Andrew (Fitzsimmons) Keogh [Convict "Dorothy" 1820]

Andrew FITZSIMMONS was born c1793 or c1798 Ireland

Andrew changed his name to KEOGH / KEOUGH

Andrew was convicted and sentenced to 7 years transportation. He arrived in Sydney Cove on 19/9/820 on "Dorothy" . Andrew married Sarah ROBINSON on 2/7/1837 in NSW

Andrew died 1864 Liverpool

• http://www.australianroyalty.net.au/individual.php?pid=I3628&ged=pu...
• http://www.the1788-1820pioneerassociation.org.au/Andrew%20Fitzsimmo...

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GEDCOM Note

<b>Extract from "Traces: by Leon Davis: </b>The founding of the Davis family in Australia derived from the union of Andrew Keough (Keogh) and Sarah Robinson. Andrew, a servant, reportedly aged 22 years and from Wexford<b>[1][1]</b>, Ireland was tried and convicted of a felony at court in Dublin in 1820. His court examination and final sentence all referred to him as <b>Andrew Fitzsimmons</b> (alias Keogh). He was sentenced to seven years in bondage with transportation to New South Wales and arrived in the colony from the ship “Dorothy” on the 19th of September, 1820. At his arrival in NSW<b> Andrew Fitzsimmons</b> was assigned to Cornelius O’Brien, a member of a wealthy family of landholders who possessed, amongst others, a generous acreage surrounding the present day Bulli on the Illawarra Coast south of Sydney<b>[2][2]</b>. Andrew served out his bonded time with Cornelius O’Brien and was granted his certificate of freedom in 1827.  In the 1828 census he is acknowledged as “free by servitude” <b>[3][3]</b> but still in the employ of Cornelius O’Brien. There is reason to believe that he remained in the Illawarra for a further seven or more years as the first child born to him and Sarah, namely, Andrew, was baptised by Father John McEnroe on 17 May 1835 <b>(See Docs.5 & 6)</b>. A Mr. Peter Mooney acted as a sponsor (Godfather) at the ceremony and this man, Peter Mooney, is known to have held a grant <b>[4][4]</b> of land adjacent to that of Cornelius O’Brien at Bulli. Peter Mooney would have known Andrew as Andrew Fitzsimmons in his days as a bonded servant with Cornelius O’Brien. Sometime after the statistical collection for the 1828 census Andrew had begun to use the name Keogh (Keough), an admitted alias at the time of his arrest in Ireland. We would have to presume that the name change was acceptable to those who knew Andrew in the then Illawarra district as by 1835 Peter Mooney would have been an established land owner and his willingness to sponsor Andrew’s child in baptism suggests Andrew Fitzsimmons was by then recognised and accepted within the Illawarra populace, particularly the Catholic part thereof, as Andrew Keogh (Keough). It could be argued that Andrew had some continuing attachment to the name, Keogh (Keough). He had by 1835 employed it on a number of prior occasions during his life and in the use, now under scrutiny, I suggest that he may have beencasting off the name that defined him as a convict. I also suggest he was reaching for respectability and the Fitzsimmons name, even if it was his birthname, had to go. We may find that his mother was a Keogh (Keough). Further enquiry in Ireland is needed but past experience doesn’t give much hope for a solution to this question or the confusion about his birth county i.e., Wexford or Waterford. In July, 1832 an Andrew Keogh is signatory to an address to Captain Thomas Meyrick <b>(SeeDoc 3)</b>, the retiring Superintendent of Police  for the Airds Police District, Campbell Town. We cannot be certain that it is our Andrew but there is a strong possibility as Campbell Town is close and was in direct relationship to the Illawarra as an administrative centre on the only (at that time) regular access road out of the Illawarra settlement around Bulli (Wollongong). In 1837 Andrew Fitzsimmons (Keogh/Keough) is recorded at Braidwood, NSW on the southern tablelands. This was a period of building in the Braidwood village and adjacent farming lands <b>(From “Early days in the Braidwood District 1822 – 51) [5][5]</b> and it is possible that he was there in the capacity of a timber cutter and processer or timber merchant, a trade he is reputed to have followed later in the Haymarket, Sydney. While at Braidwood he married Sarah <u>Robertson</u> <b>(See Doc 7 & 8)</b>. The marriage was performed on 2nd of July, 1837 by Father T. Therry who was at that time based at St. Peter & St Paul Church (these days, cathedral) at Goulburn, NSW. At the time of writing there is no information as to how or where Andrew and Sarah became acquainted. We can only conjecture that they met somewhere in the Illawarra but when Sarah Robinson arrived in NSW in 1827 as a convict from the ship“Louisa” she was assigned to John Wood a merchant of  Hunter St., Sydney. At the Stirling (Scotland) Court of Justiciary on 21 September, 1826, Sarah, aged 21 or 22 years and her then husband, Hugh Anderson were tried and convicted of the crime of “house breaking”. The sentence imposed was seven (7) years bondage and transportation to NSW.  Sarah is recognised in various persona in official records; at court in Sterling, Scotland she was identified as Sarah <u>Robertson</u> or Sarah <u>Anderson</u>; aboard the transport ship “Louisa” she is listed as Sarah <u>Robertson</u>, also known as <u>Anderson</u>; while at the Female factory (Parramatta) she is listed in the 1828 Census as Sarah <u>Robinson</u>; in the record of the birth registration of her son Andrew in 1835 she is recorded as Sarah <u>Robinson</u>;in the registered detail of  her marriage to Andrew Keogh (Keough) at Braidwood , NSW in 1837 she is recorded as Sarah <u>Robertson</u> and  the baptismal records of subsequent children, Michael (1839), Jane (1841), Catherine (1842), Sarah Jane (1844),Margaret Therese (1846), and Stephen (1850) all have Sarah <u>Robinson</u>  as the mother. In the convict indent relative to Sarah’s arrival in NSW she isrecorded as having the ability to both read and write which suggests that the confusion as to what her maiden name was may not be her fault. Then again she may have taken delight in confusing authority. The fate of Sarah’s Scottish husband, Hugh, is unknown. As he received a sentence similar to hers it would be reasonable to assume he would also have been sent to NSW but there is no evidence of his arrival in this country and she married Andrew Keogh (Keough) after at least seven years separation from Hugh, who would be assumed to be still across the seas somewhere in Scotland (Custom in the colony allowed remarriage in that circumstance without accusations of bigamy). As at 16th of April, 2012 all of the information on Sarah’s time in servitude has not been ascertained. She started her NSW life in the Female Factory at Parramatta and from there was assigned to work as a servant in the household of John Wood, a merchant who owned a home in Hunter Street, Sydney. As far as I can ascertain at this time Wood was not active in the Illawarra.   

[1] Indent from ship“Dorothy” shows birth county as Wexford, however elsewhere, Waterford has also been   suggested [2][2] See SMH Page 4 on 29 Oct. 1832 – “Grants of Land” - 300 acres promised by Gov. Macquarie on 31 Mar.1821. [3][3] His initial Certificate of Freedom 26/6044 issued 15 Feb. 1827. It was renewed on 35/1249 on 16 Nov.1835. [4][4] See SMH Page 4 on 29 Oct. 1832 – “Grants of Land” - 50 acres promised by Sir Thomas Brisbane 5 Aug.1824. [5][5] A publication of Braidwood & Dist. Historical Soc. (ISBN 0 9599380 1 X).  See pp 7 & 5 re “Bedervale” for Capt. Coghill and also the Braidwood Court House.