Sarah Murphy: a dear soul.

I first ‘met’ Sarah on the pages of some hand-written family research done a few decades ago. Before the days of internet digitilisation, research meant hours at the State Archives and going through the phone books and cold calling relatives. This is what one of my relatives had done in the 80’s, I even remember receiving a phone call myself from him, but I was a young mother with four small boys in the background so had no real time to engage in much depth with him. He sadly passed away not too long after.

This we knew: Sarah Murphy had married Martin Cupit on the 7^th of November 1862. Where Sarah was from was not so sure. Martin, a convict, and Sarah was a servant, the daughter of a convict born at the Female Factory, the research presents. With a name like that, I presumed she was Irish. Sarah and Martin were married at the home of John Whitmore of Franklin. Minister of the Wesleyan Church Rich. Cook officiated with John and Julian Whitmore as witnesses. Their son William Edward was born around 1867 and a daughter Martina Augusta born 1870. They lived in a house owned by E.A. Warpole in Franklin.[i] Edward Atkyns Warpole was the appointed Police Magistrate in Franklin from 1854 to 1884, so presumably Martin and Sarah were good tenants.[ii]

Presuming his research correct, or at least in the ball park, my recent plunge into the deep end of the family gene pool left me slightly disoriented and struggling to find any ladders out.

My attempt at finding Sarah was to presume perhaps Ancestry.com would lead me to a correct line, (my recent Ancestry dealings had found this was not always the case). My second mistake was to presume Sarah’s mother was a Murphy and my third was to presume Sarah was born in Van Diemen’s Land. Two unnamed female babies born around that time were born to Ellen Murphy and Ann Murphy, both convict women. I research them both and come up with dead ends. I search all 109 female Murphy convicts eliminating them slowly. I search every Murphy birth on the Tasmanian Names register and children on the Queens Orphanage register.

Finally, after deciding I may never find Sarah’s mother and that I was okay with that, I find a Sarah Murphy I had previously missed on the Orphanage register, but with a date a bit later than I was expecting. Sarah Murphy, admitted in 1851, her mother Mary Breen, her father George Murphy, Mary’s ship, the Blackfriar. Everything adds up.

So now I’m starting to form a picture of Sarah. As a ten-year-old girl, Sarah had spent ten months on board the Blackfriar with her mother and 190 or so other Irish women. She would have had long red hair, that lovely lilting, childish Irish accent and at ten, perhaps would have been excited about this adventure and of help to her mother.

                                         
                                                            

                                                                                 
                                                             portrait of a red haired girl by George Frederick Watts 1817-1904


 Did they have any idea of what lay ahead of them in their new home? Upon arrival Sarah was sent to the bleak Queen’s Orphanage in New Town. Here she remained for four years when at fourteen, in 1855, she was old enough to gain employment and was released to Charles Carroll of Hobart. Information on Charles Carroll is thin on the ground, except for the death of the forty-four-year-old Charles at Bathurst Street in 1858. Charles was an Irishman, died of consumption and his occupation was a Messenger. Presumably Sarah was a domestic servant for him and as an Irishman, perhaps he was pleased to hire an Irish lass. I wonder if Sarah had any contact with her mother during these years? Mary was serving in Hobart Town at this time and would not gain her certificate of freedom until 1857.
 [iii]

 

Campbell Street and Bathurst Street intersection ,  date unknown.                                                       stors.tas.gov.au 

How Sarah ended up at Franklin marrying Martin isn’t known, it can only be hoped her life prospects were looking as rosy as possible in a fast developing town south of Hobart in 1862. 

By the 1830’s Franklin was the major town in the Huon Valley. The poor, overland route to Hobart was nothing more than a bush track on which mail was carried in on foot twice a week. As it was dangerous due to bushrangers, most trade and transport was done by boat. In 1838 convict labour was used to construct a canal through South Egg Island, an island in the river at Franklin. This would enable more direct access to the busy port of Franklin from all directions. Life at Franklin meant a solid connection with the water and boating, and with timber, as the Huon Valley was then very heavily wooded. This was true for the Cupits. Pioneering here was a life of hard work and risks. [iv]

 

                                                                   Source: http://www.auscanal.org.au/AustralianCanals.php 

 Sadly, at age thirty-five, in 1876, Sarah died. The family story states that William, then about nine, and Martin had returned from Egg Island without William’s red coat. This was the 24^th of December, so presumably the young lad was hot, took off his coat and left it there, as children do. Sarah had made the coat and the tale is told that she got so upset that she had a heart attack. An inquest was held, but owing to Christmas Day on the Monday, was postponed by a day. The inquest report would concur somewhat with this story. The inquest stated that ‘while preparing Sunday dinner, (Sarah) came into the back part of her house, saucepan in hand when she was noticed by the children to suddenly drop down exclaiming “oh dear! oh dear!”. Dr Smith was immediately called in, but the woman on his arrival was quite dead. The deceased has always been noted for a hard working, industrious woman, and it is generally believed that her life has been greatly shortened by exposure to rough weather and carrying heavy logs of wood.’ Verdict of death was returned as natural causes.[v]

Was the question asked, “William where is your coat?” immediately before her collapse? The family story could only have come from William himself. Did he spend his whole life believing his mother’s death was indeed his fault? And believing it enough to tell his own children this was the case? Martin died two years later, the day after Martina’s 8^th birthday. What became of the orphan children after this is unclear. William remained in the Franklin area all his life, Martina moved on and lost all contact with her brother. Neither Martin or Sarah had family to take the children. Perhaps William at age 11 or 12 could labour for a local family.

                                                  William Cupit

William’s eldest daughter Ada was born in 1892. Her grandmother had been gone sixteen years by then, but certainly many of Sarah’s peers were still alive. This is how a scant piece of remembrance of Sarah has filtered down into the family archives.

Mrs. Diefenbach was Sarah’s friend. Ludwich (Louis) and Maria Diefenbach arrived in the state in 1855 aboard the America and settled in Franklin where they were widely known and respected pioneers. Maria died at age 88 in 1918, so certainly would have known Ada and all Sarah’s grandchildren, including my grandmother.[vi]

“She had red hair”, Maria Diefenbach told Ada “and she was a dear soul”.

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[i] Hobart Town gazette 1872 page 1391 hobart Archives

[ii] 1889 'Local & General.', The Tasmanian (Launceston, Tas. : 1881 - 1895), 23 March, p. 23. , viewed 09 Jul 2018, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article199519953

[iii] https://stors.tas.gov.au/RGD35-1-5$init=RGD35-1-5p269jpg

[iv] 1918 'OBITUARY', Huon Times (Franklin, Tas. : 1910 - 1933), 6 December, p. 5. , viewed 09 Jul 2018, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article135713912

[v] 1877 'FRANKLIN HUON.', The Cornwall Chronicle (Launceston, Tas. : 1835 - 1880), 5 January, p. 3. , viewed 09 Jul 2018, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article72522090

[vi]1918 'OBITUARY', Huon Times (Franklin, Tas. : 1910 - 1933),