A tale of three sheep

This is the story of my great-great-great grandfather, Thomas Hannigan.

We first meet Thomas at the Old Bailey in London on February 14th, 1800. He and another man, Richard Coleman, are being tried before a judge and jury, accused of stealing 3 ewe sheep, valued at three pounds, from the holding pens at Smithfield Market.

Several witnesses testified that Hannigan and Coleman had been found in possession of said sheep, at around 3 am. The sheep were part of a flock delivered to the market at 10 pm, for sale on the following morning.

Smithfield Market, London

Smithfield Market was then on the outskirts of London, and had been a market for hundreds of years. At that time London had a population of around 1 million people, and horses, cattle, sheep and pigs were sold here to meet the needs of the population. In Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens described it thus:

"It was market-morning. The ground was covered, nearly ankle-deep, with filth and mire; a thick steam, perpetually rising from the reeking bodies of the cattle, and mingling with the fog, which seemed to rest upon the chimney-tops, hung heavily above. All the pens in the centre of the large area, and as many temporary pens as could be crowded into the vacant space, were filled with sheep; tied up to posts by the gutter side were long lines of beasts and oxen, three or four deep. Countrymen, butchers, drovers, hawkers, boys, thieves, idlers, and vagabonds of every low grade, were mingled together in a mass; the whistling of drovers, the barking dogs, the bellowing and plunging of the oxen, the bleating of sheep, the grunting and squeaking of pigs, the cries of hawkers, the shouts, oaths, and quarrelling on all sides; the ringing of bells and roar of voices, that issued from every public-house; the crowding, pushing, driving, beating, whooping and yelling; the hideous and discordant dim that resounded from every corner of the market; and the unwashed, unshaven, squalid, and dirty figures constantly running to and fro, and bursting in and out of the throng; rendered it a stunning and bewildering scene, which quite confounded the senses."

Doubtless the scene was quieter at 3 am, and the two accused had hoped to drive their booty home undetected. But the clatter of hooves on cobblestones alerted a watchman, and the lads – and the sheep – were taken to a local watch house.

 The prisoner Hannigan called five witnesses, who gave him a good character. In his defence, Hannigan stated “I saw these three sheep straying down Chick Lane, and I went after them, but having but one leg, I could not get before them before the watchman laid hold of me; I told him I was going to take them back to the market.”

Hannigan and Coleman were both found guilty and sentenced to death, but the Jury recommended the prisoners to His Majesty’s mercy, on account of their youth. Thomas Hannigan was 24, Richard Coleman was 20.

His Majesty must have been merciful, for neither was hanged, their sentences instead commuted to transportation for life.

Sydney in 1802

On November 18^th, 1800, they left England on the ship “Earl Cornwallis,” bound for Australia. Thomas Hannigan arrived at Port Jackson on June 12^th, 1801 – the first of my ancestors to arrive in Australia.

It seems almost certain that Thomas Hannigan was Irish-born, so what was he doing in London? The answer may lie in a major event in Irish history – the Rebellion of 1798. Long in the making, this uprising against British rule cost many lives, and anyone who was involved, and escaped execution afterwards, may have found it prudent to seek the anonymity of London’s sprawling tenements. Perhaps Thomas had been injured in the uprising (which would explain his claim of “having but one leg.”)

One can only speculate – did he have a wooden leg? Surely he couldn’t have been sheep-stealing on crutches? Interestingly, there is no further mention of a missing leg in his convict records. The records tell us he was a small man, at just 5’2”, and he could neither read nor write. He gave his religion as Roman Catholic.

On arrival in the colony, convicts were either set to work for the Government, constructing roads and buildings, or assigned to civilian employers. It seems likely that Thomas was among the latter, for he next moved to Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) sometime before 1820. He travelled on the “Francis”, which was not a convict ship, so he was presumably part of a private settlement party. He lived at Port Dalrymple, at the mouth of the Tamar river to the north of Launceston, and married an Irish convict woman, Bridget Brown. Edited to add: later information about his arrival in this post

Bridget Brown (also known as Wilson) had been convicted in Dublin in November 1817 to 7 years transportation for stealing apparel. She arrived in Sydney in 1817, and was then aged 24.  Immediately transferred to Launceston on the “Elizabeth Henrietta”, she arrived there on August 27^th, 1817.

The 1820 and 1821 musters show her as the wife of Thomas Hannigan, of Port Dalrymple (the early name for Launceston)

Bridget came to the attention of the courts on several occasions, usually for being drunk and disorderly. Unlike many convict women, she was never severely punished, being merely fined, or “bound over to keep the peace” – though in 1830 she was in a bit more trouble:  “November 15^th, 1830. Using threatening language to Mary Beard and gross language before the magistrates. To sit in the stocks 4 hours and find sureties to keep the peace.” She must have had a mouth on her, our Bridget!

Nothing further is known of Thomas until 1837, when he was charged with receiving stolen goods and sentenced to 14 years in Port Arthur. Thomas was then around 60 years of age, and presumably died in Port Arthur.

After Thomas’s incarceration, Bridget did not fare very well.

According to the Cornwall Chronicle, October 31^st, 1840: “Another inquest was held on Monday, at Mr. Nevill’s, White Hart, Elizabeth Street, upon the body of Bridget Hannigan. It came out in evidence, that deceased was of very intemperate habits, and resided with a man named Thomas Henshaw, upon Mr. Lawrence’s sheep run, about five miles from Launceston. On Thursday evening she was taken unwell; on Friday she became worse, and took an emetic, which operated powerfully; on Saturday, about one p.m., as she was gradually sinking, Henshaw went for a Mrs. Smith to attend her, and then made the best of his way to Launceston for a doctor; Mrs. Smith, on her arrival, gave deceased some gruel, and then some tea, upon which she almost instantly expired, in which state she was found by Dr. Grant upon his arrival. On a post mortem examination taking place, Dr. G. gave it as his opinion that deceased had come to her death from inflammation of the lungs. Verdict – Died from the visitation of God, from natural causes.”

Thomas and Bridget had at least five children, but only three survived. Their daughter Mary was tried at the same time as her father, for stealing a pair of trousers and some money, the property of Wm. King. She was sentenced to 7 years. Court records show that Mary had 1 brother and 1 sister, plus her mother, living in Launceston. Nothing further has so far been discovered of Thomas and Bridget’s two daughters, but we know quite a lot about their son, Thomas Hannigan junior.

More of this story soon...

I am indebted to Brian Sullivan, another descendant of Thomas and Bridget, for his research into the family, and for sharing the information with me.