THE PETER LINE


Patrick and Bridget Carrucan had six children, Michael (1828), Patrick (1831), Bridget (1833), Peter (1837), Martha and Mary.

Peter's betrothed Hannah Woods emigrated some 3 months before him, on the 1000 ton ship Echunga, leaving Liverpool on the 30th May 1857 and arriving two months later in Geelong on the 19th August 1857. There were 355 passengers, made up of 97 adult males and 213 adult females. Alexander Cumming was the Surgeon Superintendent. The cost per adult was 16 pounds 9 shillings and 6 pence, which we presume was paid for by the Colonial Government.

Some 3 months later, Peter left Ireland, along with his older brother Patrick and his wife Mary, bound for Australia.

The shipping records list the travellers as follows" ...Patrick and Mary Carrocan, ages 30 and 23, married, farmer, Irish, and Peter Carrocan, 24, single, farmer, Irish, on the Guy Mannering in 1857 from Liverpool to Melbourne. 

Their ship, the 3000 ton American clipper, Guy Mannering, departed Liverpool on the 22nd August 1857 and arrived in Melbourne on 24th November 1857 - a journey of just over 90 days. There were 402 passengers in the Intermediate and Steerage. The ships master was S. H. Dollard. The Argus of Saturday 24th October 1857 carries an advertisement for the ship, under WHITE STAR LINE where it is described as a mammoth three-decker clipper ship, constructed at New York and one of the strongest and fastest ships afloat. The cabins and saloons would have been beautifully fitted out and decorated, but no doubt Patrick, Mary and Peter were in Steerage which would have been fairly sparse. The Guy Mannering plied the Liverpool - New York and Liverpool - Australia routes from 1849 to 1865. Read about this ship in Guy Mannering.pdf.
 
Apparently a seaman on the voyage, Charles Reynolds, a native of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, USA, fell from the ‘mizen topgallant-yard’ and was drowned (The Argus, Wednesday 25 November, 1857, page 4). The fast American clipper ships usually took the GREAT CIRCLE ROUTE, which meant sailing down toward South America, then down into the roaring 40s and the dangers of Antarctic conditions, then straight up to Bass Strait. Often the rigging would be frozen. This Great Circle was the shortest way, particularly if the clipper was capable of making the most of the fierce winds. The slower and less robust ships came down the African coast and called at Cape Town before heading toward Australia.

Patrick, Mary and Peter were not Assisted Migrants.

Once there, they joined Patrick’s sister Bridget and her husband John Coleman in Eltham.

Peter and Hannah were subsequently married on 2nd May 1859 at St Monica's Chapel in Heidelberg.

Peter and Hannah had ten children: Patrick (1860), Hannah (1862), John (1864), Michael (1866), Peter (1868), Francis (1872), Denis (1875), James (1877), Margaret (1879) and Agnes (1881).

Hannah married William Sloan, Margaret married John McMahon in 1911 and Agnes married Thomas Hayes in 1900.

Thus direct descendant lines now included Carrucans, Sloans, McMahons and Hayes.

Peter and Hannah lived at Eltham for the rest of their lives, Peter dying in 1895 aged 58 and Hannah eventually dying in 1920.

Peter Carrucan’s block was adjacent to Patrick Carrucan’s farm in Eltham. His house stood on the corner of Bible St and Napoleon Street. When we were children growing up on the old Dalton St farm, the Peter Carrucan farm had long since passed out of family hands and in those days his original house was occupied by an ex wharfie named Tom Hall. We think it passed out of family hands many years before that as Betty Erickson (nee Carrucan) advised that it was not in family hands when she was a girl growing up in Eltham in the 1920s. Basically from the corner of Bible and Dalton St, go up the Bible Street hill. At the top of the hill is Napoleon St. The house was on the left side of Bible St and the block surrounded it on the left side of Bible St. The house is still there even now.

There are two interesting documents below that shed some light on Peter's and Hannah's finances and general financial wellbeing in later years.

a) A Draft Letters of Administration on the death of Peter Carrucan in November 1895. This implied that Peter died intestate (without a will or without appointing executors). In such a case, the Probate Division of the Supreme Court will appoint an administrator who performs similar duties to an executor. The court does this by granting letters of administration to the person so entitled. In this case, his widow Hannah Carrucan nee Woods was appointed administrator.

By comparison with Patrick, Peter Carrucan's listed assets were very meagre:

30 acres of land situated at Eltham in Victoria, being part of Portion 12 Section 4 in the Parish of Nillumbik in the county of Evelyn with 4 roomed weatherboard home and out buildings therein. Shire valuation £200.
Total land value £200
Total assets £205

and indicate that his success as a farmer did not match that of his brother Patrick. At the time of his death, only his house block in Bible Street remained.

c) The Probate Jurisdiction Document lodged in 1920 upon the death of Peter's wife Hannah. This is especially interesting as the document refers to Probate Jurisdiction for the Unadministered Estate of Peter Carrucan late of Eltham. This implies that even though Hannah had been granted Administration in 1895, the process had not been completed and legally the estate was still in Peter's name.

Whatever the real reason, the document details that £300 is to be paid to the State by Francis Carrucan of Eltham, Robert David Taylor of Eltham and Hannah Veronica Sloan of Warrandyte. This condition was placed on Francis Carrucan as Administrator.

This may explain why the Peter Carrucan farm was sold upon Hannah's death. Did they owe significant money that had to be repaid to the Crown?

Here are the two documents - be warned they take a while to load -> Probate-Peter Carrucan-1.pdf and Probate-Peter Carrucan-2.pdf


This photo, passed on by Mary Tippet, shows 4 generations of Carrucan women. They are

4 Generations of Carrucan women