Edward Eagar

74

iain Frazier on 30th April 2024

Family connections for Edward (Eager) are: Some amendments added Jul 2025. EAGER Edward (Eagar) son of Richard (Eager) landowner & Frances (???) was born about 1787 at Killarney co. Kerry Ireland. He was educated at Trinity College Dublin, became apprenticed in 1804 & became a solicitor in Dublin. He was tried for forgery of bank bills at Cork Summer Assizes in 1809, sentenced to death commuted to 10years, held at Cork city gaol & arrived in NSW as a convict on 2 7 1811 after a voyage of 7months on PROVIDENCE; he was assigned to Rev. Robert (Cartwright) as teacher to his children. He organised Bible classes at Windsor & is regarded as a Pioneer of Methodist church in Australia. He was issued his Conditional Pardon in 1813. He used his legal skills in his lifetime, firstly in becoming a law agent & attorney in Sydney, for which he was deemed not elligible to practice in 1815. He was a Gentleman-Pardoned when he married firstly Jemima (McDuel her first marriage) on 10 7 1815 at St Phillips CofE Sydney. He was Free by Servitude by 1816. He was issued his Absolute Pardon on 31 1 1818, which he later organised to be endorsed on 19 6 1824 in London. He entered commerce, trading to & from Calcutta, Madras & Great Britain & sought wider influence. He was stymied in his commerce work by being affected by laws making emancipists unable to take legal actions. In 1819 he partnered F E (Forbes) & attempted to achieve monopoly trade with King of Tahiti, but made losses after courts denied him access. In 1819 he also became Secretary of committee supporting emancipists rights. He assisted formation of Bank of NSW & Benevolent Society. In 1824 he took petition seeking emancipist rights to London resulting in Transportatin Act of 1824. In about 1826 he had a relationship/married secondly Ellen (Gorman) in London & produced 10children. In 1827 he was able to receive dividends from an estate, but was arrested for debt in 1829, held in Fleet Prison & declared bankrupt in that year. He was able to find work as an accountant, a solicitor's managing clerk & as a solicitor & was able to regain the (Eagar) family status of gentry. He died on 2 11 1866 age79 father of perhaps 15children as a solicitor.] Some details taken from this Website] Jemima (McDuel) was born on 5 11 1796 in Windsor & baptised on 21 10 1816 age19 w/Lydia, Elizabeth at St Phillips CofE Sydney. She had a second relationship with William Charles (Wentworth explorer his second relationship) & produced 1child. She died on 9 1 1867 age70 mother of at least 5children. Details of Jemima (McDuel)s family are given in entry for John (McDuel/McDowell MATILDA 1791) on this Website. .. Noted a Francis (Eager) is recorded as born on 6 8 1812 to ??? (Eager) & Mary (White) & baptised on 13 9 1812 at St Phillips CofE Sydney. .. Edward (Eagar) & Jemima (McDuel) produced 4children: 1.Richard Edward (Eagar) was born in 1816. He died on 29 10 1866 age about50. 2.Geoffrey (Eagar) was born on 17 2 1818. He became a politician & banker. He died on 12 9 1891 age about73. 3.Francis (Eagar) was born in 1819. She died on 3 11 1887 age about68. 4.Edward (Eagar) was born on 17 1 1821. He died on 29 8 1829 age8 at Macquarie St Sydney & was buried at St James CofE Sydney. 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.

341

Maureen Withey on 20th June 2023

National Archives. Criminal Petitions. HO 17/53/84. Date. 1824 May 17. Prisoner name: Edward Egar. Court and date of trial: Cork, Ireland 1809. Crime: Felony. Annotated (Outcome): Pardon returned with endorsement of ratification 19 June 1824. Petitioner(s): The convict. Grounds for clemency (Petition Details): His good conduct in [New South Wales]; granted a pardon 31 January 1818; convict is a merchant trading to and from Calcutta, Madras and Great Britain but the Governor's remission is only valid in New South Wales so he asks for ratification by His Majesty which will enable him to trade 'outside the limits of the Colony.' Other papers: Letter of thanks to Mr Peel for recommendation to His Majesty that he is granted ratification of the pardon. Note of ratification of written instrument of Pardon.

341

Maureen Withey on 19th August 2021

Newspaper report of the Case which shows how Eagar came to possess the estate of William Collins Burke Jackson, former convict, who died in Hobart 1828, leaving substantial property in England. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/2190505?searchTerm=Burke Jackson

221

D Wong on 30th July 2016

This article by N. D. McLachlan was published in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 1, (MUP), 1966 (This is a much edited version - to read it in full go to http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/eagar-edward-2013 Edward Eagar, lawyer and merchant, was born near Killarney, Ireland, the second son of Richard Eagar, an Anglo-Irish landowner, and his wife Frances. In 1804 Eagar was apprenticed to a solicitor and subsequently admitted as a solicitor and attorney in Dublin, but in 1809 he was sentenced to death at the Cork Summer Assizes for uttering a forged bill. On arrival he was assigned to Rev. Robert Cartwright to teach his children. He was soon organizing bible classes around Windsor. A conditional pardon was issued by Governor Lachlan Macquarie in 1813, Eagar set himself up as a law-agent and attorney in Sydney, but his prosperous practice was crippled in 1815 by the decision of Jeffery Hart Bent that Eagar was not eligible to practise in the courts under the new Charter of Justice. He turned to commerce, and the commissariat receipts show his importance. In 1818 the governor gave him an absolute pardon, but Eagar found that he could not even then maintain a legal action because, like other former convicts, his name had not been inserted in any general pardon under the Great Seal. Next year he joined in partnership with F. E. Forbes, and soon afterwards tried to secure a monopoly of trade with King Pomare II of Tahiti; a court decision on the Tahitian trade in August 1821 caused him substantial losses. Eagar's put his political energy into emancipist cause. In 1819 he was secretary of the committee which drew up the colonists' petition to the Prince Regent on the subject of their civil and commercial disabilities. In 1821 when the emancipists drew up a petition concerning their grievances Eagar and Dr William Redfern were appointed to take it to London. In London Eagar proved a persistent advocate of the emancipists' cause. The validation of pardons and the modest instalment of trial by jury granted in 1823, and the comprehensive recognition of ex-convicts' rights included in the Transportation Act of 1824 probably owed much to his zealous lobbying and correspondence with the Colonial Office. Eagar never returned to New South Wales. In 1827 the genuineness of a power of attorney he held, entitling him to the dividends of the estate of a former convict, Burke Jackson, was upheld in the Vice-Chancellor's Court but next year Eagar was arrested for debt and spent several weeks in the Fleet prison. In 1829 a commission of bankruptcy was issued against him and apparently was never discharged. From about this time Eagar was referred to variously as an accountant, as a solicitor's managing clerk, and even, despite his felony, as a solicitor. In his last years he seems to have regained the Eagar family status of gentry. He died at Kensington on 2 November 1866; no will has been traced. He was a pioneer of the Methodist Church in Australia, and helped to found the Bank of New South Wales and the Benevolent Society. In 1815 at St Philip's Church, Sydney, Eagar married Jemima, who was born at Windsor, daughter of John McDuel and Margaret Maloney. Their four children included Geoffrey (1818-1891), politician and banker. Jemima also had a son by W. C. Wentworth in 1830. By Ellen Gorman, whom Eagar met soon after his arrival in London, he had ten more children. Jemima died in New South Wales some two months after her husband; Ellen Gorman went to the colony after his death and died there in 1870.

Edward Eagar was a Layman,Attorney, Merchant, and Lobbyist. He was born in Killarney Ireland. Educated at Trinity College Dublin. Before transportation Edward served his time in the City of Cork gaol.