Honor Keogh

Honor (also known as Hannah Kehoe) was born in County Galway, Ireland, circa 1821. 

She was tried in Galway on 27 Dec 1849 for killing a sheep with the intention of stealing it, the property of a Mr Dillon of Galway. She was given a sentence of 7 years transportation to Van Diemen's Land. She had previously served 3 months in a local jail for stealing petticoats and 2 months for turnips.

She was transported on the Blackfriar, which left Kingston on 24 Jan 1851 and arrived in Hobart on 29 May 1851.

On 5 Dec 1852 in Hobart, Honor gave birth to an illegitimate son Michael, who died of convulsions aged 14 days on 19 Dec 1852, also in Hobart. His father was not named.

She married Robert Baker on 1 May 1854 in Hobart. Two daughters were born to them, Eliza in 1855 in Morven, and Mary Ann (my great great grandmother) circa 1857, place unknown as her birth was not registered.

After Robert died in 1857, she married Joseph Jacques at the Roman Catholic church in Oatlands. He was a convict per Barossa (1), a Yorkshireman who arrived in Tasmania in 1842. Three children were born to Honor and Joseph - Sarah Ann in 1859, Joseph in 1861 and Edward in 1867. The family lived at Constitution Hill in 1878. Sarah Ann married Montrose Johnson, son of Deborah Hickman and William Johnson. So Honor was the mother of my 2x great grand aunt as well as my 3x great grandmother!

Joseph died in Brighton in 1897, a pauper in receipt of charitable aid. Honor sadly died in the New Town Charitable Institution, on 8 Nov 1903. She is buried at Cornelian Bay.

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