Roderick Kennedy : Short Biography

Roderick KENNEDY (1824-1905)

Roderick KENNEDY was born in County Tipperary Ireland in 1824, the third son of John KENNEDY, a farmer, and Margaret SHEEDY. In all the family comprised five sons, Stephen, Patrick, Roderick, John and Michael, and two daughters, Kitty (probably Catherine) and Margaret.  (From Port Arthur convict records)

A house carpenter who was able to read and write, Roderick was convicted, with two others, John MAHER and John CASEY, of assault on a dwelling in August 1843 and sentenced to 7 years transportation to Tasmania, arriving there on the Duke of Richmond on 2nd January 1844. He was single at the time and this was his only brush with the law that can be found in Ireland. His description says he was 5'9" tall, with a fair complexion, sandy hair and having a strong build. Roderick was indentured for work with Mr Thomas PARRAMORE of Richmond, a pastoralist who is credited with bringing the Merino to Tasmania. He was a well-behaved prisoner and was granted probation after 4 years, followed by his ticket of leave after 5 years, and his freedom after the conclusion of the 7 years. In The Colonial Times of 13th March 1847 he is listed as making a donation of £1 to the Irish Relief Fund, although he had only been on probation a short time.

Once Roderick had his freedom, he left the Colony of Tasmania, and travelled in steerage on a steamer, Victoria Packet, to Melbourne. It was here he met Margaret HALLORAN.  She had arrived in Victoria with her brother Michael and her married brother, Denis with his wife and young son, on the Lady Kennoway in February1850. The shipping manifest notes that Margaret was able to read and write and was in possession of her own Bible, and that they initially went to Geelong. Margaret and Roderick were married by Fr Francis Moore at St Francis Church Melbourne on 7th October 1854. Roderick is recorded in the electoral roll of 1856 as living in Bouverie St Carlton and working as a carrier.

Settling in the Donnybrook area of Victoria, Margaret and Roderick had nine children, Margaret, John, William, Roderick, Emily, Stephen, Patrick, Margaret Kate and Mary Ann, between 1855 and 1875. In 1860, Roderick selected land through a lottery system in the area of the Keilor Common. He chose Lot 6 when his number was drawn, an area of just over 48acres. Roderick was named on a list of twenty Ned Kelly sympathisers; Ned’s father, John “Red” KELLY, was also an Irish convict. Rody had a number of dealings with the law. He was shot by a man called John LYNCH over an unregistered dog that attacked Margaret, he was accused of stealing cattle but was acquitted, and he was admonished for encouraging his brother, Michael KENNEDY also living in the Donnybrook area, to commit perjury. After suffering for two years, Roderick succumbed to lung cancer, passing away on 2nd January 1905, on the 61st anniversary of his arrival in Australia. No mention of living in Tasmania was made on his death certificate, and his time living in the Victoria was given by his son William, the informant, as the entire 60 years.

The first child, Margaret was born in Melbourne and died at the age of 9 in Donny brook Victoria, when she drowned in a farm dam where she had been earlier swimming with other children. Their second child, John, was born in 1858, but his birth was not registered. He was however baptised by the priest who travelled up to Donnybrook from St Paul’s Coburg (then called Pentridge) and his birth date is noted on that register. No marriage or death details can be found for John, but he is mentioned on his father’s death certificate as being 47 years of age. Two other children died tragically. Patrick Keneally KENNEDY was born in 1869 and was killed accidentally in 1883 when he fell from his horse while running an errand for his father to Beveridge. Family folklore says he was killed by the police while running an errand for the Kellys. The inquest states that the police found him, notes that his injuries seem rather serious for a fall from a horse, and that the boy was known as an excellent rider.The youngest child, Mary Ann, died in St Vincent’s Hospital at the age of 16 in 1892.

William KENNEDY was born on 7th April 1860 and married Mary Jane Mills SHANAHAN in 1902. William died in 1923 in Woodstock Victoria. (Currently being updated)

Roderick’s next son was named for himself. Roderick Joseph KENNEDY was born on 16th August 1862. He married Josephine Elizabeth Mary WHIDBEY in 1884. She was born in Clunes in 1864, the daughter of an Irish migrant and a freed black Jamaican slave. Young Roderick commenced working for the railways in 1883 and the family moved around the state. They were living in Sale when son Edward enlisted in the Army, and he was roadmaster at Ouyen when the received a letter to say that Edward had been shot in Alexandria. The couple had a total of 14 children, of whom 7 married and had children, and one, Eileen, became a nun and was teacher at the Port Melbourne Orphanage for many years. She died at Coburg, at the Mercy convent, in 1977. Both Josephine, who died in 1938, and Roderick, who died less than a year later, are buried at Box Hill Cemetery.

Emily Josephine was born in 1864, and her birth, like her brother John’s, was not registered, but is recorded on the baptismal registry. Emily was married to George LYNCH in 1889, but was widowed in 1896. The couple had two children in Kalkallo, Mary Grace, who died aged 30, and Patrick James, who married Elizabeth KELLY in 1914. Emily’s second husband was Englishman John Charles HAMPTON and she had a further three children.

Margaret Kate KENNEDY was born in 1871 and married George Alexander FRYE in 1890. They lived in Taradale and had 4 children there, later moving to Chewton where George died in 1934. Margaret died in Castlemaine Hospital in 1947.

The youngest surviving son of Roderick and Margaret was Stephen Edward KENNEDY, born in Donnybrook on 18th June 1867. Stephen commenced working for the Victorian Railways on 15th April 1887, and married Honora MORRIS at St Thomas Aquinas’ Church in Clunes on 9th November that same year.

Stephen and Honora had six children, losing the youngest, Kieran Laurence, in a tragic accident in 1923 at 17 years of age, when he was punched and later died of the head injury he received. The eldest son, William Patrick, died at the age of 24, in a work accident at the Jolimont railyards in 1915, when he was hit by a shunting engine. It was the second time he had had such an accident, the first leaving him with a steel plate in his skull. He left behind a wife, Ellen CONDON, and two young children, Catherine and William.

Second son and third child, Roderick was born in 1893 and married his cousin Pearly Veronica BOYD in 1920, having four children with her.

Fourth child Sarah Ann KENNEDY was born in 1895 and had one child to an unnamed father, a son who she named George William, in 1917. The boy was placed in St Joseph’s Baby Home in Broadmeadows when she could no longer cope, and later adopted out. Sarah never married and died in Ballarat in 1972. Like her father Stephen, Sarah had epilepsy, and this was the reason for her son being removed from her care, and for her being placed in the Wendouree institution.

The youngest surviving son born in Murtoa in 1898, also called Stephen Edward, married Lily Jane KUNKEL in 1921, but they divorced without having children. She remarried, although he never did. Stephen died in St Vincent's Hospital from injuries received on 7th May when he was struck by an ambulance at the corner of Latrobe and Queen Streets, Melbourne. Stephen junior also had epilepsy.

Eldest child, Mary Josephine KENNEDY was born in 1889 in Murtoa. She married Frederick William HOLDEN, a maltster, on 8th January 1913 at St John’s Church of England in Kerang. Frederick signed the marriage register as James William HOLDEN. Mary Josephine KENNEDY is my grandmother.