The early years of the workhouse also witnessed the assisted emigration of ‘inmates’, although these were not as well remembered in social memory as the so-called ‘Earl Grey Orphans’ of 1848 to 1850. The assisted emigrants included thirty adults and nine children in 1847 in an effort to reduce the burden on the house and to relieve individuals as fever took hold. These adults and children were selected for emigration from the workhouse but unfortunately, there names are not recorded in any of the surviving documentation. However, more is known about the fate of the ‘Earl Grey’ Orphans. These young women were selected from Irish workhouses in order to ease the burden on the unions which catered for them and in total some 4,114 girls were selected for emigration during the years 1848-1850. The Poor Law Commissioners assigned the task of overseeing the scheme to Lieutenant Henry, an emigration agent, to visit the workhouses and select the more suitable female orphans for emigration to Australia.
At Magherafelt Henry, presumably aided by the guardians, selected 24 girls, whose ages ranged from 13 to 21 years, as suitable for the scheme and many of them sailed on 17th July 1848 from Plymouth, England on board the ship Roman Emperor. Others sailed on the ships Derwent to Melbourne 1850 or Earl Grey to Sydney (1848).
Prior to this the girls on the Roman Emperor were escorted from Magherafelt workhouse to Belfast, and from there shipped for Dublin— the cost per head from Belfast to Dublin being 5s. On arriving in Dublin, they were conveyed by steamer to Plymouth. In January 1849, one of the emigrants, Rachel McQuade, wrote to her sister, who was an inmate, stating that she was in Adelaide, and was engaged as a servant at £10 for the first year. She also spoke in complimentary terms of the beauty of the country— her only regret being that there was no turf there! While twenty-four girls were selected, the official website of the Female Orphan Commemoration in Australia only lists the names of eleven girls from Magherafelt workhouse:
- Eliza Black, Magherafelt, Derry aged 19, Presbyterian – left on the ship Roman Emperor (Adelaide 1848)
- Sarah Butler, Magherafelt, Derry, aged 14, Protestant – left on the ship Roman Emperor (Adelaide 1848)
- Isabella Cahoon(?), Magherafelt, Derry, Protestant- left on the ship Roman Emperor (Adelaide 1848)
- Sarah Connay (Conway, Coonan?) Magherafelt, Derry, aged17 or 18; Mother Kitty widow [in the workhouse]; religion not recorded – left on the ship Roman Emperor (Adelaide1848)
- Eliza Given, Magherafelt area, aged 16, Presbyterian- left on the ship Roman Emperor (Adelaide 1848)
- Catherine Hafferty (Hefferty) Magherafelt, aged 19, Roman Catholic- left on the ship Derwent (Melbourne Feb 1850)
- Mary Ann Hughes, Magherafelt, aged 16, Protestant – left on the ship Roman Emperor (Adelaide 1848)
- Isabella McCrystal, Magherafelt, aged 16, parents Mickey & Biddy, Roman Catholic- left on the ship Derwent (Melbourne Feb 1850)
- Rachel McQuade Magherafelt, aged 19, Roman Catholic- left on the ship Roman Emperor (Adelaide 1848)
- Mary Paul, Magherafelt, aged13 or 14, Mother Sarah widow; Protestant- left on the ship Roman Emperor (Adelaide 1848)
- Ann Trainer (Traynor) – Magherafelt, aged 16 mother: Cathy Cassidy; Roman Catholic- left on the ship Derwent (Melbourne Feb 1850)
Others such as the below mentioned were also more than likely to have been resident in the Magherafelt workhouse before they departed and include:
- Sarah Carleton, Castledawson, Co. Derry, aged 14 Protestant- left on the ship Roman Emperor (Adelaide 1848)
- Fanny Dunlap [Dunlop], Loop, Derry; aged 20 – left on the ship Roman Emperor (Adelaide 1848)
- Rose Drennan, Craugh, Derry, aged 21- left on the ship Roman Emperor (Adelaide 1848)
[More to type] – Seamus to add the names in the format as above
For more details on the Irish ‘Earl Grey orphans’ see the website: https://irishfaminememorial.org/
