Catherine (Keogh) Holbrook (abt. 1831 - 1875)

Biography

No birth has been established in Scarriff, County Clare, Ireland for Catherine Keogh (there are a number of Catherine Keogh registrations on search results, but not in County Clare), but based on the stated age on the passenger list of the Calcutta, arriving Hobart 4 November 1851, she would have been born around 1831.^[1] It may never be known if she was given the name "Catherine" by a parent, or by the institution that housed her as an orphan ― the Scarriff workhouse, County Clare. Likewise it may never be known if Keogh was the name of her father (or mother), or if that, too, may have been a name assigned to her by the workhouse.

It is not known if Catherine were ever asked, or if she was simply told she would be going to Van Diemen's Land, but she was one of the 151 females, mostly orphans, who travelled on the "Calcutta", departing Portsmouth on the 15th July 1851, as a response to the government initiated "Female Immigration Society", a scheme established to address the shortage of young, marriageable-age, non-work-shy females in Van Diemen's Land.

Erin Weeps.

As the end of the Earl Grey Scheme to New South Wales had occurred in 1850, the subsequent correspondence between those in charge in Van Diemen's Land and the government in England, the Female Immigration Society Scheme arranged for two ships, the "Beulah" and the "Calcutta" to be provisioned and otherwise set up to take young women, mostly from Irish workhouses, to the colony in Hobart; all under the backing of the Poor Law Commissioners and the Secretary of State for War and the Colonies (who happened to be the 3rd Earl Grey).^[2]

It is not known when, or where, Catherine met Charles Holbrook, a carpenter who had been transported on the Pestongee Bomangee, but they were in Hobart when they applied for permission to marry (posted banns). Approval was given on the 27 September 1854.^[3]

Catherine (servant) married Charles Holbrook (carpenter), on 25 October 1854, in Hobart, Van Diemen's Land, by the Rites and Ceremonies of the Holy Catholic Church by banns,; officiant: Rev C Words.^[4] (Using a trick known to females since time began she had not aged a day since 1851.)

Catherine Holbrook née Keogh passed away on the 2nd August 1875, aged 44 years.^[5]

An inquest on the 6th August found that she had drowned, but does not say where, or how. ^[6]

Catherine was buried in a pauper’s grave in the Cornelian Bay cemetery, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, on the 7 August 1875 (Number 54 compartment A).^[7]

Sources

1. ↑ Birth year as calculated from the age as stated on the arrival document in 1851.
2. ↑ Tasmania Government immigration passenger list "Calcutta" 1851 Name: Keogh, Catherine; Record Type: Arrivals; Arrival date: 4 Nov 1851; Ship: Calcutta; Remarks: age 20; Record ID: NAME_INDEXES:445205; Resource: CB7/13/1/1 p2738
3. ↑ Tasmania Government Marriage permissions: Catherine Keogh―Charles Holbrook; approved 27 September 1854 (Pages 178, 179)
4. ↑ Tasmania Government Marriage Registration Details Name: Keogh, Catherine; Record Type: Marriages; Gender: Female; Age: 20; Spouse: Holbrook, Charles; Gender: Male; Age: 28; Date of marriage: 25 Oct 1854; Registered: Hobart; Registration year: 1854; Record ID: NAME_INDEXES:852064; Resource: RGD37/1/13 no 782
5. ↑ Tasmania Government Death Registration Details Page 29: Name: Holbrook, Catherine; Record Type: Deaths; Gender: Female; Age: 44; Date of death: 02 Aug 1875; Registered: Hobart; Registration year: 1875; Record ID: NAME_INDEXES:1152178; Resource: RGD35/1/8 no 2907
6. ↑ Tasmania Government Inquest Name: Holbrook, Catherine; Record Type: Inquests; Age: 44; Ship to colony: Calcutta; Date of death: 2 Aug 1875; Date of inquest: 6 Aug 1875; Verdict: Found drowned; Record ID: NAME_INDEXES:1359404; Resource: POL709/1/12 p.126 (1875) SC195/1/57 Inquest 7539
7. ↑ Tasmania Government Burial record Name: Holbrook, Catherine; Record Type: Deaths; Age: 44; Description: Last known residence: Hobart Town, Town; Property: Cornelian Bay Cemetery; Date of burial: 07 Aug 1875; File number: BU 894; Record ID: NAME_INDEXES:1551969; Resource: AF35-1-1 (BU 894) AF70-1-2 (BU 894) Cornelian Bay, Pauper, Section A, Number 54 (page 894)

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