Mary Ann McCooey

Widow

Mary Ann Shannon was born in 1842 in Hinton NSW (near Morpeth), the daughter of Martin Ambrose Shannon born in County Cork, Ireland in 1804 and Catherine Kelleher born 1815 also in County Cork, Ireland. Martin was a convict convicted of pig stealing and transported in 1830 on the ‘Hercules’ for 7 years. On his Certificate of Freedom on 6 November 1839, he was described as 28 years old, literate, 5 foot 8 inches tall with ruddy dark complexion, dark hazel eyes and black to gray hair. He was a grocer by trade, spirit dealer and butcher. Martin married to Mary Ann Furlong in Ireland in 1825 and it is believed they had nine children.

Catherine Kelleher (alias Murphy) was a kitchenmaid and needlewoman from Cork who was convicted of stealing clothes and transported for 7 years . Her description was a ruddy, fair complexion with light brown hair and bluish grey eyes.She was transported on the ship the ‘Hooghley’ in 1831.

There is no record of the marriage of Martin and Catherine but there is a record for four children:

1. Thomas Stephen b 1838
2. John b 1840
3. Mary Ann b 1842
4. Julia b 1844
5. Patrick b 1847

Mary Ann and John William Graham are recorded as having four children:

1. Thomas Arthur b 1865 (no bdm record) d 1931
2. Margaret E b 1869 d 1869
3. Martin b 1875 d 1875
4. Ernest Williams b 1877 d 1877

As can be seen the only surviving child of Mary Ann Shannon and John Graham is Thomas Arthur Graham.

There was also a William John Graham who was the eldest son of Sarah Jane and Edward Graham of Ocean View Boarding House in Yamba. However there is no link between him and Mary Ann Shannon.

Mary Ann Shannon & John McCooey

On 27 December 1882, Mary Ann Shannon a widow, born in the Hunter River NSW aged 37 years, married John McCooey who was born in Ravenswood, a Sawyer of Foveaux Street, Surry Hills and aged 29 years. Mary Ann stated her parents were William Jones, ‘Farmer’ and Catherine Kelleher. James McCooey stated his parents were James McCooey, a ‘Stockkeeper’ and Johanna Lovell. They were married in the Registrar General’s Office, Elizabeth Street, Sydney. It does seem unusual that on this record Mary Ann used her maiden name and stated William Jones as her father.

Given Mary Ann later returned to Ulmarra it would seem unusual for her to have not been a widow when she remarried without drawing attention to herself as she would have been well known in the district. Mary Ann and John McCooey were not married in the Catholic Church nor is there any record of any children for them.

John’s father was James McCooey and his mother was Johanna Lovett, John was the second son of three:

1. James Joseph 1849 – 1922
2. John 1853 – 1905
3. Thomas 1853 – 1856

On 8 November 1858 James Joseph McCooey remarried and had ten more children with his second wife, Emma Jane Wilkinson.

1. Henry 1859 – 1930
2. Thomas Henry 1861 – 1933
3. Sarah Ann 1862 – 1936
4. Ester Jane 1864 – 1865
5. Alice 1866 – 1867
6. Lucy Elizabeth Mary 1867 – 1936
7. Johanna Catherine 1869 – 1923
8. Emma Jane 1872 – 1933
9. Rosanna (sic) – Rose Hannah 1877 – 1956
10. Alice Cross 1879 – 1954

James worked at Ramornie Station outside Grafton, but on 25 March 1896 a terrible accident occurred resulting in his death. His wife Emma died on 28 June 1908 at her daughter Johanna Winter’s house in Sydney.

In February 1905 John McCooey who was working as Carter with a bullock team, the following is an account presented at his inquest: ‘McCooey and his mate, Carter [a brother in law], were conveying some furniture for D. McLennan to Myrtle Creek, and prior to leaving Ulmarra both men slept under the waggon. The first night they could obtain but little rest by reason of the fleas, and on the second night could not sleep at all. On reaching a point on the Casino road 10 miles from Lawrence, McCooey was taken seriously ill, and Carter sent word to Senior-Constable Selff, who went out at 2 a.m. on Friday, McCooey was then so weak that he could not sit up in a vehicle, and it was believed by those in his company that he had plague, as he came from a plague infected area. He was conveyed to Lawrence, thence to South Grafton, and was attended by Dr. Henry, who could not, on the symptoms then present-ing themselves, be satisfied, that the case was plague. He intended to again visit McCooey, who, however, succumbed before the doctor again visited him. Dr. Smith, who was present at the post mortem, described the condition of the body internally, and said that Dr. Millard pronounced it a true case of plague. The Coroner found that death was due to plague.’¹

Mary Ann was not with John at the time, she had stayed in Sydney ; ‘Quite recently McCooey returned to the Clarence, but his wife, being afraid of the plague, refused to come.’ ²

Some time after the death of John, Mary Ann McCooey returned to the Clarence River. Mary Ann’s mother Emma Jones who lived in Rozelle in Sydney, had died in June 1908 and her brother William Jones had died in 1907 on Harwood Island.

Mary Ann’s eldest brother Thomas Stephen Shannon was an influential member of the Ulmarra Community and his obituary gives some insight into the family in the Clarence area.

Mary Ann’s eldest and only surviving son Thomas Arthur Graham, had married twice and had several children.

The eldest daughter of Thomas Arthur Graham was Eleanor Catherine who is the one of most importance in relation to her grandmother Mary Ann later life and care.

Cottage at 3 River Street, Yamba

On the 28th June 1915 the transfer of the cottage and land at 3 River Street Yamba transferred from George Lacey to Mary Ann McCooey of Yamba, Widow.³ This statement on the Certificate of Title paperwork seems to indicate that Mary Ann was already living in Yamba when she purchased the property.

Of importance to the later owner Marie Jane Perkins nee Gray’s story of the cottages history is the family story that has been passed down that the cottage was used by the Sisters of Mercy Nun’s who had a convent, chapel and school on the hill up the top of Coldstream Street, Yamba. The Convent was known as the ‘Star of the Sea’. The links of Mary Ann McCooey to both the Catholic Church and the convent can be seen in her first marriage within the Catholic Presbytery and by the marriage of her daughter in the Roman Catholic Chapel in the Convent at Yamba. The name McCooey and Mrs McCooey can also be seen in records of donations to the convent fete in 1920.⁴ A later owner of the property John Murphy and his family were also a strong supporters of the Catholic Church and Convent in Yamba and surrounding areas. Contact with the Institute of Sisters of Mercy of Australia and Papua New Guinea (ISMAPNG) Archives and Heritage indicated that: ‘Unfortunately, the records we do hold start at a later date – 1970’s onwards – with no mention in account books or diaries of retreat homes at River Street.’ ⁵

In the 1960’s or 1970’s whilst work on the cottage to restump the footings was being carried out, Lorna Foulcher nee Perkins the daughter of Marie discovered a set of Rosary Beads was found on the ground below the floorboards, it seems they must have at some stage fallen down through a gap in the boards indicating that someone with Catholic connections had been in the house and lost them. It is possible these belonged to Mary Ann McCooey.

In 1924, five years before her death, Mary Ann McCooey little cottage was again sold. Mary Ann owned the cottage for nine years and it is likely she lived in it for that time.

The images below is an edited version of a photograph was taken by Osric Notley between 1912 and 1921. The original allotment and the three houses built by James Ryall can be clearly seen on the far left of the image. The circle shows the three buildings and the arrow is pointing to the cottage at 3 River Street and show the roof at the back where the kitchen was later located as noted in the 1908 advertisement for George Lacey.

Another more obscure link of the Perkins family to the cottage in River Street comes from the extended family of Mary Ann McCooey. Mary Ann’s second husband John McCooey had a sister named Sarah Ann. Her first husband was James Carter at whose house John McCooey had died of plague in 1905. James Carter died in 1916 and in 1917 Sara Ann remarried a Charles Henry Ayres. Charles Henry’s uncle was Robert Henry Ayres who in 1882 became the second husband of Jane Perkins nee Pintox. Jane was the mother of James Perkins and grandmother of Walter Arthur Perkins mentioned previously as the husband of Annie Elizabeth May Russell – Perkins nee Schaumann. Annie May was the mother of Herbert George Perkins who married Marie Jane Gray who became a later owner of the cottage at 3 River Street.

Thomas Flitcroft & Robert

References

1. _{Clarence and Richmond Examiner (Grafton, NSW : 1889 – 1915), Saturday 4 February 1905 – Page 2}
2. _{Byron Bay Record (NSW : 1902 – 1924), Saturday 4 February 1905, page 8}
3. _{Certificate of Title Volume 1932 Folio 197 New South Wales Land Registry Services (NSW LRS)} 
4. _{Daily Examiner (Grafton, NSW : 1915 – 1954), Monday 27 December 1920, page 2}
5. _{Email from ismapngarchives@ismapng.org.au dated 9 April 2021}