Cornelius Dwyer Kane

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Dianne Jones on 15th October 2023

RESEARCH FOOTNOTE: The National Archives at Kew, London, also holds material about Cornelius Keane (but it is not digitised at this stage): CRIMINAL - LIST OF CRIMINAL CASES, INCLUDING EXTRADITION CASES: KEANE, Cornelius Dwyer... Reference: HO 45/9329/19461 Description: CRIMINAL - LIST OF CRIMINAL CASES, INCLUDING EXTRADITION CASES: KEANE, Cornelius Dwyer alias CANE or KANE COURT: Dublin City OFFENCE: Treason Felony SENTENCE: 10 years P.S. Date: Jan 1866 Held by: The National Archives, Kew Former reference in its original department: 19461/12;41;65;91;101A;110;111;130;132A;152;194. Legal status: Public Record(s) Closure status: Open Document, Open Description (https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C7414309) --00--

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Note: Cornelius Kane/Keane’s birth year of 1839 draws from various official records. The day and month are not known; and 01/01 appears above in the Year of Birth window because this site won’t accept a year without a day and month entry. --0000--

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DEATH: Cornelious Dwyer Keane [sic] Event date: 28/10/1891 Event type: Death registration Registration details: 1891/C/4260 Mother: Johanna Dwyer Father/parent: James Keane (Qld Births, Deaths, Marriages at https://www.familyhistory.bdm.qld.gov.au/) --00--

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FOOTNOTE TO THE LIFE OF A “FREE” MAN: “... Con Keane, who had once found it hard to get his child baptised because the nominated godfather was a Fenian, also waited out the residue of his sentence in Queensland, working as clerk of petty sessions and mining registrar on a number of gold-fields, including Charters Towers and Cloncurry. In such places one encountered much genial Irish company and even Fenianism, but when he died in 1891 at Limestone, Queensland, he had not been reunited with his wife and two children.” (Thomas Keneally, (1998), “The great shame and the triumph of the Irish in the English-speaking world”, Random House, New York, pp 619-20) CONDITIONAL PARDON: A conditional pardon allowed convicts with life sentences freedom of the colony, but they were not allowed to return to the UK (https://www.nla.gov.au/). --000--

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LIFE BEFORE THE CONDITIONAL PARDON: 1870: CORNELIUS DWYER KANE (called Corn D Keane) is named in this republished letter, written by one of his fellow Fenians who received a free pardon and went to America, per the “Baringa”, in 1870 (see the Freeman’s Journal, Sydney, Sat 2 Jul 1870, p13): NEWS OF THE RELEASED IRISH POLITICAL PRISONERS. The Boston Pilot — per favour of Mr. John Boyle O’Reilly, the military political prisoner who escaped from Western Australia — publishes the following letter received by that gentleman. We regret the want of success which met those [15 men who went to America aboard the “Baringa”] who expected to find happy homes in California: “34, Minna street, between 1st and 2nd streets, San Francisco, Cal., March 9, 1870. MY DEAR O’REILLY,— It was more by chance than good luck I happened to hear of your being in New York, and so I write to be one of the first to congratulate you on your escape from Western Australia. Of course we were aware of your escape, but did not know in what quarter of the world you were. The majority of us thought you were soldiering down in South America, but I am very glad to find you are better off. Before we left Western Australia we visited the boys in prison; they all seemed to be in pretty good health — that is as far as health in a prison goes — and spirits. I give you, on the other side, the names of those here with me, those in prison in Fremantle, those gone home, those free in Western Australia, and of our soldier friends still prisoners in bush parties, and out on a ticket- of -leave. I am afraid there is but very little chance of their getting out. On the road up from Perth to King George’s Sound we met a few of our military friends, stationed in different bush parties on the road; they all seemed to be in good health and spirits, except [James] Wilson. He looked like a man that had to put up with a great deal of annoyance, as I believe he has, from his warder, who is continually reporting him for the slightest cause. Martin Hogan is up in the Champion Bay district. I did not see [Patrick] Keating, neither do I know where he is; but I heard that he and [Patrick] Killeen were working in different parties on the York road. [Michael] Harrington is somewhere about Northam; Keeley [James Keily/Kiely] is in some other quarter. With the exception of those, I have seen all the others. Although we had a police escort, we managed to speak to the boys ‘for a’ that.’ We had rather hard times after getting out of prison; some of us had to go miles away into the infernal bush, where I suppose we would be now, only for the noble-hearted Irishmen and women in the Australian colonies. You would not believe how kind they were to us. I could not find words enough in the dictionary to express their goodness; where-ever we went we found them the same… Had we stayed in Sydney we would have all got first-class situations from the wealthy Irishmen there; but like fools, as we were, nothing would do us only to come out to this place, where we are loafing about for the last six or seven weeks, and can’t get employment. Were it not for the money we got in Australia we would be ‘hard up’ indeed; some of us would be off soldiering for Uncle Sam — perhaps down in Arizona, or some other place — by this time. There are only five or six out of the fifteen of us at work. Since I made out the list, I have learned from a letter received by Denis Hennessy from Western Australia, that Hugh F. Brophy was to start for home the following mail, and that James Flood was about going to New Zealand. That is all the news from that benighted land. Send all the news from home, as I have not had a letter from any one since last August. We do not know how the wind blows in that quarter. Letter from M. Cody yesterday. Father Lynch gone home to Ireland for twelve months. Father McCabe, of Bunbury, in his place. Hoping soon to hear from you, I am yours, very sincerely, JOHN B. WALSH.” LIST… In San Francisco, California: John Keneally, Patrick Doran, Denis B. Cashman, Patrick Dunne, Denis Hennessy, Thomas Fogarty, Eugene Geary, David Cummins, Michael Moore, David Joyce, Patrick Leahy, John Sheehan, Maurice Fitzgibbon, John B. Walsh, Patrick Wall. In Prison in Fremantle, West Australia: John Flood, 15 years, CORN. D KEANE [my emphasis], 10 years, J. Edward Kelly, life imprisonment, Daniel J. Bradley, 10 years, Michael Cody, 20 years, Thos. Baines, 10 years, Thos. Fennell, 10 years, James Kearney, 7 years, Geo. Connelly, 15 years. Gone Back to Ireland: Thomas Daly, Morgan McSwiney, Jeremiah O’Donovan, Michael Noonan, John S. Casey, Thomas Cullinane (alias Bowler) Eugene Lombard, Patrick Riordon, Simon Downey, Robert May. Free in Western Australia: Hugh F. Brophy, Cornelius O’Mahony, Joseph Noonan, Jeremiah Aher, James O’Reilly [Reilly], John Goulding, Thomas Duggan, Laurence Fulham, James Flood, Luke Fulham. Our Military Friends Prisoners in different Bush Parties, and on Ticket of Leave in Western Australia: Sergeant Major [Thomas] Darragh, life, 11th Regiment. James Wilson, life, 5th Dragoon Guards. Martin Hogan, life, 6th Dragoon Guards. James Mecoy, 15 years, 61st Regiment. Patrick Keating, life, 5th Dragoon Guards. Thomas Delaney, 15 years, 5th Dragoon Guards John Foley, 7 years, Royal Horse Artillery. Thos. Hassett, life, 24th Regiment. J. [John] Shine, 20 years, 60th Rifles. Patrick Killeen, 7 years, Royal Horse Artillery. Michael Harrington, life, 61st Regiment. Robert Cranston, life, 61st Regiment. — Keely [James M. Kiely/Kelly], life, 53rd Regiment. On Ticket of Leave: William Foley, 5th Dragoon Guards. John Lynch, 5th Dragoon Guards. John Donoughue, 24th Regiment. --00--

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FREE PARDONS FOR FENIANS – BUT NOT FOR CORNELIUS KANE 1869, 5 February: A total of 35 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. Although three men in WA sentenced to 10 years’ penal servitude were on this list, Cornelius Kane was not one of them. For a full list, see the Melbourne Advocate, 22 May 1869, p4, at https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/169267360. --00--

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From his FREMANTLE JAIL record: KANE, Cornelius Dwyer; inmate #9790, arrived 10 Jan 1868 per Hougoumont Alias: KEARNE, KEANE Date of Birth: 1838 Place of Birth: Skibbereen, County Cork Marital Status: Married 2 children Occupation: Clerk Literacy: Literate Sentence Place: Dublin Crime: Treason Sentence Period: 10 years Conditional Pardon Date: 13 Mar 1871 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. To South Australia, 18 Sep 1871 (https://fremantleprison.com.au/history-heritage/research/convict-database/). --00--

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From “The Advocate” (Melbourne), Saturday, 16 January, 1869, p11, THE FENIAN PRISONERS at https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/169266373). “THE LIFE OF FENIAN PRISONERS IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA. In confirmation of the statements we make in our leading article that the Fenian prisoners are treated with a rigour amounting to cruelty we publish the following :— ‘August 12, 1868. MY DEAR PAT,—I will endeavour, in the limited space at my disposal, to condense a few particulars of our prison life both here and in Portland. As I have not much paper, I will only state a few facts. It would be impossible for me to describe our sufferings in Portland, more particularly through the severe winter of '66 and '67. If I had room and could properly picture it, it would read more like some horrid chapter in romance than as the bitter realities of life. Should any of you be under the impression that the governor of that Bastile of British tyranny acted in any way kind to us, I would have you banish the erroneous idea from your minds. Is it known how he punished Mr. Luby on bread and water in penal cells, for not being able to do as much work as strong hearty young men? How Mr. O'Leary was in like manner punished for not being able to roll a barrow of stones and brick? How if you spoke to the man working next you, you would be confined upon bread and water, whilst the thieves and burglars of England were allowed to do so, or at least their doing so was passed over? How he confined James O'Connor for three days in a black hole for not saluting him though he stood to attention with his cap off. How Martin Hanley Carey got a month in penal cells for saying we should not be asked to clean a closet which was used by other convicts, &c. To state the number of times he punished us for the most frivolous charges, particularly O'Donovan Rossa, James O'Connor and Michael O'Regan, would far exceed the limits of this paper. On one occasion Jerry O'Donovan placed a small slip of paper with some pencilling on it on the block where I was at work, and told me to read it when I could; I took it in my hand without looking at it. We were seen by the warder in the charge, brought before the governor, and because I would not tell who placed it on the block (though he knew as well as myself) I got twenty-four hours on bread and water and poor Jerry got forty-eight. You will scarcely credit what I am going to state about the cold of that winter. I counted on one day sixteen blood-splits between the two joints of one of my thumbs, pointed them out to one of my comrades and told him to keep an account of it. From this you can form an idea of the state of my hands, others of my comrades were far worse. CORNELIUS KANE [my emphasis] had to go into hospital with sore hands caused by cold. Michael O'Regan and Thomas Hayes were a fortnight confined to their cells with sore hands though they had to work there. John Kenealy at one time went to the doctor with his hands very bad; one was worse than the other. He got a glove for that hand, and was told when the other would be as bad as that he would get a glove for that also. You never would imagine that what I am now going to state would happen in any civilised country in the latter half of the nineteenth century, much less in that vaunted land of freedom, Great Britain. In the depth of that severe winter when we would come in from a hard day's work with our limbs aching with cold and the blood bursting from our hands, we would often have to strip naked in the hall, step into our cells without a particle of clothing and there remain shivering with cold, whilst the warder was examining our clothes with the most minute exactness. Sometimes we would have to strip in our cells, throw our clothes out in the hall and remain mother naked whilst he was quietly prosecuting his search when he would throw them into you one by one. This continued twice a week through the month of January. It was discontinued in February, and was commenced again in the bitter cold days of March; of course they never found anything to justify them in their search. There was nothing we felt more keenly than to have to submit to such unwarrantable persecution though the degradation of it will recoil more on its authors than on us. It was during that winter we got the greatest amount of punishment in penal cells. Rossa, during the month of January, spent twenty-three days in separate confinement, James O'Connor a fortnight, and so on with the others. Perhaps you would wish to known how they manage when they are going to give you bread and water. You come into your dinner without knowing whether you are to be reported or not; if you are so unlucky as to be, you are brought before the governor with your shoes off, the charge is made by the officer, it is no use for you to contradict him; perhaps, if you do, the governor would insult you by telling you as he told Terry Byrne, “you were were [sic] a convict, he would not believe one word from you.” Your sentence is passed and you are put into a cell without your cap, shoes, or belt, and minus your dinner. A warder will then come and order you to strip naked, when he will carefully examine your clothes, and after his search lock your door, and leave you there to your hungry cogitations. At night you will get eight ounces of bread and a pint of water, and the same next morning. It would take the pen of a Dickens to portray, in their proper colours, the privations suffered and the annoyances and cruelties perpetrated within the walls of a convict prison. A commission came down from London in May, '67, to inquire into our condition. Now, I can safely say, from what I saw in a scrap of a newspaper afterwards, that if the governor of the prison and his chief warders were the exclusive members of that commission, they could not have given a more favourable report, as far as the prison authorities were concerned. Of course the gullible public took their statements as perfectly correct, and that the unruly Fenians had no just cause of complaint. Far away down the rolling waves of the Atlantic, across the broad tracks of the Indian Ocean, to the end of burning sands, on the shores of Western Australia, there lies a charnel house of despotism where some of your dear friends are pining away in silent and bitter agony, for loving Erin with that devotion for which her sons are distinguished. I suppose you are already aware that we are divided into two parties, that six or seven of our men are employed in the convict prison of Freemantle [sic], and that the soldiers of our party are scattered about mixed up with different gangs of other convicts throughout the colony. Our party which now consists of nineteen men (one, [Bartholomew] “Moriarty”, got a conditional pardon and is now at liberty) are employed at quarrying stones. John Kenealy and I are employed loading a cart with them, when quarried, that bears them to a boat which transports them on the Swan wherever they are wanted. It is heavy work under the burning skies of this country, but still it is preferable, as far as prison life is concerned, to Portland. The winter, which is the rainy reason here, is now over, and what a winter. Like a wet July in Ireland. I believe after next month, we will have no more rain for six or eight months, nothing but a burning sun over our heads, and burning sands under our feet. This colony is a miserable place to live in, though, notwithstanding the great heat, it has a fine healthy climate. With an area nearly as large as France, it has only a population of 20,000, and half the number are convicts. This country, along the sea-coast is one vast bush and inland sand plain. By ‘bush’ you must not understand the term as it is used in Ireland; it means a forest. The prevailing diseases of the country are diarrhoea and ophthalmia. I had an attack of diarrhoea since I came here, which stuck to me for three months, and so had a good many more of my comrades. I am also troubled with sore eyes, though they are not very bad, still they gave me some uneasiness; the torments and plagues of this country are ants, flies, fleas, and mosquitoes. You can form no idea of their number. Perhaps you imagine that we have a great deal of liberty here. True, we are not confined within the walls of a prison. As an instance of the liberty which we have I will give you an example. I went one Sunday afternoon with a comrade picking mushrooms, to a cultivated portion of land opposite our camp, and where we could be seen from the door of our officers' hut. We were not long there when we were pounced on by four policemen, arrested within four hundred yards of our camp for being so far from it, marched into Guilford, and kept in a small dark cell for two days, when we were brought up before a magistrate, who sent us back to our party. Such is the liberty a convict has in Western Australia. If a civilian is seen speaking to him, he the said freeman is fined £5:—I remain, my dear Pat, yours as ever, THOMAS DUGGAN.’ --00--

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IN WA: 1868, January: On arrival, CORNELIUS DWYER KANE was listed as convict #9790, 28, married with two children, literate, clerk, Roman Catholic; convicted 17 Jan 1866, Dublin, treason felony, 10 years; family – wife Margaret, Skibbereen; children James (5) and Mary Ann (3); 6’11/4” tall, brown hair, dark grey eyes, dark complexion, medium stout build. Behaviour in jail in England “indifferent” (Western Australia, Australia, Convict Records, 1846-1930; Convict Department; Convict Dept Registers, General Registers for Nos 9599-100128 cont. (R16)). --00--

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EMBARKATION FOR WA: 1867, 8 October: Cornelius Kane was sent from Portland jail to board the Hougoumont for transportation to WA. “The hired convict ship Hougoumont, which has been taken up, by the Government for the conveyance of a numerous party of convicts to Freemantle, Western Australia, left the Nore on October 1, and proceeded down Channel, after receiving on board 150 convicts from the establishments at Chatham and Millbank. The convicts from the Chatham establishment, at St. Mary's, embarked from the dockyard on board the paddle-wheel steamer Adder, Mr. W. J. Blakely, and were in charge of a numerous party of convict guards and wardens, all heavily armed. Among the convicts shipped were a party of fifteen Fenians, who were engaged in the late conspiracy in Ireland, together with the officers and crew convicted of scuttling the ship Severn [only two were on the Hougoumont – Thomas Berwick and Lionel Holdsworth, each sentenced to 20 years for fraud], and some others who have achieved notoriety from their crimes. The Fenian convicts, like the remainder of the prisoners, were chained together in gangs, but it was observed that they were kept apart from the other convicts in a portion of the vessel by themselves. The steamer Petrel also took down a number of convicts from the establishment at Millbank, for shipment on board the Hougoumont, in charge of a strong escort and convict guard. On Tuesday, October 8th, the Hougoumont arrived in Portland roads. Shortly before midday ninety convicts were marched down to the Government pier at Portland under a strong escort of the 12th Light Infantry. The party included twenty-three Fenian convicts, among whom it was said, was Moriarty [not the senior Fenian, Captain Moriarty; rather, this was Bartholomew Moriarty, aged 17]. The Government steamer employed in the breakwater service was used for conveying the convicts on board the Hougoumont transport ship. The convicts were chained together on embarking, and on board the steamer a strong guard of marines from her Majesty's ship St. George was formed, and saw the convicts safely placed on board the Hougoumont. The Governor of the penal settlement at Freemantle, Captain Young, is on board the Hougoumont, and returns in that ship to his sphere of duty after paying a visit to his native land.” (Sydney Morning Herald, 19 Dec 1867, p4, at https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/28608271). --00--