Mary - The First Hingerty in Australia
Mary- The First Hingerty in Australia
Mary Hingerty travelled to Tasmania aboard the immigrant ship 'Sarah'.
The ship departed Gravesend (on the River Thames, London) on 16 October 1834 and arrived at Derwent Dock Hobart Town on 14 Feb 1835.
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| Hobart Town 1835 (held by state Library Victoria) |
Immigration:
115 single females on board the Sarah, including Mary, were 'Bounty Immigrants', recruited by the Agent of the Emigration Committee to help address the gender imbalance of the colony of Tasmania. The immigrants were to pay 5 pounds towards their own passage or sign a promissory note to make payment once employed. Single women were recruited in Ireland and England.
Mr John Marshall, the Agent for the Emigration Committee arranged for the passage, the hiring and provisioning of the ship for the voyage and then, upon showing receipts and accounting for all costs, the Emigration Committee sought reimbursement from the British Government at the rate of 12 pounds per immigrant i.e the Bounty.
In addition, on this particular voyage, more than 70 of the women were assisted to buy clothes for the journey on the issue of a promissory note to repay once they had gained employment.
Letters from the Agent and the Committee gave assurances that the women selected for this, the second such ship load of single females, were of a much better character than those sent out on the first ship.
The average age of the female Bounty Immigrants on board the Sarah was 20 years of age.
On board were also a few families, and some free immigrants paying their own passage.
Mary was listed as a 22 year old assisted immigrant who was from Ireland (Tipperary is not mentioned on any documents).
Mary was to be engaged as a laundress working for Mrs Johnson for 12 shillings per annum.
Marriage:
A few months after her arrival, on 28 August 1835 Mary married George Patterson in Hobart Town.
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| Marriage Record- note name listed as Kingerty or Hingerty |
George Patterson:
George Patterson was born on 21 May 1805 in Edinburgh. He was convicted of stealing and sentenced to 14 years Transportation in Edinburgh on 2 July 1832.
He sailed to Tasmania on the ship Surrey which departed 19 Nov 1832 and arrived in Tasmania 9 March 1833.
At some point George was appointed to the police force. He held the rank of Constable when, in March 1835, two years after arriving in the colony, he was granted his Ticket of Leave as listed in Launceston Advertiser 30 March 1835
As George was still technically serving his sentence in 1835, he was required to seek permission to marry a free settler:
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| Note: Mary's name is listed as Hingerty |
Children:
On June 15 1836 Mary gave birth to a son George William Patterson in Sorell, Tasmania.
George married Emily Richardson in 1860. They had 3 children. George died in Esperance Tasmania in1890.
On 21 Feb 1838 Mary gave birth to a daughter Victoria Mary Ann Patterson in Hobart Tasmania.
Later this daughter moved to Victoria, married 3 husbands across her life and bore 9 children. She died in Ballarat Victoria in 1906.
Tragedy:
Tragedy struck Mary and her young family on 27 November 1839 when her husband George Patterson fell from a cart at Fingal in Tasmania., He struck his head and died instantly.
Marriage:
On 10th April 1841 Mary married William Morgan Lucas at Waterloo, Tasmania. Like her first husband George, William had been a convict. Mary and William had no children.
Mary's Death:
On 29 Mar 1850 at her home on Brisbane Street Hobart, Mary died of tuberculosis at the age of 36. She was listed as a butcher's wife and her husband William Lucas was listed as the Informant.
Mary, the first Hingerty in Australia had a relatively short life.
In her 36 years she travelled alone to the other side of the world, married, bore two children and established a life for herself.
She survived being widowed suddenly and being left to care for two small children.
She remarried, only to die nine years later from consumption.
Her bravery and tenacity is remembered by her many descendants.
Post script:
Indexing errors/issues:
1. Note that the marriage record has both Kingerty and Hingerty recorded as Mary's surname. This has resulted in this record usually being indexed as Kingerty and thus many trees have Mary listed as Mary Kingerty. Also note that every other record for Mary lists her as Hingerty, leaving us in no doubt that her name was Hingerty.
2. At some point an indexer has incorrectly transcribed the information from Mary's death record and has listed Mother's name as William. An inspection of Mary's death record makes it very clear that the indexer has mis-transcribed Mary's husband's name as that of her mother. There seems to be no record of names for Mary's parents nor a record of her birth place other than 'Ireland' on the emigration records.
3, Mystery: Just to add to the confusion, there is a Mr Kingerty, birth 1871, age 27 listed on shipping records as departing Victoria in April 1898 bound for Tasmania on the ship Australia II - another Hingerty masquerading as a Kingerty???? More research required.........
If you are a descendant of Mary Hingerty or have more information about her life
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hingerty@one-name.org
UPDATE:
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