Convict Cousins

Convicts were exiled to Australia after England could no longer dump then in the US. Many convicts had committed their "crimes" because they felt they had a better chanch of surviving the famine if they were imprisoned. Its no coincidence that 3 0f 4 were during the famine years.

Our Convicts

		"Crime"	Trail Location	Sentence
Catherine Normoyle	10/01/1846	Larceny	Co.Limerick	7year transport to Au.
James Normoyle	21/06/1849	Cow stealing	C. Clare	7years "
Mary Normoyle	5/03/1844	Larceny	Co. Limerick	7years "
Connor (Cornelius)Normoyle (story below)	1826	house-linen and wearing apparell"	Co. Limerick	7years "

"I was recently reading a history of Toodyay,which is a town about 100km N.E.of Perth,Western Australia.This area was one of the first places settled outside of Perth in the early days of the Swan River Colony.In one chapter they wrote about Irish needlewomen who were often girls who had been orphaned during the famine and had ended up in convents where the nuns had taught them fine needlework.These girls were much sought after by the settlers in the outlying farming districts and were a great help to the lady of the homestead.In a"Return showing number of emigrants who joined and left the Emigration Depot,Toodyay,on service;married,or otherwise engaged during the period from 7 august 1853 to 31 july 1854"
Mary Normile was engaged by Mr.Sewell.I wonder if this could be the same Mary Normoyle who was 18 years old when she was convicted of larceny at Limerick City on 5-3-1844.She was sentenced to 7 years transportation.I believe tranportation had ceased to the East Coast of the mainland by 1840 and did not begin here in W.A.until 1850."
sent by Martin Melican
Connors story sent by Laraine Tate in Au.
My ancestor, Connor (Cornelius) Normile/Normoyle/Normyle was born in Limerick, Ireland, to James Normile and Johanna Randel in about 1801 or 1806 (the dates vary depending on what record you look at) and was sent to Australia in 1826 as a convict, arriving on the "Boyne".
The Limerick Regional Archives has searched for any more information about his birth, but, despite searching all the parishes in Limerick city and county, they could find no record of a child born to a Normoyle father and a Randel mother in the period between the commencement of the various parish records and 1830. Neither could they locate a marriage record for his parents in the same time period. They concluded that the marriage and the birth of Cornelius happened in a parish before the commencement of parish registers.
They found an entry in the "Limerick Chronicle" relating to his trial, after which he received a sentence of 7 years transportation for stealing "house-linen and wearing apparell" from Cornelius O'Keeffe near Adare. They consulted the Tithe Applotment Books in an attempt to discover where Cornelius O'Keeffe was living, on the assumption that Cornelius Normoyle's misdemeanour was committed close to home. According to the Tithe Applotment book for the parish of Kildimo, the only Cornelius O'Keeffe holding land in Co. Limerick, lived in the townland of Ballyculhane in Kildimo. The parish of Kildimo is adjacent to Adare and the Limerick Chronicle reported that the theft took place 'near Adare'.
Connor was said to be 20 years old, single, catholic, with no education and working as a carman, when he was tried in Limerick on 11th March 1826. He had no former convictions, but was found guilty of stealing clothes and sentenced to seven years transportation to New South Wales. He was 5' 5" tall, with a ruddy, freckled complexion, a "fluid left eye", brown hair and hazel eyes.
Connor received a Certificate of Freedom on 1st May 1833, on which he is described as "blind of left eye".

In 1838 he married Catherine Morrissey, who was 20 years old when she was tried at Cork in the Spring Assizes, on the 12th March 1836, for stealing money. She too was catholic, single, with no children, working as a nursemaid or housemaid, and her native place was Limerick, where she was born about 1816. She was found guilty and sentenced to seven years transportation. She too had no education and no former convictions. She was just 5' tall, with a ruddy and freckled complexion, brown hair, light hazel eyes and a scar on her outside left elbow. On 20 August 1836, she sailed from Cork on board the "Pyramus", and arrived on 14 December 1836.

They moved to the Goulburn district, where their first child, Johanna, was born on 15th November 1839, and baptised on 5th August 1840 at St. Peter & St. Paul's Roman Catholic Church at Goulburn. Another daughter, Mary, was born at Lake George on 19th April 1842 and a third, Bridget, also at Lake George, on 1st March 1844. These two daughters were both baptised on 17th March 1844 at the same church as Johanna. Three sons were also born, but had all died by 1866. There is no record of their births at St Peter & St Paul Church at Goulburn, so they may have been born after the family left Goulburn.
The family later moved to the Braidwood area, and Cornelius died at Howlong, near Albury, in 1866.
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