Searching for origins of: MCNALLY, Catharine Christiana

[regross]

looking at ROOK in the NLA and came across a THOMAS ROOK sentenced to 4 years hard labour at Newcastle for larceny in 1815. ANother MAttew ROOK aged 37 in 1828 as an absconding convict i VDL.

Looked again at the Catharine Rook and James Mcanally article
http://newspapers.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/search?searchTerm=catharine+rook&textSearchScope=full&facet=decade:1810
and wondered

http://newspapers.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/8645326?searchTerm=catharine+rook
one Catharine Rook sent to the female factory for drunkeness in 1830 again unlikley to be the Mrs Rook or the 1768 Catherine Rook

As you say JM lots of ROOKs around but not many on archival sources.

Lots for William ROOK seems he was well respected it seems as was teh Mrs Rook you found and as was Catharine McNally. (IS this a clue?)

Robyn

[majm]

Hi Robyn,

Yes, well respected  its a very good clue...

I have found a William ROOK in the third fleet .... errr ... was Thomas Ransom in the third fleet ?

Anyways, that particular William Rook was sentenced to 7 years on 9 Oct 1788, at sessions at (can't read the writing 'parts of Kersetern' , but from memory its one of those places in Lancashire .... ie in that UK county opposite Ireland 

There's a William ROOK on the 1806 Muster, a sealer with some crew names that are hard to decipher ... I'll post that info later, preparations for our evening meal are intruding on this search ... 

Cheers,  JM

[regross]

Yep you have to speculate on that link of the level of respectablity which was easily lost in  those times.

So can we have Mrs ROOK, mother to William ROOK master seaman, father to Catharine ROOK possible married to John/James MCannally (McNally[Wilson[) perhaps under pressure of prying eyes as they shipped off whaleing together, then subsequently deserted or abandonded  by him and taken in by Ransom who may well have known William Rook and possibley Mrs Rook? (?norfolk Island connection for all?)

Robyn

[majm]

Umm,

1806 Muster, these names all listed together, and noting it has all four as in the employ of H Kable (a famous name there, Henry Kable !), no details of their first arrival to OZ ... 

Wm ROOK, Sealing
Mich ROGERS, Sealing, (H Kable's Apprentice)
John ROGERS, Sealing
Emanl RODERICK, Sealing

I will go out on a limb and say that Wm ROOK as noted on that 1806 muster was same William ROOK on the Rosetta etc ... ie a sealer and whaler who seems to have visited : Macquarie island, Bass Straits, New Zealand etc in the very early decades of settlements, and must have known Thomas RANSOM ....  to me, there's a heap of instances and co-incidences ....

Wondering if perhaps Catherine ROOK / Mcnally was born/raised on N I ... and also wondering if there's a concise list of names of those who went to VDL from that first settlement at N I ....   the movement was over a period of years, Thomas was among the last to leave in about Feb 1814 from memory ....  1814, plus eleven years ... err..... that's got that familiar ring of 1825 and those prying eyes raising the impediment again 

Perhaps there's a list of those born on NI ... I can think of Norfolk King, and also wasn't W C Wentworth born there too ... Oh well, trying not to sidetrack, so back to Catharine Christiana McNally ...

So close, yet not really any further than the first page of Wiggy's first thread .... 51 pages later ....  ... 

Cheers,
JM

[regross]

Hi all

thinking of individuals AGES and the time line:
Is it  likely that Catharine ROOK may have been Williams's SISTER

Have posted a query on NI page on face book anad will also try another NI ,mailing list.

modified to add,
Had one reply from NI facebook page.

William Rooke:  arrived on "Matilda"  June 1791 as convict;  left after
October 1796  No information about the other two.

Robyn

[davclem]

I don't think we are looking for  Rooks i VDL- if Catherine Rook is relevant, she has become Catherine McNally by the time she gets to VDL.

There are over 30 William Rook references in newspapers ,the earliest in 1805 when he has permission to go southward, then 1813, 1814,1815, 1818,1820,1822,1823 and 1824, on shipsWoodlark, Newcastle, Mnerva, Rosetta, Lynx,and belinda, and 10 times on Elizabeth and Mary. He was also administrator of the estate of William Earl who died on Mcquarie Island in 1812. He was  a sealer, usually master- he is the archtype of the Sydney sealers and probably deserves a book of his own- they were sometimes away months, sometimes years eft on an island until the ship returned.  Catherine Rook is only mentioned once in the Perseverance record in 1811- I will double check the 1811/1814 musters and HRA on Monday for a futher reference- but if she was still crewing ( I don't think so or she would appear in the papers- some list a crew of up to 34 all by name) then she would be likely to be missed from the Muster.

David

[davclem]

ROOK, William. Master, "Rosetta"
 
1816 Sep 13
 Instructions concerning recapture of "Trial" from pirates (Reel 6005; 4/3495 pp.124-5)
 
1816 Sep 28
 Giving particulars of voyage of "Rosetta" to and from Howe's Island in pursuit of "Trial" which had been seized by convicts to make escape (Reel 6045; 4/1735 pp.131-9
 
David

[majm]

Hi David and Hi Robyn  

I think it would be worthwhile to consider a link to ROOK in VDL ... afterall that Mrs Rook died there in 1817 and was ex NI ...  Are there any ROOK females on early VDL Musters ?    Of course, if Catharine on the Perserverance was perhaps William Rook's sister or daughter .... then perhaps she was their cook ... and afterall she must have been a grand cook by the number of glowing reports on her hospitality skills from the 1820's and later .....

Err.... re "Trial" chase  in 1816 .... any mention of William's crew .... or of the names of the convicts 

But on other hand, I have spotted a chap whose alias was James McNally !  

Sentenced to 7 years on 18 April 1804 ... arrived on Fortune and Alexander in 1806 (to PJ) ... his name seems to have been noted on transportation as James Mcquire (although indexed as McQuire, but the "Q" looks to me like "q", its NOT like the numeral "2" which is how I expect to see "q" capitalised ...

I'll try to figure out if that chap on the Fortune and Alexander of 1806  became a sealer  

Cheers,  JM
MODIFYING TO ADD, forgot to mention the 18 April 1804 trial was in LANCASHIRE ... sorry

[majm]

Guess what, 

James McGuire, ex the Fortune is Indexed on the Col Sec papers....

In 1810 he was recommended as a pilot at Newcastle .... That's a tricky port to enter even now ... remember the Pasha Bulka ...

That puts James McGuire alias James McNally ex the Fortune & Alexander as a VERY likely candidate for the chap on the Perserverence in May 1811, particularly as his trial was 18 April 1804, and sentence was 7 years and on 20 April 1811 he was claiming his time was up !  The immediate question becomes "from where does the alias of Wilson fit in"
 
Cheers,  JM