and went home with him; 

He (Charles), however, did not see her on this occasion, as the defendant (John) said that he recollected she was then in Dublin, but would be there in a day or two. John represented to Charles, that there was a romantic cottage, which belonged to Mrs. Darlington, and which would just suit him, the plaintiff (Charles) and Hannah. The defendant (John) added, that he had made such seizures of tobacco, that he was about to add two men to his barge, and that he would appoint the plaintiff (Charles) as one, with a salary of £ 4o a year, and allow him l/6th of all future seizures. 

Hannah appeared afterwards; she told the plaintiff (Charles), that it was Archibald Browne  (John’s brother) who had broken off the marriage, and not John. Every thing was now settled for the marriage (of Charles and Hannah), which accordingly took place.

William Cuthbert [my great great grandfather] was called as a witness. — 

Witness knows the defendant (John) in this action; 

knows the young lady (Hannah); 

the defendant's wife (Elizabeth) and witness's brother's wife (Hannah) are sisters; 

recollects the marriage of his brother (Charles) with Hannah Darling; 

a child was born in six months after the marriage; 

saw the defendant (John) after the birth of that child; 

John said to witness (William), "Oh ! William, is not this a horrid thing that has befallen me? I would not wonder if hell and destruction would open and swallow me up."  

Witness (William) told him to pray to God to keep him from temptation; 

the defendant (John) said, that he could not go to church or receive the sacrament, since he had committed the facts; 

the defendant (John) said, that he would give fifty pounds a piece to two doctors, to make the child come in under age, and that he would then easily settle it with the plaintiff (Charles); 

he said, the plaintiff”s wife were a defraud on him, and that he (the defendant, John) would take her home; 

witness (William) said, " How can you take another man's wife ?" 

John replied that he would bring her home, and let his wife (Elizabeth) do as well as she could with her; 

John also said, that he was sorry the law of the land would not allow him to live with both sisters; 

defendant (John) told witness (William), that, if William would interfere to settle the business, John would give six or seven government debentures to plaintiff (Charles) and witness (William); 

witness (William) said, that he would not interfere; it was too serious a business for him to enter into; 

the defendant (John) holds a situation under the government, in the revenue; he is coast-officer at Bray; he appears to live in a very comfortable manner.

Here the case closed on the part of the plaintiff.

Mr. Wallace then addressed the jury for the defendant.

The jury found a verdict for the plaintiff (Charles) - £ 800 damages.

The Freeman's Journal newspaper reported that “the verdict was received with acclamations by a crowded court”.

So far I haven’t found out whether the baby was a boy or a girl, and what happened to Charles and Hannah and the baby after the case was decided.  

Also I haven’t been able to find a marriage for Archibald Browne. The Appendix to the Thirtieth Report of the Deputy Keeper of Public Records lists a marriage between a William Browne and an Anne Cuthbert in the 1840’s which would be around the right time period, but I have no record of Charles’s having had a sister named Anne.  The only two sisters I know of were Mary (baptised 1769) and Jane (baptised 1791). There is a ten year gap between the baptisms of Charles’s two youngest siblings and so there may have been more children born whose baptisms are not recorded in the Christ Church Delgany Parish Register.  Another genealogical mystery to pursue.

------------

Footnotes:

¹ John’s wife was Elizabeth Darling.  Their marriage is in the IGI  at http://www.familysearch.org/eng/search/frameset_search.asp?PAGE=/eng/search/ancestorsearchresults.asp and also in the Appendix to the 30th report of the Deputy Keeper of Public Records in Ireland published in 1898 as part of the Enhanced Parliamentary Papers on Ireland (EPPI).

² I have been unable to find a marriage for Archibald Browne. 

³ Presumably she must have been Mrs. Darling before becoming Mrs. Darlington. 

A Message for the Francis George Cuthbert Family - 100 Years in Canada!

If you’ve ever pondered about why it is that you were born on this side of the Atlantic, the reason is that 100 years ago this year Francis George Cuthbert and his wife Laura (nee McCarthy) came from Ireland to Canada with their seven children!   They left behind their friends and relatives in what was then a somewhat economically-depressed country, to seek better opportunities for their family -  and for us their descendants.

Francis George Cuthbert, known as Frank, came ahead by himself to scout out the new country.  The Nanaimo Family History Society Ships’ Passenger List Index, for passengers arriving at Quebec ports between June 25th, 1905 and October 13th, 1910, at http://members.shaw.ca/nanaimo.fhs/ shows Frank Cuthbert, age 40, born in Ireland, arriving June 19th, 1910 on the ship Lake Manitoba (page 016-016, National Archives Microfilm Reel T 4768).   Click on ”The Index” and do a search under “cur-cze”, scrolling down to find Frank.

On the National Archives site at http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/passenger/001045-100.01-e.php it is now possible to search for specific ships and, once found, to see the actual names of the persons on the passenger lists.   The first page of the Lake Manitoba of the Canadian Pacific Railway Co. shipping line is at http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/passenger/001045-119.02-e.php?sisn_id_nbr=5354&page_sequence_nbr=1&interval=20&PHPSESSID=g2lggkts5ngtr3brj1t1cmdhq4  where details of the voyage are given.   And Francis George’s name is on page 17 of 46, at http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/passenger/001045-119.02-e.php?sisn_id_nbr=5354&page_sequence_nbr=1&interval=20&page_id_nbr=53155&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&PHPSESSID=tf26lgsflcfuvumjhqulq7t6l0

about half way down the page, heading for Winnipeg.  His occupation was traveller (i.e., travelling salesman) and this was his intended occupation in Canada.


A picture of the ship, the Lake Manitoba, is at:  http://www.theshipslist.com/pictures/lakemanitoba.htm

Francis Percy Cuthbert, age 17, arrived next on September 30th, 1910, on the ship Tunisian (page 020-004, Reel T - 4772).  His country of birth is shown erroneously on the Nanaimo FHS site as England instead of Ireland, possibly because the ship sailed from Liverpool in England.

On the National Archives site he is shown on the Tunisian of the Allan Line Steamship Co at  http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/passenger/001045-119.02-e.php?sisn_id_nbr=5495&page_sequence_nbr=1&interval=20&page_id_nbr=56292&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&PHPSESSID=e86v1n09l9ac5j2ppjn9cgco04

on page 21 of 41, fifth name from the top. He is shown as going to his father in Winnipeg and that his intended first occupation in Canada was clerk.


A picture of ship, the Tunisian, is at:    http://www.theshipslist.com/pictures/tunisian.htm

Because the other members of the family came just after October 13th, they are not listed on the Naniamo FHS site.  Therefore it's necessary to have some other source to find out the name of the ship they travelled on and the date of the sailing.

Laura Cuthbert and the other six of their seven children arrived in Canada on the Corsican of the Allan Line Steamship Co., arriving in Quebec, Oct. 15, 1910.   Luckily I remembered that my Aunt Ida  years before had told me the name of the ship and I first found them back in 2000 by laboriously scrolling through reams of microfilm at the Archives.  That was before the information was more conveniently available on line.  

Their names can be seen at  http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/passenger/001045-119.02-e.php?sisn_id_nbr=5516&page_sequence_nbr=1&interval=20&page_id_nbr=56743&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&PHPSESSID=151ughvih931n4ktsta4bcptn0 on page 22 of 39, about half way down.  They are shown as going to Winnipeg, to an Eaton’s Clerk, my grandfather’s first occupation in Canada.  


A picture of ship, the Corsican, is at:   http://www.theshipslist.com/pictures/corsican.htm

Francis George’s uncle, Edward Beggs, and his family were on the same ship but not in steerage like the Cuthbert kids as Ida recalled.  See  http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/passenger/001045-119.02-e.php?sisn_id_nbr=5516&page_sequence_nbr=1&interval=20&page_id_nbr=56729&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&PHPSESSID=151ughvih931n4ktsta4bcptn0.  They are near the bottom of page 8 and Edward is a house agent (a real estate agent I guess in today’s terms).

We’ll never know what our lives would have been like (or even if we would have been born) if Frank and Laura had remained in Ireland - a lovely place really -  but I’m ecstatically happy living here - and look at all those gold medals Canada has won at the Olympics this week  :-)    As I write there’s cheering going on outside on the street and so I think we must have won another gold!