Patrick J. Keighran

  General Notes:

Jane Ninner notes:
Trial & Conviction of Patrick Keighran
Information taken from the following website:
http://www.leitrimobserver.ie/features/Leitrim39s-link-with-the-infamous.6290417.jp
Leitrim's link with the infamous mutiny on the Marquis Cornwallis
Published Date: 12 May 2010
By Leonie McKiernan
It's a shocking tale of failed mutiny and swift, cruel retribution but few remember the story of convict transport the Marquis Cornwallis and the fate of its pitiful human cargo.
Setting sail from Cork in August 1795 with 163 male and 73 female prisoners on board, the destination of the Marquis Cornwallis was the colony of New South Wales, established only seven years earlier.
Amongst the prisoners were 14 men sentenced in the Assizes (Court) sessions of Co Leitrim between March 1793 and March 1794.
Nine of these; Michael Cregan; James Gannan; Denis Keane; Francis McCabe; Michael McCabe; James Mulligan; Francis Royal; James Whitney and John Whitney, had already spent over two years incarcerated in the doubtless squalid transportation holding cells of Carrick Gaol. In 1794 they were joined by five more men Bernard Farrell; Patrick Keighran; William Mereton; Patrick Reilly and Owen Reynolds.
Although the main records detailing the offences these men committed to warrant transportation were destroyed in a fire in the Public Records Office in the Four Courts in 1922, we know that, for at least three of the prisoners, baker, Bernard Farrell, 37; labourer, Patrick Reilly, 41 and tailor, Patrick Keighran, 27 there are clear links to their involvement in so called 'rebel activities' in Counties Roscommon and Leitrim.
Patrick Reilly and Bernard Farrell, were left with a seven year transportation sentence, but for young Patrick Keighran, whose crime appears to have been 'unlawful assembly', more than likely at one of the rallies of the period, the sentence was life.
These 14 men were moved to the dock to board their ship, the privately owned transport Marquis Cornwallis in early 1795, bound for New South Wales.
Transportation to this new colony had only begun four years previously from Ireland and the master and co-owner of the ship, Irish born, Captain Michael Hogan, was known as a strict disciplinarian. However details of the true horror of life on board the Marquis Cornwallis only came to public light six years ago when the ship's log for 1795/96 came up for auction after years in private ownership.
The log details how the ship left Cork on August 9, 1795 bound for Sydney. Just four weeks later on September 9, as the ship neared the Cape Verde Islands, off the western coast of Africa, Captain Hogan uncovered a mutiny plot involving not only the transportees on board, but at least two of the crew members.
According to the log and records by Captain John Brabyn, who had command of the military guard on board the Marquis Cornwallis, the plot was uncovered after Captain Hogan received a note that two of the prisoners wished to see him. The subsequent interview revealed a plot had been formed by some of the prisoners to take control of the ship and sail it for the Americas. Not only were a large number of the prisoners on board implicated, but so too were at least two crew members, Sgt Ellis and Private Lawrence Gaffney.
According to Brabyn, Sgt Ellis had secreted a number of knives, swords and pistols for use by the muntineers and the plan was to seize Captain Hogan and kill him during one of his weekly inspections of the prison below deck. At the same time Ellis and his fellow conspirators among the soldiers were to attack the officers remaining on deck and serve arms to the convicts as they rushed the deck.
The story from the first two informers was later confirmed by a third convict and Captain Hogan's response was both swift and bloody.
The prisoners, realising their plans had been discovered strangled one of the informers on September 22 and, swarming the fore hatchway, attempted to smash down the barriers and force their way on deck. Captain Hogan and his officers, each armed with a pair of pistols and a sword, took up positions at the prison door, firing into the crowd of prisoners and eventually driving them back to their cell. Although no prisoner was killed outright a number were badly wounded and seven later died.
Forty two of the male convicts were severely flogged for their part in the conspiracy and a further six of the women prisoners were also punished although it is not noted what sentence they received for their involvement in the plot.
Sgt Ellis had his head shaven and was then handcuffed, thumb-screwed and leg bolted to one of his supporters, Private Gaffney, before being transferred to the prison. He died nine days later, still chained to Gaffney, from wounds sustained in the mutiny.
The prisoners gave no further trouble and the Marquis Cornwallis arrived at Port Jackson, Sydney on February 11, 1796. Captain Hogan was forced to remain in Sydney for three months while a magisterial enquiry was held into the mutiny. He was later exonerated of any charges of 'undue harshness' in his response. He later returned to England and onward to Capetown, where he made his fortune as a merchant and, it is reputed, as a slave trader, before moving to the United States and serving as Washington's first consul to the newly independent Chile.
Infamy for two of the Leitrim convicts
Two of the Leitrim convicts will go down in history in particular for their role in the mutiny, or rather, their attempt, to stop it.
Twenty four year old William Mereton, who was sentenced to seven years in the Leitrim Assizes in 1794 and Francis Royal, a 40 year old man sentenced to life just a year before have been identified as two of the informants who spoke with Captain Hogan, warning him of the mutiny plot.
While little is known of the fate of Francis Royal '96 although with at least one of the suspected informers strangled in revenge, this may well have been his fate, William Mereton, at least, made it to Sydney. He is later thought to have left the colony.

What happened to the muntineers?
While information on the fate of the prisoners of the Marquis Cornwallis is difficult to uncover, we can at least shed some light on the lives of some of the Co Leitrim convicts.
Men such as 25-year-old Owen Reynolds, 24-year-old John Whitney; James Mulligan; Michael McCabe and Michael Cregan, have disappeared and their fate is unknown, although, with high mortality rates from disease, hunger and the sheer brutality of the regime in place in the colony in the early years, it is possible they died before finding freedom.
Others, such has as 39 year-old convicted burglar, felon and murderer, Denis Keane left the colony in the early 1800s. Fellow prisoners, Francis McCabe, John Gannan and James Whitney are also recorded as having left the colony, although in James' case, his freedom was short lived. He drowned at the age of 39 while enroute to England from the Americas in 1802.
For the other inmates of Carrick Gaol, the story had a more positive end. Convicted 'Defender', Patrick Reilly, not only survived his seven year sentence, he stayed in Sydney, dying some time after 1810. Fellow 'Defender' Bernard Farrell also remained in Sydney following his seven year sentence, dying in Sydney town in 1820.
But the most comprehensive information surrounds the fate of 27-year-old Patrick Keighran, he went on to marry Limerick convict Catherine Kitts on March 2, 1810 and he had a number of children. He was granted a parcel of land at Airds in New South Wales and made a successful life for himself and his family.

Patrick Keighran
He was transported to NSW in 1793 on a charge of being a Defender (Catholic 'rebel') and for administering an unlawful oath. Transported on vessel Marquis Cornwallis arriving Sydney 1796 The voyage of the Marquis Cornwallis was particularly brutal even by the standards of the time, when thousands of British and Irish prisoners were shipped to Australia as punishment for sometimes very minor crimes. A month after leaving Cork, on the south coast of Ireland, the convicts - described by the then-governor of Australia's New South Wales state as "a desperate set of villains" - rose up in mutiny.
They hatched a plan in conjunction with one of the ship's guards to seize the vessel and take it to the newly independent America. However, the plans were leaked - the informer was later strangled by the enraged conspirators - and Captain Michael Hogan and his officers brutally quelled the rebellion by shooting convicts as they tried to storm the deck.
Retribution was severe. Forty-two of the male convicts were flogged, six females punished in other ways, with eight people killed during the incident. Despite the violence, those being transported - 70 of whom were female - were by no means all hardened criminals.
They included political prisoners from Ireland, then ruled by London, a 12-year-old boy convicted of highway robbery and women sentenced to transportation merely for stealing gloves or sugar. Much of the early part of the log, covering sections of the outward voyage, has been lost, and is assumed to have been used in evidence at a Court of Enquiry held in Sydney when the Marquis Cornwallis arrived. The surviving pages cover events such as the landing of the convicts at Sydney Cove along with cargo such as dried fruit, two large cheeses and spare handcuffs, leg irons and thumb screws, as well as later voyages.
Captain Hogan, after being cleared of wrongdoing by the enquiry, took his ship to India, taking more convicts en route to the even more remote Norfolk Island in the Pacific
A book titled "A Desperate Set of Villains" by B. Hall. The book chronicles the journey of the convict ship "Marquis Cornwallis" in whichPatrick Keighran was transported as a political prisoner in 1795. There is reports of the mutiny and a section in the book (approx 2 pages) specifically about Patrick and what he was doing at the various musters in the early 1800's (including marrige to Catherine Kitts in 1810).
1805Muster: Jonas Archer issued a summons in the Court of Civil Jurisdiction to recover a debt of 3 pounds from Patrickm Keighran.
1806 Muster: He was a prisoner with his ticket-of-leave and self employed.He lived with Catherine Kitt and their three children, two males and one female. Catherine had been tried in Limerick in 1798 and sentenced to transportation for seven years, it appears an appeal was made against her transportation, this was rejected and she arrived on the Minerva in 1800. Did you know that she was a widow with 3 children the youngest born after her arrest, there is no record of the children arriving with her but on the 1814 Muster it was recorded she had six children with her. The children of Paterick and Catherine were (John 1802)
Patrick (1806) Thomas (1810) and Caroline (1816) she died in infancy.
On 22 March Patrick, a tailor and Catherine, a widow, were married by Licence at St Phillips Sydney.
1811 Muster: Catherine Kitt was recorded.
1812 October: The Sydney Gazett named Paterick and others who were permitted to draw cattle
from government on credit. In 1813 he subscribed to the fund to build a courthouse in Sydney.
1814 Muster: Patrick Keighran lived at Liverpool, off stores, a landholder, with Catherine and six children. Samuel Briat, a convict worker, was assigned to Keighran..
1816 March: Catherine Keighran aged 36, and her infant daughter Catherine died and were buried at St Mathews Windsor NSW.. In August Keighran was named as a settler whos land grant was ready for delivery. In January 1818 this grant had been located and marked out and the papers were ready for collection.
!818 June: It was announced in the Sydney Gazett that in connection with a Supreme Court order, the Proost Marshall would sell Keighran's farm by auction on 10 july. the property consisting of a dwelling and 105 acres, 30 of which were cleared, was situated in the district of Airds, bounded by O'Brien's, Thompson's and lilley farms, and on the east side by the new Airds Road.
1819: On April 14 Paterick Keighran died aged 50. His burial was registered at St Phillips
Sydney.
1820: On 31 May John Keighran submitted a Memorial to the Governor requesting a land grant.
He stated that he was 18 years old, and the son of the late Paterick and Catherine, settlers of Airds. His father had been in debt and to discharge the debt was obliged to sell his farm, which took such an effect on his health that it brought on his death. John and the other children were now under the protection of Mrs Byrne. the Memorial was indorsed by Robert Cartwright who wrote that John Keighran was a native youth of the Colony and of industrious habits and dispostion. He was granted 60 acres.
The 1822 muster noted both Patrick and John Keithwin (sic) as labourers of Liverpool. Thomas about 12 years old, was possibly at the Orphan School, as he was not listed in the Muster.
The Census of 1828 recorded John, Patrick and Thomas Keighran.
Patrick Keighran was tried at the Assizes at Carrick-on- Shannon, County Leitrim, 2 August1795 charged with being a Defender and administering unlawful oaths and was sentenced tolife.
The ship Marquis Cornwallis

  Noted events in his life were:

• connection. Russell & Helena Jennings connection to Les is as follows:

Helena married Russell Jennings
His father was Donald Jennings
His father was Richard Jennings (1904)
His father was Andrew Jennings (1881) who married Edith Wisbey (1881)
Her father was Alfred Wisbey (1858) & he also had David Wisbey (1883)
He had Cyril Wisbey (1910) who married Thelma Keighran (1920)
Her father was James Claude Keighran (1882)
His father was James Keighran (1855)
His father was Patrick Keighran (1804)
His father was Patrick Keighran (1764) & he also had James Keighran (1808)
He had John Keighran (1845)
He had Joseph Keighran (1879)
He had Leslie Keighran (1904)
He had Mary Keighran (1927) who married Mervyn Collins (1924)
They had Les Collins (1950) who married me - Robyn Bray (nee Davies) (1950)

• Occupation. tailor

• emigrated. Arrived as a convict on the Marquis of Cornwallis in 1796. He was convicted at Lietrim, Ireland in March 1794. Sentenced to Transportation for Life to Botany Bay for "unlawful assembly" and arrived in the colony in 1796 on the Marquis Cornwallis . L. Sailed from Cork on 9 Aug 1795 and arrived in Sydney on 11 Feb 1796.

The Marquis of Cornwallis was a 654 ton ship built in India in 1789. 163 male and 70 female convicts embared in August 1795. 11 male convicts died en-route, 7 as the result of a mutiny being put down. The ship's master was Michael Hogan and the surgeon Matthew Austin.

• connection. Gerri Nicholas 's links to me are as follows:
Gerri Nicholas . . .
Is linked to . . .
David Scurrah (1862) who married Alice Keighran (1864)
Her father was John Austin Keighran (1826)
His father was John Keighran (1802)
His father was Patrick Keighran (1764) & he also had James Keighran (1808)
He had John Keighran (1845)
He had Joseph Keighran (1879)
He had Leslie Keighran (1904)
He had Mary Keighran (1927) who married Mervyn Collins (1924)
They had Les Collins (1950) who married me - Robyn Bray (nee Davies) (1950)

• Trial: Assizes, 2 Aug 1795, Carrick-On-Shannon, County Leitrim, Ireland. Tried and convicted of being a Defender and administering unlawful oaths. Sentenced to Transportation for Life.

Patrick married Catherine Kitts (or may be Conway) on 22 Mar 1810 in St Philips C of E, York St, Sydney, NSW Australia. (Catherine Kitts (or may be Conway) was born in 1774 in Limerick, Ireland UK, christened on 14 Oct 1780 in St Marys, Kilkenny City, Kilkenny Ireland,¹⁷ died on 21 Mar 1816 in Windsor, NSW Australia and was buried on 22 Mar 1816 in St Philips C of E, York St, Sydney, NSW Australia.)