Catherine Grady : Short Biography

Catherine Grady 1832

County Wexford

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Place of migration

Migrated to/Born in Australia

Adding ancestor from Ireland for Mother's Day.

CATHERINE GRADY b: 1832 - d: 1916:

Catherine Grady was baptised 19th June 1832 in Wexford, Ireland and died 3 January 1916 at Macarthur, Victoria. Catherine arrived in Australia on the ship 'New Liverpool' in August 1849 Port Fairy at seventeen. She married, aged 20yrs, Archibald Hamilton on 25th November 1852 at Port Fairy (formerly Belfast) Victoria, Australia. Catherine Hamilton (nee Grady) Died 3 January 1916 at Macarthur. She married Archibald Hamilton they moved to Mt. Napier Station, where they remained for many years, then on to Macarthur where they both remained until their deaths. Catherine was a nurse and midwife and it was said she attended over 300 maternity cases. Catherine and Archibald raised a family of twelve children from around 1853 - 1877. I found Catherine on the Famine Orphan Girl Database on the Irish Famine Memorial (Sydney),on Australia website recently and intend to invovle myself in their project to honour the children sent to Australia during terrible conditions in their Irish homeland. https://irishfaminememorial.org/

Archibald got a job as an overseer for Donald McKinnon at Kangaroo Station, Hotspur. By 1857, Archibald was overseer at Mt Napier Station for Mr Phillips. In 1873, Archibald applied for a ten-acre allotment at Macarthur. On 23 June 1884, Archibald died at Macarthur aged sixty-three. At the time, the youngest of the children was seven and Catherine needed to provide for her family. It is also recorded that when one of her daughters left the State of Victoria in Australia to move to State of New South Wales, unfortunately that marriage of the daughter broke down and the mother had to put her 5 children in an orphange, when Catherine found this out she arranged to have the childrent sent to her in Victoria and she also looked after them as well as her children. What a woman!!! I hope she would be pleased to know that I want to honour her and that she would be proud of me.

Additional Information
Date of Birth	1st Jun 1832	VIEW SOURCE
Date of Death	1st Jan 1916

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Catherine arrived in Australia aged 17 years, from Ireland via Plymouth England where she boarded the ship 'New Liverpool' in August 1849, she arrived at the Port of Melbourne Victoria, and was then eventually transferred via the ship ‘Raven’ to Port Fairy, Victoria Australia.:

Surname : Grady

First Name : Catherine

Age on arrival : 17

Native Place : County Wexford

Parents : Not recorded

Religion : Roman Catholic

Ship name : New Liverpool (Melbourne 1849)

Workhouse : Wexford, New Ross

Other : shipping: housemaid, reads & writes; per 'Raven' to Portland; arrived Belfast (Port Fairy) 1 Oct 1849. Employed by George Barber, solicitor, £12, 12 months. Married Scotsman, Archibald Hamilton, at Belfast, 26 Nov 1852, moved to Mt Napier cattle station in 1854, then to township of Macarthur in 1864; 12 children. Archibald died 1884 and Catherine acquired 10 acres 1 rood, and built 'her' house in 1885, after Archibald died, maintaining her family as nurse and midwife. It is told that she birthed more than 300 maternity cases. She died 3 Jan 1916. A family story is that while they lived on the cattle station, some Aboriginal people took one of their babies from a crib left out in the sunshine. Catherine wanted to give chase but Archibald counselled otherwise and the Aboriginal people returned replacing the baby in the crib.

Her obituary read, “her quiet unassuming manner and readiness to render assistance and advice to anyone in need…had endeared herself to the whole community”.