Carty

The Carty/McCarty/McCarthy Line

The Variations

The variations on this surname possibly go to show the lengths to which Australians went to hide convict ancestors up until the 1970’s. For most Australians the existence of a convict ancestor was a matter of shame and something to be hidden and gradually forgotten. In fact, most Australians descended form convicts do not know anything of their convict background because of the effectiveness of intervening generations in sweeping the matter under the rug.

It is only in recent times that the Carty line in the family has come in for some scrutiny and the real story uncovered. Not only is it a story of a convict ancestor with all the glamour now attached but one of a political rebel and his exile to far-distant Australia.

The Origins

The line of the Carty’s in Australia begins with Francis Carty born in the parish of Moore, in the county of Roscommon in Ireland in 1794. Versions on his profession differ from flour mill manager to labourer. He was found guilty in 1820 of insurrection and sentenced to death. This was commuted to imprisonment for 14 years and he was exiled to Australia. His crime was related to a secret society called "Ribbonism" that sprung up in Ireland early last century and manifested itself in economic sabotage of the assets of the ruling class.

He arrived in Sydney on the "John Barry" on the 7th of November 1821. His convict files describe him as 5ft 9ins, fair ruddy complexion, sandy brown hair, grey eyes, and a scar on the centre of his forehead. he had lost the first joint of the little finger of his left hand. He was set free on parole (with Ticket of Leave 31/328) on the 22 of June 1831. He received a Certificate of Freedom (no 34/938) on 21 July 1834.

His wife

Such was the strangeness of life for convict society in Australia that Francis was permitted to marry despite being a prisoner. On the 9th of November 1823 he married Mary Palmer in Sydney. She was also a convict, having arrived on the "Lord Sidmouth"on the 23rd of February 1823. She had been found guilty of larceny at the Old Bailey in London on the 21st of October 1821 and transported for life. She was born in the inner London suburb of Spitalfields in 1805. Her description was 4ft 11ins, sallow and pockpitted complexion with dark brown hair and hazel eyes. She received a Ticket of Leave on the 5th of October 1829 and a Conditional Pardon on the 23rd of January 1839.

Next phase

Mary had already had a child, by Francis, by the time she got married. This daughter, Betsy (or Elizabeth) was born around May 1823 and was baptised on the 25th of january 1824. The couple went on to have another nine children between 1826 and 1849. Betsey had died in 1840 and in common Victorian style her name (Elizabeth) was reused for another daughter born in 1842. It also seems that Mary had had a daughter in London (possibly in prison) called Louise. Sometime over the years, the distancing with the convict records began with the surname transmogrifying into McCarty. Both Francis and Mary died in 1876 and were buried in the Petersham cemetery in Sydney, being later (in 1925) transferred to Rookwood cemetery.

J.T.McCarthy in his younger days

Our line

The line of relevance to us comes from the son, James, who was born on the 16th of June 1835. He was a boot importer by trade. He married Anne (known as Hannah) Bourke on the 7th of June 1855. James died on the 29th of May 1922 at the age of 87 years. They had two children, Mary Jane (known as May) and James Thomas (known to his nieces and nephews as Uggins). The former was born in 1856 and the latter in 1867. May married Francis Clarke, the budding politician, in 1885 while James remained unmarried. May, the great-grandmother of the author of this site had six children and then died in 1903 of nephritis when the family were still young. James became a noted architect and lived until 1952. James put himself at a further remove from the convicts by using the surname McCarthy.

May Clarke (nee McCarty), the author's great-grandmother, on her wedding day

To access the descendants of the Carty family in Australia click here