|
|
|||
 |
Mary Torley (1808-1861) |
||
|
PART 2: ANCESTORS’ CHARTS (parents of Joan Gaffey): INDIVIDUAL SUMMARIES |
Birth |
1808[1]
[2] |
Line of Descent to Joan Gaffey
Mary Torley
(Great grandmother) |
| Lived |
Mayobridge, nr Newry, County Down, Ireland 1820-1850s,[3]
Bilston, Staffordshire (bef 1857)[4] |
||
| Death |
1861, Bilston, Staffordshire. |
||
| Marriage | Daniel GAFFEY (c1826, no documentation) | ||
| Children |
Patrick GAFFEY (b c1827)
William GAFFEY (b 1828)
Daniel GAFFEY (b 1835)
Mary Ann GAFFEY (b 1840)
James GAFFEY
(1844–1917),
married
Margaret Berryman, 1862, Bundarra
Bernard GAFFEY (b 1847)
|
||
|
From Mary’s death certificate, we know she was
born about 1808 – but where is unknown.
However, she appears to have lived most of her adult life in a
rural area near Newry, County Down in Ulster. The Torley/Turley name is
common in the area, but given the paucity of Catholic Church registers of
the time, her baptism and marriage records appear not to have survived.
Mary and husband Daniel lived the life of poor
tenant farmers just two kilometres from the village of Mayobridge, where
they raised their family of five boys and one girl. All children survived the deprivations of the Potato Famine
of the 1840s – but husband Daniel did not live on to share Mary’s old
age. It’s likely Mary was widowed when she was in her late 40s, as on her eldest son Patrick’s 1857 Australian immigration papers, his father was listed as "Dead, and Mother living at Bellstone, Stafford". Presumably Mary had moved to England to be with a relative, John Torley,[5] after the death of her husband.
Mary’s children had set about making new lives
for themselves in a new world, led by Patrick, who settled in Australia in
1858 – so Mary decided to join them.
Her immigration, and that of 20 year old Daniel and 15 year old
Bernard had been sponsored by Patrick who had established himself in the
colony. He had earlier
brought out his brothers William and James, and also planned to bring out
his sister, Mary Ann, but she stayed in England and married there.
His mother's character references for immigration were supplied by
Pastor James Terry & John Torley, watchmaker, of Oxford street, Bilston,
Staffordshire, England. While Mary, Daniel and Bernard waited to set sail for New South Wales, they lived at 2 Quarry Street, Bilston, where, just before Christmas, in 1861, Mary was struck down by typhoid fever and influenza, dying on December 21st. She was aged only 53.
|
|||
|
1]
NSW Govt. Archives. Index to
assisted immigrants arriving Sydney and Newcastle 1844-1859
[2]
Mary’s death certificate at Bilston, in Staffordshire, says she was 53
when she died in 1861
[3]
Clonallan Parish Records (baptisms)
[4]
Persons on Bounty Ships (Board's Immigrant List), 1857 [5] The 1851 Census gives a listing for John Torley, clockmaker, and his wife Bridget, both aged 55 and born in Ireland, living 32 Oxford Street, Bilston
|
|||