About Nicholas Delaney

Mrs Macquarie's Chair, Sydney From A Rebel Hand Nicholas Delaney of 1798
Mrs Macquarie's Chair, Botanic Gardens, Sydney. Nicholas built the road round the Domain
_
As a young man living in Ballyellis on the Wicklow/Wexford border, Nicholas Delaney was caught up in the violent events of the Irish Rebellion of 1798.

Inspired by the French Revolution and spurred by the cruelties inflicted under martial law, Catholics and Protestants throughout Ireland, led by the United Irishmen, rose up in the summer of 1798. After initial victories the rebellion was crushed at Vinegar Hill and Government reprisals began.

Nicholas was tried and convicted of murder on the word of a notorious informer, Bridget Dolan. Sentenced to death, he was reprieved and transported as a convict to Australia in 1802 aboard the Atlas II.

On landing he was selected to work for Major George Johnston of the New South Wales Corps, also notorious as the Rum Corps. In 1808 he married the young free settler Elizabeth Bayly (also spellled Bayley or Bailey) and left Johnston's service to work for the Government.

In Sydney and later west of the Blue Mountain range, his road gang built some of Australia's oldest roads. He carried out several building projects for Governor Lachlan Macquarie and some of his work can still be seen today. He rose to become Principal Overseer, Great Western Road.

Nicholas became a farmer and later an innkeeper. One of the first to settle on the other side of the Blue Mountains, to the west of Sydney, he held land and cattle in the Penrith area, then in the Emu Valley, Appin and Bathurst and ran a pub on the Great Western Road near Emu Ferry, where he also ran the ferry boat across the Nepean River.

He and his wife Elizabeth Bayly had twelve children and have over two thousand descendants in Australia, New Zealand, the UK and the United States.


( A biographical memorial to Nicholas Delaney has recently been added on Irish Lives Remembered.)


Home | About Nicholas | Trial and Gaol | Transported | A Convict's Life | Delaney Descent | Reviews of A Rebel Hand
Order | Contact Us | Online research resources


© A Rebel Hand 2010 - 2016