The Radcliffe Insolvency Saga

Sandridge from Hobsons Bay, 1863

Life was good for John Radcliffe, a thirty-four year old plasterer, turned building contractor, living in Sandridge (Port Melbourne), in 1861. Being in the right place, at the right time, he was awarded many lucrative government contracts and accumulated such wealth and property as would have been barely imaginable to a man of his social standing back home in Ireland.  That year, he married Bridget Flanagan and maybe tried to forget the tragic death of his first wife, Mary. Presumably, he still thought of their twelve year old daughter, Anne, my great-great-grandmother, left behind with his family, more than 10,000 miles away, in Dublin. 

In 1864, John built a substantial home, a mansion by some accounts, on Bay Street, Sandridge. He bought the site for £150 in 1863 and spent £1,000 on building costs. There, he resided with his new wife and set about making a life for himself. Sadly, his second chance of happiness was short-lived, and soon thereafter, John succumbed to ill-health. 

The following year, they converted their new home into the ‘President Lincoln Hotel’ and John applied for a publican's licence. The property included two sitting-rooms and two bedrooms, in addition to their private accommodation. Perhaps, with his illness, John was struggling to earn a living as a builder. Or, maybe he worried for his wife's livelihood, should the unthinkable happen, and decided to set her up in a profitable business she could manage on her own. Either way, the hotel did not spell the end of John's financial woes and, six months later, citing heavy losses on contracts and ill-health, he was declared insolvent. A man named Henry Shaw was appointed as the official assignee. Shaw immediately commenced the sale of John's assets, with a view to distributing the proceeds amongst his creditors. 

Town, and Melbourne & Hobson's Bay Railway Piers, Sandridge, 1862

John Radcliffe did not include the hotel in his original schedule of assets (£439) and liabilities (£1,495). He was presumably desperate to keep it for himself and his wife, especially as his failing health now seriously jeopardised his income as a builder. When questioned about this omission in the creditors' court, John claimed the hotel was mortgaged to a Mr. Gatehouse for over £600 and he had already transferred its ownership to his father-in-law, Patrick Flanagan, in settlement of a £300 debt for unpaid wages. The court did not accept this account and the official assignee took possession of the hotel. It sold for £850 at an auction held in August 1866. However, the following month, Mr. Shaw applied to transfer the publican's licence to Patrick Flanagan, and John and Bridget continued living there until their deaths. It would seem the family somehow came up with the money to keep the business and their home. 

This was, perhaps, not John's only attempt at circumventing the insolvency proceedings. He also gave two pieces of land, one in Sandridge and one in Melbourne, to his brother-in-law, Robert Flanagan, claiming it was in settlement of a debt. However, in March 1867, long after John Radcliffe was dead and buried, Henry Shaw sued Bridget for possession of the property, by then returned to her by her brother. The judge believed the Radcliffe's story was improbable and, quoting an English judge, declared ‘there was no woman who could not be either kicked or kissed out of her jointure.’ He returned the property to Henry Shaw. 

Seemingly, Thomas Radcliffe, John's younger brother, also wanted a piece of the action and, much to John's dispute, claimed he was owed £204 for goods sold, work done and money lent. To back up his claim, Thomas produced a scrap of paper, covered in figures in childlike handwriting, and claimed it was an I.O.U., signed by John. Thomas worked as a foreman in John's building business, and, if deemed to have been a partner, even a junior partner, he would have been entitled to a share of the profits, if any, not wages. The commissioner ruled the evidence produced by Thomas was suspicious and the so-called I.O.U. absurd. He concluded Thomas could not have been working as a servant, so was not entitled to claim wages, given he had allowed them to accumulate for years, while at the same time hiring and paying the other workers. Thomas's claim was unsuccessful, though it surely destroyed the brothers' relationship with each other, in the final days of John's life.

Sandridge, 1866

It was on 30 October 1866, the very day of John Radcliffe's death, that he finally got the better of Henry Shaw. In July 1865, he had taken out a £600 life insurance, for his wife's benefit. When he later became insolvent, the policy passed to the official assignee and was listed in the schedule of assets with a value of £20. In September 1866, the Radcliffe's attorney, Mr. Sterling, offered £10 for the policy, but this offer was refused and it took some time for them to raise the full purchase price. Possibly, every last penny had gone to securing their home at the auction. On the morning of 30 October, Mr. Sterling paid over the £20 asking price and the policy was returned to Bridget Radcliffe. Her husband died later that day. 

Mr. Shaw then issued proceedings against Mr. Sterling and Bridget Radcliffe, arguing they knew John was dying and, having suppressed this material fact, the policy should be returned to him. Mr. Sterling denied knowledge of his client's impending death, answering that Mr. Shaw had equal opportunity to ascertain the insolvent's state of health, being in possession of his premises. The judge agreed and dismissed the case, with costs. Bridget got the benefit of the insurance policy.

Unless meningitis had rendered John Radcliffe unconscious on the morning of his passing, he presumably died happy in the knowledge that his wife would have a roof over her head and a business to provide an income. So, after a long and painful illness, he could finally rest in peace.

My grandfather's Radcliffe Pedigree 

Source: The Argus, Melbourne, 1861-67, accessed on Trove, digitised newspapers, National Library of Australia.  

Image credits:  Town, and Melbourne & Hobson's Bay Railway Piers, Sandridge, by Arthur Willmore (1814-1888), engraver, Victoria illustrated, 1862; Sandridge, 1866, by Henry Gritten (1818-1873); Sandridge from Hobsons Bay, 1863, by Charles Troedel (1836-1906), printer, all courtesy of  the State Library of Victoria.

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© 2015 Black Raven Genealogy

A new ‘cousin’ and a sad accident

This week started out on a new ancestral trail, that of Joseph Sarsfield, a witness to my GGG-grandfather John Radcliffe’s second marriage in 1861. If you think tragedy only followed our Radcliffe lineage, think again, for poor Joseph met with a most horrific end. 

Great Lonsdale Street East (1864) by Francois Cogne (1829-1883),

with the Church of St Francis left-centre

On 5 January 1861, John Radcliffe, the son of Peter Radcliffe and Anne Sarsfield from County Dublin, married Bridget Flanagan in Church of St Francis, Melbourne. In the nineteenth century, ‘Sarsfield’ was an uncommon surname, both in Dublin and Melbourne, so their best-man, Joseph Sarsfield, was likely John’s maternal cousin, or uncle, or at least related somehow.  Identifying his roots in Ireland might just provide a clue to the origins of John’s mother, my GGGG-grandmother, Anne (Sarsfield) Radcliffe, so Joseph was worth pursuing.[1] 

Joseph Sarsfield married Catherine Buckley, on 6 November 1862, also in the Church of St Francis in Melbourne.[2] This couple went on to have twelve or more children: Emily (1863-1867), Mary (1865-1867), John Joseph (b. 1867), Michael Christopher (c. 1869-1920), Thomas (b. aft.1869), Catherine (c.1873-1962), Mary Ellen (1875-1875), Peter (c.1877-1923), Mary Josephine (1877-1933), Elizabeth (1877-1961), an unnamed male child who lived for only one day in 1878 and Joseph Patrick (1880-1945).[3] Joseph died on 7 April 1880, leaving his widow almost destitute, with eight surviving children, the youngest child being only days old. At the time of his death, Joseph worked as a porter with the Victorian Railway and was stationed at Toolamba, 180 kilometres north of Melbourne.[4] 

A search of contemporary Australian newspapers revealed just how tragically Joseph died. He was walking home along the railway, having apparently visited ‘some shanties’ nearby, when he was hit by the last train from Seymour to Shepparton, as it approached Toolamba. The driver told the station master at Toolamba he had run over something.  A search was organised and they discovered Joseph’s mutilated and decapitated body lying beside the tracks. His was the first fatal accident on the Goulburn Valley Railway. Luckily, for Joseph, he was killed instantly and did not suffer.[4] 

Death of Joseph Sarsfield, Toolamba, 1880

Bendigo Advertiser, 16 April 1880, p. 2.

It was thought Joseph may not have heard the train coming, though no further explanation as to why he did not hear it was reported in the newspapers - maybe he was hard of hearing, or just too drunk. It seems his death was not registered and there was no mention of an inquest in the newspapers, so it is unlikely we’ll ever now know. 

Joseph’s marriage certificate confirmed he was born in Dublin, Ireland, to Christopher Sarsfield and Mary Duffe, twenty-seven years previously.  I had already identified Christopher as being a potential sibling of my GGGG-grandmother Anne (Sarsfield) Radcliffe. Between 1829 and 1846, he and Mary Duff(e) had ten children baptised in Rush, County Dublin, which was less than twenty kilometres north of Anne’s home in Malahide. They had a son Joseph born in 1831.[5] Christopher Sarsfield was living on Lambay Island, off the Dublin coast, in 1847 and remained there until the 1860s.[6] 

So, it might be worth taking a closer look at this Sarsfield-Duff(e) family in Dublin!

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[1] Radcliffe-Flanagan marriage certificate, 1861, Birth Deaths Marriages Victoria. 

[2] Sarsfield-Buckley marriage certificate, 1862, same.

[3] ‘Australia Victoria BMD historical index’, Archive.org; Death notice, Catherine Sarsfield, The Argus, 27 August 1918, p. 1, Trove.  

[4] Bendigo Advertiser, 16 April 1880, p. 2; The McIvor Times and Rodney Advertiser, 15 April 1880, p. 2, Trove. 
[5] Baptism index, Rush Roman Catholic Church, Rootsireland.ie (subscription).

[6] Griffith’s Valuation, Ask about Ireland; McCullagh-Sarsfield marriage register, 1860, IrishGenealogy,ie. 

Image credit: Great Lonsdale Street East (1864) by Francois Cogne 1829-1883, State Library of Victoria.

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© 2014 Black Raven Genealogy

Friday’s Faces from the Past: Peter Edward Radcliffe

Peter Edward Radcliffe (c.1863 – 1928)

Peter Edward Radcliffe is one of the more interesting Aussie ‘cousins’ identified during the course of my genealogy research.  He was the son of Thomas Radcliffe from Malahide, Co. Dublin and his wife Mary Minogue, and an elder brother of Tom and Joe, discussed previously in the post entitled ‘Murder in the family?’ Peter was born about 1863-64, presumably in Melbourne. He shared his name with his paternal grandfather – my fourth-great-grandfather – Peter Radcliffe from Malahide.

The first time I came across my first cousin four times removed was in an obituary for his father, Thomas Radcliffe, published in a Melbourne newspaper in June 1905. It listed ‘Peter Radcliffe, United States Navy’ as his eldest son.[1] Mary (Minogue) Radcliffe’s obituary, nearly twenty years later, claims she was the mother of ‘Lieutenant P. E. Radcliffe, (United States Navy)’.[2] When Peter’s death was registered with the authorities in Victoria, his parent’s names were again confirmed as Thos Radcliffe and Mary Minogue.[3] Thomas and Mary had married in Victoria in 1863, but, no record of the registration of Peter’s birth has so far been located.[4] 

Peter was, it might be said, a spirited child and it would seem he drove his parents to the end of their tether. On 13 February 1878, when he was thirteen years old, his father even went so far as to have him arrested and committed to a reformatory school. Peter, a native of Melbourne, was declared ‘uncontrollable’. His father Thomas was described as being ‘well off’, a plasterer and a publican by trade. Peter was to serve his sentence, with other ‘criminal and neglected children’ until he was sixteen years old, nearly three years later. This must have come as a major shock to the young teenager. However, after just one month, on 13 March 1878, he was discharged back into the care of his father, more than likely on the understanding that he behaved himself, or be recommitted. Talk about tough love![5]

On 9 April 1887, the steamship ‘Catalonia’ docked in Boston harbour, in the United States, having taken on passengers at Liverpool, England and Queenstown (now Cobh), Ireland. Peter Radcliffe, a twenty-four year old seaman from Australia was named in the passenger list.[6] Six months later, on 7 September 1887, Peter Edward Radcliffe, a mariner living in Philadelphia, joined the US Navy.[7] He gave his place of birth as San Francisco and his age as twenty-three years and nine months – making him a year older than the limited earlier evidence suggested. From then on, he consistently placed his birth in California, on or about 13 November 1863. But San Francisco! In 1863, his parents were in Melbourne, more than 7,500 miles away. At first, I thought there may have been two Peter Radcliffe's in the US Navy, but now, I am convinced all references are to my cousin. Claiming Californian birth may have been his attempt to bypass US citizenship controls or perhaps it was necessary for his promotion prospects in the Navy.

On 14 August 1903, when Peter E. Radcliffe was forty, he applied for a licence to marry Fannie A. Melvin, in the county of Solana, California.[8] They lived together in the San Francisco Bay area for twenty years and Peter continued his career as a boatswain in the US Navy. The couple do not appear to have had any children.[9] In 1913, they took a trip back to Australia, presumably to visit Peter’s mother and brother in Melbourne.[10] Sadly, ten years later, in July 1923, Fannie died of cancer.[11]

The following month Peter applied for his first US passport, with a view to spending a year in Australia. In his application, he ‘solemnly swore’ to a whole bunch of what I can only believe were untruths.[12]  Unfortunately, this casts doubts on the accuracy of all the fascinating information contained in his application. Peter produced no actual proof that he was born in the US, relying on the fact that he was a commissioned officer in the Navy as evidence of citizenship. He claimed his father came to the US from Ireland in 1847 and resided there continuously until 1873. This was certainly not entirely true; his father was documented as being in Melbourne, at least from 1863 onward and his obituary suggests he arrived in the town about 1855.

Peter E. Radcliffe, US passport application, 1924

Peter also swore he had never resided outside of the United States, except as an officer in the US Navy, undoubtedly, another untruth as there is documented evidence confirming him a native of Melbourne in 1878.

So, was his father Thomas ever in New York or California?

This is a most exciting prospect. Thomas arrived in Australia around the same time as his elder brother John, my third-great-grandfather, probably in the late 1850s. John Radcliffe married a woman named Mary, who gave birth to my great-great-grandmother, Anne, about 1849. Neither their marriage record, Anne’s birth/baptism record, nor Mary’s maiden name, have been found and apart from a potential sighting in Liverpool at the time of the 1851 census, they could have been anywhere. New York and California are new places to search – if only I could believe a word of Peter’s story.

During the Christmas holidays, in Australia visiting his brother, Peter Radcliffe, the retired lieutenant of the US Navy, was tragically killed in a car crash. The accident took place near Gisborne, on 16 January 1928, on route from his brother’s hotel in Baringhup to Melbourne. The car, in which he was a passenger, suffered a tyre blowout, skidded across the road, struck an embankment and overturned. Peter died instantly.[13]

In April 1929, the reading of his will caused some wonderment in the Australian press, specifically the clause: ‘I declare I have no children, but in the event that any claim to be such, I hereby give and devise to them, and each of them, the sum of one dollar.’[14] I wonder if Peter had any other Radcliffe relatives at the time of his death. As far as I know, his brother Tom was the very last of our Radcliffe lineage and he died in 1932.[15]  

Peter E. Radcliffe, Reading of will, 1929

[1] The Argus, 26 June 1905, p. 1, Trove.

[2] The Argus, 9 March 1925, p. 1, Trove.

[3] Australia Death Index, 1787-1985, Peter Edwd Radcliffe, 1928, Ancestry.

[4] Australia Marriage Index 1788-1950, Thomas Radcliffe, 1863, Ancestry.

[5] Ward Registers, no. 12, p. 384, Radcliffe, Peter [reg. no. 10622], Public Records Office Victoria. 

[6] Boston, Passenger and Crew Lists, 1820-1954, index and images, Peter Radcliffe, 1887, Ancestry.

[7] US Naval Enlistment Rendezvous, 1855-1891, index and images, Peter Edward Radcliffe, 1887, FamilySearch.

[8] California, County Marriages, 1850-1952, index and images, Peter E Radeliffe and Fannie A Melvin, 1903, FamilySearch.

[9] US Census, 1920," index and images, Peter E Radcliffe, FamilySearch.

[10] California, Passenger and Crew Lists, 1882-1957, index and images, Peter Radcliffe, 1913, Ancestry.

[11] California, Death Index, 1905-1939, images, Fannie Radcliffe, 1923, FamilySearch.

[12] US Passport Applications, 1795-1925, index and images, Peter Edward Radcliff, 1923, Ancestry.

[13] Chronicle, 21 January 1928, p. 49, Trove.

[14] Mirror, 20 April 1929, p.14, Trove.

[15] Australia Death Index, 1787-1985, Thos Ernt Radcliffe, 1932, Ancestry.
Photograph of Peter E. Radcliffe from 1924 passport application form.

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© 2014 Black Raven Genealogy

Murder in the family?

This is the tragic true story of two brothers, set in Victoria, Australia in 1895, which at the time received national newspaper coverage. The two young men, Thomas Radcliffe, aged 25, and Joseph Radcliffe, aged 23, were the sons of Thomas Radcliffe from Malahide, Co. Dublin and his wife Mary Minogue. Tom and Joe, as they were known, were first cousins of Anne (Radcliffe) Carroll, making them my first cousins four times removed.

No rumour of these remarkable events has survived in our family today. Perhaps this is not surprising - Australia is a long way from Dublin. Although, other myths relating to this family were remembered, in this case, one of the brothers lost his life and in Ireland, superstitions dictated that no ill be spoken of the dead, so all memory of the case was lost.

In the early 1890s, the brothers moved to a place called Waratah North, 100 miles from their home in Melbourne. There, they managed a cattle farm for their father. Waratah North was an isolated spot, near the southern-most tip of Australia. It was twelve miles from Fish Creek, a stop on the Great Southern railway line.  The brother’s nearest neighbour lived three miles away, at a place called Sandy Point.

According to newspaper accounts, ‘the brothers were well known and respected, and appeared to live together quite happily’. However, on the evening of 15 August 1895, they quarrelled and the next day Joe was found dead of a gunshot wound. To the surprise of the township, Tom was arrested on a charge of wilful murder and James Hannan, aged 18, who was employed by the brothers, was arrested as an accessory before the fact.

Upon hearing the shocking news of Joe’s death, his parents immediately came by train from Melbourne, bringing with them a doctor and solicitor.

On 20 August 1895, the Radcliffes buried their youngest son in Foster Cemetery, eighteen miles from Waratah North. The very next day they attended an inquest into his death, at which their other son was charged with his murder. Their grief must have been unimaginable.

The magisterial inquiry was held at Foster before a local justice of the peace and five jurymen and it was here that the extraordinary circumstances of Joe’s untimely death came to light.

Inquest into death of Joseph Radcliffe, The Argus, 22 Aug 1895, p. 5

It transpired that Tom had gone into Fish Creek on Saturday, 10 August 1895. When he was still not home by the following Thursday, Joe became angry and rode out to look for him. The brothers somehow missed each other and when Joe got to Fish Creek, Tom had already arrived home. 

Joe then went home in a rage and a row ensued. In a fit of temper, Joe threw a kettle into the fireplace and hit Tom with a shovel. When Tom took the shovel away from him, Joe threatened to get the gun. Tom ran out of the house and Joe fired the gun after him, but Tom hid behind a tree. (Really, I am not making this up!). Joe then threw the gun at the doorway and it went off and then Joe fell on his back in the mud. James Hannan helped Joe to his bedroom and immediately left the house, for he was afraid of Joe.

Hannan then went to their neighbours, the Frasers in Sandy Point, where he spent the night. According to the Frasers, when he arrived, James told them Joe had shot himself but ‘was only putting it on and was not so badly hurt as he pretended.’ Tom then arrived at the Frasers saying ‘It’s a bit rough. He’ll pay pretty dear for this lot. I won’t have anything more to do with him.’ However, the following morning they returned to the farm and found Joe dead. Tom sent a telegram to the police and to his father.

Edwin Wiles gave evidence that Joe had come to his hotel in Fish Creek looking for Tom and became angry when he learnt Tom had met their father at Boys railway station and had gone with him to inspect some land. Wiles said Joe was bad-tempered and ‘always the aggressor’ in any altercation, while Tom was ‘exceptionally good-tempered, especially with his brother’. Even Thomas Radcliffe, father of Tom and Joe, gave evidence that Tom was ‘exceptionally quiet in temperament’, unlike Joe, who had a ‘hasty disposition’ and ‘having been delicate when young was permitted his own way by all the brothers’.

The medical evidence corroborated the account heard.

The jury found that Joe had died from a gunshot wound, accidentally self-inflicted and Tom and James Hannon were discharged.

So, what do you make of that?

Sources: Launceston Examiner, 22 August 1895, p. 6; The Argus, 21 August 1895, p. 6 and 22 August 1895, p. 5; Portland Guardian, 23 August 1895, p. 3, all accessed on Trove.

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© 2014 Black Raven Genealogy

Some truth in our family lore

Melbourne (including the Sandridge Bridge), by Nathaniel Whittock, 1855

Family lore:  In the second half of the nineteenth century, some of the Radcliffe brothers left Ireland for Australia, where they became wealthy and successful. They were even said to have founded a town there and named it after themselves, or at least a major highway.  Supposedly, one of the brothers, my third-great-grandfather, John Radcliffe, had no other children and Mary Carroll, a granddaughter in Ireland, kept all sorts of papers to prove that she was an heir, so that she could inherit the fortune. However, the story goes that it was John’s wife's family that inherited all their property in Australia.

So, I have finally tracked the Radcliffe brothers in Australia.  John, born in Malahide, Co. Dublin in 1827 and Thomas, born there in 1829, both settled in Melbourne, in the colony of Victoria. John arrived in Melbourne about 1857, possibly in the hopes of capitalising on the Victorian gold-rush, but, by January 1859 at least, he had resorted to his primary trade, that of plasterer. It seems business boomed for the brothers, and John, who became a building contractor, was mentioned regularly in the Melbourne newspapers between 1861 and 1865, as earning many valuable building contracts in the area. In September 1865, John applied for a publican’s license in respect of his new hotel in Bay Street, Sandridge [now Port Melbourne], where he resided with his wife, Bridget Flanagan, whom he had married in 1861. John built the hotel himself, having bought the site for £150 in 1863 and spent £1,000 on building costs. He named it the ‘President Lincoln Hotel’, after the U.S. president, assassinated only a few months previously. Coming from a small rural townland in county Dublin, the Radcliffes certainly believed that they had it made, so much so that John even titled himself ‘gentleman’ in this license application. 

John Radcliffe, The Argus, 25 September 1865, p. 8

All changed within a year, however, and by July 1866, John Radcliffe, of the ‘President Lincoln Hotel’, a publican and contractor, claimed insolvency arising as a result of heavy losses on contracts and ill-health. His liabilities amounted to £1,495 and his assets only £439. The insolvency case is an interesting story in itself, suffice to say here that John, knowing that he was seriously ill and about to die, and with the help of the Flanagans, still managed to provide for his wife’s future. The mortgaged hotel and a £600 life insurance policy were left for her benefit.  John and Bridget had no children when John died, aged only 39 years, on 30 October 1866. Bridget did not survive him by very long, but died in March 1869. It appears that in this instance, family lore rang true and the Flanagan family inherited the remaining wealth, but before my poor grandaunt Mary was even born.

John’s brother, Thomas, lived until he was 75 years old and died at his residence, ‘Annagh House’ on Dynon Road in West Melbourne, on 25 June 1905. He was survived by his widow Mary and two sons, Peter and Thomas, to whom he left property valued at nearly £6,300. Interestingly, Google Maps shows a Radcliffe Street, now running off Dynon Road in West Melbourne. Again, we may have found truth in the stories passed down through the generations, if this little street represents the fabled town, or highway, named after the Radcliffes.  

Radcliffe Street, Dynon Road, West Melbourne

Sources: The Argus, 28 January 1859, 19 October 1861, 25 September 1865, 9 August 1866, 10 October 1866, 1 November 1866, 3 August 1867, 18 December 1867, 27 March 1869, 26 June 1905, 12 August 1905; South Australian Advertiser, 1 February 1862 (all accessed on Trove); Victoria copy death register, 1866; Victoria marriage index, 1861. Drawing of Sandridge Bridge, 1855, available on Wikimedia Commons.

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© 2014 Black Raven Genealogy 

What happened to John Radcliffe – Answered

Last week, I wrote about the search for my illusive great-great-great-grandfather, John Radcliffe.  This week you will be delighted to know that he has been located - all thanks to our cousin Phyllis, in California. Phyllis carried out a quick search on Ancestry.com and found a record of his death. It’s hard to fathom how my numerous fruitless searches missed this record, but here it is, now painfully apparent.

 

John Radcliffe, death register index, 1866, Victoria, Australia.

This surely was our John Radcliffe, with his parent’s names correctly listed as Peter Radcliffe and Ann Sarsfield.  We know he was baptised in June 1827, so the estimated birth year given was out by a couple of years, but that was not unusual. He did travel to Australia, just like family lore recalled, but more than a decade prior to when we had suspected. Tragically, he died so very young, not having even reached his fortieth birthday.  

This record opened up a whole new waft of questions. Did his daughter, Anne Radcliffe, travel to Australia with him, only to return to Ireland before her marriage in 1869? More likely she was left behind in Malahide. What about Anne’s mother, Mary? Did she go with him? When exactly did he set off and where in Victoria had he lived?  Why did he die so young? Did he leave a family behind?

Next, I searched the Australian newspapers for an obituary.  Australian newspapers, which have been digitalised and are freely available online, are full of family history information and the notice of John’s death was easily located in a Melbourne paper, The Argus, on 1 November 1866.

John Radcliffe, death notice, 1866, Victoria, Australia

This adds additional comfort that we have located the correct person. John Radcliffe, who died on 30 October 1866, had connections to Dublin and was a builder – our John had been a plasterer in Dublin. It gives his former place of residence as Bay Street in Sandridge, [now Port Melbourne, a suburb of Melbourne].

The death register itself then answered many of my remaining questions:

Details from the Australian death register, 1866, John Radcliffe

It confirmed John’s origins as Malahide, Co. Dublin. He had traveled to Australia nine years previously, so in about 1857. He had married a Bridget Flannagan in Victoria, in about 1860 and they had settled in Melbourne, but had no children. His brother-in-law, Samuel Nobel, the husband of Bridget’s sister, did not recognise John’s daughter, my great-great-grandmother Anne, so presumably John went to Australia without her. She would have been about eight years old in 1857. Perhaps Anne's mother, Mary, had died beforehand, as we still do not know what happened to her. John died of meningitis, having suffered from the illness for two years.

The Argus also gives us John’s final resting place. He was buried in the Melbourne General Cemetery at 2 o’clock p.m. on Thursday, November 1, 1866.

John Radcliffe, funeral notice, 1866, Victoria, Australia

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam / Rest in Peace.

Sources: Ancestry, Ancestry.co.uk; The Argus, 1 November 1866, pp 4, 8, accessed Trove, http://trove.nla.gov.au/ 16 March 2014; Deaths in the district of Sandridge in the colony of Victoria, 1866, accessed http://www.bdm.vic.gov.au/utility/ 17 March 2014.

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© 2014 Black Raven Genealogy.