Bridget Hynes

Born Bridget Nolan at Monivea County, Galway, Ireland

Arrived Point Henry Geelong 5th June 1852 on the Mangerton

Married Thomas Hynes 2/10/1854 at St Alipius Church, Ballarat East

Priest: Patrick Smythe (the same priest who helped save Peter Lalor's life)

Best man Patrick Gittins (died at Eureka).

She was 23 years old and lived in a tent at Black Hill, close to the Stockade. At 4am on Sunday 3/12/1854 she hid her husband's pike (home made weapon) and his pants and ran towards the sound of gun fire at the Stockade.

She and some other women screamed "He's dead" as they threw themselves across the bodies of the wounded diggers, protecting them from the bayonets of the soldiers.

She and her husband Tom went on to become farmers and reared eleven children.

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Bridget (Nolan) was born 1831 at Monivae, County Galway, Ireland. She arrived at Point Henry, Geelong on 5 June 1852, and married Thomas Hynes on 2 October 1854. Thomas was a cousin to John Hynes who was killed during the Eureka Stockade encounter.

Bridget lived in a tent at Black Hill close to the Eureka Stockade. She went to the scene of the fighting after the Eureka battle with several other women, and assisted the wounded and dying miners. As the police were bayoneting the diggers she said: “He is dead”, in order to save them.

Bridget and Thomas Hynes had a daughter, Catherine, born on 13 July 1855 and baptised at St Alipius Roman Catholic Chapel. The sponsors were Patrick Hynes and Mary Nolan. Bridget Hynes was a sponsor to a baptism at St Alipius in 1854. Bridget (Hogan) and John Torpy had a son, Patrick, baptised at St Alipius Catholic Chapel, Ballarat, on 11 October 1854. The sponsors were Patrick and Bridget Hynes.

Later, Bridget and Thomas Hynes farmed at Leongatha in the Tarwan Valley and both are buried at Leongatha. She died in 1910. On her tombstone it states that she hid her husband’s pike and pants so that he could not participate in the Eureka battle

source Dorothy Wickham, Women of the Diggings: Ballarat 1854, Ballarat Heritage Services, 2009

http://eurekapedia.org/Bridget_Hynes

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