Edward Murray
| First name | Edward |
|---|---|
| Last name | Murray |
| Country of Origin | Ireland |
| Date of Birth | c. 1790 |
| Year of Arrival in Australia | 1824 |
| Submitted by | Helen Gilltrap |
Story
Edward Murray lived and worked as a weaver in a village called Garthfinn, County Tyrone. During 1823 Ned, as he was known, decided to borrow a horse and for this he was given a life transportation sentence to the colony of New South Wales.
Along with another 332 convicts of which only 153 were men, Ned set sail from Cork in southern Ireland on the sailing ship Prince Regent 12 Feburary, 1824. The journey took 177 days sailing via the east coast of South America which meant they ship had to sail around Cape Horn which could be very rough and its first stop in Australia was Hobart town. The Prince Regent arrived in Sydney on 15 July 1824. Upon arrival Ned was assigned to James Walker to work as a shepherd on Walker’s property at Wallerawang near Lithgow.
Ned had left behind his wife, Rosie, and five children and it did not take him long to petition, with the aid of James Walker, for this family to be allowed to be able to travel to Sydney to join him. After deputations by Walker on Ned’s behalf the family set sail from Cork in 1828; the four older girls travelling on the Sir Joseph Banks arriving in October 1828 and Rosie with the youngest son travelling on the City of Edinburgh arriving a short time later. Ned was given a Ticket of Leave to live and work in Sydney with his wife and family. In 1836 he and Rosie returned to Wallerawang. They were living there when Charles Darwin visited Wallerawang in 1836. Ned was most probably a good worker and was given a Conditional Pardon in 1842 and in 1854 and 1857 Ned bought a total of 60 acres of land in the Wallerawang area on which he ran dairy cattle. Ned achieved more in Australia than he would have done in Ireland. When he died in February 1862 he left possessions to his children and grandchildren such as land, livestock, carriages and other possessions which he most probably would not have done had he and his family remained in Ireland. Ned may have had an ignominious start in Australia as a convict but his many, many descendants have gone on to become very proud Australians and they in their turn have married the descendants of other immigrants to this land. Little would Ned have realised that his descendants would in turn be descendants of Aboriginal Australians, Greeks, Welsh, English, Scottish, and Germans, just to name a few.