O'HARA, Mary ¹

   Other names for Mary were O'HARE, QUIGLEY, Mary and QUIGLY, , Mrs.

  General Notes:

Mary O'Hara was the wife of Patrick, also know as Peter, Quigley, an Irish born publican. Both were tried at the Glasgow Court of Justiciary in 1816 for theft and reset and sentenced to be transported to Australia for fourteen years.

In her first statement on 3 February 1816 Mary declared she was 32 years old, and lied that she had been married to Patrick Quigley for 13 years. She denied all knowledge of the stolen clothes and household goods she was alleged to have received. and several of the people connected to the crimes. Mary was unable to write, and the magistrate, Robert Jamieson, subscribed before witnesses each page of her statement.

Mrs Quigly admitted in her second statement on 7 February 1816 that she had lied in some parts of her first statement.
"Declared that some parts of it are true, but there are a number of falsehoods in it, and it is now her intention to tell the truth."
She admitted that she had in fact been married to Patrick or Peter Quigly for only two years, and that it was thirteen years since she had been married to her first husband, now deceased. Some of her lies concerned her acquaintance with the young thieves from who Mary and Peter were accused of receiving stolen goods.

Mary Quigly sailed to Australia aboard the convict ship Lord Melville leaving Britain on 13 September 1816 and arriving 24 February 1817 in New South Wales. In 1819 Mary O'Hara was recorded as living off the stores and employed by Mr Gore. In May 1821 Peter Quigly made it known through newspapers that he would no longer responsible for debts in his wife's name as she had deserted her family. In September that year Mary O'Hara alias Quigley absconded from Sydney and supposed to living about the Devil's Back. In 1822 Mary was a servant to William Browne. A petition for mitigation of sentence was made. Then in 1828 the census of that year recorded Mary O'Hara, aged 45 years, was housekeeper to Peter Quigley who also was about 45 years old. Peter was recorded as a shopkeeper in Market Street, Sydney, and the owner of three horses; Peter was a Catholic and Mary was Protestant.

After 1828 when Mary becomes housekeeper to Peter Quigley, no official notice is found of her, although she is still within the period of her sentence. Mary O'Hara or Quigly seems to have become ill in 1828 or 1829. In March 1829 Peter Quigley's three children, James, Ann and Jane Quigley, arrive in the colony as free passengers aboard the vessel City of Edinburgh Then on 2 and 4 May 1829 The Sydney Monitor announces "death of wife of Mr Peter Quigley, an industrious shopkeeper". ²

  Research Notes:

PERMISSION TO MARRY

At the end of November 1821 a request for permission to marry James Morris was made at Liverpool, NSW, by a Mary O'Hara and the vessel Lord Melville is noted. It is unclear whether this was a slip of the pen since the Mary O'Hara of that vessel was already married, and there were others by the same name in the colony. Nevertheless it came at the end of a year of some strife between Peter Quigly and Mary and may be connected to that.

MOTHER OF PETER'S THREE CHILDREN

There are no birth documents showing that Mary O'Hara was the mother of Peter Quigly's three children. Indeed in their police statements in 1816 they give the magistrate to understand they have no family. Unfortunately, because each lied in at least the first of the statements made, we cannot be certain when they are lying and when the truth is being told. It might very well have been to protect the children, other members of their families, or indeed themselves, that they made such a statement.

Mary O'Hara is considered here as the children's mother because of the sequence of events in the late 1820s. In November 1828 the census or muster roll of that year recorded Mary O'Hara as housekeeper of Peter Quigley. On 14 March 1829, Peter's three teenage children arrived in New South Wales from either Ireland or Scotland. In late April or early May, Peter's wife died, two years short of completing her sentence and regaining her freedom. Peter himself become a free man within two years and travels to Europe. It raises the question, why would Peter go the the expense of bringing three still quite young people half way across the world and into this convict colony? To see and visit a dying mother, perhaps, who has been absent from them for twelve years.

  Noted events in her life were:

1. Announcement: in newspaper, saturday 2 nd May and Monday 4th May 1829, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The Sydney Monitor (NSW : 1828 - 1838)
"DEATH - The wife of Mr Peter Quigley an industrious shopkeeper, much lamented by her husband and friends."

Mary married Peter QUIGLY, son of Peter QUIGLY and Mary LOGAN. (Peter QUIGLY was born about 1784 in County Derry, Ireland ^{3 4} and died 23 February 1868 at 11.15 am in Croft-An-Righ, Wigtown, Wigtownshire, Scotland ⁵.). The cause of his death was influenza over 10 days.

  Marriage Notes:

"'it is two years since he married his present wife, Mary O'Hara. That they have no family..'

Patrick stated he was married to his wife Mary O'Hara for about two years before his arrest in February 1816. Of their three children that came to him in Australia when he became a free man again, the eldest was James, who was recorded as being born in 1812. Mary, like Peter, seems to have been been married to another person. ³

Mary next married Uknown PERSON about 1803. (Uknown PERSON was born about 1780 and died before 1816.)