Name
(FAMILY NAME, Other Names) |
COLLEY,
Thomas |
Date
of Birth |
Baptised
9 April 1826 |
Place
of Birth |
Ellesborough, Buckinghamshire, England |
Date
of Death |
24
June 1877 |
Place
of Death |
Burra
Hospital, Kooringa, South Australia |
Place
of Burial |
|
Arrived
in South Australia (date/ship etc.) |
Duchess
of Northumberland, left London 6/8/1839, arrived Adelaide 19/12/1839 |
Addresses/Dates
in Prospect Council Area |
Section
349, allotment 51, western half, 1839 to 1845 |
Addresses/Dates
outside Prospect Council Area |
Kooringa,
SA. By 1873, until his death in 1877 |
Names
of houses (if any) |
|
Parents
- names; DOBs etc (if known) |
James
Colley, 1804-1879. Mary Allen born 1801 Ellesborough,
Buckinghamshire, died at sea en route to South
Australia, 1839 |
Spouse(s)
- including maiden name; DOBs etc. (if known) |
Ann
McCarthy, nee Bourke |
Date(s)
of Marriage(s) |
6
August 1873 |
Place(s)
of Marriage(s) |
Kooringa,
SA |
Children
- names and dates of birth/death if known |
|
Education
|
Literate |
Occupation(s) |
Coach
driver |
Interests/Activities |
|
Religion/Churches
|
|
Notes
(points of interest etc.) |
Thomas came to
Australia with his parents in 1839 but the early years in South Australia must
have been fraught. His mother and all but one of his siblings had died by
1845 and he himself ended up in prison for six months, in 1846. He had
already moved away from Prospect by then, for he had been living in Flaxman’s
Valley in the Barossa Valley for six months when he was charged. Some years
later he went to Victoria, though when exactly is unclear. In November 1852,
the post office in Adelaide included Thomas in the list of unclaimed letters.
He returned from Melbourne on the Havilar, arriving
18 September 1854. (S.A Register, Tuesday 19 September 1854.) Presumably
he had been drawn to Victoria by the gold rush but must have seen the error
of his ways. Thomas Colley
next featured in the press when, on 4 October 1855, he appeared in court in
Adelaide, charging that Jabez Crosby had assaulted him on election day, 22
September. Thomas had grabbed a flag the defendant was waving and Crosby had
retaliated, striking Thomas on the head. The judge found Crosby guilty but,
given the provocation, had fined him only a shilling plus costs. (Adelaide
Times, 14 October 1855.) By 1856 Thomas
Colley was working as a driver on the Gawler-Adelaide mail service. He was
described as the driver of the Gawler mail when he appeared as a witness in
an Adelaide court case in April that year. (Adelaide Observer 19 April
1856, p.2.) A few months later, Mr Johnson, of Gawler Town, was charged with
assaulting Thomas Colley, "the driver of the Adelaide mail", and
fined 10/- with costs. (Adelaide Times, 20 November 1856, p. 3). Thomas
Colley's tenure as a mail driver came to an end in 1870. He was presented by
the "settlers of the north east" and others with a "very
flattering testimonial for his
civility and the satisfactory manner he performed his duties while
driver of the north eastern mail for many years." The money raised was
invested for his benefit. "In anticipation of the opening of the railway
a very nice omnibus and pair of horse has been purchased, which Mr Colley
intends running for the convenience of the public from the railway terminus
to the neighbouring townships." (South Australian Chronicle and Weekly
Mail, Saturday 6 August 1870, p. 7.) On 6 August
1873, Thomas Colley married Ann McCarthy, whose father had been John Bourke
(written as Perks, but it was Bourke). As far as we know, this was his first
marriage; he was 47 years old. In 1877 Ann Colley,
alias Ann McCarthy and Ann McCaulife, was charged
with the murder of Thomas Colley, and her ten year old son, William, was
accused of helping her cover up the crime. (South Australian Register,
24 July 1877.) In the event, they were acquitted but Ann did not cover
herself with glory. Her version of events was that Thomas Colley had been
shooting crows while she and her son were indoors. The gun exploded into
smithereens and Thomas' left hand was badly damaged. Young William
ran to a neighbour for help and the neighbour took Thomas and Ann to Burra
Hospital, many miles distant. Apparently, Thomas was the worse for drink and
Ann was roaring drunk - and drank all the way to hospital. There, on 31 May
1877, Thomas' hand was amputated. The doctor forbade Ann to nurse her husband
and said she could visit him only twice a day, briefly. When the doctor learnt
Ann was turning up drunk every time, he banned her unless she arrived sober.
After a couple of weeks, she arrived for a visit and was seen to lie on top
of poor Thomas, who cried out that she was hurting him. At the request of
Thomas, she was thrown out of the hospital but that night, Tuesday 12
June, Thomas' stump began to bleed and Thomas admitted to having given it "a
good scratching". The surgeon stopped the bleeding but Thomas, who had
been improving after the surgery, now began to decline. He died at 5 pm on
Sunday 24 June. Ann Colley
accused the hospital of neglect but an inquest exonerated the hospital and
its staff. Dr Brummitt testified that the bleeding
had probably been caused by violence but could not say whether by scratching
or something else. There things
might have rested except that a police sergeant, en
route to the inquest with Ann Colley, had asked her what had happened.
Unconvinced by her account, he instituted a search for the gun, allegedly
blown to smithereens, and discovered that it had been found by the neighbour
who had ferried the stricken man to hospital. The neighbour still had it -
and it had clearly been deliberately damaged, and then hidden. Evidence was
also given that Ann had rowed with Thomas shortly before the accident. Thus was Ann
charged, and her poor son. William was described as being Thomas' son but he
was Ann’s son from her previous, second marriage. It would have
been hard to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Ann was guilty, and so she
was acquitted. A miscarriage of justice, one suspects. |
Local
Government experience (if any) |
|
Sources
of information |
BDM
and shipping records, Trove |
Principal
Researcher |
Joan
Wilcox |