St Mary Magdalene, Woolwich, in 1845, around the time Mary's eldest child was baptised there.

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Birth:

26 September 1817, Kells, Co. Meath, Ireland^[1]

Father:

William Wilson

Mother:

Margaret

Death:

February 20, 1864 at Rawbelle, near Monto Qld, of dropsy^[2]

Burial:

Old Rawbelle Station^[3]

Marriage:

1. William Sexton (1844, County Meath, Ireland)^[4]

Children:

(Margaret) Mary Sexton (1845 - 1930)^[5] ,

William Sexton (1847-1917)^[6]

Sarah Sexton (1851-1902)^[7]

Joseph Sexton (1853-1936)

Marriage:

2. Francis Burns -unconfirmed - probably de facto^[8]

Children:

James Byrnes ^[9] [born SEXTON] (1857-1932) married Grace Pobar, 1882, Toowoomba

The town of Kells, in County Meath in Ireland is known to both tourists and scholars as the home of the Abbey of Kells from which the Book of Kells takes its name. However, the legendary document had long gone from Kells (to Trinity University in Dublin) by the time our Mary was born, the second of two daughters, in the village to William and Margaret Wilson.

After her baptism in the local Church of Ireland church,  Mary next came to official notice with a licence for her to marry. Presumably a licence, instead of the more conventional (and cheaper) banns was necessary because the bans would have required a longer delay for the wedding.

Mary's husband was an English soldier, William Sexton. After many years in England's American colonies (the West Indies and the territory which was to become Canada), William's regiment had come back to be based in Ireland from 1843-45. The only official record of their marriage is in the Marriage Licence Bonds, for the Church of Ireland (Anglican) Diocese of Meath, in 1844 (no date or any further information is given). At that time, Mary was 27, with William some years her senior.

Mary first appears in our official Australian records in September, 1845 when she gave birth to a daughter on the Pestonjee Bomangee, a convict ship contracted by the British Government to transport convicts to Van Dieman’s Land.  The vessel which took them to the southern hemisphere was a 10 year old a three-masted wooden barque of just under 600 tons. It was built for East India service, and undertook a number of journeys between the United Kingdom and the Australian colonies, in later years being used for the transportation of convicts.

William, an Army private, was part of the Pestonjee Bomangee's Army escort made up of a Captain of the 65th Regiment of Foot, a lieutenant, four non-commissioned officers and 41 rank-and-file of the 65th. Also on board were six woman (including Mary) and six children - and another soldier, Private Francis Burns, destined to be Mary’s second partner.

Before the ship had even set sail, Mary gave birth to their first child, a girl, Mary Margaret (the child's name is sometimes reversed even on official documents). The journal of the ship's surgeon makes interesting reading, with his comments on the extreme weather conditions at the start of its voyage, and on the health of the convicts. Mary herself on at least two occasions after the birth of her baby, was admitted to sick bay, suffering "obstipatis", possibly a post-natal complication. After three days treatment, Mary was deemed "cured" by the Surgeon.

below: an extract from the ship's surgeon's journal referring to Mary's illness after giving birth to her first child:

After the ship arrived in Hobart, the ship's master registered the birth. However, the child had previously been baptised in Woolwich, before the vessel had lifted anchor and headed south to start the journey. The Woolwich baptism register recorded her name as "Margaret"^[10], while the Tasmanian paperwork renamed her as "Mary".

The regiment, and the Sexton family, returned to Sydney from Hobart before sailing on to Wellington, New Zealand later in 1846.

Mary's second child, a son William, was born in Wellington in 1847, followed by Sarah in 1851, Joseph in 1853, and James in 1857. This youngest child was most likely the child who became known as James Byrnes, taking the name of Mary’s second partner, Francis Burns.

Mary and Francis weren’t legally married (Mary’s first husband died in New Zealand in 1865 after Mary's own death) – and although Mary’s death certificate gives ‘Sydney’ as the place of marriage to Francis, no marriage registration has been found so far. It’s probable Mary and Francis deemed it advisable to leave New Zealand for Queensland soon after the birth of young James in 1857.

In the early 1860s, Mary and Francis, along with her children, lived and worked on the property Rawbelle, in the Monto/Gayndah district of Queensland, where Francis was employed as a shepherd. Mary, a housekeeper at Rawbelle, died at the young age of 46, soon after the family made the move from New Zealand to the much harsher country of the sheep property.

Her death certificate, which spells her surname as BURNS, gives her husband's name as Francis Burns. It says Mary was born in Ireland, of unknown parents, and had five children living. She died of dropsy (an ailment of the kidneys), from which she had suffered for six months before her death at Rawbelle. She was buried in an unmarked grave in a little cemetery beside the banks of the Nogo River.

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[1] Church of Ireland baptism records, Irish Family History Foundation

[2] detail from Death certificate of Mary Burns, 1864 (Queensland Registrar of Births, Deaths & marriages)

[3] as above

[4] Notes from Surgeon’s Report on Pestonjee Bomangee ( Tasmanian Archives, Admin 101/59 reel 3206) refers to Mary as the wife of Pte Sexton; and Qld death certificate of Mary’s son James Byrnes, 1932

[5] Surgeon’s Report as above.

[6] William Sexton’s Queensland death certificate, 1917.

[7] Birth certificate of Sarah Sexton, 1851, New Zealand.

[8] Mary’s death certificate, as above.

[9] Marriage certificate of James Byrnes and Grace Pobar, 1882 (Queensland BDM) and James’ death certificate 1932 (Queensland BDM)

[10] for this information on the birth of Mary's first child, I'm indebted to family history researcher, Margaret Pope, The baptism can be found in the1845 baptismal records of the Parish of Woolwich, page 199.

[11] Souvenir of the Centenary of the Central and Upper Burnett River district of Queensland, 1848-1948, page 21