My 3 x great grandfather Timothy O'Leary was baptised on 27 Feb 1795 in the parish of Bantry, Cork, Ireland. Father Danl Leary, mother Ann Sullivan, Sponsors John Driscoll and Honora Cosker.
He married Ellen Donaghy on 27 Jan 1830 in St Jean Bureau de Santa, Arcadie, St John, New Brunswick, Canada and they had three known children, Anne born 27 December 1830 in Saint John, Timothy (my 2 x great grandfather) born about 1835 in Saint John, and John born 20 Jul 1836 in Saint John. His marriage record shows his mother Ann Sullivan's home parish as Kilmacomogue, County Cork.
Timothy junior was not baptised until 1840, still in St John, with his age given at the time of baptism as 4 years.
The next confirmed fact is that he arrived in Port Chalmers, Dunedin, New Zealand on the 'Empress of the Seas' on 27 Sep 1861, aged 26, from Melbourne, Australia. The ship was on the Britain-Australia run and made a quick dash from Melbourne to Port Chalmers carrying gold miners from the Victoria gold rush to the new Otago goldfields before returning to Melbourne for the return trip to the UK. Whilst preparing to depart Melbourne for her return to the UK she caught fire and was burnt to the waterline.
A Timothy O'Leary and a Dennis O'Leary had unclaimed letters at the Melbourne GPO in April 1855, and a Charles Bright, Timothy O'Leary and Linguid Toovey were for fined 5 shillings for drunkenness on 23 Sep 1861, the day before the Empress sailed to Port Chalmers. Unconfirmed but possibly the same man.
On arrival in Otago Timothy went inland to the new Wetherstones gold field near Lawrence in Central Otago. He must have acquired some capital and knowledge of gold mining (potentially in the Victoria gold rush and possibly the California Rush before that?) as rather than digging a gold claim he and business partners built the Phoenix Dam adjacent to the goldfields and sold water to the miners, and later to the Borough Council for the town of Lawrence. In 1863 he married a Mary O'Connor in Milton, Otago - Mary (and her cousins Nancy & Bedilia) were amongst 200 Irish girls shipped to Otago on the 'Pladda' in 1862 in an effort to correct the shortage of young females with the influx of male miners. Between 1864 and 1879 they had 7 children. They sold the Wetherstones property (house and farm) and built a house next to the RC church in Lawrence but subsequently separated with the children scattering across the country.
Timothy moved across to the West Coast and settled in Hokitika, where he solo-mined a gold claim for many years before passing away in 1900 aged 69 years, leaving an estate in excess of 500 pounds. Mary died penniless in the Porirua asylum in 1907. Their eldest son William (1864-1947) never married but became famous as a wandering miner, and as 'Arawata Bill' was the subject of a long poem by the poet Dennis Glover, and subsequently a popular book (multiple editions).
My great grandmother Ellen O'Leary (1873-1965) passed on the story that Timothy O'Leary had gone to Canada after 'his father was hanged on his own farm by British soldiers'; she was certainly an ardent Sinn Fein supporter all her life.
I would love to have more information about the O'Leary's in Bantry, any assistance or suggestions deeply appreciated!
John Mitchell
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| Date of Birth | 1st Jan 1835 (circa) | |
