The Forgotten Australians by James Hugh Donohoe.

This is a transcript from the book The Forgotten Australians.

My name is James Hugh Donohoe. Just the mention of my name to most people immediately suggests that I am Irish. I was even brought up to believe I was Irish. My grandfather Donohoe was the son of an Irish immigrant couple. One cannot have a more Irish-named father than one Hugh Donohoe. This name has been continuously in use in the family since 1034. My mother’s name was Kathleen Clare Egan, again, Irish. Grandfather Egan’s father was also an Irish immigrant.

To most Australians I am perceived as Irish. I have since realised that this was only brought about by name association. When I have travelled overseas and spoken to people who have never met an Australian and who have enquired as to where I have come from, they always express surprise at my informing them as to my Australian nationality. In all cases I recall, the enquirers have said "I thought you were Norwegian". Yet I am sixth generation Australian born and from local English, Welsh and Irish origin families.

I am a confirmed descendant of thirteen so-called Anglo or Irish convicts. So, bewildered, I enquired as to how I can be taken for a Norwegian. The answer simply put. Those convicts and the migrants their children married were not all pure English, Welsh, Scottish or Irish. They were themselves the descendants of many races and peoples who had come to Britain and Ireland as invaders, refugees, slaves, wanderers, immigrants and seamen. My ancestry tells me that there is no such thing as British or Irish races that stand alone, specifically identifiable.

At this point I should mention that my brother is the reddest (so called "carrot top" or "Bluey") haired person you could find on earth and he can run like a hare. People are adamant that he is Irish too. They inevitably believe that he reflects that Celtic line in the family. This view is established on his appearance. Red complexioned people are not Celtic at all nor generally Irish. The Irish Celts are actually dark haired people.

Tomato-red haired, light skinned and freckled people are certainly not Irish in origin. In fact such people can be traced back in Ireland to the Spanish Armada whose crews also landed there and even further to some of the Viking marauders of Ireland. The Spanish arrivals were actually Basques, not Celts. Philip of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great of Greece, has been similarly described. Actually, people of this description can be found throughout Europe and Australians delude themselves about their general impression of Celts being Irish and, particularly, reddish in complexion. Many welsh, Cornish and Scottish people also believe themselves to be Celts.

The "carrot-red" haired people actually emanate from the Orkneys thus do not come from Ireland originally.

This contrast between my red haired brother and myself, the latter of fair, pale not ruddy complexion, exemplifies that the multiple races from our ancestry evidenced within the one family from the same parents.

Genealogical research has revealed that no fewer than thirteen peoples are represented among my ancestry, that is, the ancestry that particularly included some of the first convicts who landed in Australia on 26th January, 1788 and others who arrived later during the nation’s convict transportation era. At least included are Angle, French, Norman-French, Gascoigne-French, German, Indian, Iranian, Irish, Spanish, Norwegian, Polish, Roman and Welsh.

Among the first group of convicts put ashore in Sydney Cove on 26th January, 1788 was a young man from Thames Ditton in Surrey named Nathaniel Lucas. Nathaniel was a carpenter-joiner or ship-frame builder.

When Nathaniel was nineteen he was already a skilled tradesman. Unfortunately, during a stay in London some stolen clothes were found in the filling of the palias (mattress) on which he was sleeping. Although he protested his innocence, he was found guilty and sentenced to seven years transportation. Nathaniel is believed to have been of Danish origin. Many of his descendants have fair wavy hair and are of fair complexion.

Nathaniel arrived on the "Scarborough" in the First Fleet. Shortly afterwards he was sent to Norfolk Island along with a small number of other convicts and marines, led by Lt. Philip Gidley King, R.N. Nathaniel and King got on very well and Nathaniel in 1805, moved to Sydney at King’s invitation, to build windmills. Nathaniel was also appointed Superintendent of Carpenters, Sydney Hospital, now the New South Wales Parliament House and the Mint Building, were constructed by him. He did acquire some of the rum for which the hospital is now more prominently recalled and subsequently his family traded at a location now known as No. 1 York Street which he had most patriotically called Trafalga Inn.

Nathaniel married on Norfolk Island and raised thirteen children. Tragically and sadly, Nathaniel was a builder of the "old school" and when the volatile perfectionist Francis Greenway was appointed Government Architect, Nathaniel’s work on the construction of St. Luke’s Church at Liverpool was questioned. He committed suicide. Apparently during the foundation stone laying ceremony, Governor Macquarie’s speech had been overwhelmed by Nathaniel and Greenway arguing. The argument culminated in Nathaniel jumping into the George’s River and drowning. The tragedy stunned Nathaniel’s large family, particularly, his wife Olivia.

Some Lucas families hold a strong religious attachment to St Luke whom they assert was their ancestor. Nathaniel’s family was among the first settlers to arrive in Liverpool, so it seems that Governor Macquarie named St. Luke's Church there in commemoration of the affinity between Nathaniel and St. Luke. Lucien (St. Luke) was born in Antioch, Turkey, at about the same time as Christ and his descendants moved to all parts of Europe. Nathaniel could have been one of these descendants.

Shortly after Nathaniel’s arrival in 1788, he married another convict Olivia Gascoigne. Olivia’s name was French but she herself was not French. Her first name Olivia has been traced to her maternal line, i.e., her grandmother Olivia Partridge, whilst her family origin in England goes back to the 12th century with the arrival of a number of people from Gascony in France. These people were surnamed "Gascoigne" (pronounced Gaskins), obviously meaning person from Gascony. The Gascons (ethnic grouping) were readily accepted by the Norman English and by the thirteenth century they had reached the ranks of the aristocracy. Sir Crisp Gascoyne, Chief Justice of England and Lord Mayor of London in the 1750’s, was amongst tem. The Earls of woodhouse in Yorkshire were also Gascon in origin.

Olivia lived on Norfolk Island along side the Wentworth family (William Charles Wentworth). Wentworth's were a line connected to the famous family of Woodhouse of Yorkshire. The transfer of this peerage to the Wentworth's occurred in the fifteenth century through the marriage of a Wentworth to one, Margaret Gascoigne (The females did not assume Earldom, but if they were entitled, had they been male, the Earldom could pass to their husbands). Olivia was friendly with the Wentworth's and a number of her grandchildren were so named. Some of her Descendants have mentioned that she was recalled claiming to be descended from Sir Thomas Wentworth, the first Earl of Stafford. The home of the Earl of Stafford is Wentworth Castle near Sheffield. In 1826 a child was baptised in that castle’s chapel and she was christened, "Olivia Gascoigne". It seems that she too was named after an ancestor. Perhaps she was the same person.

Olivia’s story itself is also fascinating. She is believed to have been born in Droitwyche in Worcestershire in 1760 and she appears to have come from a middle-class family. She was literate and musical and had knowledge of accounting.

In 1784 Olivia was working as a servant in Severn Stoke, Worcestershire when she was charged with stealing a small sum. She was found guilty but no verdict entered. Shortly afterwards, in company with a group of other people, she confronted the resident of a home. Whether she intended to rob him or merely demand monies owed to her was not recorded, but either of these scenarios may have occurred. One of the group produced a pistol. This incident led her and the rest of the group to a conviction for armed robbery and the death sentence. Olivia was only saved from the gallows when the magistrate on that day announced his retirement and as a parting gesture commuted her sentence to seven years transportation. Four years later she arrived in Australia aboard the "Lady Penhryn" in the First Fleet in company with Ann Innet who became the mistress of Philip Gidley King.

Olivia, in her own right, developed properties in Longford and Launceston, Tasmania. Her husband Nathaniel and son John operated properties in Liverpool and Minto until Nathaniel died. Barley was grown by both operations for the Sydney brewer James Squire. Wheat for their windmilling activities was grown in Launceston, Liverpool and Sydney City. The tragic Suicide of Nathaniel and the murder of Olivia’s son William some time later led to the failure of their enterprises. Only her land in Launceston, Tasmania, survived her.

Olivia died in Longford, Tasmania in 1830 aged 69 years. More children born in Australia are descended from her than any other person who has arrived since 1788, viz., 110,000 descendants by 1991.

What had been thought to be a small group of Gascon Australians is, in reality, a very substantial part of the nation’s people.

Gascon-English…….

The Gascons are a little researched group in England. In the twelfth century A.D. there was a considerable migration to northern England from southern France. These people were referred to as the people of Gascony. Thus evolved the surnames, Gaskins, Gascoine, Gascoyne, Gascoigne.

The Gascons have been represented in Australia since 1788. Olivia Gascoigne from Droitwyche, Worcestershire arrived on the First Fleet ship "Lady Penhryn". Olivia had been convicted of armed robbery and sentenced to death. This sentence was later commuted to a seven years transportation. She was among the first convicts sent to Norfolk Island in 1788, where she married a fellow convict, Nathaniel Lucas, and raised a family of thirteen children. Olivia died in Longford, Tasmania in 1830. By 1991 her descendants had totalled 110,000, the largest Australian family. The Author is one of her descendants.

William Charles Wentworth , a friend of Olivia, was born en-route from Sydney to Norfolk Island and raised there alongside her children. A fiery lawyer and politician and pioneer of Australian democracy, William was the son of a migrant and a convict lass. His father’s family was also believed to have been of Gascon origin.

Sadly it is noted that at least five descendants of Olivia Gascoigne were killed in action in France during World War 1 on service with the Australian Army.