Maurice Charles Philip O'Connell KCH (1766 - 1848)

Born 11 Sep 1766 in Riverston, Kerry, Ireland

Husband of Mary (Bligh) O'Connell — married 8 May 1810 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Descendants

Died 25 May 1848 at age 81 in Sydney, New South Wales (Australia)

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Biography

Maurice O'Connell KCH is Notable.

Lieutenant General Sir Maurice O'Connell KCH was an Irish-born English Army general whose distinguished career culminated with his appointment as commander of military forces and lieutenant-governor of the Colony of New South Wales.

Lieutenant General Sir Maurice O'Connell

Maurice Charles Philip O'Connell was born on 11th September 1766 in Riverston, County Kerry, Ireland; the younger son of Charles Philip O'Connell. His family belonged to the Tarmons branch of the Kerry clan. He initially studied in Paris for the Roman Catholic priesthood but, in 1785, his father gave permission for him to enter military school. ^[1]

early military career

By 1792 he was a Captain in the French émigré forces serving on the French frontier under the Duke of Brunswick. Two years later he was a captain in the 4th Regiment, Irish Brigade under his cousin Daniel O'Connell, General Count O'Connell, who had successfully led the campaign for Catholic emancipation in England. He went on to serve in Surinam and Granada, before being appointed brevet Major in January 1805 and transferred to the 5th Regiment, with which he saw much action in the West Indies and was distinguished at Roseau in Dominica when unsucessfully attacked by greatly superior French forces the following month. For his services in Dominica he was thanked by the House of Assembly and presented with a sword worth 100 guineas, and the committee of the Patriotic Fund at Lloyds, London, gave him a sword worth £50 and plate worth £100 (today he would have earned some medals). ^[2]

New South Wales

In 1806 he transferred to the 73rd Regiment of Foot, under Lieutenant Colonel Lachlan Macquarie. In 1809 O'Connell was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and appointed commanding officer of the 73rd Regiment; setting sail for the Colony of New South Wales with the new governor, Colonel Lachlan Macquarie. To receive that appointment was quite an honour as it was Macquarie's task to settle the military coup that had occurred in the colony two years previously and restore law and order; the possibility of the regiment encountering 'fireworks' was strong. The following year was an auspicious one for O'Connell; being commissioned lieutenant-governor in January and marrying Mary Putland in May, in Government House. Mary was the second daughter of the former governor, Captain (later Admiral) William Bligh RN, and widow of Lieutenant John Putland RN, aide de camp to Mary's father. The day before the marriage, Macquarie granted O'Connell 2,500 acres (1,012 ha), which he named Riverston. On 27th June, he granted Mrs O'Connell 1,055 acres (427 ha) in the district of Evan, adjoining Frogmore, granted to her by Governor Philip King; she now had 3,000 acres (1,214 ha), 7,000 head of stock and £400 a year. ^[2] Maurice and Mary would have five sons and three daughters.

latter military career

Concerns that Mary was a source of increasing friction and division in the colony – she, understandably, never forgave those who had undermined her father's government (remembering that her first husband had died just four days before the mutiny) – led Macquarie to arrange the transfer of O'Connell and his regiment to Ceylon (Sri Lanka) in 1813. O'Connell served his king and country well and was promoted to Colonel in 1819. He left Ceylon and retired to England on half-pay, where he was promoted to Major General in 1830. In 1834 O'Connell was posted to Malta, and the following year he was created Knight Commander of the Royal Guelphic Order (regarded as a foreign order, with members of the order not entitled to style themselves as "Sir" unless they were also created Knight Bachelor). ^[2]

return to New South Wales

In 1838 Sir Maurice and Lady O'Connell returned to Sydney where he had been appointed Commander of Forces in the Colony of New South Wales (then still inclusive of Victoria and Queensland). On arrival, Sir Maurice purchased five acres, 12 roods and 7 perches at Potts Point from Hamilton Collins Semphill, and had a stately villa constructed on the site, that he named Tarmons. ^[3][4] In November 1841, he was promoted to Lieutenant General. O'Connell served as a nominated member of the partly-elected Legislative Council of the colony between 1845 and 1848. Then, in 1846 he became the Administrator of the colony for the weeks between the governorships of George Gipps (1837–46) and Charles FitzRoy (1846–54). He was succeeded in 1847 as commander of the forces in New South Wales by Major General Edward Wynyard. ^[2]

final parade and legacy

O'Connell passed away, aged 81 years, on 25th May 1848 at Tarmons. ^[5] He was given a full military funeral at St James' Church, Sydney. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Sydney had never seen so large a gathering as attended the procession of 150 carriages for Sir Maurice's funeral, which wound through the streets from Tarmons to St James, testament to the esteem in which Sir Maurice O'Connell was held. ^[6] His widow retired initially to Paris and then to London, where she passed away in 1864.

O'Connell, New South Wales, was named after him by surveyor George Evans, when Evans followed the route of Blaxland, Lawson, and Wentworth in crossing the Blue Mountains; ^[7] as were streets in Sydney, Melbourne and North Adelaide.

Sources

1. ↑ Wikipedia profile: Maurice Charles O'Connell; accessed 27 Sep 2019
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3} O'Connell, Sir Maurice Charles (1768–1848), Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 1967; accessed online 27 Sep 2019
3. ↑ Dowling, James A. Potts Point, Darling Point and Neighbourhood, Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, vol 13, 1927
4. ↑ Stapleton, M and Stackhouse, J. A Walk Around the Cross, Historic Houses Trust, Sydney, 1980
5. ↑ New South Wales Death Index #873/1848 V1848873 33B; registered at Darlinghurst
6. ↑ The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW: 1842-1954) Tue 30 May 1848 Page 2 Funeral of Sir Maurice O'Connell; accessed 27 Sep 2019
7. ↑ Two Journals of Early Exploration in New South Wales; accessed 27 Sep 2019

• "Family Tree," database, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org : modified 09 June 2016, 23:50), entry for Lt.Gen. Sr Maurice Charles O'Connell(PID https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/4:1:L7PS-N8D); contributed by various users.
• Dictionary of Sydney entry
• Wikidata: Item Q6792944