COLGAN Mary   

1835 - 1920  (85 years)  Submit Photo / Document

• Name	COLGAN Mary
  Birth	02 Feb 1835	Philipstown, Kings County, Ireland
  Gender	Female
  Death	07 May 1920	Newcastle
  Person ID	I2209	NewcastleLinks
  Last Modified	2 Apr 2025

  
  

  Family 1	WRIGHT James   d. 08 Dec 1903, Newcastle
  Marriage	31 May	1884
  Family ID	F198	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	2 Apr 2025

  
  

  Family 2	BELL William(1835),   b. Abt 1835, Lincolnshire, England d. 04 Mar 1878, Newcastle (Age ~ 43 years)
  Marriage	17 Jul 1854	Newcastle
  Children	1. BELL William   2. BELL Stephen P,   b. 23 Oct 1871, Newcastle d. 07 Dec 1911, Adamstown (Age 40 years) m. CURRAN Margaret Jane (1899)
  Family ID	F197	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	2 Apr 2025

  
  

• Headstones » Slide Show		"h: Death News 1920"
  		"h: Funeral Notice"
  		"h: Sandgate Grave 1920"

  
  

• Notes

  BDM NSW REG #408/1854 V1854408 41B (marriage) "BELL WILLIAM/COLGAN MARY" district-CH(Hexham) returns the year 1854 only. Note:CH = Church of England, Hexham, Newcastle, Christ Church BDM NSW REG #6331/1884 (marriage) "WRIGHT JAMES/BELL MARY" at NEWCASTLE returns 31 MAY 1884 BDM NSW REG #8428/1920 (death) "WRIGHT MARY" f-JOHN at HAMILTON returns 7 MAY 1920 Mary migrated from Ireland travelling on the "Telegraph" arriving Sydney 18 Sep 1853. The shipping records show her as aged 18; single; a gentleman's servant; could read and write; Church of Rome. She indicated that she had no relatives in the colony and paid œ1 passage - it was an assisted passage. She was the first of the John Colgan/Catherine Coyne progeny to emigrate to Australia. Being the eldest she was most probably the first to emigrate anywhere. She was followed about 6 years later by her brother James and sister Catherine. Later her sister Rosanna also followed. They all appear to have gravitated to the Newcastle area from the outset.|| ||Within a year of arrival, aged about 19, she married William Bell, who was probably only 18, in July 1856, in the Church of England (Christchurch) at Newcastle. Between then and 1878 she had 10 children of which we are aware. Some information on the family has been provided by Don Barker, 12 Myall Rd., Waratah, 2298 and reproduced in "The Newcastle and Lower Hunter Pioneer Register, pre-1900." It lists 9 children and certainly not in order of birth. The last child, Eliza, was born in 1878. William Bell actually died on 4 Mar 1878, aged about 42 and Eliza may well have been a posthumous child. Mary was just 43 at the time of William's death, probably with 9 children and another on the way. When she was approaching 50 she remarried, some 6 years after William died, to James Wright (who undertook a handful). Mary's children then ranged in age from 6 to 29.|| ||Mary was buried ( as Mary Wright) from the home of her seventh child, James Bell, at 60 Veda Street, Hamilton and interred in the Catholic cemetery at Sandgate. She was buried in the same grave as her daughter and ninth child, Ellen, who had died the year previous. There is no present marker on the grave if there ever was one. A death notice was published in the NMH of 8/5/1920. Allen Searle reports burial in #10/Sec2...