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| Notes for John HENNESSY | ||||||||||||||||||||
| From Peter Hennessy's book The Hennessys of the Bay of Quinte, p. 54: "The third son of Richard and Sarah was John Hennessey, 1817-1899. His life is well documented in the public records; it was a life of hard work and upright behaviour; his marriage produced an interesting and varied legacy. "John was assessed as early as 1839 in Murray township when he was 22 years old. In 1845 he was shown on the assessment roll as living on the home place (lot 3, con. A, Murray) with or near Richard and Sarah. He must have married at about that time though his marriage record has not been found. He married Anna Bleecker, daughter of John R. Bleecker Jr. and Elizabeth Ritchie, all good Anglicans, --well Anglicans for sure. .... "Elizabeth Ritchie, Anna Bleecker's mother, has been described as a brave, resourceful and strong woman. Though there are records pertaining to John R. Bleecker Jr. and Elizabeth in the archives of St. Thomas Anglican Church, Belleville, there is no record of Anna's birth or baptism. Not unusual. "In the 1848 Murray census, John and Anna Hennessey were living on the 3rd concession, lot 6, where they spent their lives. They had 50 acres of land and a small inventory of livestock. Their first child, Jane, named after Anna's sister presumably, was born in 1847. They had 'no religion.' "By 1851 they had 3 more children, James, 3, John, 1 and Sarah, 1 plus James Hendricks, 12, who was attending school. It was not unusual to find young relatives in those pioneer households at census time. John and Anna and their burgeoning brood had as part of their inventory 30 lbs. of maple sugar, 11 yds. felted cloth, 15 yds. flannel, 8 oxen, 4 cows, 10 sheep, 11 pigs, 200 lbs. butter and 3 barrels of pork. And they were now firmly Church of England. (Murray Census 1851) "On May 14, 1857 the Rev. Wm. Bleasdell of St. George's Anglican, Trenton, baptized four little Hennesseys, all children of John and Anna: James, Jane, Mary and George Howard. Little Sarah and John were missing from the line-up; John presumably had died earlier. By the 1861 census there were two more mouths to feed--William and Phoebe Ann (who later married Wm. Crosby). John had expanded his acreage to 125 and had a modest array of farm machines. "Ten years later, John had 50 more acres, more machinery, another child, Stephen, born 1866, but poor Anna died of consumption (t.b.) on Feb. 17, 1871. Hard work and child rearing had left her vulnerable. .... "Though rocked by tragedy, the John Hennessey family grew ever outwards. In the 1881 Murray census, there are clustered together three households: John the widower, 64, with a daughter Jane, 33 and a son Stephen, 14 (in school); George Howard Henesy, 25 and his wife Jane Crosby, 22; and the young widow Almida Henesy, Irish, and son John 8 and daughter Annis 5 (both in school). Both John and George called themselves German to the census taker--the Bleecker influence one supposes. "In the 1891 census, George Howard Henesy had a son James Roy age 7. Still at home with the widower John was Stephen 25, and his wife Eleanor Bouthier, born in Jersey. Nearby was John's son William 32, a farmer and married to Catherine Murphy 30, from Ireland and a Roman Catholic. Almida remarried to M. Shannon. By the time of his death in 1899 John had given his land to his sons William and Stephen. If John left a will, it has not come to light."51 | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| NAME: John's last name is also given as HENESY.204 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Last Modified Jul 23, 2001 | Created Dec 31, 2003 by Reunion for Macintosh |