Summary
Personal Information
Crime
Voyage
Transportation
John Rogan was transported on the Fortune And Alexander, departing 31st Dec 1805 and arriving 12th Jul 1806 with 309 passengers.
Fortune And Alexander (generic)References
| Primary Source | Australian Joint Copying Project. Microfilm Roll 87, Class and Piece Number HO11/1, Page Number 372 |
| Source Description | This record is one of the entries in the British convict transportation registers 1787-1867 database compiled by State Library of Queensland from British Home Office (HO) records which are available on microfilm as part of the Australian Joint Copying Pro |
| Original Source | Great Britain. Home Office |
| Compiled By | State Library of Queensland |
| Database Source | British convict transportation registers 1787-1867 database |
Claims
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Convict Notes
John Rogan's date and place of birth cannot be verified from surviving records. He might have been born in Ireland, but there was already an Irish Catholic community in Lancashire during the 1780s.
After John died in 1830, Susannah did remarry. She married Richard Donnelly (Irish Convict, 1813, "Archduke Charles"). Richard, Susannah and her family did very well in the ensuing years. The General Return of Convicts, Dec 1837, records that Susannah employed two convicts and her husband one. The two who worked for Susannah were John Green, aged 18, who arrived on the ship ‘Recovery’ in 1836 and Francis Riley 28 who was transported on the ‘Waterloo’ in 1829. That she and her husband had sufficient work for three men indicates some degree of prosperity. The 1841 Census of New South Wales recorded that Richard Donnelly’s household contained, as well as Susannah and himself, a male aged over 60 whose identity is not known, and three females aged between 14 and 20. These last would be Susannah’s youngest daughters Mary Ann, Jane and Rosetta. Her four other children, Margaret, John, Sarah and Susannah were all married by Nov 1841.
The 1828 census records John as aged 45 [Ref R1237 page 322] and Susannah as aged 48. [Ref R1238 page 322] Their family, now complete, included 7 children aged between 5 months and 15 years. (Margaret 15, John 12, Sarah 9, Susannah 7, Mary Ann 5, Jane 2 and Rosa 5m). The family’s landholdings comprised 200 acres at Castle Hill, of which 100 were cleared and 50 cultivated. The family possessed four horses and 30 horned cattle. The site of John’s farm is today known as Rogan’s Hill. Although the name was not officially gazetted until 1973, it had been in popular use for more than a century earlier and probably since John’s lifetime.
John married Susannah Brookshaw/Farning, (Convict, 1812, "Minstrel") 28 December 1812. This marriage was bigamous. Susannah Farning had married John Brookshaw, 30th April 1810, at Manchester. He was described as a tailor. Soon thereafter, she was tried and convicted and then some time later, she was transported on “Minstrel”. Although Susannah had little choice but to retain her married name of Brookshaw, under which she had been convicted and transported, she was described in the church register as a spinster. The register describes John as a widower, although no record of a marriage ceremony has been found prior to his marriage to Susannah. The couple had 7 children between 1813 and 1828.
John was tried and convicted at thge General Quarter Sessions of the Peace for the Borough of Liverpool on 15 Jan 1805. Since records of all Liverpool Borough Sessions prior to 1846 were destroyed by enemy bombing during World War II, we have to rely on contemporary newspaper reports for details of John's crime. Their is a discrepancy in their reporting. The 'Liverpool Chronicle' of Wed 30 Jan 1805 named John as one of the prisoners convicted at the Quarter Sessions two weeks earlier. The Chronicle states that John was charged on the oath of William Fawcett and others with stealing ten pounds weight of lead, the property of Fawcett. 'Gore's General Advertiser' of Thursday 31 Jan 1805 records that John and a man named William King where convicted of 'stealing a large quantity of sugar from overboard a ship' and sentenced to seven years transportation. The 'Advertiser' refers to John as an 'old offender'. John was sent to the convict hulks at Portsmouth. The log book of the hulk 'Laurel', moored at Portsmouth records John's name in a list of 6 prisoners from Liverpool. His age was given as 32. John was transported aboard the ship 'Fortune' which set sail from London on 28 Jan 1806 and reached Sydney via Rio de Janiero on 17 Jul 1806. John was assigned to Gregory Blaxland and probably lived at the Blaxland estate. The genral muster taken in 1806, one month after John's arrival, states that he was the servant of 'Mr Blaxland'. He also worked for John Blaxland, Gregory's brother from 3 Apr 1807 until 14 Sep 1808. John may have worked for the Blaxlands as a carpenter, as this is how he described himself upon his marriage in 1812. His sentence expired in Jan 1812.
Married Susanna Brookshaw /Farning in 1812 Sydney NSW 7 Children. See Rogues of Rogan Hill History Book. Surnames in his line of decendants include, Moore, Howlett, Fuller, Granger, Fishburn, Wilkinson and Poor.And Rogan of course. Rogan name ended up on the Clarence River.