Bridget Corbett travelled to Australia on the ship Arabian leaving Liverpool on 5th October 1861 and arriving in Melbourne in January 1862. She was 17 years of age.
Her parents were James Corbett (a wheelwright or Carpenter) and Mary Meaney. They lived near Cranny in south Clare, Ireland and did not come to Australia with Bridget. As far as I have been able to establish none of Bridget’s siblings came to Australia.
She did, however, come on the Arabian with cousins or aunts or uncles. On the ship, which left from Liverpool and travelling as a group with Bridget were Johanna Daly(45), John Meaney(20) possibly Bridget’s Uncle, Patrick Egan(25) cousin of Denis Egan who Bridget first married, Bridget Mahon(18), John Coughlan(18) and Thomas Daly.
On 23rd February 1862, one month after arriving in Australia, Bridget married Denis Egan at St Killians church in Bendigo. Denis Egan’s father was John Egan and his mother was Mary Moylan and they lived in Clare. The witnesses at the wedding were Daniel Meaney and Honour Sexton. In 1863 Honour Sexton married Patrick Flaherty and they lived at Goornong, which is where Bridget lived with her second husband, Patrick Minogue.
Bridget and Denis had a daughter, Bridget Egan, in 1863 and Denis died of Cholera in Back Creek on 23rd February 1864, exactly 2 years after he and Bridget married. He was 30 years old. The informant at his death was his cousin Patrick Egan whom I presume was the same Patrick Egan who came to Australia on the ship with Bridget Corbett. Denis is buried in White Hills Cemetary Bendigo.
On 8th May 1866, Bridget married Patrick Minogue (my great grandfather) at St Killians Church. Patrick was 25 years old and his parents were Colman Minogue and Ann Moylan. (the same surname as Denis Egan’s mother). They were from Newquay in north Clare. The witnesses at the wedding were Martin Meaney and ??.
Patrick and Bridget had 4 children, Mary (my grandmother) who was born on 23rd June 1869 at Campaspe, James born about 1872, Margaret Ann born about 1876 and Patrick born about 1878.
Patrick Minogue died on 30th July 1882 of Brights disease at Campaspe River. He was 41 years old. His farm was heavily mortgaged and he left only 50 pounds to Bridget after sale of all assets and payment of debts. Bridget was only 37 years old, had 5 children and had been widowed twice. She would have had little chance of surviving on her own as none of the children were old enough to run the farm if she had attempted to do that.
In 1883 she married Patrick Coughlin and had a sixth child, Thomas in 1884 at Goornong, which was close to where she lived with Patrick Minogue, maybe the same farm if Patrick Coughlin took it over.
Patrick Coughlin died on 3rd June 1916 aged 75 and described as a retired farmer. He left his estate to his son Thomas except allowing Bridget to reside in the family home in Bannerman street Bendigo unless she remarried which she didn’t.
Bridget Coughlin(nee Corbett) died on 24th February 1917 at Victoria Park in Daylesford of Bronchitis and heart failure. The informant at her death was her uncle J Meaney, whom I presume she was visiting at the time. She is buried in White Hills Cemetary Bendigo. At the time of her death she was living with her daughter, Bridget Fitzgerald (nee Egan) in Larritt street Bendigo. She left an estate of 666 pounds and the executors of the estate were her 2 eldest children, Bridget Fitzgerald and Mary Phillips(my grandmother).
Bridget Fitzgerald had been married earlier to Terence O’Toole in 1885 when she was 22. She had a son John O’Toole born in Bendigo in 1886 who married Catherine Bridget Nugent in 1915. They had daughters Mary Theresa born 1916, Sheila Margaret born 1917 and Catherine Elizabeth born 1919. This was the Sheila O’Toole who was related to my dad and a friend of my mum. They used to go horseriding together. After the death of Terence O’Toole, Bridget married Benjamin Fitzgerald in 1898. She died not long after her mother, Bridget Coughlin, in August 1917.
The witness at the Patrick Minogue and Bridget Corbett wedding, Martin Meaney died in Bendigo in 1900 aged 60. His parents were John Meaney and Mary Coughlin
.Family folklore has Bridget Corbett related to James J Corbett the world heavyweight champion 1892 – 1897. James J Corbett’s father was from County Mayo so there is little likelihood that there is any direct connection. Apparently every Corbett in the world laid claim to a direct relationship after he won the title.
Patrick Minogue was born about 1841 in Newquay, Clare, Ireland. His parents were Colman Minogue and Ann Moylan. His father, Colman Minogue died in Newquay in 1870 and is buried in the church graveyard 1 km south of Newquay. His gravestone says:
Grant O Lord Eternal Rest to the Soul of Colman Minogue
Who died November 30 1870 Age 73 Years
Patrick and his brother John and their sister Mary all came to Australia. I do not know if there were any siblings who stayed in Ireland.
When Patrick died John erected a gravestone in White Hills cemetary in Bendigo which read:
Minogue
Erected by John Minogue in memory of his beloved brother
Patrick Minogue who died July 31st 1882 aged 40 years
Born in Newkburne County Clare Ireland
RIP
I was thrown for a while by the reference to Newkburne as I could not find it anywhere in County Clare, however I knew that there was a Colman Minogue in the Griffiths Valuation of 1855 in the Union of Ballyvaghan, Parish of Abbey so I contacted the Genealogy section of the Clare library who advised me that Newkburne would have been the phonetic spelling of Newquay-Burrin. Burrin quay was the original name of Newquay. That is where I found Colman Minogue’s gravestone.
John Minogue seems to have been unmarried and died at Back Creek, Bendigo on 8th March 1925.He must have been in his eighties. In his will he left 50 pounds to Mary Phillips (my grandmother) and 200 pounds to her brother James and 50 pounds to James’s son Collie Minogue. The remainder of his estate was left to the children of his sister Mary Kearns, Patrick (born Goornong 1878), Lizzie (born Goornong 1876) and Norah Kearns.
Meaneys, Coughlins, Egans, Dalys and Sextons.
There is certainly a connection with the Meaney family as Bridget Corbett’s mother was a Meaney and John Meaney was the informant at Bridget’s death and also Daniel Meaney was a witness at Bridget’s first wedding and Martin Meaney at her second wedding.
Thomas Meaney ( parents Michael Meany & Bridget Coughlin ) married Mary Daly in 1859. Mary Daly is the daughter of Johanna Daly (nee Coughlin) who came on the ship to Australia with Bridget Corbett. Their first child was born in Back Creek in 1860 which is where Bridget Corbett lived after marrying Denis Egan. Subsequent children were born In Daylesford which seems to be where Thomas & Mary settled permanently. Mary died in Daylesford in 1914 aged 82. Thomas Meany had a brother Timothy who appears to have made his fortune & returned to Ireland as he appears in the 1901 census in Ireland as a retired Gold Miner aged 70 living in Bolooghra, Kilfiddane. Bolooghra is the townland next to Burrenfadda where Bridget Corbett came from. He also erected a memorial to his brother Thomas in the graveyard at Klladysert which read
MEANY
Erected by Timothy Meany, Bolooghera in memory of his
Beloved brother Thomas who died on 19/4/1895 aged 60 years.
RIP
I can find no record of Thomas’s death in the Victorian records so I don’t know whether he was in Ireland when he died.
Martin Meany who was the witness at Bridget Corbett’s marriage to Patrick Minogue married Catherine Brennan in 1871 and died in Bendigo on 6 June 1900 aged 60. His parents were John Meany & Mary Coughlin.
Ellen, Bridget & Mary Corbett had parents Thomas Corbett & Bridget Sexton. Ellen married James Daly and lived in Bendigo. Bridget Corbett married John Daly and lived at Victoria Park Daylesford.
These Corbetts tie in to Honour Sexton who was the witness at Bridget Corbett’s first marriage to Denis Egan and also tie in to Bridget Corbett’s death at Victoria Park, Daylesford.
Honour Sexton’s parents were Patrick Sexton & Cath Galvin and lived at Lisseycasey which is close to Cranny where Bridget Corbett came from. There is a tombstone in the graveyard at Ballynacally, Kilchreest which reads
Patrick Sexton 1869 age 65 of Lisseycasey
Wife Galvin
Honour Sexton arrived on the ship Hope in 1862 which arrived around the same time as the Arabian on which Bridget Corbett arrived. With her on the ship were:
Elizabeth, Emily & James Daly
Anthony, James, John & Winifred Egan
Mary & Mary Meaney
John Sexton – presumably Honour’ brother.
I do not know if this group travelled together but just picked out surnames on the passenger list which were familiar.
Honour had at least one other brother in Australia, Martin who died in 1902 aged 57 at White Hills, Bendigo.
