BIOGRAPHY

Michael FINLAY was born c1793 in probably Dublin, Ireland

• described in 1816 as Native Place Dublin Co and aged 23 - born c1793
• age 38 in 1831 marriage - born 1793
• SEE BELOW FOR POSSIBLE PARENTS AND SIBLINGS

Michael was convicted in 1816 in Dublin City and was sentenced to 7 years transportation. He arrived in Sydney Cove on 20 December 1816 on "Surrey"

In the 1822 General Muster he was listed as a government servant to J PALMER, Windsor

In the 1825 General Musted he was listed as employed by J ECKFORD, Newcastle

Michael married Caroline McCARTHY in 1831 at Black Creek, New South Wales and they had the following children

• 1832 John
• 1835 Ellen
• 1836 Edward, died young
• 1838 Daniel
• 1842 Edward

Michael died 3 July 1844 at Goulburn. The coroners inquest on 9 July listed Michael FINDLAY with a cause of death as Visitation of God.

Michael was buried at Goulburn Old Cemetery

PARENTS and SIBLINGS

Different researchers have differing information on Michael's origins. See https://www.geni.com/discussions/283057?msg=173765

Suggested Parents - Set 1

• Father - James Finlay
• Mother - Elizabeth? Finlay

Suggested Parents - Set 2

• Born 1796 Baptised 19 November 1796 Kingstown, Dublin Ireland
• Father - James FINLAY
• Mother - Judy

Suggested SIBLINGS

• Rose McCourt / McCart, Convict “Sir Charles Forbes” 1837
• Mary McCourt, Convict “Sir Charles Forbes” 1837
• Robert Finlay, Convict "Guildford" 1827

  ---

SOURCES

See Timeline tab

• 1816-02-22 Saunders Newspaper - report of conviction
• 1816-12-20 Convict Indent
• 1822 Australian Census / Muster
• 1823-02-27 Certificate of Leave
• 1825 Australian Census / Muster
• 1831-09 Permission to Marry - Michael FINLAY "Surry" 38 to Caroline McCARTHY "Kaines" 19
• 1831-11-27 NSW Marriage Record - Michael FINLAY married Caroline McCARTHY in 1831
• 1832 NSW Birth Record - Seefirday John FINLEY born 1832 to Michael and Caroline
• 1835 NSW Birth Record - Seefirday Ellen FINLEY born 1835 to Michael and Caroline
• 1836 NSW Birth Record - Seefirday Edward FINLEY born 1836 to Michael and Caroline
• 1838 NSW Birth Record - Seefirday Daniel FINLEY born 1838 to Michael and Caroline
• 1842 NSW Birth Record - Edward FINLAY born 1842 to Michael and Caroline
• 1844-07-09 Coroners Inquest

  ---

LINKS

• https://convictrecords.com.au/convicts/finlay/michael/133053
• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/249199940/michael-m-finlay
• https://australianroyalty.net.au/tree/purnellmccord.ged/individual/...
• https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/LCX5-KF6

  ---

Michael John Finlay

• Convicted 1815, sent to NSW on the ship “Surrey” in 1816
• Gender: Male
• Birth: 1800 - of Dublin, born eastern County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
• Death: July 03, 1844 (43-44) Goulburn, NSW, Australia
• Son of James Finlay and Sarah Ann (McLain) Finlay
• Husband of Caroline Margaret (McCarthy) Finlay - married 1831 and 1832

Life

Michael's early life story has been shrouded in confusion, since only now have his actual parents and point of origin been identified. See discussion below as to why there's strong evidence that we've now identified those parents correctly, and a 1796 Roman Catholic baptism record is, in fact, not his.

Michael was likely born somewhere on the eastern edge of County Fermanagh, where it adjoins County Monaghan, somewhere between 1797 and 1800. He was the second of five known and suspected siblings. His father was James Finlay, last son of James Finlay Sr. and Rose Wright. His mother was Sarah Ann McLain, last daughter of James McLain and Mary Wright (from a different family of Wrights). All of his grandparents were Church of Ireland.

Sometime shortly after 1805, Michael's paternal grandmother died. His father James, free of family responsibilities, decided to move the family to the West Indies to pursue economic opportunities. This was where Michael's sister Rose was born in 1807. But the opportunities either did not pan out, or more likely, father James contracted malaria or another tropical disease, and the family returned to Ireland, landing in Dublin, where shortly thereafter, James died in 1810.

Michael's mother, Sarah Ann, did not leave Dublin right away, but instead did what she could to find her sons (James, Michael, and Robert) employment opportunities in the Dublin area. James, the eldest, sought employment in Scotland. Michael became a plumber's assistant. Robert also went to Scotland.

It was Michael who got in trouble with the law first, in 1816, for stealing lead, in Dublin. Knowing that if he said he was underage his mother might also get into trouble, he told the arresting officers that he was 23. It is also quite probable that Michael was both illiterate and innumerate, so he really may have had only an approximate idea of his true age at that point.

Michael was sentenced to be sent to New South Wales for his crime, where he married a Roman Catholic woman named Caroline Margaret McCarthy, by permission, in both Church of England and Roman Catholic ceremonies, and had a large family. He died in 1844.

Of Michael's siblings, we can say that, with the exception of the eldest, James, who wound up in a debtor's prison in New Deer, Scotland, all of them eventually were sent to New South Wales as prisoners. Sisters Mary and Rose were the last to arrive in 1837.

Note about parents, and the matter of religion

Standard treatment of Michael assumes that he was born Roman Catholic in Dublin. A baptism record exists of a Michael Finlay, born 1796, son of James Finlay and Judy. However, there is doubt that this is the correct record. For one thing, at the time of his marriage, Michael said he was 31, thus born in 1800, not 1796. His age at the time of his arrival in NSW in 1816 was given by him as 23, thus born in 1793. None of these are too far off of 1796, but it is also the case that there is little evidence that Michael was ever a practicing Catholic before he married. The earliest known record of Catholicism in relation to Michael was a 1828 census record which had many things wrong, so much so that it might not have even referred to Michael (see attached source). But his application to marry Caroline McCarthy, who was a staunch Roman-Catholic, in 1831 clearly stated he wanted a Roman-Catholic wedding. Descendant Ian Finlay states:

As convicts they where all forced to attend CofE Sunday mass or receive punishment (from accounts in the Hunter region historical society). In many early cases I believe that they got married locally (say Hunter) but got recorded at St Mary's (CofE) Sydney, being the only place to record the marriage. Many early Catholic priests spent 6-8 weeks doing circuits on horseback to attend parishioners, in southern highlands and presumably other regions. I would say when having a choice in the matter - they chose RC. Michael and Caroline's marriage was performed by a Royal Navy Officer John Wood and as there was no other option many Catholics took ceremony under CofE Clergy versus none at all.

Thus, Michael married for the first time in a Church of England setting in 1831. This has been explained as being due to lack of availability of a Roman-Catholic priest - it has been described as "secular" and "by permission". Michael remarried in 1832 to Caroline in a Roman-Catholic setting, just before the RC baptism of his first child. Prior to 1828, Michael did not give any indication of being Catholic. We have no record of him attending services, nor stating his religion as Catholic. Nor did he seem to be literate or numerate, which would have been unusual for a devout Roman Catholic growing up in Dublin. Records from the "Surry" - the 1816 ship who took him to New South Wales from Dublin - are silent, as far as I know.

This is significant, because DNA relatives of Michael in Ireland were not generally Catholic. DNA ties him to the Wright family who emigrated to Berlin, New Jersey, and to the Armstrong clan of County Fermanagh. Religion was by-and-large unimportant for these families. The Wright immigrant to New Jersey did not have an obvious church affiliation; even the burial ground that was used, previously a Presbyterian one, became explicitly non-denominational. Thomas Wright's parents were married in a Church of Ireland setting, but for the most part, this family was as areligious as you could find in that era. An aunt of Thomas, Elizabeth Wright, married in a Church of Ireland setting but then went on to become Catholic. Her descendants are all Catholic, and she is likely buried in a Catholic cemetery in Baltimore.

Furthermore, if we have Michael's family right (see below), he likely spent the years from 1805 to 1810 somewhere in the West Indies - where churches were likely an afterthought. While James Finlay, the man I believe to be Michael's father, died in Clondalkin, a Church of Ireland parish, there's little evidence that he retained any strong sense of religion either. So it may very well be the case that Michael never once attended any church service at all from the years 1805 until 1831. So I believe that the assumption that Michael was Roman-Catholic by birth is based solely on his marriage, and nobody is questioning that the woman he married was a staunch Catholic herself.

Assuming Michael was not born Catholic and was the DNA connection between the Finlay descendants and the Wright descendants, Michael's family can be assembled from DNA matches as well as from locational affinity. Each family member brings a little something to the table here. From DNA, we know that the James Finlay who was jailed as a pauper in New Deer, Aberdeenshire, was a likely brother. A grandson of his emigrated to Australia and a descendant shares a large DNA overlap with the Finlay descendants in New South Wales. The family also likely included Mary Finlay McCourt and Rose Finlay McCourt. These self-described sisters were sent to New South Wales as convicts themselves in 1837. Rose married Owen McCourt in 1827 in Clones, Monaghan, but was abandoned by her husband when he married illegally a second time in Lancashire, and later emigrated to South Australia. Rose was described as being a Protestant married woman with two children. Her place of birth she stated was the West Indies. When she died, she named her parents as James and Sarah Ann. Mary was also described as a Protestant married woman, with one child, at the time of her conviction; place of birth was eastern County Fermanagh. Mary married in Ireland to an unknown McCourt, possibly a brother of Owen. Her husband likely died before 1836.

Another possible brother Robert I have no way of proving either by DNA or by story, but just by circumstance.

If this is indeed the family, we now know a great deal about Michael. His mother Sarah Ann was likely the last daughter of James McLain and Mary Wright, another aunt of Thomas Wright. James Finlay was likely the son of James Finlay and Rose (believed to be a Wright also, but from a different lineage, the so-called "Gola Wrights"). By Irish naming convention, the James Finlay who went to New Deer, Scotland, was named after both his paternal and maternal grandfathers, while Mary was named after her mother's mother, and Rose was named after her father's mother. No naming convention restrictions apply to assumed children Michael and Robert.

Warning: FindAGrave adopts (incorrectly) the 1796 baptism record for Michael

This record is a Catholic Dublin baptism which names parents as "James and Judy". However, see extensive discussion above about DNA. Please do not assume the Dublin birth is correct. Michael's first marriage was Church of England which hints he was not Catholic by birth.

DNA evidence

Please see this private profile for DNA evidence as to Michael Finlay's parentages and origins.

Note about age

Michael Finlay's age was self-reported. If he was illiterate, this was likely off by many years. In addition, if he claimed to be underage at the time of arrest, his parents could be liable, and he probably knew that.

His birth year given below must therefore be taken with a grain of salt. Certainly it is the case that when he married in 1831, Michael gave his age as 31, implying he was born in 1800.

From Graham Joseph Austin

Born Jan 1793
Convicted for Stealing lead

Departure Jul 1816
Arrival Dec 1816
Death Jul 1844

Name: Michael Finlay
Aliases: Finley, Fennely, Findlay
Gender: Male
Born: 1st Jan 1793
Death: 3rd Jul 1844
Age: 51 years
Occupation: Porter

Crime
Crime: Stealing lead
Convicted at: Ireland, Dublin City
Sentence term: 7

Voyage
Ship: Surrey or Surry
Voyage: 14th Jul 1816
Arrival: 20th Dec 1816
Place of Arrival: New South Wales

Convict Notes
Contributed by D Wong on 23rd November 2015
Michael Finlay [stated he] was 23 years old on arrival in NSW. His occupation was listed as a 'Porter/Labourer' - no crime listed.

1831: Married Caroline McCarthy (Kains 1831) they had 4 or more children.

Contributed by Ian Finlay on 15th December 2015
nb: There are other Michael Finlay's in Colony other than this one.
[1] from ship Nautilus - highwayman

Occupation:
Porter & Labourer

Crime:
Stealing Lead & Copper

From Dianne Jones, 2nd September 2020

1816, 13 May: Michael FINLAY was admitted to Kilmainham Gaol, Dublin from Newgate (prisoner #2594, committed by the Government). He was discharged from the jail on 13 May 1816 to be “sent on board the convict ship” (see Ireland, Prison Registers, 1790-1924; Dublin, Kilmainham 1815-1910).

Convict History
Left: 14th Jul, 1816
Travelled on: Surrey or Surry
Description:
Built at Harwich in 1811 a square-rigged transport ship of 443 tons and copper lined she had two decks with a height between decks of 5 ft. 8 ins. In 1818, she had a major refit increasing the decks (and convict carrying capacity) to three. She was owned by the London firm of F. & C.F. Mangles.
Arrived on: 20th Dec, 1816

From Ian Finlay (01/01/1999)

1.Convict transported from Dublin to Sydney 1815
2.Hold newspaper article of arrest/interrogation Grange Gorman Dublin
3.married for 1st time in CofE in 1831
4.married 2nd time in RC Church 31/10/1832 prior to baptism of 1st child (John Finlay).
5. age on 1st wedding 31, in 1831, would make him b.1801, but on viewing original record looks like a 1837, not 1831.
6.some records show surname as Finley.
7. Occupation:
7a: Porter/Labourer convict transportation records
7b: Plumber Assist. from newspaper records Dublin 1815
7c: Farmer on childrens birth certificates
8. Married 27/11/1831 CofE

From Leonie Sobhani (19/07/2008)

1. shows birth circa 1810, not c1793
[I do not agree with this finding]

References

1. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/249199940/michael_m_finlay
2. https://eoe.convictwomenspress.com.au/index.php/biographical-dictio...

   ---