Thomas Cosgrove

75

iain Frazier on 11th October 2025

Family connections for Thomas (Cosgrove) are: COSGROVE ??? (Cosgrove/grave) produced perhaps 2children: 1.William (Cosgrove/grave) brother of Thomas was born about 1781, probably in Ireland. He was tried as an Irish Rebel at Dublin city in 1802, sentenced to 7years & arrived in NSW as a convict with his brother on 12 5 1803 after a voyage of 6months on ROLLA. He became constable & poundkeeper at Brengelly & Cooke. He had a relationship with Mary (Mury/York her second (2of3) relationship) & produced perhaps 4children. He was issued his Certificate of Freedom on 9 1 1810. He died on 1 3 1819 age about38 shot by Bushranger Timothy (Buckley) on 28 2 1819 while attempting to arrest him, with the aid of his brother, at South Creek; he was buried on 4 4 1819 at St Johns CofE Parramatta. [Timothy (Buckley) & his 2accomplices were tried in April 1819 & executed] ..[Some details taken from this Website] ..Mary (Murry) was born about 1768. She married firstly (1of3) William (York) & produced 2children. She arrived in NSW as a convict with a child on 11 4 1806 after a voyage of 9.5months on WILLIAM PITT. She lived about 1818 at Bringelly when her son Henry joined her as an assigned convict. She was an emancipist by 1821 & married thirdly with permission George (Crooks) emancipist on 21 12 1821 at St Johns CofE Parramatta. She is recorded in 1828 with her husband & a child at Mt Pleasant Bringelly. She died on 16 9 1842 age74 mother of maybe 6known children & was buried with her husband at Parramatta Pioneers cemetery. ..[Some details taken from this Website] .. 2.Thomas (Cosgrove/grave) brother of William was tried as an Irish Rebel at Dublin city Ireland in 1802, sentenced to 7years & arrived in NSW as a convict with his brother on 12 5 1803 after a voyage of 6months on ROLLA. He lived with or near his brother near Bringelly. He was called by his brother (a constable) to assist apprehension of bushrangers & witnessed the killing of his brother at South Creek on 28 2 1819. He testified at the trial of Timothy (Buckley) & his 2accomplices in April 1819, receiving the praise of the judge. Around this time his nephew Henry (York) was assigned to him. ..[Some details taken from this Website] Reference: Craig James Smee 'Births and Baptisms Marriages and Defacto Relationships Deaths and Burials New South Wales 1788-1830' ..a complete listing from church & other records in the early colony.

342

Maureen Withey on 3rd October 2020

Irish Convict Database by Peter Mayberry. Thomas Cosgrove, alias Cosgrave, per Rolla (1803), Tried at Dublin City, 1802. 7 years. Irish rebel. ---------------------------------------------------- Thomas Cosgrove was transported with his brother William. William was killed by bushrangers in 1819, and Thomas was a witness at the trial of the three murderers, who were executed for their crime. -------------------------------------------------- Court of Criminal Jurisdiction, WEDNESDAY .- This was a day of serious trial for the murder of William Cosgrove, a settler and district constable upon the Banks of the South Creek, on the 1st of the present month; by the discharge of the contents of a musket loaded with slugs into his body, of which wounds he died the following day. The prisoners were Timothy Buckley, by whom the gun was fired; David Brown, and Timothy Ford, all of whom had been in the Colony but six or seven months, and prisoners in the immediate employ of Government, and who unhappily had not renounced those propensities which sooner or later were to lead them to an unhappy end. The first witness called was Thomas Cosgrove, brother of the deceased, whose testimony was conclusive of the fact. This witness stated, that his murdered brother was a district constable at the South Creek; and that he having seen, and believing the three prisoners at the bar to be bush-rangers, requested him, the witness, to join in pursuit of the suspected persons; all which was readily complied with, and a pursuit accordingly commenced. This was about one in the afternoon ; the deceased went up to the three men (the prisoners at the bar), and found them in conversation with two young men who were brothers of the name of York, one of them a son-in-law of the deceased. The deceased called to the prisoners at the bar, declaring his willingness to point them out the road to the place they were enquiring for, namely the " Five mile Farm ;" but appearing conscious that they were armed bush-rangers, he hesitated not to require their giving themselves up to him, he being a district constable. This evidence further proved that the prisoners at the bar were in conversation with the two Yorks for many minutes prior to the pursuit which was proposed and persevered in by all the persons who joined in it by the manly boldness of the district constable, who, although a man in good circumstances, had reconciled the apprehension of danger with his manifest line of duty. This witness, who seemed in his evidence to entertain no sort of feeling that could be construed into a vindictive sentiment, went further on to state, that one of the Yorks, the eldest, had joined in the pursuit ; that his murdered brother had repeatedly required the three fugitives to surrender themselves ; that Timothy Buckley, who had the musket, turned round repeatedly and levelled at them ; that one of the fugitives, Ford, had attempted to wrest the piece from him, but did not succeed ; that the pursuers behaved themselves with great courage and with the most determined zeal in apprehending these three stoutmen, one of whom was armed with a gun, and appeared only to await the moment of murder until the difference of celerity in his pursuers should mark the most needful object. Brown, who was the taller and most powerful of the three, turned several times upon Buckley, who had the gun, and told him to keep a good look out on such a man, meaning the man who was closest in pursuit, and this was the deceased ; who was armed with a pistol, but did not discharge it until after he had received the contents of the musket into his side, breast, and lungs, the charge consisting of eleven or twelve slugs; his pistol afterwards went off, but hurt nobody. Stricken with death, the poor man then sat down on a bank; was taken home; and lived in anguish until the following day. This witness declared himself the brother of the deceased ; and in the sympathetic feeling of humanity, received from the Judge Advocate the following much to be remembered sentence of condolence. "Witness, you have done your duty to Society ; you have acted well in the performance of that duty, and the world has much to regret that you have paid so dearly for it, in the loss of a brother, and of a good member of Society." Sydney Gazette, 10 April 1819. The above is part of the article – For full article, follow link: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/2178647?searchTerm=William Cosgrove