Patrick Croughan

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Robin Sharkey on 25th June 2022

_____________________________ LIFE in NSW 1844 Ticket of Leave Number: 44/0339; Allowed to remain in the District of Maitland; Name: Patrick Croughan; Tried Westmeath; Ship Lady Macnaghten, 1835. Recommendation 1847 for a Conditional Pardon- Patrick Croughan, Arrived per ship Lady Macnaghten, 1848 – Conditional Pardon dated 1 November 1848 – see SMH 6 Nov 1848, p.3

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Robin Sharkey on 25th June 2022

Mary then went to Athlone, on the border of Westmeath and Roscommon “to try and better my situation”. But after several employers of no more than three months each, and several different accommodations with different families she found herself severely distressed i.e. impoverished. Four days after she’d had to leave her latest employer because of dishonesty in keeping a pair of stockings (she said she did this only because she was distressed for stockings) she went out for a walk in the evening on 15th August 1834, about 9 -10pm at night. She’d hoped “to find any respectable person to give her relief” - she had not eaten for four days. When she didn’t find anyone to help, her next option was to prostitute herself. PAT CROGHAN's ACTIONS and ASSAULT She noticed that she was being dogged by a man, Pat Croghan, and to avoid him she went into a public house. There, four soldiers were out on a spree and a girl named Ellen introduced her and she “engaged with one of the soldiers”. When she came outside to retire to her lodging, Croghan was still sitting on the flags outside, so Ellen and two of the soldiers “to whom she had fled for protection” accompanied her on the way home. Pat Croghan then came up to her in company with a man named Johnny English. Croghan “threatened to have revenge on her but she did not know why. She then threatened him with the police but notwithstanding he and English kept pursuing her till she came to the other end of town when they were joined by a third person who she did not know.” An approver named Thomas Duffy gave evidence that he’d seen Johnny English come up the street and offer Pat Croghan some whiskey to take “the tawny” from the soldiers. Croghan asked the soldiers for her and then one of the soldiers pushed her away from him. English ran up and put his hand around Mary Dempsey’s neck. Duffy claimed she then said she was “willing to go” with English. Thomas Duffy said she did go with English on the road leading to Love Lane until she saw Croghan, whereupon she screeched violently and tried to fly but there was a mob, who prevented her from fleeing. Mary’s version was that she was carried bodily and against her will [presumably by English and the other man] about 20 yards on the road leading to Lord Castlemaine's when a crowd of twelve to fourteen persons assembled and all joined in preventing her from returning. She screamed and clung to a car but despite her efforts “they tore her thence”. She again got loose and ran to one of the soldiers for protection “but the numbers who were around her threatened the soldiers and ordered them to give her up, stopping the road on either side with stones which they held in their hands, in order to intimidate [the soldiers].” She said she screamed and “entreated mercy but could find none and she pulled off one of the soldier’s sword-belts while she was striving to cling to him for succour.” It was here, while surrounded by the crowd, that she was raped. Duffy “corroborated the evidence about the violence that had been done to her”. Mary Lackey, a prostitute, was examined “and corroborated the evidence of the mulatto as to the scene of her violation.” It also seems also that something had gone on before the night’s events to make Mary Dempsey frightened of Pat Croghan when she first saw him, but this was not referred to in the newspaper report. Of Croghan, Duffy the approver said that when he met Croghan in the street, Croghan had asked him for a shilling and then struck him with a stone when he refused to give it. He appeared to be a violent person. Pat Croghan was found guilty and sentenced to be executed two weeks later on Thursday, 2 April 1835. However, he was obviously reprieved, as he sailed on "Lady McNaughten" on 23rd June. His co-accused, Edward Perry and Hugh Norton, were also found guilty of rape and received sentence of "death recorded" which effectively meant they had the death sentence but wouldn't be executed. Instead, they were transported to NSW for life, on the same ship that Croghan was, the "Lady McNaughten"

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Robin Sharkey on 25th June 2022

_______________________ “Assize Intelligence – WESTMEATH "Patrick Croghan, Edward Perry, and Hugh Norton were put to the bar for assaulting and violating the person of Mary Dempsey, a mulatto.” Freemans Journal, Friday March 20 1835, p.3 Column 1 They all pleaded not guilty together but then they could not agree in their challenges so Croghan was put on his trial individually, with Norton and Perry being removed from the court room. Those two were then tried after, since all were found guilty and sentenced at the same March Westmeath Assizes in 1835. These three men perpetrated what would be called a gang rape, on Mary Dempsey (in C19th courts, she was called the “prosecutor” of the crime). A crowd of a dozen or so people had assisted in this by preventing her getting away and surrounding her while she was being raped. The following is summarised from the newspaper report of Croghan’s trial - Freemans Journal, Friday March 20 1835, p.3 Column 1 For Perry and Norton, only their sentence was reported; the evidence would have been similar. When the victim was called to give her evidence it was reported that she was inarticulate for nearly a quarter of an hour and continued to sob violently until the Crown counsel ordered her some water, “so great was her agitation and so violent the effect seemingly produced by a sense of the injury she received”. Mary Dempsey, the Victim Mary was 19 or 20 years old, born in county Galway to her married Welsh mother and West Indian father. Her mother died young and although her father was only employed as a servant, he supported her and paid for her schooling until four years prior (so aged about 15), when she started work as a servant to John Kilkelly, a magistrate at Loughrea (Co. Galway). Reflecting the racism of the times, despite being born and raised in Ireland and having a Welsh mother witness in the trial referred to her as “the mulatto”, or even “the tawny” (by approver Thomas Duffy

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Wendy Smith on 16th September 2019

Occupation - nailer, good.

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Wendy Smith on 16th September 2019

The printed Indentures state that Patrick Croughan is 27 years old; could read and write; religion Roman Catholic and status single. A native of Roscommon. Convicted of rape at Westmeath and convicted on 12 March 1835 to life. Had no prior convictions. Physical attributes height 5 feet 5 3/4; complexion dark; hair dark brown and eyes brown. Prisoner number 35-2604 and transport number 226.