The info on this page was researched by Phillip Dwyer. Note that this person is not one of our ancestors, though for a while we thought she was.
Birth extract for son William notes her age as 27 in January 1860, giving probable YOB as 1832. Place of birth is shown as Co. Tipperary, Ireland.
If she is the Mary who arrived on the Pemberton in 1849 (see under Immigration below), this would confirm her YOB as 1832 or 1833. Her place of birth would probably be somewhere in Northern Tipperary, as she was in an orphans' workhouse in Roscrea prior to emigration.
If she is the Mary who arrived on the Sir Robert Sale in 1850, aged 22, her YOB could be as early as 1828.
Nothing known except that, if she was the Pemberton Mary, she was orphaned in the Famine and found herself in the Roscrea famine orphans' workhouse. Dickensian descriptions of workhouses come to mind.
We know that Mary was in Kilmore before 1851, the year of her marriage. There are two possible correct Marys.
The Irish Famine Memorial web site (www.irishfaminememorial.org) identifies a Mary Coffey arriving on the Pemberton 14 May 1849 as a famine orphan, aged 16 from Roscrea, Co. Tipperary. This location refers to the workhouse Mary found herself in after being orphaned, and is not necessarily her place of birth. The site also notes marriage to John Dwyer (see under Marriage below), but is less than positive that this connection is correct.
Arrival of Mary Coffey on the Pemberton is confirmed in the Public Record Office of Victoria VPRS 14 Register of Assisted British Immigrants 1839-1871. She is also noted on the Tipperary Emigrants to Victoria, Australia listing:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~maddenps/TIPPEMVIC.htm.
Another Mary Coffey arrived on the Sir Robert Sale on 30 May 1850. She was 22 at the time, which doesn't fit with other evidence of YOB. Her place of origin in both the VPRS 14 Register of Assisted British Immigrants 1839-1871 and the Tipperary Emigrants to Victoria, Australia listing is given as "Lunone" Co. Tipperary - no such place can be found, so it's probably an Anglicisation of a Gaelic place name - e.g. Loughane, not far from Roscrea, but in Co. Offaly today (was it different in the 19th century?).
On this ship there were three other Coffeys from "Lunone" and another just noted as from Tipperary - these included Bridget Coffey (age 24) and a John Coffey (age 26 - the person not named as being from "Lunone"), names that appear as witnesses on the marriage extract for Mary Coffey and John Dwyer. Other names were Margaret (age 40), Margaret (age 20). Likely that this was a family group.
Pemberton Mary is the correct age based on confirmed documentation (William's birth extract), and is certainly identified by Dr Trevor McClaughlin as the person who married John Dwyer in Melbourne in 1851. A question mark after the details, however, indicates that McClaughlin was uncertain about the marriage [see McClaughlin, Trevor, and Genealogical Society of Victoria Barefoot and pregnant? Irish famine orphans in Australia: documents and register, The Genealogical Society of Victoria, Melbourne, 1991].
Sir Robert Sale Mary has the link to Bridget and John Coffey, but it could be that all of the Coffeys on both ships were connected - perhaps an extended family escaping the Famine. The age is a bit outside the confirmed documentation, but not unreasonably so.
Balance of probability indicates Pemberton Mary at this stage, but more confirmation is required.
Pemberton Mary, like all famine orphans, was hired out as a domestic servant on her arrival. She worked for a Mr. Nathan of Elizabeth St., Melbourne, probably at least until the end of 1849, for an annual salary of £12. As a famine orphan, Mary may have found herself the subject of contempt from established settlers - famine orphans were despised on account of their poverty, and the fact that they were both Irish and Catholic.
Sir Robert Sale Mary was also an assisted immigrant, and I believe would also have been indentured. I think the bounty would have been £19, as this was the standard bounty payment from 1840 for an adult.
"Courtship was likely to have been an aspiration of most young Irish immigrants. Many of those arriving as single women married within two or three years of arrival. This was particularly evident in the case of the orphan girls." [McClaughlin, Trevor, Irish women in colonial Australia]
Mary married John Dwyer of Kilmore in St. Francis' Catholic Church, Melbourne on 4 March 1851. This would be the church at 326 Lonsdale Street, the oldest Catholic Church in Victoria (built between 1841 and 1845). Mary MacKillop made her first communion at St Francis' in 1850, the same year that Ned Kelly's parents were married in the church.
Gerald A. Ward celebrated the marriage, and the witnesses were Bridget Coffey and John Coffey, both of Melbourne.
Both John Dwyer and Mary Coffey signed their names in the register, proving they could read and write.
At the time of their marriage John was noted as being a resident of Kilmore and Mary of Melbourne.
How John and Mary matched up is unknown - there was a ten-year age gap between them.
The Irish Famine Memorial web site notes that, after marrying John Dwyer, Mary lived at Kilmore and had borne 8 children by 1868. William's birth extract shows three children prior to William, one girl and two boys, all still living at the time. There was no mention of children who were deceased.
I have found six birth records where the father was given as John Dwyer and the mother as Mary Coffey. These are Johanna (1851), Johanna (1852), John (1857), William (1859), Edmond (1866) and Patrick (1868). The two Johannas may be a duplication or error in the records (how this would happen I don't know), or the first Johanna may have died at birth or infancy.
The Irish Famine Memorial web site indicates that Mary lived until at least 1868 (see Later Life above).
I've been unable to find a death registration for Mary so far. The Births, Deaths and Marriages Victoria (BDMV) historical database has no death record for a Mary Dwyer of Kilmore between 1868 and 1910. This could mean that:
In 'The Victorian Pioneers Index 1837-1888' (on CD-ROM in the National Library Canberra) there is no perfect match for either John or Mary in the deaths listed. It could be though that John and Mary both lived beyond 1888 - John would have been in his late sixties and Mary her late fifties.
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