Thomas Hassett

Level 218

Dianne Jones on 17th February 2023

GRAVESTONES UNVEILED! 2022, 15 October: The final two of the grave markers for the "Catalpa Six" were unveiled at a commemoration ceremony in Calvary Cemetery. From the Fenian Memorial Committee of America at https://fenianmca.org/: "The work of the Fenian Memorial Committee of America is centered on remembering the Fenians and other Irish revolutionaries who are buried in the USA. On Saturday, October 15, 2022, a crowd of over 125 people gathered at the graves of Fenians Michael Harrington and Thomas Hassett in Calvary Cemetery, Queens, NY. Both were Catalpa escapees from the infamous Fremantle Gaol in Western Australia. Thanks to our supporters, we were able to raise the necessary funds to accomplish this, even though we had to endure a drought of donations during the pandemic. It took us a lot longer than we intended–almost three years–but we did it. Many organizations and individuals generously sent money and helped with logistics and publicity. We thank all of you who helped with this effort. We especially want to thank Joe Byrne and Ed Johnson, FMCA board members, for their tireless work on this project, as well as our matching fund donor, Peter Kissell of Washington, D.C. who remained anonymous until we reached our goal. We are also grateful to Dennis McCarthy and officers of The County Cork PB&B of NY, James McGlashin of the FMCA Board and the many volunteers, especially members of the O’Donovan Rossa GAA Club form Astoria, Queens who helped organize and prepare on the day itself. Andrew Nagle, administrator of Calvary Cemetery was also a tremendous help. Annie and Tomas McLaughlin helped with photos and layout and design of the memorial booklet. Our thanks go out to the speakers, musicians and singers, color guard, attending priests and great-grandson of the Catalpa Captain, George Anthony. They all helped this be a day to remember and to renew our pride in our Fenian heritage. Read more about the voyage of the Catalpa and the effort to recognize Fenians Hassett and Harrington at Irish America" (see https://www.irishamerica.com/2021/02/the-catalpa/). --00----00--

Level 218

Dianne Jones on 24th September 2021

FOOTNOTE 2: 2021, 19 August: George Thomas McLaughlin and his Fenian Memorial Committee of America were still campaigning to memorialise all of the “Catalpa six”. Writing in the The Gaelic American, he recapped their progress: “Our committee placed… headstones or markers at the graves of Catalpa escapees James McNally Wilson, Robert Cranston, Thomas Darragh and Martin Hogan previously. We are currently raising funds to erect gravestones for their comrades Michael Harrington and Thomas Hassett who lie in unmarked graves in Calvary Cemetery in Queens, N.Y. To contribute and stay up to date with our campaign, please visit fenianmca.org A graveside centenary commemoration of James McNally Wilson’s death followed by a fundraising social will be taking place at the Galway Pub in Pawtucket, RI, on Saturday, November 6, 2021. The Gaelic American will provide more details closer to the time.”

Level 218

Dianne Jones on 24th September 2021

1880, 4 June: Census – Thomas H. Hassett was 38 years old, a saloon keeper and married to Catherine (born 1850), living at 103 Spring Street, New York (1880 US Federal Census, New York, New York City, 118). --0-- 1881, 17 October: He was naturalised at the Superior Court, New York County, and recorded as living at 103 Sullivan Street, NY, where he was a saloon keeper. Witness: Michael Dillon, a liquor dealer (Record H230/251, New York, U.S., Index to Petitions for Naturalization filed in New York City, 1792-1989; 1881, H). --0-- DEATH: 1893, 13 December: New York – Thomas Henry Hassett died at his home at No.218 East One Hundred and Eleventh Street. The New York Death Index lists him as: Thomas H. Hassett, born abt 1844, age 49, died 13 Dec 1893, New York; certificate no42562. In an obituary, the New York World (14 December, p6) described him as a “famous Fenian” who was one of six prisoners “rescued by the good ship Catalpa” from Fremantle, Western Australia, in 1876. “He was also a soldier in the Papal army and was wounded in the thigh at Perugia,” it said. His funeral was held at the Church of St Cecilia, in One Hundred and Sixth Street, and he was buried in Calvary Cemetery, New York. --00-- FOOTNOTE: In 2017, the Friendly Sons of St Patrick (https://friendlysonsofsaintpatrick.com ) began fundraising to mark the graves of Thomas Hassett and Michael Harrington who “passed away in the early 1890s, their health ruined in prison”. In 2020, the Irish Echo reported on plans by the New York Fenian Memorial Committee of America “to erect memorials to two of the Catalpa Six, Michael Harrington and Thomas Hassett… ‘If we are to accomplish the task of erecting memorials to the two Cork Fenians who escaped on the Catalpa we need participation and support in the New York metropolitan area,’ said organizer George McLaughlin in an email message to supporters. McLaughlin has been on a mission for some years working to memorialize Fenians who are interred around the United States. Along with his fellow committee members he has ensured the placing of markers and tombstones at the graves of four of the Catalpa Six as well as Father Patrick McCabe of Gowna, County Cavan… Harrington and Hassett are the two remaining Catalpa men in need of memorials. They rest in Calvary Cemetery, Queens.” (https://www.irishecho.com/2020/2/meeting-to-discuss-harrington-and-hassett-memorials)

Level 218

Dianne Jones on 24th September 2021

1876, 9 September: From The Pilot, Boston: “The rescued prisoners’ grand reception in Boston On the 1st inst., a grand entertainment was given in Music Hall for the benefit of the released prisoners, who were present. The immense hall was crowded; nearly every seat on floor and galleries was filled. The stage was fitted up with a handsome proscenium, the Sheil Literary Institute playing the patriotic drama of Robert Emmet. The greatest credit is due to the management committee. Polite ushers were in attendance, and not the least hitch occurred in the whole evening's entertainment. The address was delivered by John E. Fitzgerald, Esq., who was greeted with thundering applause. He pictured in graphic words the condition of Ireland for centuries; while Poland and other struggling nationalities had been wiped from the map, the intense individualism of the Irish as a nation had preserved them. The movement for which these gallant fellows had suffered was the embodiment of the national idea. (Applause.) … the demand for the appearance of the rescued prisoners was imperious, and had to be gratified, though it was intended by the committee that the men should not be paraded. But the call was so strong and kindly that the bronzed men appeared on the stage, and were introduced by Mr. Fitzgerald. The greeting they received will never be forgotten. It was plain how deep a chord their suffering and escape has struck in the Irish heart. They numbered six, though Mr. Wilson, one of the rescued men, was not present; his place was filled by Mr. William Foley, the ex-prisoner who arrived in this country about two months ago. The entertainment was a complete success; and, besides its value as a patriotic safety-valve, it will add a considerable sum to the testimonial to be presented to the ex-prisoners, to enable them to begin life in this new country under fair circumstances." --0--

Level 218

Dianne Jones on 24th September 2021

ESCAPE to America: 1876, 17 April: The whaler Catalpa with the six military Fenians aboard sailed for America. At two o'clock on the morning of 19 August, 1876, the Catalpa anchored off Castle Garden, New York. --0-- 1876, 3 May: From the Western Australia Police Gazette, No10, p40: “Absconders... 17. Thomas Hassett, Imperial Convict, Reg. No. 9758; arrived in the Colony per convict ship ‘Hougoumont’, 1868; received life sentence 15th August, 1866. Description – Middling stout, age 36 years, height 5 ft. 8 in., brown hair, light grey eyes, long visage, fresh complexion. Marks – D left side; cut mark left side upper lip; a rough carpenter. Fenian. Absconded from Fremantle 8.30a.m., 17th April, 1876. Escaped from the Colony in the American whaler ‘Catalpa’, G. Anthony, Master.” (https://www.slwa.wa.gov.au/sites/default/files/187605_m.pdf) The same edition listed the details for Thomas Darragh, Michael Harrington, Martin Hogan, Robert Cranston and James Wilson. --0--

Level 218

Dianne Jones on 24th September 2021

1874, 1 December: He was made a Constable, but on 12 December 1875 – as punishment for leaving the RC Chapel during the service – he forfeited the “remission [of 72 days] due to 12 months’ constableship” (Western Australia, Australia, Convict Records, 1846-1930; Convict Department, Registers; General Register for Nos 9599-10128 cont. (R16)). In January 1876, he was again punished. For being “drunk, violently assaulting [an] officer & having 20/- in his possession” he was put on bread and water for three days. --0-- From his Fremantle jail record: HASSETT, Thomas Henry, #9758, arrived 10 Jan 1868 per Hougoumont Date of Birth: 1840 Place of Birth: Doneraile, County Cork Marital Status: Unmarried Occupation: Rough carpenter Literacy: Literate Sentence Place: Dublin Crime: Mutinous conduct & desertion Sentence Period: Life Comments: One of 62 Fenians transported on the Hougoumont, the last convict ship sent to Australia. Its arrival at Fremantle on 9 Jan 1868 signalled the end of transportation to this country. One of six Fenians, Robert CRANSTON (9702), Thomas DARRAGH (9707), Michael HARRINGTON (9757), Martin HOGAN (9767), Thomas HASSETT (9758) & James WILSON (9915) who escaped from Fremantle Prison on the US whaler Catalpa, 17 Apr 1876. Ex 24th Regiment of Foot. 3 years added to sentence for attempted escape. --0--

Level 218

Dianne Jones on 24th September 2021

--0-- In “The Catalpa rescue”, Peter FitzSimons (2019, pp620-22) puts some more meat on the bones of Thomas Hassett’s failed escape: “In the early Australian winter after [John Boyle] O’Reilly’s escape [from the Vasse road party on 17 February 1869, departure from the colony in a whaler and arrival in America in November 1869], the life-sentenced soldier Thomas Hassett, feeling the first rain fall through the roof of his hut, believed he could not sustain yet another season in imprisonment. He decided to try a similar strategy to O’Reilly’s. Hassett was a tough campaigner. He had served with the Papal Brigade in Italy, and then in the 24th Infantry. In early 1866 he walked off sentry duty at the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham, and reported in his scarlet uniform with rucksack, rifle and sixty rounds of ammunition, to an upstairs room in Donald Street full of other Fenian deserters. Now he was serving a life sentence and bore over his heart the loathed letter ‘D’. In June of 1870, he cleared out from a work party, and turned up at the Fullam brothers’ [Luke and Laurence's] house in Perth, asking them to hide him. The Fullams [who also arrived in WA on the Hougoumont], knowing that it meant re-imprisonment for them, tuberculosis or not, gave him the modest and wary help they could. Various ticket-of-leave Irishmen he called on suggested he go to Bunbury, where they could make arrangements to get him aboard an American whaler. He was, however, given only £1, as much as his friends could raise, to make the 130 mile journey. He knew that, held in trust by [Fenian and now free man Joseph] Noonan and others against his name, was £30. In the Bunbury district he was taken in by a poor Irish family who gave him employment and pay in kind, and he hid with them for some months. When eventually he went to town and found a whaling captain who agreed to ship him out for £30, he sent off an urgent request for his money to be sent down from Perth. It never came, and the whaling captain sailed without him. His friend James Wilson [in Fremantle jail] would later write to James Devoy [in America] and complain that the Relief Fund trustees, Noonan, Brophy and O’Mahony, had been culpable in not freely advancing any money for escapes. But Noonan and Brophy had made particularly successful lives for themselves in Western Australia, which they would have forfeited if implicated in an escape. Left frantic, Hassett smuggled himself aboard the Southern Belle, but surrendered to the water police as they were about to penetrate his hiding place with their long steel probes. Having been on the loose for ten months, a highly punishable time, he was sent back to Fremantle prison and sentenced to three years' hard labour, the first six months in solitary [separate] confinement. This was his most disabling experience, from which in his way he would never revive...”.

Level 218

Dianne Jones on 24th September 2021

1871, 14 April: Thomas Hassett wasn’t able to emulate O’Reilly’s success. After being at large for 10 months and 7 days, he was found on board the “Southern Belle” at Bunbury and charged “with intent to escape from the Colony and being illegally at large since June 1870”. He was sentenced to three years’ hard labour at Fremantle prison while the “Southern Belle” sailed for Calcutta around mid-April with a cargo of railway sleepers and horses. A further punishment was added to his lot on 19 April: “To pass 6 months of sentence of 3 years H.L. in strict separate confinement and not on any account be allowed outside prison walls” (Western Australia, Convict Records, 1846-1930; Convict Department, Registers, General Register for Nos 9599-10128 cont. (R16) ). Eamon McDermott (1988, p117) explains that hard labour in separate confinement was “a severe punishment, in some ways more damaging than a flogging”. Separate confinement was “served in a dark cell, the prisoner chained and denied bedding – or if bedding provided, then no clothes – strict silence maintained, and a bread and water diet; it was interrupted only upon medical advice that confinees were ‘unable to bear such treatment longer without danger to their lives’. In regard to the mental state induced, the Medical Superintendent of Fremantle Prison, George Attfield, felt obliged to observe in an annual report: ‘solitary confinement ... does, I am well assured, from first to last, exert a gradually increasing wear and tear upon the mind.’”

Level 218

Dianne Jones on 24th September 2021

--0-- 1870, 6 June: Thomas Hassett made a bid for freedom. He remained at large, hidden by sympathizers, for just over 10 months. Newspaper coverage while he was still “missing” included these two reports: 1. 1870, 19 December: From the Melbourne Advocate, p12: “Escape of another political prisoner from Western Australia. People sometimes have to obtain from distant sources news of events that had occurred at home or near; but in our case it is not so with regard to the intelligence in the following paragraph, which we take from the Irishman. We have been for some time past aware of the escape of Hassett; but as the convict authorities were silent on the subject, so were we, though not perhaps for precisely the same reasons:- ‘By the last Australian mail the gratifying intelligence of the escape of another of the "Fenian" prisoners, still detained at the Perth Convict Station reaches us. According to our informant, Thomas Hassett, late of the 24th Regiment, who in 1866 was sentenced to penal servitude for life for "Fenianism," and who was sent out to Western Australia with the rest of the Fenian prisoners in '67, escaped from his place of confinement at Toodyay, some 50 miles from Fremantle, Western Australia. He has been “missing” since the 6th of June, and though anxiously looked for by the police at the date of our correspondent's letter, we are glad to say no trace of the gallant “convict” was found. We sincerely hope that he has got off as safely and speedily as did John Boyle O'Reilly before him, and that by this time he is safe under the protection of the Stars and Stripes.’” --- 2. 1871, 28 January: From the Melbourne Advocate, p12: “Escape of a political prisoner. In our last number we announced the escape of an Irish political prisoner from the penal colony of Western Australia. The escaped man, Thomas Hassett, is a native of the County Cork, and is about 28 years of age. He enlisted in the 24th English regiment, and was one of the most active and daring republican organizers in the army. In November, 1865, the suspicion of his officers was aroused, and Hassett was closely watched. While on sentry at the Royal Hospital, in December, a comrade informed him that his time was up—a guard had arrived at the picket room to arrest him. ‘Accoutred as he was, Private Hassett walked off his post, and, shouldering his rifle, proceeded confidently through the streets of Dublin, in which a soldier with arms is never questioned. It was ten o'clock at night, and it so happened that Hassett knew of a certain meeting of organizers and other “boys on their keepin” which was being held that evening. Thither he bent his steps, reached the house, and, knowing how it was done, gained admission. The rebels sat in council up-stairs, faces grew dark, teeth were set close, and revolvers grasped when they heard the steady stamp on the stairs, and the “ground arms” at their door. A moment after the door opened, and the man in scarlet walked into the room — all there knew him well. With full equipments, knapsack, rifle and bayonet, and sixty rounds of ammunition. Hassett had deserted from his post, and walked straight into the ranks of rebellion. He was quickly divested of his military arrangements, scouts went out to a neighbouring clothing store, and soon returned with every requisite for a full-fledged "civilian." The red coat was voted to the fire, and the belt and arms were stored away with a religious hope in the coming fight for an Irish Republic. The next evening one more was added to the group of strangely-dressed men who smoked and drank their “pots o'porter” in a certain house in Thomas street. The new-comer was closely shaven and had the appearance of a muscular Methodist minister. The men there were all deserters, and the last arrival was Hassett. Vainly watching for the coming fight, the poor fellows lived in mysterious misery for several weeks. It is hard to realize here, now, the feeling that was rife in Dublin then. At last one of the deserters was recognised in the streets by the military informer — William Foley, of the 5th Dragoons [incorrect; the military informer was Private Patrick Foley, 5th Dragoon Guards] — tracked to the rendezvous, surrounded by the police, and every one captured. They were tried by military commission, and all sentenced to penal servitude for life. These men, and all who were convicted of treason in the army, were cruelly informed in prison that they were exempted from all amnesty which might be granted to civilians. Therefore all their hope lay in their own hands. To be free they must escape. Thomas Hassett was sent to Western Australia, with sixty-one other political prisoners, in 1867. By the last Australian mail we see that he had escaped from the station of Toodyay on the 6th of June, and has not since been heard of. A few American whalers touch at the colony for water during two months each year, February and June. Hassett, of course, learned this, and we may conclude that his plan of operations has been similar to that so successfully pursued by John Boyle O'Reilly [who escaped from WA to America, on the whaler “Gazelle”, in 1869].’ Boston Pilot." --0—

Level 218

Dianne Jones on 24th September 2021

1868, 10 January: On arrival in WA, Thomas Hassett was listed as #9758, 26 years old, and a rough carpenter; single, with no children (Western Australia, Australia, Convict Records, 1846-1930; Convict Department Registers (128/40 - 43)). This record also contains his physical characteristics and his “D” (for deserter) brand on the left side. On the General Register, his next of kin was his brother, John, living at Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales. Thomas Hassett was able to read and write and was a Roman Catholic. His character was listed as “indifferent” and a notation indicates that he had been a Private in 1/24 Foot. This document also records that in the normal course of events he would have been eligible for a Ticket of Leave in June 1879 (see Western Australia, Australia, Convict Records, 1846-1930; Convict Department, Registers; General Register for Nos 9559 – 10128 cont (R16)). --0-- 1869, 5 February: Thirty five Fenians who had been transported to Western Australia (as well as others imprisoned in Great Britain) were given Free Pardons / “unconditionally discharged” by the House of Commons. Thomas Hassett was not among them. He and the 15 other remaining military Fenians at Fremantle were consigned to serve out their life sentences, or lesser terms up to 15 years, in WA. For a full list of those who received pardons, see the Melbourne Advocate, 22 May 1869, p4 (https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/169267360?).