Bridget was educated at Kilmore, and moved with her family to Pine Lodge in the early 1870s. She took up a lease on a block adjoining her parents, and lived there until she married local Irish farmer Michael Moylan in 1877 at Benalla.
Michael was one of a large family of Moylans who had emigrated from County Tipperary in the 1850s. His parents were farmer James Moylan and Bridget Dwyer. They had settled on farming land near Dookie, and it was to Dookie that Michael and Bridget returned after their wedding.
Bridget and Michael Moylan had a family of nine children:
1879: James Moylan born Dookie
1880: Patrick Moylan born Dookie
1882: John Moylan born Dookie
1884: Edward Joseph Moylan born Dookie.
1886: Michael Moylan born Dookie.
1888: Bridget Moylan born Dookie
1890: Matthew Moylan born Dookie
1891: Thomas Moylan born Dookie
1894: Annie Frances Moylan born Dookie
Tragedy struck the family when, on July 17, 1895, Bridget’s husband Michael died. He died at High Street, Shepparton, after falling ill with a severe form of influenza. It is not known why he was being nursed in town instead of at his Dookie property- perhaps it was an attempt to keep sickness away from the rest of his family, particularly the youngest children.
Michael battled against his illness for a week, then succumbed through exhaustion and passed away aged 48 years. Dr. McKenna, who last saw him on the day of his death, had attended him.
Michael’s brother, Mathew Moylan, registered his death, and provided the following details:
“ Buried July 19, 1895, at Dookie Cemetery, William Bowen undertaker. Minister attending Father Thomas J. O’Connell, Roman Catholic Clergyman. Born County of Tipperary, Ireland, 40 years in Victoria. Married at Benalla, Victoria, aged 31 years, to Bridget Bourke. Children: James 16; Patrick 15; John 13; Edward 12; Michael 10; Bridget 8; Mathew 6;Thomas 4 and Annie Frances 1.”
One can only imagine the feelings of Bridget Bourke Moylan as she was left alone to support nine children aged from one to sixteen. In the way of large Irish families, she would have had the support of her extended families on both the Bourke and Moylan sides to help in any way, and it is known that several of her children went to live with aunts and uncles to lessen the load on their mother.
Bridget’s only sister, Margaret Bourke of Burramine, helped by taking into her family ten year old Michael Moylan to be raised alongside her own children. Two years previously she and husband Paddy Bourke had taken in the Moylan’s third son, John, for reasons unknown. Information gleaned from an old Tungamah School register stated :
“ Register no: 590
Name: John Moylan
Parent/guardian: Mrs. P. Bourke, Tungamah, farmer (guardian)
School last attended: Roman Catholic school, Shepparton.
Date of admittance: December 1893 (aged 11).
Michael Moylan, following the death of his father, lived with his aunt and uncle, Margaret and Paddy Bourke, and attended Tungamah State School with their children. I have an old school homework exercise book which Michael Moylan shared with his cousin, Michael Bourke, and the handwriting is beautiful, particularly considering that the child in question was only ten years old.
There is also a letter in the back of the book which Michael wrote to his mother but didn’t post. It is dated November 27, 1895, some four months after his father’s death. Michael reassures his mother that all is well, and talks of the arrival of his little four year old brother Tom: “ Cousin Bridge and Tom arrived all right and in good health. Thom was delighted to see me. He is enjoying himself
here very well. He comes to school with me every day, in fact he will scarcely let me out of his sight. He follows me everywhere.”
Bridget never remarried, and lived to an old age. She died in 1936, aged 82 years, at Brighton near Melbourne.
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