All of our ancestors lived lives that we would consider
challenging by modern standards.
Everything –work, travel, health, childbirth – was more difficult in the
past.
For Nicholas McCann, life was a succession of challenges.
Born in 1803, Nicholas was the first child of convicts Peter
McCann and Mary Fitzgerald, who married at St John’s Church, Parramatta on the
day of Nicholas’ baptism. They had one
more child together, Catherine, in 1805 and then in 1806, Peter McCann drowned
in Rickerby’s Creek, Windsor.
Mary did the only thing possible for a young penniless
mother – she married again.
Nicholas was fortunate that he had a relative (perhaps an
uncle – we can’t determine) called John Norris who took young Nicholas under
his wing. Norris (another ex-convict)
was a stone-mason who had opened a Monumental and Builders Yard on Parramatta
Rd. He seems to have been an excellent
tradesman - sober, industrious and methodical, and he instilled these qualities
in Nicholas.
Nicholas married at the age of 22 to Catherine
Johnstone. She too was the child of a
convict (Rosetta Johnstone) and had come to the colony with her mother at the
age of 6. Her mother subsequently
married another ex-convict called John Beal, who was highly regarded in the colony
and in the family (for generations the name “Beal” was included in the McCann
male names).
Nicholas’ second son, Peter McCann, recorded in his memoir
that his father was inclined to be rash as a young man, and the first instance
of this was his loss of large parcels of Sydney sandstone quarries to which he
had laid claim. Casting about for a way
to make recompense, he decided to go to Tasmania at the urging of his young
friends John Batman and John Griffith.
Leaving Catherine and the three
children, Charles, Peter and Ann in the care of John and Rosetta Beal, he set
off.
Six months later, he sent for his family. The eldest son, Charles stayed behind with
the Beals (an action which was to reverberate through the family to this day)*,
but the others set off on the 12 day voyage down the eastern coast and across
Bass Strait to Georgetown.
Nicholas built his family a house and began to trade in lime
and timber. He obtained a large contract
to build a hotel across the Tamar River, so leaving Catherine and an employee
to manage the business he made the journey across the river by whale boat. One Monday morning in 1832 he set off after
assuring Catherine that the small pimple on her lip was a minor thing that
would soon pass, only to be summoned home the following Wednesday to her death
bed. She died at the age of 24 from a
bacterial skin infection which would be easily treated today.
The next four years were particularly challenging for
Nicholas. His baby daughter, Anne was
taken in by a kind and wealthy couple called Hopkins, from Launceston who adopted
her and looked after her well. His son
Peter, still only 4 years old, was sent to a “boarding school” which he later
described as worse than Dickensian.
Nicholas worked hard in these years – he discovered the best
kind of building Freestone in the area around Fingall and built a couple of
grand houses for young squatters. He was
successful in gaining the contract to build a bridge over the South Esk river
but there was a huge flood which carried the abutments and piers away. When the water subsided, he began again, but
another flood came down and carried the structure away for the second
time. He gave up in despair and was
forced to come to a compromise with his creditors.
During this period he was courting a young woman who was to
become his second wife. Catherine Nelson
was the 22 year old daughter of a Master Tailor from Edinburgh who had come to
Launceston with her sister to act as a nursery governess. They were married in 1836 and Nicholas was
soon off on another adventure. This time
he, Catherine and the then 9 year old Peter set off across Bass Strait for Port
Fairy where his old friend John Griffith was establishing a whaling and cattle
station. They travelled on a small
schooner with 29 other people and 200 sheep and had an eventful crossing. Nicholas was actually swept overboard, but
managed to stay afloat until he was rescued and treated with lots of rum and
plenty of blankets.
In Port Fairy there was a thriving whaling industry at this
time, and Nicholas was persuaded to spend a season in this activity. He quarried stone on Griffith’s Island and
built several houses, but in 1841, now with two more children, the family gave up their attempts at farming when the natives drove off all their sheep. They departed to Geelong, where he was to spend the rest of his life.
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| Quarry at Port Fairy |
After his arrival in Geelong, Nicholas carried on his trade
as a builder and stonemason, being responsible for some of the earliest buildings - the Watch House, the Lock-Up and the Courthouse. Many remnants of these remain, including the
stone piers and abutments for the old Barwon Bridge.
Peter was taken on as an apprentice, and then
a partner, and together they opened up the sandstone quarries in the Barrabool
Hills about 6 miles from Geelong.
Nicholas built a fine house nearby at Ceres which is still owned by the
family. He was doing well now, so he
sent Peter back to England to bring Annie home – she had been taken there by
the Hopkins family when Nicholas left Tasmania.
There was sadness, though.
Catherine bore six children between 1837 and 1849, but in 1850 she died,
aged only 36. Three of the children were
under 5 - we know that 3 year old James was given to a childless uncle and aunt,
but don’t know how the other children were raised. Nicholas lived on until 1879 in the house at Ceres. By 1844 he had taken the pledge, and there is
a Temperance Hall there that was built on land he donated. His quarries were finally so successful that the
company founded by his son, Peter, grew into the Australian Cement Co.
Nicholas, the son of convicts, was listed in the 1856 Australian Electoral
Roll, as a “Gentleman”
· * The descendants of Charles McCann, left behind
in Parramatta with his grandparents, and his brother Nicholas lost touch with
each other and were only reunited in 1994 when Paul and I made the trip to
Geelong to meet them.
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| Temperance Hall at Ceres nr Geelong |
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