We began our search for great grandfather Michael Ryan, Christina Copson's partner, with next to no information about him other than he was born in Ireland. Their first child Edward's birth certificate, records Michael's birth place as Maryborough. This may have been Maryborough Ireland which is present day Port Laoise in the Midlands region of Ireland. Maryborough was founded in 1548 by the English to secure control while war was being waged by the Gaelic chieftains. The town was established by an act of Parliament in 1557 during the reign of Queen Mary, and the new town was therefore named Maryborough. In 1929 after the foundation of the Irish Free State, the town was renamed Portlaoisghise (later Portlaoise), while the Queen's County named in Queen Mary's honor, was renamed County Laoise. Therefore Port Laois was still called Maryborough when Michael migrated to Australia and when their children were born.
Michael Ryan was born in 1864, according to his age when his children's births were registered. There is a Michael Ryan born in 1864 in Ballinakill, in the Catholic Parish Registers at the National Library of Ireland. Ballinakill, County Laois (Queen's) is 10 miles from Maryborough, being a town of some antiquity. The town's industrial history includes brewery, grain, saw mill, threshing and woollen mills. In the parish registry, Michael was the eldest born followed by James born in 1866, Joseph 1868, Patrick 1869, Mary 1871 and Edward in 1874. Parents John Ryan and Catherine (maiden name Moran) were married in Iron Mills on August 6, 1860.
Gerard Dunphy author of "Ballinakill: A Journey Through Time" co authored with Christy O'Shea (2002) was contacted for this research. Gerard found on the NLI Griffiths Valuation 1840's, that a John Ryan was living on a 14 acre farm at Ballinakill Laois; Denis Ryan lived on a 48 acre farm and a Patrick Ryan owned 192 acres. Gerard says that a little further up from Ironmills there is an area called Barna or Barnadewnthe where an Edward Ryan was also living. Michael Ryan's father John was born in 1836 where it is likely that this is his immediate family. The 1901 Ireland Census records that Michael's father John Ryan is 65 years old and a widower. He is living with son James 36 and daughter in law Mary aged 28. They are residents of a house 14 in Ironmills, Ballinakill, Queen's Co., where John and James are farmers.
Melissa, Jon's sister had been told by mum that great grandfather Michael Ryan had been in the priesthood, which places him in his late teens to early 20's when he left Ireland for Australia. The family had also been told that Michael was from Cork. St Patrick's College Maynooth seminary is located in Cork, which may account for this county's association with our Michael Ryan. St Patrick's seminary was established in 1795 and Maynooth seminary is where Melbourne's Archbishop Mannix (1864-1963) entered the priesthood.
The search for the ship on which Michael arrived in Australia had narrowed considerably. The Duke of Buckingham left Plymouth in December 1882, where 20 year old Michael Ryan was a free passenger. It was common during this time that passenger's ages was an approximate record rather than accurately listed on embarkation. We next find Michael Ryan living in Goomboorian according to the 1887 Gympie Electoral roll. His occupation is timber getter and it is possible that Michael was working for John Gillis.
John and Mary Ann Gillis are considered pioneer settlers of Goomboorian, Gympie. Gillis was a mine manager at Wonga NSW. However due to ill health he followed Mary Ann's brother John Ross' advice to move from Wollongong to Cootharaba, where Ross was manager of Cootharaba Station. The Gillis family travelled to Qld with their two children, Florence aged 3 years and Joseph 18 months. By 1876 Gillis had selected 140 acres agricultural land and 530 acres of second class pastoral land in Goomboorian. The family were involved in dairying as well as getting timber. Gillis cut a track from Goomboorian to Gympie, opening up the area to the Maryborough timber mill Ramsay and Co. John Gillis selected a further 670 acres adjoining Ramsays. He managed the company's interests at Tin Can Bay where he also had two teams of his own getting timber. Mary Ann's brother Joseph Ross and his wife Belinda took up land in Goomboorian adjacent the Gillis lots. As the first white settlers, it is highly likely that Michael Ryan who was living in Goomboorian in 1887 was working for the family.
During this time, when Christina would have been around 16 years old, she is living and working for John and Mary Ann Gillis in Goomboorian. This is reported in the Gympie Times in November 1907 in relation to a shooting incident where Christina was attacked by fellow countryman Fred Dunne in Wolvi. When the police investigated on the day of the shooting in October 1907, Christina was at first placed on remand. Mary Ann Gillis rallied the women of Goomboorian to assist Christina raise bail. We would like to believe that John Copson who was living in Gympie at the time, could have also had a hand helping Christina, but this is mere speculation. The matter went to trial in 1908 and when the facts of the attempted rape came to light, Fred Dunne was charged with indecent assault. At the conclusion of the trial, the judge Sir Arthur Rutledge is reported as saying that he didn't feel sorry for Dunne who was lucky to have had a narrow escape of his life. Rutledge declared that "if women when scoundrels attempted to molest them, were able to adopt such means of defence, the offence would not be quite so common." Dunne was sentenced to 6 months imprisonment with hard labour.
Michael and Christina lived as a couple on John William and Catherine Hillcoat's property "Ashley" and "Oakleigh," Cootharaba Road in Wolvi. The Hillcoats migrated to South Australia in 1851 from Bath Somerset, England. JW Hillcoat came to Gympie during the gold rush and erected a stamper battery on behalf of a Sydney company that appointed him manager of their operations. When the company's Black Snake mine closed at Kilkivan, JW took up two selections of land, one called "Ashley" at Wolvi and the other "Wodonga" at Widgee. He fulfilled conditions on his selection at Cootharaba Road County March in 1878. Michael and Christina were most likely employed by the Hillcoats to work on their property. In 1889 JW Hillcoat wrote a letter to the Gympie Times about a married couple he had engaged to work on his farm who were paid 60 pounds per annum.
Due to Christina and Michael's association with the Hillcoat family, we were originally told that Christina's children had been delivered by Nurse Harriet Miriam Hillcoat. Harriet Hillcoat was well known in the Gympie district as Nurse Hillcoat. She opened a private nursing home "Kotoro" on Horseshoe bend in Gympie where the Church of Christ is now located. Harriet James was born 1858 in St Helens, Isle of Wight England. She married Albert Hendy when she was 24 years old and the couple sailed from Plymouth to Australia with their daughter Eva. However Harriet separated from Hendy before coming to the Hillcoat's property "Ashley" when she married Henry Egerton, John William and Catherine' Hillcoat's son.
Michael and Christina's children were born on the Hillcoat property. However it is unlikely that Harriet delivered Christina's children as she had married into the Hillcoat family in 1906, while Christina and Michael's youngest child Eleanor was born in 1902. In the Gympie Times 1985 publication, "Cradle Days" Aboriginal people are reported as living in close contact with their country during this time, so it is likely that Christina would have been assisted in the birth of her children by her own mother.
