Who is the Jeremiah O'Donovan on The Convict Ship Hougoumont ?

Question

It was not Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa (1831 - 1915) "There were forty men of my name and family in my native town when I was a boy"  "Rossa's recollections, 1838 to 1898" by Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa publ 1898 400 pages

This is an awesome narrative of so many people known by Jeremiah. It takes quite a while to read through and build profiles that connects to others. https://archive.org/stream/rossasrecollecti00odon#page/6/mode/1up/

Answer 1

This is the official transportation Record for the Convict Jeremiah O'Donovan. He was one of 62 Irish Fenian Political prisonors who traveled aboard the last Convict Ship "Hougoumont" which transported 280 Convicts to Western Australia, arriving on 9 January 1868. [http://onesearch.slq.qld.gov.au/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=slq_alma21122902260002061&context=L&vid=SLQ&search_scope=SLQ_PCI_EBSCO&tab=all&lang=en_US] "The State Library of Queensland Convict Transportation Registers". The records are taken from the "English Convict Registers". Sometimes the information on the "convictrecords.com" site can contain presumptions, as they are added by members of the public. I can see no indication that this Jeremiah had "Rossa" as part of his name, apart from on the "convictrecords.com" site. The primary Source would be the "English Convict Registers" but, as I have no access to them, I prefer to accept the State Library of Queensland as a Primary Source rather than "convictrecords.com".

This may be of interest to you. Jeremiah & 33 other civilian Fenians received their pardon on 15 May 1869 & many chose to leave, but Jeremiah chose to remain in Western Australia, (https://www.swanguildfordhistoricalsociety.org.au/fenians-in-the-swan-river-colony/) "The Fenians who chose to remain in the Swan River Colony included Jeremiah O’Donovan, who was employed as a groom to W.L. Brockman at Guildford."
Whether he eventually left Australia or WA I haven't been able to determine, but he is clearly a different person to Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa who went to, & died in, America.

Comments

Hi Eileen, Excellent. "The Fenians who chose to remain in the Swan River Colony included Jeremiah O’Donovan, who was employed as a groom to W.L. Brockman at Guildford."" "Whether he eventually left Australia or WA I haven't been able to determine, but he is clearly a different person to Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa who went to, & died in, America." Reading Jeremiah's various books on his life is just fascinating. The government asked him to go to Australia but he declined.

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Hi Sheila. Thank you :)
I have contacted someone from the Swan Guilford Historical Society Inc in WA & she sent me the following information from the book by Liam Barry. "Voices from the Tomb", a biographical dictionary of the 62 Fenians transported to Western Australia Page 198. "O’Donovan, Jeremiah (1842 - ? ) 14^th December 1865 at Cork Courthouse, Jeremiah O’Donovan was sentenced to 5 years for treason-felony.
He was first shipped to England where he spent 2 years in prison. Transported to WA in October 1867.
No record of anti-establishment behaviour during his time in the Swan River Colony.
Granted a ticket-of-leave on 11^th November 1868.
Then on 15^th May 1869, granted a free pardon by Queen Victoria due to huge uproar in England, Ireland, and WA about Fenians being transported to WA.
(note: His pardon would have been granted in Guildford at the Convict Depot).
Left the Colony shortly afterwards for Melbourne. From here, he sailed on 16^th October 1869 on the "Suffolk" for Ireland.
 His final resting place is unknown."
When I get a chance, I'll create a separate profile for him. Not well at the moment so not up to doing a good job of it.

Cheers, Eileen

Answer 2

https://convictrecords.com.au/convicts/odonovan/jeremiah/63082

Jeremiah O'donovan was one of 280 convicts transported on the Hougoumont with a departure on 10 October 1867 arrival date 9 January 1868 at Western Australia.  His alias is Jeremiah O'donovan Rossa. His crime was Irish rebel, convicted Ireland, Cork Assizes with a 5 year sentence.

Comments

Hi Frank, What do you think about these sources ? Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa wrote the detail of his prison life in the book "O'Donovan Prison Life: Six Years in Six English Prisons" publ 1874 He did NOT go to Australia. Also read "IN EARLY JANUARY 1871, almost four years after the ending of the ill-fated Fenian Rising, a general amnesty saw the release of the majority of the state (political) Fenian prisoners imprisoned in various English jails.  who included senior members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood such as Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa, John Devoy, John O’Leary and Thomas Clarke Luby (who were serving sentences of 20 years’ imprisonment) were held in various jails in England, including Pentonville, Millbank, Portland, Dartmoor, Chatham and Woking prisons.  Some chose to go to Australia while others (including O’Donovan Rossa, Devoy, John McClure, Henry S. Mulleda and Charles Underwood O’Connell, released from Chatham Jail) opted to go to America. https://www.anphoblacht.com/contents/25589

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I'm not Frank, but if the one says he did not go to Australia, while the other's records say he was transported .. then either one is a liar, or there are two people with the same name and alias.

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Hi Melanie, O'Donovan-Rossa says "There were forty men of my name and family in my native town when I was a boy." O'Donovan-Rossa was transported from Liverpool to New York on the R.M.S. "Cuba". He arrived at New York 20 Jan 1871 along with John Devoy, Charles Underwood O'Connell, Henry Mulleda and John McClure. There are numerous books written about O'Donovan-Rossa. He never made it to Australia. It is likely that the source about the Hougoumont is a different person with the same name.

Answer 3

Mea culpa, category removed Mary