Week 3 Long Line
Our three grandsons, Max, Charlie and Jack are the 8th
generation of Australian born McCanns in an unbroken male line.
Their Irish born 6 x great grandfather was Peter McCann,
a poor, illiterate thief, sentenced to 7 years transportation to New South
Wales. He arrived on 18 January 1800
after a voyage of five months on board the convict ship Minerva.
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| The convict ship "Minerva" |
At the time the Minerva arrived in in Port
Jackson, the total population of the colony was in the order of 5000 people,
including approximately 1000 women and 1000 children. Food was short and was strictly rationed, although the Minerva
brought some much-needed supplies.
There were some sanitised stories of Peter’s history in the
family in the 19th century, when having a convict ancestor was a
shameful secret, but one of the family records that seems to be true is that
Peter was a very tall man, said to be 6’3”.
This is so unusual for an Irishman of that time that it is probably an
exaggeration but we do know that his son Nicholas and grandson Peter were also
very tall men; his descendant Patrick (father of Max, Charlie and Jack) is also
6’3” tall.
Peter married another convict, Mary Fitzgerald, and they had
two children, Nicholas and Catherine.
Nicholas McCann was born in Windsor on 28 November
1803 and baptised in St John’s Church of England, Parramatta on 9 January 1804,
the day his parents were married in the same church.*1
In October 1806, Peter McCann drowned in Rickerby’s Creek at
Windsor. Mary married again the
following year, but it seems from about this time that Nicholas’ godfather,
John Norris, became a strong presence in his life.*2
John Norris was a skilled stonemason, and he seems to have
taken Nicholas as an apprentice in this trade. When Nicholas later applied (1827) for an
allotment of land in Parramatta, a local magistrate, Major Lockyer, testified
to his character. “He is an industrious clever tradesman and under such
circumstances do not hesitate to recommend him for the indulgence applied
for..”
Nicholas had an adventurous life. He married twice and it was his first wife,
Catherine Johnson, who was the mother of his son Charles John McCann,
who was our boys’ 4 x great grandfather.
Catherine died at the age of 24, by which time Nicholas had already
relocated to Tasmania leaving his eldest son, Charles in the care of relatives
in Sydney*3. (Although we have since
learned much about Nicholas’ life in Tasmania, and then Victoria, he seems to
have played little part in Charles’ life from about 1831)
Charles John McCann was born in Parramatta on 27 Jun
1827, and christened at St John’s Church of England, Parramatta on 24 February
1828. We know very little about his
early life in Parramatta but it seems reasonable that the adults who cared for
him were his grandmothers Mary (now Mary Hill) and Rosetta Johnson (Beale), and
his father’s godfather John Norris.
Charles married Mary Johnson at St Andrew’s Scots Church,
Sydney on 20 September, 1847. Mary was
no relation to Rosetta and Catherine Johnson, but she was a member of a large
family of Johnsons who intermarried with the McCanns for several generations,
(creating many headaches for the genealogist).
Their first child, Catherine, was born in Sydney in 1848 and Charles
gave his profession as “wheelwright” on the birth certificate, but by the time
of his son’s birth they were in Geelong and the relationship with the rest of
the family was briefly rekindled.
From 1853 to 1873, Charles and Mary had nine more children
who were born either in the Ballarat region of Victoria, (the goldfields) or
the Richmond River area of NSW ( the “red gold” fields). The extended Johnson family were ever-present
and at one time the wheelwright Charles and his blacksmith father-in-law
William Johnson combined forces to construct “McCann Wagons” used to exploit
the forests around Bullarook and Ballarat.
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| Typical settlement of North Coast timber cutters |
Charles William McCann was the eldest of Charles and
Mary’s sons, born in 1851. He worked for
most of his life as a timber getter and then as a farmer in the hills around
Eureka, near Lismore in NSW. At the age
of 25, he married his first cousin, 17year-old Esther Johnson. Together they had five children; the last
one, Ettie, being born 7 months after her father’s death by drowning.
Charles died while trying to cross the flooded Wilson’s
Creek, above Eureka. According to the
newspaper reports, his horse stumbled, and Charles was washed out of the saddle
and drowned before anyone could reach him.
He is buried in the Pioneer Cemetery at North Lismore.
Eleanor married Charles’ brother, John Beale McCann
within a year and went on to have three more children, although only one
survived babyhood.
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| Charles William McCann's headstone - North Lismore |
Charles and Esther’s first born was a son – Charles John
McCann who was born on 19 December 1880 at Wilson’s Ridges (the area now
between Goonellabah and Alphadale). As a
young man he worked as a timber getter, a cane cutter and a dairy farmer on his
family farm. Later, he established the
business McCann’s Taxis, which was taken over by his sons Pat and Les. Known as Charlie in the family, he was a
jovial character and a renowned prankster.
He trained dogs, and loved a gamble.
He and his wife Alma were the first generation who were able
to travel overseas from Australia – they went to the United States to visit
their daughter Joyce, who had married an American serviceman during World War
11, and relocated to Florida.
Charles John married Alma Barrow in Lismore on 18 August
1900 – both he and Alma were only 20.
They had nine children together, and Cecil Eric McCann (always
known as Pat) was the youngest boy.
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| Charles and Alma wedding photo |
Charles John and Alma are buried in the family section of
Alphadale Cemetery, near John Beale McCann and Esther, Esther’s father John
Johnson and some of Charles’ sisters and their children.
Pat McCann was born in Goonellabah on 6 September
1914. He lived on the family farm and
attended the local school. When he left,
he took up an apprenticeship as a mechanic with Prattens Motors, a big car
dealership in Lismore, and at the completion of his apprenticeship, left
Prattens to work for his father repairing (and occasionally driving) his taxis.
Prattens continued to give him repair jobs, and the
opportunity to sell the cars he fixed, so he soon needed a space to do this –
he bought a service station, Speedy Auto in Dawson St, Lismore.
At the same time, his taxi fleet grew to three or four
taxis, which he eventually sold to concentrate on the car business – McCann’s
Car Sales.
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| McCann's taxi in a Lismore parade |
Pat was a keen shooter and fisherman with a network of mates
to pursue these activities with. Every
year, he and some of them would take the whole month of May to move to Iluka
and go fishing –they often reported home that they had unfortunately been stuck
on Sedges Reef. It was a while before
Kath learnt that “Sedges Reef” was the name of the Iluka pub.
Pat married Kathleen Keogh in December 1936. Together they had four children and there
were 6 grandchildren at the time of his sudden death in Lismore in July 1971. He was only 56 years old.
Paul John McCann was born in Lismore on 11 September
1944. He was Pat and Kath’s third child.
He attended the local Catholic schools and was the first member of the family
to complete secondary school to Leaving Certificate level, and to go to
University. So he was the first who
didn’t work with horses or carts or cars (both his brothers, Gary and Mick,
worked in the auto industry, Gary as a mechanic, and then a car salesman, and
Mick as a panelbeater and car salesman).
Paul was also the first member of the family to move away
from the Northern Rivers area of NSW. After graduating with an Education
degree, he taught in secondary schools in Cessnock and Armidale and then at
Armidale Teachers’ College and The University of New England.
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| Paul graduates with M.Ed (Hons1) |
He married Frances Maria Baxter in 1968, and they had their
first son, Patrick David McCann in 1972 and then Brendan Michael McCann
in 1973.
After his divorce, Paul decided that he was more interested
in business than teaching so for the rest of his working life, with his second
wife Jill (nee Gleeson), he owned and operated a number of businesses. They had restaurants in Lennox Head (La
Contadina) and Dubbo (The Old Shire Restaurant), an antique business in Dubbo
(The Old Shire Gallery) and then moved into hospitality, operating Spring Hill
Mews Apartments (Brisbane) for 4 years.
And he came full circle, retiring back to the North Coast at
Suffolk Park in 2008, where he continues to be a keen tennis player, golfer and
cyclist.
Patrick David McCann was born in Armidale on 2 April
1972 and was named after his grandfather.
He moved with his mother and brother to Deia, Mallorca in 1977; he returned
to Australia in 1981 with Brendan and they began their primary school education
at Lennox Head. In 1984, the family
moved to Dubbo, Jill’s hometown, where both boys completed their secondary
education. Patrick was Dux of Dubbo High School in 1990 and moved to Canberra
in 1991 to study at the Australian National University.
After graduating with an Arts degree, Patrick obtained a
Diploma of Education and later completed training as a School Counsellor. He married another School Counsellor, Daniela
McMahon, in 2013 and together they have three sons, Max, Charlie and Jack. Charlie is the fourth Charles McCann in this
line. Jack's birth in 2017 was 217 years and one day after Peter McCann's arrival at Port Jackson.
Pat continues to work as a Counsellor for the NSW Department
of Education and he too lives on the North Coast of NSW, not far from the rich
cedar country where his forebears were pioneers.
*1 Peter McCann and Mary Fitzgerald were both Catholics but
there were neither Catholic churches nor clergy in the colony at this time.
*2 John Norris was married to Eleanor Fitzgerald who had been
convicted and transported with Mary and was probably her sister, although the
age gap was such that she may even have been Mary’s mother or aunt.
*3 We know it was his “grandmother” but this could be Mary or
Eleanor or Rosetta.
Fantastic! Great long line to pass to your grandsons!
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