James Whelan b.1836

Eight years after arriving in Victoria, James  married Mary Dwyer, a 22 year-old ‘Irish Colleen’, also from County Clare, on 18 January 1858 at Golden Point (now Chewton). Mary’s parents were John Dwyer, a farmer, and Margaret Buckley (or Buckly). Sadly, just ten months later Mary Whelan died of ‘Phthisis’ (no doubt tuberculosis).

Four years later, on 15 September 1862, a ‘Jas Wheelan’ departed from Melbourne to Otago on the ship ‘Result’, spending about 9 months on the goldfields before returning to Castlemaine, where he was to marry again, to Margaret Roughan.

Margaret Roughan also came from County Clare, the village of Kilkishen, of  parents Thomas Roughan and Bridget (Cunneen) born  5 February 1836. Margaret had been taught to be an extremely competent housekeeper, and in 1860 her brothers Thomas and Michael Roughan who were on the Victorian goldfields sent back enough money for her to join them in their tent.

Margaret travelled on the sailing ship ‘Telegraph’ and arrived in New South Wales on 15 October 1860. From there she travelled to Victoria where her brothers had settled. On her arrival, the first person she saw was James Whelan, the young man she used to dance with back in Kilkishen!  James had only recently been left a widower.

In 1863 James and Margaret were married in the Holy Name of Mary Church, Castlemaine on 9 June 1863. James left for the Otago goldfields again in the August 1863 on the ‘Lawrence Brown’, and Margaret joined him in November that year, travelling on the ship ‘Gothenberg’.

James and Margaret lived first in a tent above Gabriel's Gully, then moved to a stone house in Wetherstones. Tuapeka District Electoral rolls show that James and his family lived there from 1868 to 1876.

When the goldfields had finally become exhausted they made the move to Dunedin. Tom Roughan, Margaret’s brother, helped them pack up two carts with their worldly goods, and they made the long journey to the city of Dunedin. James found work as a labourer and he rented accommodation for the family on the ground floor of a two-storied house in South Dunedin. The house was situated just off King Edward Street, in an alleyway between Melbourne Street and Macandrew Road, where the  ‘Aotea Jones’ building is presently situated.

Eventually they found a more suitable home for their growing family on Macandrew Road. The house no longer stands, but it was in the area where the Dunedin City Ford is presently situated. James and Margaret’s last three children, all boys, were born in that house. On the same road was the Catholic school and chapel which was to eventually become St. Patrick's Cathedral, and the younger children were all taught there by the Dominican Nuns.  

The children of James and Margaret Whelan were:-

Mary Bridget Whelan, born c1864, became Mary Barnett.

Maria Whelan (Poll Whelan) born c1867.

Elizabeth Cecily Whelan (Lillian Whelan) born c1869, became Lily Grover

Margaret Ann Whelan (Maggie) born c1870, became Maggie Cursey

Catherine Mary Whelan (Kit) born 5 Mar 1875, became Kit Farrell

James Thomas Whelan born c1876, married Mary Ellen McCawe.

John Joseph Whelan (Jack) born 9 Jan 1878, died when a baby, 11 Sept 1878.

William Henry Whelan (Bill) born 16 Jul 1880, married Daisy Charlton.

Michael Vincent Whelan (Mick) born 9 May 1882, married Jane Hepbyrn Carruthers.

Margaret Whelan must have been a popular neighbour. She was known as a good cook, and on cold winter days used to take a billy of hot soup to the nuns for their lunch. The Whelan girls were able to earn a little pocket money by collecting dandelion roots in the fields around South Dunedin. The long tap-roots were sold to the local coffee factory, which used them in the processing of their ‘substitute coffee’.

When nieces and friends from Lawrence, Wetherstons and Waitahuna came to the city looking for work they would need somewhere to stay, and where better than with Uncle Jim and Aunty Margaret Whelan on Macandrew Road. One of the nieces, Mariah Roughan, related that “Aunty Whelan” was a “no nonsense “ woman who was strict with her charges.

James Whelan would take on any job and was a skilled worker. However, about the year 1888 that was to change. As the 52-year-old father of nine children was working on the Dunedin wharves, tragedy struck. Falling headlong into the hold of a ship, James Whelan sustained head injuries, which changed his life and that of his family forever. It was a long time until he could get proper treatment and he never recovered from the brain injury which caused him to lose his memory and made him unable to care for himself. James was admitted to the Seacliffe Mental Hospital, where he was to spend the next twenty years of his life, and he died there on 31 May 1908, aged 72.

After the death of her husband, Margaret and the children who were still at home went to live in a little cottage at the end of Hillside Road, between Glasgow and Fox Streets. Later on, Margaret and her son Bill moved to Christchurch to live with her daughter Mary and her husband Matthew Barnett. However Margaret would often get nostalgic for Dunedin. She would pack a black portmanteau bag, which she took everywhere, and board the express train. When it stopped for refreshments at Ashburton, she would get out and send two telegrams – one to the Barnetts in Christchurch, “Gone to Dunedin” and one to her daughter Maggie Cursey in Dunedin, “Arriving today”. She would stay with Maggie for up to three weeks. After a while Margaret’s daughter Poll (who also lived with her sister Mary Barnett) would come to Dunedin to collect her adventurous mother. Even in her older years, Margaret maintained her strong will – if she didn’t like what was happening she would pretend to be very deaf.

Margaret Whelan died at the home of her eldest daughter Mary Bridget Barnett on 24 February 1926.

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