John MURRAY c1826-1877

John MURRAY is my gg-grandfather.

He was born about 1826 in Bumlin / Strokestown, Co Roscommon, Ireland.

On 23 Feb 1847, aged 20, John was tried in County Longford for malicious assault and imprisoned at Richmond.  He was sentenced to 7 years transportation and sailed on the ship ‘Havering’ in 1849.  He departed Dublin 4 August 1849 and arrived in New South Wales 8 November 1849.

Various petitions from 1847-1849 were unsuccessful in John staying in Ireland and he was transported as a Probation Convict.  These were convicts who had already served part of their sentence and had been found to be worthy of reclamation.  These probationers on arrival walked off the ships with a parole in their hand.  This parole was in the form of a ticket-of-leave and in some rare cases a conditional pardon.

In John’s case he was granted a Ticket of Leave which allowed him to remain in the District of Port Macquarie.  On 29 October 1852 John was in Grafton where he married Margaret NAUGHTEN, daughter of Bernard and Mary (nee HUNT) NAUGHTEN.  At the time John was still on his Ticket of Leave as they were married by banns “with the consent of the governor.

On 30 September 1856 John was granted land in South Grafton – part of Allotment 1, Section 7.  A small cottage typical of the period is on this allotment – whether it existed when John was there is unknown at this stage.  The image shows the cottage in the top section and the aerial view in the lower section.

Margaret NAUGHTEN’s family were also in South Grafton at this time as this image shows both the NAUGHTEN land and the MURRAY land on the parish plan.

Both the NAUGHTEN and the MURRAY families later moved to Armidale where John’s father-in-law was publican of the Royal Hotel on there corner of Dumaresq and Marsh Streets.  John then became the publican when it was known as the Harp of Erin Hotel.  It was later called the Wicklow Hotel and was also known as the Pink Pub.