Brady, Mary (Alias Connor)

DESCRIPTION

NameBrady, Mary (Alias Connor)ConvictTransported 1829 'Asia' for stealing clothes - 7 yearsBiographyMary was born in County Westmeath, Ireland to James and Mary Brady (nee Reilly). She was tried at County Mayo for stealing clothes, and sentenced to seven years.

The voyage to New South Wales aboard Asia experienced intense weather, with strong winds that caused sea sickness for several days.

Mary’s convict records describe her as Mary Connor, or Brady. On arrival in 1829, she was assigned to Joseph Willis at Parramatta. Just a few months after, she married fellow convict John Cronan, who was transported aboard Prince Regent in 1821.

John was now free and working as a constable in police at Parramatta. Joseph Willis gave his permission for the marriage, and he and his wife Rosetta were witnesses to it, in April 1830. Joseph and Rosetta also arrived as convicts. All four signed the marriage register with a cross.

Mary received her Certificate of Freedom in 1835. Two years later, her husband John was charged with the murder of 63-year-old former convict, Richard Hall at Rooty Hill. Coroner, Charles Sims described it as -

‘one of the most cold-blooded murders I have ever met with’.

The Sydney Monitor 26 May 1837.

John Cronan was discharged.

The couple had four children by the time they moved to the Illawarra, and a fifth was born at Jamberoo in 1841. They had nine in total and lived at Jamberoo, Macquarie River, Shellharbour and Yellow Rock.

John died in 1880, aged 92. Mary died seven years later.

A year before her death, aged about 80, Mary was taken to court at the instigation of the Randwick Asylum, for ill treating a female apprentice.

Sarah Burrows, a 16-year-old orphan in the employ of Mrs Cronan since 1884, attempted suicide by trying to drown herself in the Macquarie Rivulet. She was rescued by Constable Sale. Sarah was beaten, whipped, cursed, given no underclothes or shoes that fit, and was not given her wages. The constable described her state when found as ‘deplorable, dirty and ragged.’

Mary Cronan stated she did not know the rules, as she could not read.

She was obliged to pay a fine of 25 pounds, 5 shillings, or go to gaol for a month.

Mary said she would be obliged to go to gaol; however, the find was paid the next day. (The Kiama Independent and Shoalhaven Advertiser Tuesday 9 March 1886).

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Brady, Mary (Alias Connor)