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Jane Williams (1775-1838) |
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PART 2: ANCESTORS’ CHARTS (parents of Joan Gaffey): INDIVIDUAL SUMMARIES |
Line of Descent to Joan Gaffey
Jane Williams
(Great-great-great grandmother) |
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Birth | 1775[1] | ||
Conviction | January 12, 1801, Bristol, England | ||
Sentence | 7 years | ||
Transported | December 1801, on Nile | ||
Death | 1838 at Windsor[2] | ||
Burial | Dec. 3, 1838, Catholic Cemetery, Windsor, NSW[3] | ||
Marriage |
John PENDERGAST
(1802/1803, Parramatta, NSW[4]
(no documentation) |
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Children |
James PENDERGAST
(1803–1865),
m.
Sophia Hancy, 1828, Parramatta)
Thomas PENDERGAST
(1805-1862)
Sarah PENDERGAST (1806-1873)
William PENDERGAST (1808-1850) Bridget PENDERGAST (1810-1885) |
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Twenty six-year-old Jane was tried and convicted in
Bristol, England on January 12, 1801 on charges of theft.
According to the evidence, she had stolen an item of clothing
from a Mrs. Griffith and was then sentenced to 7 years transportation, a
common penalty for this type of offence. Jane was held in Newgate Gaol, Bristol while awaiting
transportation on the
Nile[6]
. The Nile was a small ship of 322 tons, carrying only 96 female
convicts, all of whom survived the voyage, a rare occurrence so early in
the convict era. The Nile sailed in convoy with Canada
and Minorca via Rio de Janeiro
and arrived in Sydney on December 1801[7].
Coincidentally, travelling on the Minorca,
but as free settlers, was the Hancy family, whose unborn daughters Sophia
and Elizabeth were destined to marry sons yet to be born to
Jane. Jane was assigned as housekeeper to John Pendergast, another former convict settled in the Windsor area, and as nurse to his infant son John. According to Jane's biographer Veronica C E O'Brien Sitton, young John's mother appears to have died in childbirth or soon thereafter. No trace has been found of a marriage ceremony for Jane and John, but since they were both Catholics, and Catholic priests were forbidden to operate in the Colony, they may well have gone without official recognition. Jane and John had five children, three boys and two girls. |
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Jane’s husband was acknowledged as a good businessman,
and accumulated considerable property in the Windsor-Hawkesbury area.
However, in one area, John’s business management fell down – he
failed to make a will, and after he died in 1833 in Cornwallis, his sons
had to agree on a method of administration of the estate, which resulted
in his fourth son William taking over. Jane outlived her husband by only five years, and was
buried in the Pendergast family vault in the old Catholic cemetery at
Windsor along with her husband John[8].
The Pendergast Family vault (containing the remains of 19 members of the family), in the old Catholic cemetery at Windsor
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[1]
Michelle Nichols (ed.) Hawkesbury Pioneer Register, Hawkesbury Family
History Group.
[3]
As above [4] As above
[5]
Pioneer Register 2nd Ed. Vol. 2, compiled and edited by Dr C J Smee
[6]
Veronica C E O'Brien Sitton, Jane Williams Pendergast 1775/6-1838 -
an unpublished monograph submitted for
the Australian Biographical and Genealogical Record (ABGR). Held at the
Hawkesbury Public Library; Veronica C E O'Brien Sitton, Oregon U S A 1984 [7] Convict Indent, NSW Archives [8] Veronica O'Brien-Sitton, as above
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