William Dennis

71

Robin Sharkey on 22nd September 2015

NEWSPAPER REPORTS Southeastern Gazette - Tues 28 June 1836 “Prisoners committed since last report: … William Dennis, John Shoebridge, William Jones, felony at Chiselhurst; “ Kentish Weekly Post - Tuesday 19 July 1836 “The undermentioned convicts have been removed from the county Gaol, Maidstone, and put on board the Fortitude hulk at Chatham: - Frederick Lomas, John Barrett, Richard Mitchell, John Shoebridge, John Shackelton, for Life; WILLIAM DENNIS, William Jones, William Thompson, John Jones, transported for fourteen years; Thomas Drurey, Edwin Coulter, Charles Chainey, Stephen Waite, William Willett, John Robinson, transported for seven years.”

71

Robin Sharkey on 21st September 2015

William Dennis Arrived NSW in 1838 on “Bengal Merchant” aged 27. Total 14 yrs sentence, 7 years for stealing a cloak and another 7 yr conviction for larceny. “ Maidstone Gazette” 12 July 1836 page 4: Sent to “Fortitude hulk at Chatham Frederick Lomas, John Barrett, Richard Mitchell, John Shoebridge, John Shackelton, for Life; William Dennis, William Jones, William Thompson, John Jones, transported for fourteen years …” 1836 Prison Hulks Register: Hulk “Fortitude” at Chatham no 3040 - William Dennis, age 25, stealing a cloak (consistent with born in 1811) Tried 30 June 1836 at Maidstone. 14 years. Disposed of: to New South Wales on 20 March 1838 Arrived 21 July 1838. Indent for “Bengal Merchant” William Dennis aged 28. [consistent with born 1811 - to turn 29] Read and Writes. Protestant. Single. Farm labourer, native of Kent. Offence - stealing clothes, tried at Kent Quarter Sessions, 30 June 1836; 14 years. No prior convictions Medical and Surgical journal of Her Majesty's convict ship Bengal Merchant for 5 March to 28 July 1838 by Isaac Noott, Surgeon, “ … …. The guard of 32 men of the 21st and 51st Regiments, with 6 women and 9 children, embarked at Deptford on 15 March 1838. They sailed for Sheerness the following day and on 20 March embarked 270 convicts from Chatham. They sailed on 28 March, passed the Downs on 1 April and were at Tenerife on 11 April and spent 2 days completing water and getting fresh provisions. They arrived at Sydney, New South Wales, on 21 July 1838. The weather and illnesses at various stages of the voyage are described briefly. There was only one case of decided scurvy in a Pole 'of an indolent habit’. Only half or three quarters of the prisoners were allowed on deck at the same time, so that there was room for them to exercise. They were made to walk around the deck several times a day. The prison was kept clean and as dry as possible. Nitre and vinegar was given to convalescents and lemon juice from the commencement of salt meat but the wine not until after the tropics. Not known where William DENNIS was assigned. NSW had a labour shortage. Convicts like Dennis who knew agricultural work were in high demand. Due to become free by expiry of time in mid 1850 Sydney Gazette 28 July 1838 page 3 Letter to the Editor: The Bengal Merchant - the first of this season's convict ships -has brought the first supply of convict labour since Governor Gipp's arrival on those shores, giving His Excellency an opportunity to alter the lately adopted system of assignment to private service, and to give to each just claimant a proportionate share of the men now in harbour. …. Now, when labour is so scarce, that in many cases the plough is left idle two flocks placed in one-lambings neglected -and our shearing season and harvesting at hand, the arrival of laborers is hailed with pleasure. Indeed arrivals, both emigrant and convict, are, like genial showers, long away-long wished for, and have at length arrived, just in time to save the half perished crops. 1845: NSW Ticket of Leave: 11 January 1845 Tkt L [4/4196; Reel 955] District, Picton. Arrived Bengal Merchant, 1838 Tried: Quarter Sessions Kent, 30 june 1838 Sentence: 14 years Allowed to remain in the District of PICTOn, on recommendation of same Bench. Dated September 1844 MARRIAGE - to MARY MURPHY 1844 Mary Murphy, an Irish convict, arrived in 1838 with 7 years conviction at Cork City for stealing boots. Her two sisters and her mother all were convicts on the same ship, each with separate convictions in separate months - mother Ellen and sister Honora for stealing various clothes, Catherine for housebreaking. Her brother John Murphy had arrived in 1835 on “Hive” with 7 years for robbing a warehouse. Convict transportation was a form of family reunion and escaping their poverty all together as one family. Mary could not read or write. 5ft 5inches tall, a housemaid, brown hair and hazel eyes with “eyebrows partially meeting”. Had lost a front upper tooth (from Indent of “Margaret”) The two were probably living around the Camden area. Her ticket of leave had been in 1843 for Goulburn and altered that year to Picton. In February 1844 altered again to Camden. NSW Convicts Applications to Marry: William Dennis aged 33. “Bengal Merchant” Bma Mary Murphy aged 25, Tkt of Leave, ship “Margaret “ [1838] PERMISSION given on 19 April 1844 for marriage by Rev Goold [RC] at Campbelltown FAMILY Bill and Mary had eleven children from 1844 to 1861 - one girl named Mary and ten boys. Two boys died as babies. leaving eight who grew to adulthood. Each of these eight men had large families of his own. The family was raised Catholic, although William Dennis was Protestant. According to a great granddaughters’ book “As Long As I Remember” (published 2013 by Thecla Duggan) he converted to Catholicism in the last years of his life. PERIOD 1844 - 1855 In the first few years there were 1844/1845 JAMES; 1847 - Mary; 1848 William jnr. Although he was only a ticket of leave and NOT free, Wm Dennis started purchasing land in the Burragorang Valley. No record of his Certificate of Freedom being obtained. The following information is from “Bell’s Life” Saturday 29th April 1848, reported trial of William Joseph Bollard, page 3: By September 1847 Dennis had a “station” there at the Cox’s River, and had purchased another block of government land from his employer. He’d had men working for him at his “station”, Henry Whitehead had lived with the Dennises for twelve months about May 1846 -May 1847. Michael Keegan currently lived with him, since about July 1847. At the same time Wm Dennis was working as a general Stock-keeper. Due to the evidence he gave about Wm Bollard having stolen a calf (Bollard was found not guilty) and because Bollard had bid at auction in Decemebr 1847 on land that Dennis wanted thereby being forced to pay a higher than expected rpcie, there was a view that Dennis and another witness from the Burragorang Valley had conspired to have Bollard charged. Wm Dennis was jailed in Sydney Jail at Darlinghurst during April 1848. Mary was home with three small children. He was sent to the Police Office for examination where it must have been decided not to proceed. His jail description was as follows: 5ft 10. Stout build, Sallow complexion, Brown Hair, hazel eyes LAND PURCHASE He purchased more small parcels of land in the Burragorang Valley Nov 1852 - 31 acres at Emu Flat on Cox’s River for £31, Cox’s River boundary on north East and North sides Dec 1852 - 30 acres at Emu Corner near Black Gooler, Cox’s River, bounded on the north and NW by Cox’s River. On 1st August 1854 at the Police Office at Picton, certain lots of land in the Burragorang Valley were being put up for auction. William Dennis purchased three of these, totalling 161 acres: Lot 20 being 48 acres at Emu Flat near Black Gooler Lot 21 being 33 acres at Upper Emu Flat Lot 5 being 41 acres in Cook County on the Cox’s River (See all land put up for sale on 1 August 1854 in SMH 20 July 1854 page 8) 1860’s - 1880 The Dennis holdings were consolidated into a farm named “Summerfield” or “Summerhill”. A crossing on the river near their property was always called “Dennis’s Crossing” (see Evening News 15 June 1870 p 3 re the need for a boat at the crossing) The family was raised there. When his own youngest child was aged 5, William’s first son to marry, Edward, did so in December 1866, aged only 18 years. Edward’s new wife produced the first grandchild next April but the baby died. James married in 1867 and went to live nearby at The Oaks, and William jnr married in 1870, staying in the Burragorang.The only daughter Mary married at the family property in 1871 (proudly announced in SMH 12 /8/1871 page 1). The worst flood on the Wollondilly through Burragorang in living memory up to 1870 caused this damage to the Dennis’ property: “A beautiful garden and orchard, the property of Mr W. Dennis, is now nothing but a heap of river stones, and scarcely of thirty farms is there one that' has not suffered more or less actual loss in this manner.” (Freemans Journal 14/5/1870 a p. 9) Finally William Dennis had come along way from looking down 14 years from a hulk on the Thames when and two other Valley families donated the cost of a side altar in the new RC Church at Burragorang, opened by the Bishop in February 1874 (Freemans Journal 21/2/1874), BY 1878 they had moved from the Burragorang to Bacchus Marsh /Shooters Hill areas near Oberon. William Jnr stayed on “SummerHill” at Burragorang until at least 1893. Shooters Hill became the home of the next generations of Dennises. “Sydney Mail” 14 December 1878 (page 951) From Oberon in Fairy Land ( letter to the Editor from John Hughes) “ … Mr. Dennis lately sold out at Burragorang for a large sum, and the family have since taken up at least five large selections near here. In fact, as much land is taken up about here in a week as was formerly selected in a year.” William Dennis died at Bacchus Marsh near Oberon on 9th October 1887, said to be 76 years old. His wife Mary followed in 1893. For both of them, the large family they built and acceptance as part of local community meant their NSW convict beginnings could be buried and forgotten. The two are buried in Shooters Hill Cemetery, sharing a respectably large headstone.

14

Kerry Boyle on 23rd October 2013

Parents Sarah Cooke and james Dennis. Married Mary Ann Murphy (convict) in Campbelltown on 7 May 1844. Eleven children. William died at Shooter's Hill near Oberon, New South Wales.