The Parrys of Bullock's Wharf

Griffith and Mary Ann Parry were among the early settlers of the Macdonald Valley and the town of St Albans in particular. When they arrived at what is now known as St Albans, it went by the more evocative name of 'Bullock's Wharf'.

Griffith and Mary Ann were the great-grandparents of Lena Parry, so my 3rd great-grandparents.

Griffith William Parry was born in London in 1799, the son of Henry and Catherine Parry. He had a sound education before following his parents into the candle-making trade, so he was a 'tallow-chandler'. He was 20 when he was convicted of stealing a watch and sentenced to transportation for life. He was lucky not to receive the death penalty as he was initially charged with highway robbery!  Arriving in Sydney aboard the Speke in 1821, he was immediately assigned to work for a settler named John Wood at Bringelly, near Liverpool. John Wood must have given him a good report, because in 1824, Griffith was transferred to Windsor and appointed as a Constable. It is surprising to us today that a serving convict could be appointed as a policeman, but that was not unusual at the time.

At Windsor, Griffith met an Irish girl named Mary Ann Mustare. Mary Ann is a difficult girl to research, but seems to have arrived as a free person aboard the Mariner in 1825. She could not read or write, and her name is recorded under various forms such as 'Musty' and 'Musfare'. This, combined with the loss of many Catholic records in Ireland, and the poor documentation about women in general, means we know nothing about Mary Ann's life before she arrived in Australia. She probably arrived as a servant of the Rev Meares, and she was still working for him when she met Griffith.

Griffith and Mary Ann married in Windsor in 1826 and soon started a family. Their first child, a boy, was born the following year and was named Henry after his paternal grandfather. A daughter named Catherine followed in 1828.

Griffith was granted his Ticket of Leave in 1828. This is much like parole today. Then in 1829 he was appointed District Constable at 'Lower Branch', known as Wiseman's Ferry today. He was replacing James Woodbury who had resigned after being severely beaten by escaped convicts who invaded his home. He was only saved when his 12-year-old son, William, opened fire on the invaders. So Griffith's appointment was not without risk to himself and his young family.

Within a few months of his appointment, Griffith's post was moved to Bullocks Wharf on the Macdonald River. The wharf had been built at the limit of navigation on the Macdonald River. The valley was the main informal route for people travelling overland to the Hunter Valley. Griffith and Mary Ann settled themselves on ten acres fronting the river, where in between his duties as constable and pound keeper, Griffith managed to find time to farm the land he had selected. Five more children arrived at regular intervals. The first child born at Macdonald River was a boy, named Griffith William Parry after his father (we do like to make life difficult for future family historians). Griffith Jr. was Lena Parry's Grandfather and will feature in his own family profile, hopefully in two weeks!

Griffith was granted a conditional pardon in 1836. This effectively removed the conditions of his Ticket of Leave and the only remnant of his criminal conviction was that he was not allowed to return to England. But with the pardon, Griffith's dream run with the Colonial administration came to a crashing end. He was dismissed as a constable, apparently for smuggling. Family talk is that he was in cahoots with Samuel Wisemen and a group of other constables and the goods smuggled was liquour. Next, Griffith lost most of his farm when the town of St Albans was surveyed. He argued that he was promised 10 acres, and held out for a few years, but was eventually given just the two acres that contained his house.

Griffith tried his hand at running a school and was Headmaster at a small Wollombi school for a short time, then moved his family to Mangrove Creek. 

Sadly, Mary Ann died in 1844, shortly after the move. While the older children were young adults by this time, the youngest was just four.  According to other family histories, Mary Ann was buried beside a creek at Upper Mangrove.

Griffith was 46 in 1845 when he remarried. His new bride was 26-year-old widow, Margaret Malone nee Kelly. Margaret had been born in Ireland and had arrived in Australia in 1841 with her husband. Owen Maloney. They had two children before Owen died in 1843. 

Griffith and Margaret had another six children, all girls. 

In his later years, Griffith was appointed as the 'Mangrove Creek agent' for the Maitland Mercury newspaper. We know that he was an educated man, which would have stood him out from many of the other settlers in the mangrove Creek area. It is likely that he was the author of some of the items that were published in the newspapers, at the time, usually signed 'from our Mangrove Creek Correspondent'.

Griffith died at Mangrove Creek in 1959. He was 60. He was buried in what is now known as the Dubbo Gully Cemetery at Upper Mangrove. Two of his daughters from his first marriage are also buried there, and Mary Ann's headstone is also located beside Griffith (possibly relocated from her lonely bush grave).

Margaret survived Griffith by 43 years. She died in 1902. She was buried at the catholic cemetery Spencer with her first husband, Owen Malone. 

I am intrigued by the religious dynamic that must have played out in the Parry household over the years. Griffith was quite a religious man I think and was a staunch supporter of the Church of England community in Mangrove Creek. His first wife, Mary Ann, was a Catholic, but all their children were raised to be Church of England. Margaret Maloney (nee Kelly) was also an Irish Catholic, much younger than Griffith. It seems that all her children were raised in the catholic faith, although at least one married as Church of England. Margaret and two of their daughters were buried in the Catholic cemetery at Spencer. 

Griffith Parry's story is very well documented in official records, many of which can be found in the resources section on his page on my website. The Colonial records were extensive and repetitive, but each document often adds another snippet of information. It is no coincidence that there are 10 documents about Griffith for every one about Mary Ann. Married women were often excluded from the records completely. Mary Ann possibly contributed equally to the success of the Parry family, but scarcely rates a mention in any of the official records. This is one of the reasons behind my writing biographies of the family, rather than the individual people. Individual biographies of the women would be very sparse compared to the men, not because they played a lesser role, but because the society of the day largely pretended that they were not there!