Bernard NAUGHTEN c1798-1876

Bernard NAUGHTEN is my ggg-grandfather.

He was born about 1798 in Strokestown, Co Roscommon, Ireland.  He arrived in Sydney, New South Wales on 15 January 1840 with his family as assisted immigrants on the ship Crusader which had departed Dublin / Kingston, Ireland 20 September 1839.

In the early 1850s he was residing in Grafton, New South Wales and moved to Armidale sometime between 1854 and 1856 after the tragic death of his daughter Arabella.

The family has a letter written by Arabella from Sydney on 19 February 1854 to her father in Grafton.  Arabella said that her “Mistress has given up the business and I am going in about one months time to another French lady”.  No further references can be found for Arabella however the family have a printed copy of a poem called Arabella.  The introduction states “Lines written by Henry Kendall on the death of Miss Arabella Naughten lost in the wreck of the Isabella between Sydney and Grafton about the year 1852″.   The date on the letter could be incorrect as someone has “written over” the date but no details have been found on such a shipwreck to-date.

The poem:

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A R A B E L L A

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She sleeps, and I see through a shadowy haze,

Where the hopes of the past and the dreams that we cherished

In the sunlight of brighter and happier days

Like the mist of the morning have faded and perished.

She has gone and will come back to bless us no more;

Her young life died out like a gleam on the river.

And the yearnings and hopes that sustained us of yore

Have fled from our bosoms for ever and ever.

We had thought in this life not to travel alone;

We had hoped for her share in our joys and our sorrows;

But the face of our darling is colder than stone,

And our path will be lonely without her to-morrow.

Beneath the dark billows, away and alone,

Our lost one hath sunk to her slumbers.

O’er her sea-girdled pillow the winter winds moan

In dirge-like and delicate numbers.

We had trusted to live in the light of her smile

When Fortune and Fame with their treasures had crowned us.

But a fate that we reeked not came over our child,

And the thorns of affliction are planted around us,

But her form in our hearts will ever remain.

Our thoughts like angels shall hover about her,

For she left us in sorrow, and darkness and pain,

And what is this world to be left in without her.

                                                                                                HENRY KENDALL

HENRY COURTNEY, PRINTER, RAYMOND TERRACE.

Henry Kendall’s father was a teacher in Grafton – about the same time that the NAUGHTEN family lived there.  It would be lovely to confirm some of the details of the shipwreck.

Bernard and Mary NAUGHTEN moved with the MURRAY family to Armidale where Mary’s HUNT relatives also resided.

Bernard was publican of the Royal Hotel [later the Harp of Erin and the Wicklow] on the corner of Dumaresq and Marsh Streets.  A small street at the rear of the hotel is called Naughten Lane.

Bernard also notoriously became mayor of Armidale on two occasions despite the fact that he supposedly could neither read nor write!

When Sir Henry Parkes, premier of New South Wales, traveled to Armidale by train, Bernard, the then mayor, insisted on being the person to greet him and make a speech welcoming him to Armidale.  He relied on one of his in-laws from the HUNT family or one of his supporters, to stand behind him whispering the speech which Bernard loudly repeated.  A wonderful solution to an otherwise tricky problem!

Bernard died at Bective Station on 17 July 1876.