With Acknowledgement
and Introduction
Published 1979
Printed by Pink Panther Printery, Sydney, N.S.W.
This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism, or review, as permitted under the
Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission.
Enquires should be addressed to:
Rev. Eric C. Clancy
2 Howell Place
LANE COVE N.S.W. 2O66
National Library of Australia
Cataloguing-in-Publication Entry
Clancy, Eric Gerald 1909-
The Overflow of Clancy
Index
Bibliography
ISBN 0 9599092 14
1. Clancy Family. I Title
929.2.0994
Five hundred copies of this book have been printed of which this is No. 348
DEDICATED IN GRATITUDE
to
God, the Father of all Mankind
(Thy hands created me, Thy hands
From sin have set me free.
Charles Wesley)
and
To a long line of ancestors
Particularly
Thomas Clancy, Anne Kirby Edward Ballard. Mary Lewis
Duncan Rankin, Janet Rankin John Walker, Mary Wiseman
John Clancy, Eliza Rankin Luther Ballard, Sarah Walker
William Clancy Ada Ballard
Who gave ling life and being to
ME
"Every Person is, whether he recognises the fact or not a bundle of his ancestors."
E.F. Scott
"There is no man of any culture who does not take some interest in what was done by his forefathers."
Edward Everett
"People will not look forward to prosperity who never look backward toward their ancestry."
Edmund Burke
The research of which this book is the result has brought me a double reward - I have discovered some of my forebears, and I have discovered a number of relatives whose existence was unknown to me prior to the commencement of this research. Like myself, most of these relatives knew little about our ancestors. But their interest has been kindled, and where they could they helped me. The long list of interviewees and correspondents mentioned in "Sources" indicates their number, and I would like to thank them all for information provided, and photographs loaned. I should like particularly to mention Sister Raymonde (Betty) Taylor who has given outstanding assistance, and provided a large quantity of primary records.
My thanks are due to a considerable number of priests and ministers in Ireland, Scotland and various parts of Australia for supplying information from Registers, particularly those who allowed me to do my own research in the Registers. Several Registrars of Births, Deaths and Marriages in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland have provided relevant information.
I acknowledge gratefully the valuable assistance given by the staffs of the following libraries and archives. The State Archives of New South Wales; The State Library of New South Wales; Mitchell Library, Sydney; The Public Records Office of Victoria; La Trobe Library, Melbourne; The State Archives of Queensland; The National Library of Australia, Canberra; The Australian Society of Genealogists, Sydney; St. Patrick's Cathedral Archives, Melbourne; The Public Records Office, Dublin; The County Library, Cork; The Cork City Library; and Columba House, Edinburgh. I express appreciation also to the Mines Departments in New South Wales and Queensland, and to the Lands Department in New South Wales for information given, and to several newspaper proprietors for allowing me to peruse their files.
I wish to record my deep appreciation to Wayne Giddy for his professional skill with the photographs which are reproduced, and to the Editor of Footprints for permission to use material from my articles on the Rev. Ranald Rankin and Thomas and Anne Clancy.
My warm thanks go to my daughter Enid (Mrs Bruce Chapman) who willingly undertook the task of typing this story for offset printing. Finally, my grateful thanks go to my wife who has had to put up with my pre-occupation with this work over the past three years.
Eric G. Clancy 9th August 1979
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author wishes to acknowledge the help and co-operation of the following publishers and Institutions: Angus and Robertson, publishers of Henry Lawson's Poems and Prose Works, A.B. Paterson's Poems, "A Tale of Two Brothers" by M. Lazarus; Rigby Ltd., publishers of L. Braden's "Bullockies"; J. Derbyshire and C.E. Sayers "Old Gold Towns of Queensland", Bill Wannan's "Australia - My Kind of Country", and "Record of Castlemaine Pioneers"; William Heinemann Australia Pty. Ltd., publishers of "Bendigo - A History" by Frank Cusack; Polding Press, publishers of "Pioneer Catholic Victoria"by Rev. W. Ebsworth; and Australian War Memorial, publishers of "Anzac to Amiens" by C.E.W. Bean, all of whom have granted me permission to quote from, or refer to, the above-mentioned books.
Mrs Rivett, widow of Rohan Rivett, publisher of "Teamsters of the Black Soil Plains" by Douglas Harris, has granted permission to reproduce a map of western New South Wales; the La Trobe Collection, State Library of New South Wales for permission to publish two photographs of St. Francis Church and School, Melbourne; Mitchell Library for permission to publish photographs of a drover and sheep, photographs of Bendigo and Kyneton, Henry Gilbert Jones engravings of early Melbourne, Robert Russell's watercolour of Collins Street, Melbourne; the State Library of New South Wales for permission to publish two prints relating to emigrants; and to Robert B. Ronald, "Nap Nap", Maude, N.S.W., for permission to publish two photographs, "The Booligal Road" and "Dust-storm in the Hillston District", which were published in "The Riverina - People and Properties" by Robert B. Ronald.
Introduction
"Through my dream there went
That strange procession of the Past .........."
(E.J. Brady, "The Western Road")
In the concluding sentence of his book "Immigration into Australia 1788-1851", R.B. Madgwick wrote: "It is a grave mistake to acclaim the gold-miners as the true founders of Australia, or to condemn out of hand the less spectacular immigration of the previous years". This story has to do with one family in that "less spectacular immigration". It was not a distinguished family. Very rarely did any member of it receive mention in the Press, very few held any position of note, and as far as is known none gained notoriety because of criminal activity. This was just one among many families who came to Australia and made their quiet but worthwhile contribution to the growth of the country.
The compilation of a family tree necessitates much research. Yet this task is easy compared with putting this family, like many other families in their community setting. It was not easy for me to find records, and the task of tracking down the Clancy family was made more difficult because they moved frequently from place to place, and did not leave clear footprints. There was almost a complete lack of letters, diaries and other records. Nevertheless, I have discovered more than I anticipated when I began the research. Though there are gaps in the story, the end result is more meaningful than just a family tree. The latter relates person to person in a limited way, but it says nothing about their employment, their relationship to the wider community, and the general social conditions which they would have experienced. This I am attempting to do in this story.
The story deals with Thomas Clancy, his children and grandchildren, with a diversion to look at some Rankin's who became linked with some of the Clancy's through marriage. It covers in detail a period of about eighty years since the Clancy's arrived in Melbourne. When they arrived in 1841 the convict era was drawing to a close, the first rush of assisted migration was at full tide, settlement had become fairly general throughout the nineteen counties in New South Wales, squatters were taking up huge areas of land beyond those counties, and Melbourne was a lusty five year old child and growing rapidly.
Our forebears were present in the early days of the several communities in which they lived. Melbourne was a village with tree stumps in its streets, but rapidly expanding; Kyneton began only a few years earlier, but developed quickly as a centre of an important farming community; the Pyrenees was a vast area of large stations serviced by one straggling village, Burbank (later called Lexton), but soon to spawn numerous communities with the discovery of gold; the quiet pastoral area along Bendigo creek was being transformed as gold-miners flocked to the area, and a large city grew up overnight; Deniliquin, less than a decade old, was already an important centre athwart the main stock route from North to South; Parkes and Forbes were just emerging from their first flush period of the gold-rush into stable communities; Booligal situated at an important stock crossing was showing signs of growth partly as a result of some closer settlement; John Clancy was a member of the group of miners who developed the White Cliffs opal fields, while his brothers at the same time were involved first in gold-mining in the Gladstone gold-fields and then in copper-mining at Mount Morgan; and the children of John were among the pioneers who opened up the Dorrigo (N.S.W.) and Atherton (Qld.) tablelands. These and some other places in the three Eastern States of Australia will receive considerable mention in this story.
The period under review, from 1841 to about 1922, was one in which representative government was established in all States, and the Federation of the States was achieved. It was a period of rapid increase in population in each area in which our forebears lived, with closer settlement forging ahead despite various failures; a period of vast improvements in communications as a result of road-making, bridge-building, the development of railways, the establishment of postal communications and telegraph services; a period of the erection of schools and churches; a period of vast pastoral and agricultural expansion; and yet for the Clancy's a continuing experience of pioneering.
Any chosen segment of time has a before and an after, and any family should take some cognisance of its heritage and also acknowledge that its story continues in the succeeding generations. This story, which concentrates on that period covering the residence of the children of Thomas and Anne Clancy in Australia, will also take brief note of the before and after. Our story on the Clancy side is Irish and Anglo-Irish, and (for some of us) Gaelic. So we shall look at the "before" in Ireland and Scotland. Of course, this is but half the heritage, for our family and those of our cousins have a different heritage on the other side - in most cases, this is English. Except for some brief references, that side is not being considered in this story. The "after" brings the story down to our own generation, when history becomes mingled with personal memories, and this will receive only scant mention.
