Tobin Family History: Stephen Tobin- Ch:7- sister Catherine Tobin

Catherine Tobin (c.1822-c.1884)- elder sister of Stephen Tobin

When Catherine Tobin arrived in NSW from Tipperary Ireland is uncertain, but it occurred before 1843.

Peter Madden’s “Tipperary Emigrant Index” had an entry which may be relevant:

Catherine Tobin, age 18, dairy maid, Read and Write, from Tipperary Ardfinnan, Ship ‘Lascar’ arrived 11 November 1841, no parents named, comment: known in Heddins.

The place name Ardfinnan matches the baptismal record for Stephen Tobin, and is only a few miles from Newcastle Tipperary. Looking at the shipping record for the ‘Lascar’ at State Records NSW,[i] Catherine Tobin is a Bounty Immigrant sponsored by Thomas Gore and Company of Sydney, however, the record just names Native Place as ‘Tipperary’ not ‘Ardfinnan’, so that information must have been obtained by Madden from her immigration papers.

She was Roman Catholic, and the shipping record had Remarks : No protection.
The given age of 18 in early 1841 places a birth year about 1822/23, which appears to be correct. So the record is probably relevant.
The Index to Bounty Immigrants has the following information. Note that remarks refer to Character Reference Neddins, not Heddins as in the Madden record:

Catherine married Timothy Guinea (b.1810 Limerick- 2^nd marriage) at Wollongong on 2 March 1845, according to the birth certificate of her daughter Mary Ann (NSW Registry-1862/6017). There are no other records of their marriage yet found, which could therefore have been a “common-law” marriage. However, as a specific date is given for the marriage, the records of the priest may have just been lost.

Catherine Tobin

(Courtesy of D. Hassett)

Unnamed photo in family album, c.1860-1870, thought to be Catherine Guinea nee Tobin with possibly her sister-in-law Mary Tobin nee Driscoll, or a daughter, possibly eldest daughter Ellen b.1850

The birth and death of their first daughter Elizabeth Guinea in 1847 is registered in Sydney, baptised at St James Church Sydney and the family were living at Cook's River (on the Liverpool Road-, now the suburbs of Ashfield and Burwood).
Their second child John Cornelius Guinea was born at Gerringong in 1848, so the Guineas were living at the Berry Estate at Gerringong by then (refer to Chapter 3).
Four more children were born at Gerringong- Ellen 1850, Catherine 1853, Denis 1856 and Elizabeth 1860. By 1862 they were living in the Braidwood area where their last child, daughter Mary Ann’s birth was registered. Daughter Catherine died at Jinden south of Braidwood in 1869 aged just 16.

Map of Gerringong, NSW

Map of Braidwood and Jinden, NSW

Previous to Catherine's marriage to Timothy Guinea, Catherine had a daughter named Mary Carney.

Mary Guinea nee Carney

(courtesy of descendant, Carol Schneider)

No records of Mary's birth/baptism have yet been found, and no marriage between Catherine and a Carney have been found. However, the following newspaper report confirms Mary as the daughter of Catherine. Mary Carney married Daniel Guinea the son of Catherine’s second husband Timothy Guinea (by first wife Ellen Meskill in Limerick, born c. 1832) on 7 October 1858 at Gerringong, NSW.

'Illawarra Mercury' (Wollongong) Mon 18 October 1858 page 3

Daniel Guinea emigrated from Ireland in 1856 when his father paid his £5 fare, arriving in Sydney on 10 October on the ‘Vocaliste’, sponsored by Michael O’Sullivan.
Mary Guinea nee Carney died 8 December 1903 at Upper North Arm, Tweed River, and was buried on 10 December in the RC Cemetery in Murwillumbah, northern NSW.
The Australian Death Index 1787-1985 names Mary's father as Denis Carney.
A Denis Carney died 30 November 1847, aged 3 years, son of Michael and Catherine Carney, is buried in Old Wollongong Catholic Cemetery (V18471394 116/1847). Also, a James Carney, b.1740 Ireland, d.4 Sept 1847 Wollongong, aged 107 years, labourer (V18471388 116/1847). Whether either of these records are relevant is unknown. However, the town of Wollongong was first gazetted in 1834, and by 1856 Wollongong had a population of 864, so one would think that any Carneys living in Wollongong ten years before, must have been closely related.

Timothy Guinea/Guiney was born at Abbeyfeale Limerick c.1810, the son of Cornelius Guiney and Mary Ann Sullivan.

Timothy was given a life sentence and transported for cattle stealing in 1835, arriving in Sydney aboard the ‘Forth’ on 2 February 1835. Apparently one of his father's own cows had strayed and been impounded for which he was required to pay a fee, so Timothy stole it back as a result of which he was arrested, charged and given a life sentence, which seemed excessive for the crime committed. However, family speculation that he may have been involved with the Fenian Brotherhood, a group founded in the US in 1831 by an Irish republican group founded by John Mahony in 1831 and dedicated to the establishment of an independent Irish Republic in the 19^th and early 20^th century,[ii] may have resulted in his banishment. He left behind a young wife, Ellen Meskell and an infant son Daniel.
In the convict muster of 1837, Timothy had been assigned to Mr Western of Liverpool. By 1845 he was at Wollongong where he married Catherine Tobin.

Timothy Guinea was given his Ticket of Leave on 1 May 1847 which required him to remain in the Illawarra area which is where Gerringong is situated, and after eighteen years in the colony was granted a Conditional Pardon on 10 Dec 1853.[iii] Whether Timothy was originally assigned to Alexander Berry to work on clearing his large grant at Gerringong is not known, but the Guineas were living on the Berry estate before he received his Conditional Pardon, possibly after he received his Ticket of Leave. (see Chapter 3 for description of Berry estate)

As the Berry estate was only leasehold land, at some point Timothy and Daniel decided to apply for selections that they could farm freehold. In 1861 Timothy Guinea and his son Daniel Guinea had settled in the Braidwood district, near the Araluen Mountains,- Daniel at a small settlement near Jinden Station on the Cooma Road, and Timothy a few miles further north at Krawarree.

Daniel and Mary Guinea would have thirteen children.

Daniel Guinea’s first child, daughter Catherine was born at Kiama in 1860, but his son Michael’s birth was registered at Braidwood in 1862 as were four other children until 1870; his son John was born at Dalby QLD in 1871 and the remainder of his thirteen children were born in the Tweed area until the last in 1886. Daniel died 17 July 1916 and was buried in Murwillumbah cemetery, now a park.

In 1862, Timothy Guinea was residing at the Big Flat at Krawarree just south of Braidwood. An article on the Queanbeyan Age and General Advertiser, Thurs 14 Aug 1862 p2 has the following information:

ANOTHER CASE OF STICKING_UP

The following case of highway robbery has only just come to our knowledge, but forms another cogent reason for the increase of police in this subdivision. On the afternoon of Friday the 25^th ult., Mr Timothy Guinea, a resident at the Big Flat Krawaree was stuck up between the top of Araluen Mountain and Dranesfield’s steam flour mill, under the following circumstances. It appears that Guinea had been to Moraya (Moruya on the coast) on the precious day, for the purpose of selecting a block of land on the Upper Shoalhaven, and that he put up at Mr Mellon’s, Merricumbene on his way home, on that night. On the Friday morning he started from Mr Mellon’s for the neighbourhood of Jinglemoney, passing through Araluen and up the track known as Hollidge’s on the old mountain road. He was coming from the top of the mountain leading his horse, in the direction and within a mile of Dransfield’s mill, when two men sprang from behind a tree, one armed with a double-barrelled gun, and the other with a large single-barrelled pistol. One of them caught hold of the reins, the other brought Guinea under cover of the double-barrelled gun, and cried “Stand”; a command which was instantly obeyed. Guinea asked what they wanted: to which was replied “Your money”. Guinea said, “If that is all, you can have it and welcome.” They then ordered him to unbutton his clothes and turn out his pockets. Guinea had a digger’s belt round his waist, on seeing which the diggers ordered him to unbuckle it as they wanted “the gold dust”. Guinea complied, remarking that he had never been at a diggings in his life. “Where then, have you been?” said one of his friends. “At Moraya, about a bit of land.” was the reply. At this, one or both of the freebooters remarked, “Then we are too late.” They were not too late, however, to take all the money, five or six shillings in silver, that Guinea had, about a fig and a half of tobacco and one of his stirrup irons and leather, and then they allowed him to go on his way rejoicing. Etc.

Daniel Guinea’s selection was near the Berry farm a few miles from Jinden Station, facing the Jinden Creek, on the opposite bank to Timothy Guinea's selection.

Two of Timothy and Catherine Guinea’s seven children married into the Berry family- their daughter Ellen Guinea (b.1850 Gerringong) married Thomas James Berry on 4 March 1867 at Braidwood NSW, and son John Cornelius Guinea (b.1848 Kiama/Gerringong) married on 15 October 1872 to Ellen Mary Berry at Braidwood. (The family association would continue when John Guinea’s daughter married her cousin Denis Berry, son of Ellen and Thomas). Thomas James Berry and Ellen Mary Berry were children of Thomas Berry Snr and Bridget O’Connell. Bridget O'Connell was sister and aunt to an infamous family of bushrangers- the Connells and the Clarkes. Daniel Guinea, and Timothy and Catherine’s daughter Ellen and her husband Thomas Berry, would get caught up in the activities and murder trials of the infamous bushrangers, Berry’s cousins, Tommy and John Clarke, and their subsequent capture in 1867 at Daniel Guinea’s hut. Their story will be told in the next chapter.

By 1870/71, Timothy and Catherine, and Daniel and Mary Guinea had moved from Braidwood to southern Queensland. Daniel took a selection of 300 acres on the Moola River in the Bunya Bunya Mountains area near Dalby on the Darling Downs, while Timothy took acreage near Nanango on the other side of the Bunya Bunya Mts. Whether they met up with Catherine's sister Ellen and her husband Henry Koch who were residents of Dalby, is unknown. It is possible that they had been in contact with Ellen who had recommended the area to them. The Kochs had moved to Dalby in 1857 and were prominent and quite affluent citizens of the town. Henry Koch purchased 320 acres at nearby Cumkillenbar Reserve (near the Moola River and the road to the Bunya Bunya Mts) and had built a 7 room house which a local journalist described as "the 'beau ideal' of what a prosperous farmer's residence ought to be, Koch having laid out £1,500 on the whole property, and had an income of £250 p.a. from property in Dalby". However, the Kochs left the district for Cooktown in December 1871 as the local water supplies had dried up due to drought and the property was no longer viable. Similarly, Timothy and Daniel also left the district at around the same time, after only a few months, as the land was not as they expected due to poor water supplies, and they followed Catherine’s brother Stephen to Tallebudgera, and by 1873, the Guineas owned land in Tallebudgera, near Stephen Tobin's land (see map of Tallebudgera landholdings in Chapter 4) where the families continued living for several years before Timothy took up land at nearby Gilston at Nerang, which became Advancetown, and Daniel settled in the Tweed River area, where his descendants continue to live today. Timothy's property is now under the waters of the Hinze Dam, but many descendants continue to live in the Nerang/Numinbah Valley area.

Wife Catherine Tobin died in c.1884, and is believed to have been buried on their farm at Advancetown a few miles SW of Nerang in Queensland, in one of three unmarked graves found on the property which were to be flooded by the dam. Timothy died on 16 May 1888 and is buried at Nerang Cemetery. Descendants raised funds for a memorial plaque and lobbied for a local park situated on his former land to be named after the family- The Guinea Family Memorial Park. A bronze plaque commemorating Catherine and the two children buried near her, was embedded in a large sandstone rock and a garden lines a path leading visitors around a Celtic Circle of large sandstone rocks. It is a rather beautiful and fitting memorial to this pioneer family.

The two families are also commemorated in the Tallebudgera area at the Gold Coast by roads named after them- Guineas Creek Road and Tobin Way.

Recommended reading: Dawn C. Hassett has published a book on the Guinea family history, The Guinea Saga: the history of a pioneering family, pub. Camden NSW c.2001, a copy of which is in the National Library of Australia.

Email contact: butler1802 @hotmail.com (no spaces)

[i] SRNSW Bounty Immigrant Ships (online), Reel 2135, [4/4782]

[ii] Information supplied by Guinea descendants and family researchers D. Hassett and K. Guinea, Tobin descendant and family researcher Julie Tobin, and the Pioneer Family Index at the Gerringong Museum and Gerringong Historical Society:

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nswgdhs/pioneers.htm.

[iii] SRNSW; Ticket of Leave [4/4212]; Reel 960, No. 47/412; Recommended Cond. Pardon [4/4480] Reel 798, page 353; Conditional Pardon 10 Dec 1853 [4/4475]; Reel 796, page465-466

[iv] SRNSW; [NRS 849} page 30, item 5, Reel No.2760

14 March 2013

Stephen Tobin- Ch:7- sister Catherine Tobin