Patrick Heffernan, Free Settler "Indian Queen" 1853

There are many family trees for Patrick and Mary in Ancestry, but all show the dearth of verifiable information about him - and plenty of guestimates.
There does not seem to be any way to link any of these people and events to Patrick Heffernan who definitely married Mary Curran and definitely lived at Cleveland and Deloraine, and definitely arrived in "Indian Queen",and definitely died 1903 in Launceston for which there is corroborating evidence.

FROM DESCENDANTS
The information that I currently have on Patrick Heffernan features the arrival on the Indian Queen according to the card catalogue record in the Archive office.
this is interesting as it is also recorded in his record as an early member of the police force in Tasmania however when my sister and I went through the arrival records for the Indian Queen we were unable to pick up the surname at all.
What we do know is the ship's records from Victoria to Tasmania are also quite often on another ship.

He also met up with Mary Curran which we thought maybe Mary Olive Curran but that is not actually featured on the marriage certificate. They married in St David's Cathedral in Hobart was the 6th of July 1857.

This led to my sister Christine Gora to delve further into the investigation following up on the information that our relative Mrs. Betty Rhodes had undertaken back in the 1980s and I had been given this information back then.

His occupation on marriage was listed as a police officer. The information we have on Mary Curran was that she was born in Wexford Ireland in 1831 and arrived in Hobart on 6 Dec 1854. she died in Deloraine on the 10 August 1910 in Deloraine Tasmania as a widow. the Death of Patrick Heffernan was more difficult to find. He died in Launceston on 18 March 1903 after having been admitted to a benevolent society invalid depot on two occasions.

They had five children Patrick, Margaret, Michael, Johanna, and Anne.

The difficulty with this is there are documents that clearly show Patrick as being from Tipperary. This seems to exclude the possibility that his father is Aeneas.

My grandmother told me her grandfather was a police constable. I am looking at the Register of the Appointment, Transfer, Registration and Dismissal of Members of the Police Establishment. (POL324) in Tasmanian Archives. In this Patrick is described as:

a laborer living in Hobart
32 years old (presume at time of first appt)
free to colony from Tipperary on the Indian Queen
5 feet 11 and 3/4 inches tall,
married and with some education.

His first appointment is to Franklin on 18/12/62, then to Westbury 1/4/1863 (where my great grandmother was born), fined 5 pounds for being drunk on escort and dismissed 22/9/1863.

If his age in this document is correct then his birthdate would be 1830.

The ship that brought Patrick to Australia was the Indian Queen. Passenger lists for this ship have not been found for the time period. The Indian Queen mostly went to mainland Australia then passengers to Tasmania boarded other vessels to get here. There were however some direct voyages to Hobart in the relevant years 1854 - 1856 and I have gone through everything available online and can't locate passenger lists.

THE INDIAN QUEEN
There are several vessels named Indian Queen in the relevant period - a barque, and a schooner have been named, each having the three or more masts that entitles them to be called a ship. One seems to sail out of Cork, another out of Liverpool, and there is an Indian Queen sailing from Madras. Others of varios sizes sail out of Liverpool.
First records at Melbourne are for 1840, then a large gap until 1853 when an Indian Queen sailing out of Liverpool was carrying migrants and cargo - Melbourne was very busy during the goldrush period so it is surprising to find such an absence, however the packet service was only established by Black Ball in 1853.
To complicate matters there were two Black ball Lines , one American and the second English having stolen the name in a time before copyrights existed. It is the English line which sent Indian Queen to Australia as a packet ship ie one that had specific sailing times rather than waiting for full cargoes. It also carried the Royal Mail and other 'special' cargoes eg gold. Indian Queen had regular sailings to Barbados, Minimichi (Canada), Jamaica and mainlant US ports for several years before she began the Australian route. Unclear whether they are the same ship or different - I haven't compared their tonnages to confirm.

1. Ship name INDIAN QUEEN( 1843 )
Launch Date 31/01/1843( 1843 )
Place of build CORK( 1843 )
Port belonging to CORK( 1843 )
Master WILLIAM L TOOKER( 1843 )
Location of Survey CORK( 1843 )
Voyage information CORK; BARBADOES( 1843 )
Rig BK - BARQUE( 1843 )
Material of construction WOOD( 1843 )
Year of ship completion 1843( 1843 )
Shipbuilder JOSEPH WHEELER( 1843 )
Port of survey abbreviations CRK( 1843 )
Ship owner SIMEON HARDY & SONS( 1843 )
Surveyor GEORGE WRIGHT( 1843 )
Classification A1 FOR 10 YEARS( 1843 )
Destined voyage BARBADOES( 1843 )
Propulsion SAIL( 1843 )
Registered tonnage 272 (OM) 286 (NM)

2. Port Phillip Gazette 4 July 1840
The Shipping Reports since our last, have announced lhe following arrivals; — the Indian Queen, Shreeves, from Madras 17th October,

3. August 1853 Indian Queen 1100tons, Capt Mill, Liverpool (loaded in July at Liverpool for Melbourne - Liverpool Black ball Line of Australian packets)
Indian Queen 1852 wooden ship, 1859 1,041tons, condemned and sold at Valparaiso after collision with iceberg. Ship owned by T. Harrison (associate of James Baines & Co.)
One of the most successful of all the sailing ship lines was Black Ball with its emigrant packets on the Australia run. The Black Ball Line was started in 1852 by James Baines of Liverpool. Baines operated a regular service between the port and Australia, principally Melbourne. Black Ball packets were renowned for their fast voyages. The company captured much of the emigrant trade during the Gold Rush years between 1851 and the late 1860s when the Australian state of Victoria dominated world gold output.
[Merseyside maritime Museum Liverpool, has a picture model of Black Ball three-master, Indian Queen, depicted with pennants flying. The model belonged to Capt John McKirdy, of the Isle of Bute, Scotland, master of the ship 1854 – 5.]
This Indian Queen was a packet ship - Generally, packet trade is any regularly scheduled cargo, passenger and mail trade conducted by ship. The ships are called "packet boats" as their original function was to carry mail.
A "packet ship" was originally a vessel employed to carry post office mail packets to and from British embassies, colonies and outposts. In sea transport, a packet service is a regular, scheduled service, carrying freight and passengers. The ships used for this service are called packet ships or packet boats. The seamen are called packetmen, and the business is called packet trade.
"Packet" can mean a small parcel but, originally meant a parcel of important correspondence or valuable items, for urgent delivery.
Between 1850 & 1852 Indian Queen sailed exclusively between Liverpool England and Trinidad & Barbados, West Indies, Miramichi Canada, and American ports, not to Australia.
The first evidence for "Indian Queen" sailing to Melbourne is the following from Bell's New Weekly Messenger 20 March 1853: LIVERPOOL - ENTERED FOR LOADING - March 17th Indian Queen for Melbourne - also in Public Ledger and Daily Advertiser of 18 March 1853. Thereafter she seems to sail monthly picking up passengers and cargo at London, Bristol and channel ports on her way.

Liverpool Albion 28 April 1856
Indian Queen from Melbourne, at Hobart Town.

Indian Queen to Tasmania 19 Feb 1853
James Baines: [ Indian Queen from Melbourne] [Ocean Chief from Melbourne] Liverpool Hobart 322 migrants

Indian Queen [Picked up James Baines immigrants in Melbourne] London via Melbourne Hobart 193 migrants

1856: Jan. 22 Indian Queen Liverpool via Melbourne Hobart 59 migrants

Migrants in packet boats booked and paid for their passage through shipping/migration agents at the major ports.

BIRTH & BAPTISM
Tipperary Ireland (confirmed by family sources)
Possibly 1830 or 1825 (Tasmanian Police Gazette)
Possibly 1819 (death record)

MIGRATION
Patrick Heffernan arrived Tasmania in "Indian Queen" (confirmed by Police records, family sources)
He could not have arrived before March 1853, the first voyage of Indian Queen on the Australian route. He might have arrived as late as 1856, the last voyage of Indian Queen (en route to NZ) before his marriage in Tasmania.

MARRIAGE
First name(s) Patrick
Last name Heffernan
Birth year -
State Tasmania
Residence Tasmania, Australia
Marriage year 1857
Marriage date 06 Jul 1857
Spouse's first name(s) Mary
Spouse's last name Curran
Marriage place Hobart Town, Tasmania, Australia
[Patrick was a labourer and Mary illiterate. See docs]

MARRIAGE First name(s) Patrick Last name Heffernan Birth year - Residence Tasmania, Australia Marriage year 1857 Marriage date 06 Jul 1857 Spouse's first name(s) Mary Spouse's last name Curran Marriage place Hobart Town, Tasmania, Australia Town - County - State Tasmania Country Australia

Tasmanian Daily News 20 Oct 1857 Patrick Heffernan appointed police constable at Launceston

Patrick lived at Cleveland Tas. when daughter Mary Ann married Thos Bowley.

Launceston Examiner 8 June 1886
A man named Patrick Heffernan was admitted into the Hospital yesterday afternoon from Deloraine, suffering from the effects of a gun burst ing in his hand. Both his hands were cut severely, two fingers of the right hand being blown completely off. The man was detained in the institution for treatment.
[Could this be Patrick Snr or his son, also Patrick?]

DEATH & BURIAL
Patrick died at the Launceston Benevolent Society Hospice in 1903. See docs.

Date of death: 18 Mar 1903
Where died: Benevolent Asylum, Launceston
Registration year: 1903
File number: 776

[I have put my notes re BDMs in Tipperary and Wexford in docs]

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Patrick was NOT the Patrick Heffernan transported from Tipperary 1853 with his brother James, for manslaughter.
FROM A DESCENDANT of CONVICT PATRICK
Patrick Heffernan Jnr's father is named Patrick Heffernan Snr but his dob is 1915 in Ballynonty, Tipperary, Ireland and he was not a free settler. Patrick Snr, along with his brother James Heffernan, were both convicted of murder on 24Mar1835 in Tipperary and sentenced to transportation for life. They both arrived in Sydney on 30 Sep 1835 on the vessel "Backwell".
Patrick Heffernan Snr.'s parents are Humphrey Heffernan and Anastatia Ryan, both from Tipperary, Ireland.
On 01Nov1848 in NSW, Patrick Snr was granted a condition pardon [#48/1993].
On 04Jan1850 at Kings Plains, New South Wales, Patrick Snr married Ann Shaw and on 16Mar1851 at Lachlan, NSW, their first child was born, Patrick Heffernan Jnr. Subsequently they had five more children, Mary Ann, James, Catherine, John and Humphrey before Ann died in childbirth on 07Jun1858 [#5060/1858], along with their son Humphrey. She and Humphrey are buried together in McCarthy's Lane Cemetery, Cranebrook, NSW, grave #41.
On 05Oct1858 at St Nicholas of Myra, Penrith, NSW Patrick Snr married Isabella Moran and they had six children between 1859-1869, namely Cecelia, John, Catherine [Kate], Michael, William and Richard.
Patrick Snr died on 10Dec1869 at Wentworth, Orange, NSW [NSW BDM #5288/1869] and the informant was his son Patrick Jnr. Patrick Snr is buried in the Orange Cemetery in the Catholic portion along with his infant son, Richard.
I am DNA matched with a descendant of Patrick Heffernan Snr and his second wife, Isabella Moran.
My 2x great grandfather Patrick Heffernan Snr. was never a free immigrant, was never in Melbourne or Tasmania and was never married to Mary Curran. The Patrick Snr entered here must be the father of a different Patrick Heffernan Jnr.
[This clearly excludes the possibility that Patrick Heffernan, husband of Mary Curran was a convict from Tipperary]