Mary (Connor) Alterator
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Mary Ann (Connor) Alterator (abt. 1814 - 1876)

Mary Ann Alterator formerly Connor aka Alterator Crina Creanor Lamb
Born about in Mayo, Irelandmap
Daughter of [father unknown] and [mother unknown]
[sibling(s) unknown]
Wife of — married 3 Feb 1842 in Stroud, New South Wales, Australiamap
Wife of — married about 1848 in Goonoo Goonoomap [uncertain]
Wife of — married about 1854 in Sconemap [uncertain]
Descendants descendants
Died at about age 62 in Guan Gua Creek near Scone, New South Wales, Australiamap
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Profile last modified | Created 5 Nov 2014
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Contents

Biography

Mary (Connor) Alterator was a convict after the Third Fleet transported to New South Wales

Mary Ann Connor

Mary Ann Connor was born around 1814 in Ballina, County Mayo, Ireland, . It is most likely that she was the daughter of labourer John Barry and his de-facto wife Mary Connor / Connors, as she used both Barry and Connors or Connor as her surname at different times. She is also known as Mary Molloy by some branches of the family (Thomas' side). As Connor is the name she used most often and the one she was transported to Australia under, this is used for genealogy records. Her last husband, Robert Lamb completed her death certificate and cited her parents as “John Perry” (he probably mistook Barry) and “Mary Ann formerly Connors”.

"Our" Mary Ann was an unmarried kitchen maid who was indicted for “Man robbery” – this would be stealing from a person with violence, as opposed to simple theft, which is Larceny. She was convicted at Mayo Assizes on 15 Jan 1840 and sentenced to 7 years transportation.

She left a son ,James Connors, behind in Ireland, which is strange because many of the women on The Margaret brought their children. He may have been old enough to be left with family at home, or he may have been put into an orphanage. She never saw him again.

The third voyage of the convict ship “Margaret” departed Kingstown harbour, Dublin on 30 April 1840 with 131 female prisoners, 21 children of convicts and 17 free female settlers. Mr Swanzy (Swansea) also travelled as a free settler, and was noted in the Surgeon's Journal as taking liberties with some of the convict women.

One hundred and thirty female prisoners arrived in Port Jackson on 18 Aug 1840, one having died early in the voyage. There had been two births.

The Margaret 3 had two convicts named Mary Connor, the other a 15 year old child’s maid from Donegal, convicted of stealing cotton. It is this Mary Connor who was granted a Ticket of Leave on 26 March 1845 stating she is “allowed to remain in service of Mrs Moore, Balmain” and Certificate of Freedom 46/942 in 1846.

“Our” Mary Ann was no beauty: 26 years old, 4’11” tall, with a ruddy complexion, blonde (sandy curly) hair, bluish eyes, much pock-pitted face, with two missing front teeth, several scars on her arms and on top of that she was epileptic. She suffered several episodes on the journey out, as recorded in the Surgeon’s Journal.

Irish convicts were not preferred as household servants and many of the women on the Margaret were taken up by the AA Company, which meant assignment to one of their remote pioneer stations in the Hunter or Peel Valleys. Mary went to Farm No. 2, which is now Stroud, the home base of the Chilean muleteers who were delivering supplies to the Company’s Liverpool Plain properties.

Mary Ann Alterator

Mary fell pregnant within a year of arriving at Stroud, and gave birth to a son Thomas in 1841. On the birth certificate his name is Thomas Conners, son of James and Mary Conners.

There is no record of a convict James Conners / Connors at Stroud, so the name may be fictitious and the father of Thomas may have been Agustin Alterator, who would later be known as Houston Alterator.

Whether he was Thomas' father or not, Houston applied for permission to marry Mary soon after (necessary because she was a convict) and they were married on 3 February 1842. Their names are recorded as Augustine Aldriette and Mary Barry, reverting to an earlier alias.

By strange coincidence, John Barry was also the name of the ship that brought Agustin Alderete to Australia from Chile, and the name of one of the witnesses at their wedding, Perhaps it was her comment to that witness "Oh, that is my father's name" which led to Barry being recorded as her surname.

The only Catholic churches at that time were at Sydney and Parramatta. Their marriage certificate (like that of Bibiana Reba & Bridget Clarke in 1847) says they were married by Father Michael Brennan at St Mary’s Church, Sydney and the witnesses John Barry and John Tooth are from Sydney.

But it is hard to believe that two poor farm workers, one of them a convict with restricted travel, would have the time or money to make the long trip to Sydney for this. It is far more likely that Father Brennan from St Mary’s Church was traveling around outlying areas to perform the sacraments and he conducted the ceremony locally.

Their son James Alterator was born on 12 May 1845, also at Stroud.

Mary Connor ex Margaret 3 received a Certificate of Freedom number 47/ 651 on 24 August 1847.

Mary Ann Creanor

Mary apparently took her sons and left Stroud, and Houston, shortly after and began a de-facto relationship with Samuel Creanor (Santo Crina / Crena), another of the Chilean huasos, at the AA Company Peel River Estate (Goonoo Goonoo).

She was almost certainly the mother of his son Robert William (later Old Billy) Creanor, born there in 1849. Old Billy was close friends with her eldest son Thomas Alterator, probably because they grew up as brothers (Thomas was 7 and James 4 when William was born) and Robert William’s son Jack looked after blind Thomas in his old age. Robert William’s death certificate cites his father as “Samuel Creanor” and his mother as “Mary A Creanor”.

A reminiscence by Thomas Alterator, published by the Scone Advocate on 25 January 1923, says “at the age of six years he was taken to Goonoo Goonoo” (by his mother, after leaving Houston) “but in 1851, with his parents and two brothers,” (the ‘parents’ would be Mary and Samuel and the ‘two brothers’ James Alterator and Robert William Creanor) “he retraced his steps south and found himself at Turanville, then held by Mr Wm Dangar. The movements of the family were very rapid just about this period, and work for short periods was obtained at Blairmore which was then in the possession of Mrs McIntrye, of Pitnacree, but was managed by Mr Donald McIntyre (her brother-in-law). From Blairmore, the next stop was at St Heliers, which estate was managed for Colonel Dumaresq by a man named Masters. The family then moved to St Aubins owned by Captain Dumaresq. Thornthwaite, then in the ownership of the Docker family, was his next stopping place.” This explains the origin of the Alterator and Creanor families in Scone: they arrived there as one family.

Mary Ann Lamb

Although there is no record of his death, Santo Crena/Samuel Creanor may have passed away shortly after the family arrived back in Scone and Mary married or began a de-facto marriage with Robert Lamb. The parish record for James Alterator's 1868 marriage gives his mother's name as "Mary Ann nee Connors, after Crena now Lamb". According to her death certificate, she was 39 at the time she "married" Robert, making the date around 1854.

Mary had a son by Robert Lamb, but he was “demised” by the time of her death in 1876 and nothing more is known about him.

On Mary’s death certificate, her third husband does not mention any previous marriages or children and they may have tried to bury her convict past in her later years. That is not to be unexpected. Mary was a landowner and times had changed, it paid not to mention convict background in the now burgeoning colony. And many a convict successfully covered up his or her past by stating an arrival date after 1842 (the year the last convict ships arrived) – who could check it up in those days?

In 1868 Mary Ann Lamb ceded land that she and her sons had selected at Guan Gua Creek (now Cuan Creek) in the Scone area to her neighbour, Mary Ann Ring, to be incorporated into the property Ringwood, although she and her sons continued to live there.

At the age of 62, Mary Ann Connor-Alterator-Creanor-Lamb died at Scone on 20 December 1876 of Phthisis, which means “wasting” and was generally applied to enfeeblement & loss of weight from tuberculosis. She was buried as Mary Ann Lamb at Scone cemetery.

Robert Lamb “parents unknown” is recorded as dying in Scone in 1891, some 15 years after Mary Ann.

Sources

Mary Ann Connor birth & arrival in Australia

1. Colonial Office and Predecessors: Alphabetical list of convicts with particulars 1788-1825, 1840-1842; The National Archives Microfilm Publication CO 207/9 – The National Archives of the UK (TNA), Kew, Surrey, England. (In Australian archives the collection is referenced as CO207/3)

2. Certificate of Freedom 47/ 651 dated 24 Aug 1847; Certificates of freedom 23 Jan 1840-31 Jul 1863; Reel 1024, Items 4/4409, Numbers 47/491-47/739 – State Records Authority of New South Wales; Kingswood New South Wales, Australia;

3. Irish Convicts to New South Wales 1788-1849; genealogy website of Peter Mayberry – http://members.pcug.org.au/~ppmay/convicts.htm

Marriage – Augustine Aldriette & Mary Barry

1. Marriage Certificate NSW BDM 497/1842 V1842497 120 & BDM 497/1842 V1842497 130 (28 Dec 1868) – New South Wales Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages; Sydney New South Wales, Australia

Mary Ann Lamb death

1. Death Certificate NSW BDM 8717/1877 (20 Dec 1876 at Scone); New South Wales Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages; Sydney New South Wales, Australia;

FOOTNOTE

Many family genealogists cite Mary Ann Connor marrying Samuel Creanor's (and probably her) son Robert William Creanor, which means she was the Mary Ann who bore his 4 sons William, John, Thomas and George between 1874 and 1879. A bit difficult, since she was around 60 when the first was born and dead by the time the last two came along. The name of the bride on Robert William Creanor’s 1873 marriage certificate is Mary Ann Ryan.

Others cite Mary Ann Connor marrying John Ring but this is also incorrect. Mary Ann Ring (nee Ellis) came from Co. Wicklow and was fifteen years younger than Mary Ann Connor. Her husband John Ring, an ex-convict who had also worked at Thornthwaite, died in 1867, leaving her with 6 children aged between 12 and 5.

CONVICT RECORDS

Colonial Office and Predecessors: Alphabetical list of convicts with particulars 1788-1825, 1840-1842; CO207/3

LIST of 131 FEMALE CONVICTS by the Ship MARGARET (3), CANNEY Master; COLIN A. BROWNING Surgeon Superintendent; Arrived from IRELAND on the 17th August 1840
  • Name Connor Mary
  • Age 26
  • Education None
  • Religion Catholic
  • Single, Married or Widower Single
  • Children --
  • Native Place Mayo
  • Trade or Calling Kitchen Maid
  • Offence Man Robbery
  • Tried -- Where Mayo --When 15 January 1840
  • Sentence 7 Years
  • Former Convictions None
  • Height -- Feet 4 -- Inches 11
  • Complexion Ruddy and much pock pitted
  • Colour of --Hair Sandy and curly -- Eyes Bluish
  • Particular Marks or Scars. Remarks Lost two front upper teeth, several scars on forehead, on face, and on right arm, large scar inside upper left arm
A later notation in the columns for Colonial History records Certificate of Freedom 47/651

NSW State Records -- Online Search -- Convict Records

  • Surname CONNOR
  • First name Mary
  • Vessel Margaret
  • Year 1840
  • Number 47/0651
  • Date 24 Aug 1847
  • Record Type Certificate of Freedom
  • Citation [4/4409; Reel 1024]

NSW BDM Marriage Certificate 1270 / 1842 V18421270 91

  • Groom's Surname ALDIRETE
  • Groom's First Name AUGUSTIN
  • Bride's Surname BARRY
  • Bride's First Name MARY
  • District LD (LD code is Roman Catholic - St Mary's, Sydney)




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Comments: 2

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MIchael, have you considered the very real possibility that the name John Barry, reported as Mary's father, was actually the name of the ship that Agustin arrived on? That was its name, The John Barry. I suspect that the person recording the details got them wrong and since both Mary and Agustin were illiterate, it was never corrected.
It is indeed most likely that the name of her father was incorrectly recorded, although John Barry, the name of the ship Agustin arrived on, is repeated as a witness in other certificates, so that may truly be a coincidental fact, But for it also to be her father's name stretches likelihood a bit far.
posted by Michael Lee
edited by Michael Lee

Rejected matches › Ann (Lamb) Halliwell (1815-)

C  >  Connor  |  A  >  Alterator  >  Mary Ann (Connor) Alterator

Categories: Convicts from Ireland to Australia | Convicts After the Third Fleet