Nicholas Delaney and Elizabeth Bayly
Laurence Thomas Delaney ('Pop') and Frances
The beginning of a family tree
Our Delaney family tree starts with two mysteries. Just who were Nicholas and his wife, Elizabeth Bayly?
Nicholas, we know, came from the Wicklow/Wexford borders, and his mother and uncle lived in the little township of Ballyellis, near Carnew. Apart from the fact that he was a landless, illiterate labourer, that's all we know about him until his trial.
Elusive
Elizabeth is even more elusive. She was a free settler, and so there is very little documentation of her life before she married Nicholas.
Genealogists are fairly certain that she was not Irish. She might have been Welsh or English. Wherever she came from, she was of sturdy stock. She bore Nicholas 12 children, of whom at least two died in childhood - a low number at the time.
They were: Mary Ann, who died a baby; John, a successful man, twice married; Thomas, our ancestor, born in 1812; James and William; Nicholas, who may have died young; Charles, whose hand was damaged as a child; Jane, like Charles, sent to an orphan school and then given into the charge of their big brother John; the twins Martha and Edward; Matthew, born in the same year as the twins but who faded from history (was he a triplet who died?); and lastly Clara.
After Nicholas died, Elizabeth married three more times, but there is no record of her having further children.
Thomas and Lucy
In January 1834 Thomas married Lucy Simpson, herself the daughter of two convicts, Sarah Marshall and John Simpson. Theirs, too, was a large family, with Lucy also bearing 12 children. Jane, the first, died a baby; then came John, another Jane, William, Sarah, Wilfred, Edward and Clara. Their son Thomas, always called Tom, who is our ancestor, was born in 1851; then came Mary Ann, Nicholas (Nick), Andrew (Andy) and Charles.
Another mystery
Tom married Mary Maude Wilson, whose own parents had a somewhat hazy past: her father, Robert Sandon Wilson, known in the family as 'the man of mystery', came from nowhere and returned there after a few years of marriage to Sarah Emma Henley - or was she Sarah Emma Dicks? Another unsolved puzzle in our tangled family tree. Mary's sister Emma married Andy Delaney, Tom's brother.
Mary and Tom had five children from their 1875 marriage: Ethel, who married Michael Maher and had one son, Laurence (Laurie); their only son, Laurence Thomas in 1880; Florence (Flo) and two little girls, Winnie and Ella, who died young. Several of the photographs which illustrate A Rebel Hand were taken by Flo.
Travel
Laurence Thomas, known to our family as Pop, broke away from the family tradition of working the land and left Moyne Farm as a young man. He travelled the world and finally settled in London with his wife, Rebecca Anne (Betty) Winter, where their only child, Patricia, was born. During WWII she lived with her father in Sydney and became an announcer for the ABC.
After the war Patricia returned to the UK where, as a postgraduate at Oxford, she met and married a handsome Welshman, Aidan Lloyd Owen. They had three children, Frances, Katharine and David. David and his wife, Polly (nee Gunn), have a daughter, Bethan, and a son, Trystan.
Patricia and Frances are the authors of A Rebel Hand: Nicholas Delaney of 1798: From Ireland to Australia.
Our Delaney family tree starts with two mysteries. Just who were Nicholas and his wife, Elizabeth Bayly?
Nicholas, we know, came from the Wicklow/Wexford borders, and his mother and uncle lived in the little township of Ballyellis, near Carnew. Apart from the fact that he was a landless, illiterate labourer, that's all we know about him until his trial.
Elusive
Elizabeth is even more elusive. She was a free settler, and so there is very little documentation of her life before she married Nicholas.
Genealogists are fairly certain that she was not Irish. She might have been Welsh or English. Wherever she came from, she was of sturdy stock. She bore Nicholas 12 children, of whom at least two died in childhood - a low number at the time.
They were: Mary Ann, who died a baby; John, a successful man, twice married; Thomas, our ancestor, born in 1812; James and William; Nicholas, who may have died young; Charles, whose hand was damaged as a child; Jane, like Charles, sent to an orphan school and then given into the charge of their big brother John; the twins Martha and Edward; Matthew, born in the same year as the twins but who faded from history (was he a triplet who died?); and lastly Clara.
After Nicholas died, Elizabeth married three more times, but there is no record of her having further children.
Thomas and Lucy
In January 1834 Thomas married Lucy Simpson, herself the daughter of two convicts, Sarah Marshall and John Simpson. Theirs, too, was a large family, with Lucy also bearing 12 children. Jane, the first, died a baby; then came John, another Jane, William, Sarah, Wilfred, Edward and Clara. Their son Thomas, always called Tom, who is our ancestor, was born in 1851; then came Mary Ann, Nicholas (Nick), Andrew (Andy) and Charles.
Another mystery
Tom married Mary Maude Wilson, whose own parents had a somewhat hazy past: her father, Robert Sandon Wilson, known in the family as 'the man of mystery', came from nowhere and returned there after a few years of marriage to Sarah Emma Henley - or was she Sarah Emma Dicks? Another unsolved puzzle in our tangled family tree. Mary's sister Emma married Andy Delaney, Tom's brother.
Mary and Tom had five children from their 1875 marriage: Ethel, who married Michael Maher and had one son, Laurence (Laurie); their only son, Laurence Thomas in 1880; Florence (Flo) and two little girls, Winnie and Ella, who died young. Several of the photographs which illustrate A Rebel Hand were taken by Flo.
Travel
Laurence Thomas, known to our family as Pop, broke away from the family tradition of working the land and left Moyne Farm as a young man. He travelled the world and finally settled in London with his wife, Rebecca Anne (Betty) Winter, where their only child, Patricia, was born. During WWII she lived with her father in Sydney and became an announcer for the ABC.
After the war Patricia returned to the UK where, as a postgraduate at Oxford, she met and married a handsome Welshman, Aidan Lloyd Owen. They had three children, Frances, Katharine and David. David and his wife, Polly (nee Gunn), have a daughter, Bethan, and a son, Trystan.
Patricia and Frances are the authors of A Rebel Hand: Nicholas Delaney of 1798: From Ireland to Australia.
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