Thomas Fitzpatrick : Short Biography

So far my research suggests that Thomas Fitzpatrick (b. 1828) came out to Victoria, Australia in the early 1850s and started a family out here about which we have plenty of information.  My research to date has been unable to determine which ship he came on or the date of his arrival, and even if his initial port of call was Melbourne.  His name does not appear in assisted passenger lists that I have seen but his family circumstances never give the appearance of such affluence that he could easily pay his fare.

  His November 1853 marriage certificate, to Margaret Hannon from Co Wicklow, says he was 24 years old, came from Co Down and his parents were Thomas Fitzpatrick (Farmer) and Rose Garvey.  Birth certificates for his children all say he was from Ireland and often from Newry Co Down and once from Ballyolan.  Hence, I believe that his birthplace was Ballyholland townland near Newry if you allow for pronunciation and spelling issues.  Whether he or his parents were still resident there before he emigrated is unknown.

  Thomas, unfortunately, was apparently murdered in lawless Fiji in the early 1870s according to family lore and his wife died quite young in 1876 in NSW.  Thus we have no death certificate to confirm his parents but have been able to find a Roman Catholic baptism from Clonallon church in Nov 1828 with parents Thomas and Rose.  A similar baptism at the same church exists for Patrick Fitzpatrick in Feb 1832 to the same parents.  The Clonallon parish church involved, I believe, is now known as St Mary’s in Burren.

  I have been unable to find a death registration or burial for either him or Rose and that could have happened during the 1840s famine or before registration of deaths became compulsory in 1865.  Unfortunately, such church records for Clonallon parish only start in 1826 and I can find no marriage for Thomas & Rose there or in Newry.  Also there seem to be no surviving records of burials for the Clonallon parish where they worshipped.

  I have found a small area of land in the Ballyholland Lower townland tenanted by a Thomas Fitzpatrick in the Griffiths Valuations of 1864.  It has a house and other small buildings on it, so could have been his home but its area was only a bit more than 4 acres.  Revaluation records seem to indicate that father Thomas retained tenure of that block until at least 1882 and it transferred to Michael McAteer in 1884.  Whether any other land tenanted by a Thomas Fitzpatrick in Griffiths records were assigned to this same man is unknown.  There are several nearby possibilities in Clonduff such as Sheeptown, Leitrim & Ballymaghery but distances between would seem challenging to manage.  A Rose Garvey tenanted blocks in Aughnagon and Milltown in Clonallon parish between 1864 & 1900 but she would be a very old woman in 1900.

Thus, the assumption is that Thomas snr lived until about 1883 but we can’t find death after that with a suitable age in the Newry registration district.  He may have moved away to relatives after relinquishing his farm.  There are numerous possibilities for the death of Rose Fitzpatrick but we have no other associated clues to go by at this stage.

  Tithe Applotment records for the area do not provide much help but a Thos Fitzpatrick was listed in 1834 for Aughnagon, Leitrim & Mullaghmore.  Both families were staunchly Roman Catholic and remained so judging by the 1901 census data.  At the time of Griffiths valuations, the Garveys were concentrated in Aghnagon townland between Burren and Mayobridge, and the Fitzpatricks, whilst more scattered, were concentrated around Hilltown in Clonduff parish farther east.

  The only other lead I have is from a newspaper advertisement in a Perth Western Australia paper in 1902 where someone was searching for Thomas and his wife.  That item said that Thomas has brothers named James, Michael and William.  Those names are not found in the church baptism records with parents of Thomas and Rose but they may be older brothers baptized before the records start in 1826.  There may have been sisters but we just do not know.  We do not know if his brothers remained in Ireland or emigrated.  If they emigrated, where to? – presumably not Australia where some sort of contact would have been quite possible and recorded in family papers.  However, there are very few family papers known to me and other descendants in Australia.

Further research shows that the Perth newspaper sourced its item from The Irish Independent 18 Nov 1901, page 1, where Thomas’s son T. J. Fitzpatrick was searching for his uncles James, Michael & William.  He was posted at the time with the Citizens Life Insurance Co in London.

  I was able to make a hasty visit to Newry and Bagenals Castle in November 2018 looking for information but did not find anything relevant.  A visit to St Mary’s graveyard at Burren provided no clues, nor did the graveyard at St Mary’s on Chapel Hill in Newry.  However, at both places there were large plots boldly labelled Fitzpatrick but with absolutely no further information.  Some headstones were full of information but none that I saw related to our Thomas and Rose.