Help with Francis Joseph McNally, baptized in Liverpool by Father Nugent

[Ashtone]

Birmingham Daily Gazette
06 January 1865

[Ashtone]

This might be Rebecca, as well. One year earlier (1864). The Sheffield Police record indicates this woman's birth year is 1835 (close enough to the RM arrested in Liverpool and Wolverhampton).

Sheffield Independent
09 July 1864

[Ashtone]

Not sure if this is Rebecca, although the record image mentions this woman's husband is named James.

Manchester Prison Registers 1847-1881

Event year 1877
First name(s) Rebecca
Last name Mc Nally
Age 40
Locality of record  Belle Vue prison, West Gorton
Birth year 1837
Birth place Scotland
When received date  May 1877
Place  West Gorton

[aelish]

Thanks, Ashtone. These are helpful - I've searched a lot on Newspapers.com - but have not found articles. I do have the criminal court record for the Liverpool 1878 conviction (which references the Wolverhampton conviction).

I have some evidence of a James and Rebecca McNally involved in similar behavior in Philadelphia, PA. And, to make things more confusing, there was a woman named Kate Armstrong who was a noted pickpocket along the east coast of the US in the 1870s-1890s. She used several aliases, one of which was Rebecca McNally.

https://criminalsrevised.org/132-kate-armstrong/

Kate Armstrong doesn't appear to be my RM - the timelines don't reconcile with Armonstrong's activity and RM's presence in Philadelphia, having children and getting them baptized there.

I do think RM engaged in some level of pickpocketing, larceny. In the UK and perhaps in the U.S.

[Paco]

I had a look on FreeBMD for likely births and found the following; George Sept Qtr 1869 Prescott; Mary Ann Dec. Qtr. 1865 Prescott; That is the only ones I found in Prescott, however in South Shields Co Durham there is a Francis McNally Mar Qtr 1878, and  Rebecca McNally South Shields Co Durham Mar. Qtr 1876. This last one for Rebecca would have only made her 5 years old on the 1881 census, so may not be the two you are looking for.
Regards.

[heywood]

I had a look on FreeBMD for likely births and found the following; George Sept Qtr 1869 Prescott; Mary Ann Dec. Qtr. 1865 Prescott; That is the only ones I found in Prescott, however in South Shields Co Durham there is a Francis McNally Mar Qtr 1878, and  Rebecca McNally South Shields Co Durham Mar. Qtr 1876. This last one for Rebecca would have only made her 5 years old on the 1881 census, so may not be the two you are looking for.
Regards.

Mary Ann McNally b 1865, Prescot has mmn Durkan
George 1869 has mmn Murphy

Added
The two South Shields births have mmn McAffee.

[aelish]

Thank you, @Paco and @heywood... and the MMN for Rebecca in South Shields is McAfee. 

[Ashtone]

Rebecca appears to be all over the place with her pick-pocketing arrests. Were those McNally children actually born in Prescot, as the workhouse register suggests?

And did James and Rebecca ever marry? Is there a marriage record? The births could be registered under Rebecca's maiden name.

And who arranged/paid for the children's passage to the USA in 1882? Was it Father Nugent?

[heywood]

This Father Nugent?
https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/father-james-nugent-1822-1905