John Keighran

  General Notes:

Buried in Section 1K of the Catholic Section, Keilor Cemetery.

Bluff Hotel, near Nymagee, Cobar Road

John Keighran - Publican Bluff Hotel 1884 -1890.
John was the grandson of two convicts Patrick Keighran and Catherine Kitts, early settlers in the Campbelltown district to the south west of Sydney. Born in 1838 in the Picton area, John was the fifth of 16 children of Patrick Keighran and Judith Bent. In 1869 John, a stock rider of Melbourne, married Maria Brislan in Melbourne. Five years later they were in Broadmeadow for the birth of their first registered child Margaret Therese.

[ John was the Stock Inspector in the Hay area in 1875. (Article from Riverine Grazier, 4th Aug, 1875, NSW-West.) - Rusheen]. In 1876 they were at Mucklebah near Booligal in NSW where their next child was born. They were moving closer to Nymagee for the birth of John Henry at Gilgunnia in 1879. By April of that year the family was in Nymagee. In October 1880 Sylvester Byrne, the son of the Irish rebel Hugh Byrne, died in Nymagee and John and Thomas buried him and provided information for the death certificate.

John and Maria were at The Bluffs when Maria gave birth to a daughter in April 1881 and lost an infant son in 1883. Throughout this time John is recorded as a farmer and selector. From 1884 John was the licensee of the Bluff Hotel at The Bluff near the village of Nymagee. As well as being a publican John also farmed and in 1887 he owned 40 herefords, 2 draught horses and 3 saddle horses. Following the Public Watering Places Act of 1884, a water tank for the use of campers and travelling stock was established beside the road at Nymagee and named Keighran's Tank after John.

By 1890 John was suffering from a malignant tumour on his face and had to give up the hotel license. He died in Nymagee leaving Maria his estate of £365. Daughter Margaret Therese married William Gardner in Broken Hill in 1895. Maria stayed in Nymagee until at least 1901 where she was running a restaurant.
(Cust, Janelle. The Family of Judith Bent and Patrick Keighran. Unpublished.)

AUS-NSW-WEST Mailing List
Notes on Individual Hotels A-C

This page contains notes, in alphabetical order, on a number of Hotels that appear in the
Hotels Publicans Licences A-C

This Page is the work of Rusheen Craig

  Noted events in his life were:

• Occupation: Fisherman.

John married Maria Brislin in 1869 in Victoria Australia. (Maria Brislin was born in 1843 in Milltown, Roscommon, Mayo, Leitrim County, Ireland UK, died on 26 Jun 1915 in Essendon, Melbourne, Victoria Australia and was buried on 29 Jun 1915 in Melbourne General Cemetery, Carlton, Victoria Australia.)