Eclectic Ann: Week 25 - Broken Branch (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks)

This week's story comes from my son in law's family. It concerns an Irish school teacher who was forced to break ties with his family and move halfway across the world. As you will see, even though he was still in contact with his family back home, he would never see them again.

McGlynn to Macklin

Hubert Patrick McGlynn was born about 1833 in Donegal, Ireland. His parents were Andrew McGlynn and Annie Braisland. Hubert was the eldest child and had six siblings, Mary, Edward, Annie, William, Hugh and Daniel. Daniel, who was born in 1858 in Glenfrinn, Donegal, Ireland, is my son in law’s great great grandfather. Daniel and his family would eventually emigrate to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1912. But his brother Hubert had an entirely different course in life.

I first heard of Hubert when my son in laws family shared some family history information with me. All that I knew of him at the time was that he went to Australia with his wife and children and that both he and his wife were school teachers. Part of this information included copies of letters written by Hubert to his father, who by then was living in Scotland. In these letters (see at end of post), Hubert is urging his father to join them in Australia and would pay his passage. His father never did move and died in Scotland in 1893.

A few years ago, I was contacted by a descendent of Hubert, Jonathan Wooding and another researcher, Graham Whyte, and began to learn his story. They both pointed me in the direction of some news articles in Australian papers and some records there. Also I learned about an article that was written about Hubert’s reason for coming to Australia. This led me to a book that was written detailing his story even more.

I learned that Hubert had married Kate Harkins in Donegal in 1853. Their first child, Annie was born in 1855 in Ireland. And a second child, Mary was born in 1856 also in Ireland. During this time, Hubert was a school teacher in Letterbrick & Beagh, Co Donegal. He had favorable reports from school inspectors and was thought a fine teacher. But in early 1856, Hubert contacted the local magistrate and wanted to turn over the names of members of a secret group called the Molly Maguires.

If any of you reading this are from Pennsylvania or specifically northeastern PA, then you probably know who the Mollies are. But why would Hubert want to do this very dangerous thing? He said it was to protect a man that the Mollies had turned their violent ways upon. But Hubert may have also had other motives, because he was in debt to local shopkeepers and also fearful of the retribution from the Mollies himself. Apparently he was a member and this would most definately be considered an act of betrayal. Hubert and his family were placed in protective custody and the case moved along. Men were arrested, tried and sentenced to jail time, some solely on Hubert’s testimony.

By the summer of 1857, Hubert knew he could not stay in Ireland and arrangements were made by the government for Hubert and family to go to Australia. So in August of 1857 they sailed from Liverpool. During the voyage the younger child, Mary, died and was buried at sea. They arrived in Melbourne on Nov 2, 1857. The ship manifest described Hubert as a miner, but before his first year in Australia was over, Hubert had begun a new job as a schoolmaster in Beechworth. He was a successful teacher and was also active in local activities, but his problem of being in debt followed him to Australia and he became insolvent and fired from his job in 1862. At this point Hubert left Beechworth. Hubert had other bouts with bankruptcy and was also fired from other teaching jobs up through 1890. The family lived in Beechworth, Sandridge, Geelong, Blenheim and Kempsey. He also had a teaching job in Auckland, New Zealand about 1886.

Somewhere along the line, Hubert Patrick McGlynn changed his surname to Macklin and was also known as Patrick. In 1859 and 1862, two more daughters joined the family with the last name Macklin. A 15 month old son died in 1863 as well. Two more daughters rounded out the family in 1865 and 1872. His wife, Kate, died in 1889 and Hubert himself passed in 1904 in Macksville, New South Wales, Australia while living with his eldest daughter.

No matter what his circumstances were, Hubert was well known, respected and very active in clubs and politics and wrote articles and lectured on many topics.

The article, with some photos, from which I gathered most of the above information from can be found here: https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/the-informer-who-disappeared-in-1856-and-has-shown-up-again-1.3522569?mode=amp

It is very interesting, as is the book spoken about. The book is “The End of Outrage” by Breandán Mac Suibhne.

I’d like to thank Jonathan Wooding, professor of Celtic studies at the University of Sydney, and the great-great-grandson of Hubert Patrick McGlynn and Graham Whyte, an Australian revenue official for contacting me about this family and sharing the information. As well as, Breandán Mac Suibhne, author and an associate professor of history at Centenary University, in the United States, and fellow of the Moore Institute at NUI Galway for his research.

A side story of this, is that I learned more about the origins and history of the Molly Maguires from the book The End of Outrage. I grew up in northeastern PA and the Mollies were a large part of the local history and the coal mining industry there during the 1860's and 70's. The PA Mollies were largely Irish miners who resorted to violence to promote their goals. Eventually the Pinkertons infiltrated the group and many were arrested, tried and hung for various crimes including murders. There were some who were actually thought to be innocent after the fact. I'd even read that some received posthumous pardons in recent times.

For more information on the Molly Maguires

http://genealogytrails.com/penn/luzerne/molmaguires.html

The Letters