James McCartney

Bones in the Belfry home page
James Mccartney, at one time Harriet Smalley's husband is an interesting character in his own right
An interesting email was received from a descendant (Karl(Alan) Craig)and is quoted below
Link back to Harriet's page

Alan's Email

    I have read with interest your notes on Harriet Smalley and James McCartney, and I believe I can add a few small details to the story. My wife is a direct descendant of Susanna Shorter, the second wife of James McCartney and, although not related to James, he has an interesting connection with the family.
    First, some background on Susanna. She was born 25 August 1846 in Barrow, Suffolk, the youngest of 8 children, to John Shorter and Jemima Wright. When she was 20, Susanna married Thomas Edwards, a seaman, at St Nicholas Church in Plumstead, London (30 December 1866). Their daughter Martha was born in 1872, and the three of them sailed from London aboard the Landsborough on 15 July 1873, and they disembarked in Rockhampton 24 October.
    Susanna and Thomas had their second child, May (my wife's grandmother), on 23 May 1874 in Rockhampton, but their third child, Alfred, was born 4 years later in Waratah, near Newcastle, NSW (3 February 1878). Disaster then struck during the great TB epidemic in Sydney in 1885, claiming first Thomas, on May 4, and then 13-year-old Martha on July 28. Thomas and Martha are buried in Rookwood Cemetery in Sydney.
    This is where our family first comes across James McCartney: he is the informant on Thomas' death certificate, so I assume he is already known to Susanna at this point. From your reports, James had separated from his first wife, Harriet Smalley, sometime just before the birth of their third child, Charles, in 1874 ­ and now, 11 years  later, he is in Sydney.
    The next we hear of James is when he is declared the father of Susanna's illegitimate son, Reginald James McCartney, who was born in Kingston (now Camperdown) in Sydney on 17 April 1887. Then, on 14 January 1891, James makes an honest woman of Susanna when he marries her at Bethel House (Congregational), declaring (wrongly) that he is a widower. Susanna and James then move north to Charters Towers in Queensland where he dies in 1899 of TB, and Susanna in 1914.
    At this point we can construct a timeline for James that helps tell the story:
11 May 1841         ­     James is born in Dunfermline, Fifeshire (s/o William ˜McArtney" & Euphemia Kinghorn)
30 March 1851 ­         James, 9, living in Dunfermline with parents and 3 siblings
July 1852                 ­  Emigrates from Liverpool on board the Bourneuu with family
3 September 1852 ­    disembarks at Geelong, Victoria
6 April 1867 ­             James marries Harriet Smalley at the Wesleyan  Parsonage, Ballarat, Victoria
20 January 1868 ­       James' first child, Martha, is born in  Ballarat West, Victoria
10 August 1870 ­         James' second child, Euphemia, is born  in Clunes, Victoria
1874 ­                         James and Harriet separate, presumably while Harriet is pregnant with their third child
1874 ­                         Harriet gives birth to Charles McCartney at Ballarat  East, but doesn't record James as the father
1884                         ­ James' estranged wife, Harriet, gives birth to William, son of John Maxwell
9 May 1885              ­ James is the informant on Thomas Edwards' death certificate; resides at Leichhardt, NSW
17 April 1887 ­            Susanna Edwards gives birth to James' illegitimate son, Reginald James, at Kingston, Sydney
1889 ­                         James' estranged wife, Harriet, gives birth to Janet, daughter of John Maxwell
14 January 1891 ­       James marries Susanna Edwards at Bethel House  in Sydney; declares he is a "widower" (Susanna was originally Susanna Shorter)
10 February 1894 ­     James' first wife drowns in Albany  with John Maxwell
23 November 1899  ­ James dies of TB in Charters Towers. Susanna,  the informant, only gives "Euphemia" as a child of his first marriage and cannot provide the first wife'' name.
20 December 1914  Susanna dies of heart failure at Charters  Towers. She is survived by Alfred, May and Reginald.
    I have attached copies of most the relevant certificates for you file. If the information we have is correct, then James has probably committed bigamy when he married Susanna (unless, of course, there is an annulment yet to be discovered). This is definitely an interesting story.
    Regards,
        Alan Craig
Alan supplied the wedding photo for James second marriage so we know what he looked like - Link to It

Acknowledgements

Karl (Alan) Craig supplied the contents of this page, including the documents listed. He is happy to be contacted direct at kacraig@me.com.
 

Research Notes

Documents
1864 Birth Robert Smalley
1867 Marriage James McCartney Harriet Smalley
1868 Birth Martha McCartney
1870 Birth Euphemia McCartney
1885 Death Thomas Edwards
1887 Birth Reginald J McCartney
1891 Marriage James McCartney & Susanna Edwards (originally Susannah shorter)
1891 Wedding Photo of  James McCartney and Susanna Edwards/Shorter
1899 Death James Cameron McCartney (Living children Euphemia !st Marriage, Reginald James 2nd Marriage)


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