John Bourke and Judith Meehan-the Kilmore Bourkes

Well..that takes care of the Bourke family belonging to my gg grandmother, Margaret Bourke, and known collectively by me as the 'Pine Lodge Bourkes'. I have dealt with Margaret's parents and siblings, but not covered the story of Margaret herself. Because her story is so naturally entwined with that of her husband's, I will post the stories of Paddy Bourke and his wife Margaret together after the forthcoming blogs on Paddy's parents and siblings. First cab off the rank...Paddy Bourke's parents, John Bourke and Judith Meehan:-
Judith Meehan and her husband John Bourke were both born in County Tipperary, Ireland. Judith was the daughter of Michael Meehan and Honora Ryan, and was in her early twenties when she married John Bourke in Tipperary in c. 1840, just prior to their emigration to Victoria on the ship ‘Duchess of Northumberland’.
The birth years of both Judith and John differ depending on what source you are looking at. John Bourke was born c. 1807 if you take his year of birth from shipping records, and c. 1808-9 from his grave stone in the Kilmore cemetery.
Judith’s birth year varies also….her death certificate and obituary favour 1814, while shipping records suggest 1818.
Whatever the case, John and Judith Bourke were aged 34 and 23 respectively when they boarded their ship at Plymouth to set sail for Port Phillip. A total of 234 ‘British subjects’ were on board, although 45 of them would have definitely taken exception to this description, being Catholics from County Tipperary!
Judith Meehan’s younger brother, Patrick Meehan, also immigrated to Victoria on board the ‘Duchess of Northumberland’. Spelt ‘Meaghan’ on the passenger list, he was described as “Patrick Meaghan, 20 years. Labourer, Roman Catholic, can read and write. Native of Tipperary.’

With Judith and John Bourke on the Duchess of Northumberland was a seven year old child named William Burke.Judith was not old enough to be the mother of this little boy, nor was he named as one of her children on her death certificate. I believe that back in Tipperary John Bourke/Burke had been married prior to his marriage to Judith, and that William was a child of this union, being born in c. 1834.

Mr. John Marshall of London, a shipping agent, brought all of the passengers on board the ‘Duchess of Northumberland’ out to Australia. Classified as ‘assisted’ or ‘bounty’ immigrants, most were agricultural labourers (men) or house servants (women). Under the ‘Bounty Scheme’, an incentive or reward was paid to agents in Britain to find skilled labour and tradespeople and ship them out to the Colonies. These agents, in this case John Marshall, were paid by the Colonial Government for sponsoring the immigrants, and the fee was generally around nineteen pounds for an adult and five pounds for a child.

After his arrival, John Bourke was employed at Moonee Ponds where he and his young family remained for some five years. He was most likely employed as a farm labourer or saddler (on the marriage certificates of his sons Patrick and Edmund, his occupation was given as ‘farmer’, and on the death certificate of son John it was ‘saddler’.)

Judith Bourke apparently had some talent in the field of nursing, which would have been very welcome in the new settlement of Port Phillip where medical attendants were in great demand.
Judith was mid-way through her first pregnancy at the time of her arrival, and their son, Michael, was born four months later. He was born at Moonee Ponds on October 8, 1841.
Two more sons were born at Moonee Ponds during the next four years…Patrick in 1843, and John in 1845.
In about 1846, the young Bourke family decided to join their many countrymen and women who were making their way to Kilmore, a mainly Irish settlement north of Melbourne. They walked the entire 38 miles with their little boys, and upon arrival settled down to make Kilmore their home for the next twenty five years.

For unknown reasons, Judith Meehan was sometimes referred to as ‘Johanna’ in various records, particularly baptismal records of her children. It has been suggested to me that some priests of that era were against the name ‘Judith’ because of its similarity to ‘Judas’, the man who betrayed Christ. One researcher reported that in the early 1840s there was a complete absence of the name ‘Judith’ in Melbourne church records, with ‘Johanna’ being substituted instead.
Even in 1849 in Kilmore, the priest at the baptism of Judith's son Joseph gave the child’s mother’s name as ‘Johanna’.

John and Judith had three more children after their move to Kilmore:
1847: Edmund Bourke b Kilmore
1849: Joseph Bourke b Kilmore
1851: Ellen Bourke b Kilmore.


The early 1850s were marked with tragedy for Judith Bourke as she lost her baby son Joseph and then her husband John. John died on Sunday, March 20, 1853, aged only 44 years. His cause of death is unknown, as compulsory registration of births, deaths and marriages did not start in Victoria until a few months after his death.
The inscription on the head stone reads “ Of your charity pray for the souls of John Bourke, native of Co. Tipperary, Ireland, died 20th March, 1853, aged 44 years. Also his son Joseph and his granddaughter Mary who died in infancy.”

Judith was left a young widow with children ranging in age from two to eleven years,as well as a 19 year old stepson, and she succeeded in raising them without having to remarry, which was the only option left to many widowed women in those times. It was probably her work as a nurse, and midwife in particular, which allowed her to not only support her family but also give them a very good education at the local Kilmore Catholic School.
One of Judith Bourke’s grandchildren, Judith Dalton (nee Bourke, daughter of Michael) was still alive in 1989 at the age of 98 years, and she remembers being told that her grandmother was a nurse. This is backed up by a reference to “ Mrs. Bourke, nurse by whom certified" on the birth certificate of Patrick Francis Bourke, one of Judith’s grandsons who was born in Kilmore in 1872.
Being unable to read or write herself, Judith Bourke would have made sure that her daughter and four sons received the best education available, and this was carried out at St. Patricks Catholic School, which had been started by local priest Father Charles Clarke in 1855.
In 1867, eldest son Michael Bourke married local girl Margaret Malloy, and two years later son Paddy married Margaret Bourke, the daughter of Bylands farmer Patrick Bourke.
Ellen Bourke, only daughter of Judith and John, married John Mannix, the eldest son from an influential Kilmore family. His mother was Mary Bourke, but it is thought that she was of no relation to Ellen’s family.
The Bourke family left Kilmore in c. 1873, and headed further north to Burramine and Boosey, neighbouring parishes on the Victorian side of the Murray River.
Those to select land at Burramine and Boosey were Judith, her stepson William Bourke, sons Michael, Paddy and Edmund, and daughter Ellen. Third son, John, went to South Australia where he married and started a family, but in the 1880s he also returned to the Burramine area to farm.
Between them, the Bourkes owned a substantial amount of prime farming land, totalling some 1500 acres.
Judith Bourke remained in Burramine until her death in September of 1904, at the age of ninety years. She died of senile decay and heart failure at the Burramine home of her daughter, Ellen Mannix, on September 26, and had last been seen by her doctor, Dr. Jamieson from Yarrawonga, the previous day. Her son, Edmund Bourke, from Kilmore, registered his mother’s death, and it is unfortunate that he didn’t know the names of his maternal grandparents back in Ireland, filling in the relevant section on the certificate with ‘unknown’.
Judith Mary Bourke was buried on September 27, 1904, with Reverend E.J. Madden officiating. She had been born in Tipperary, Ireland, and spent about 63 years in Victoria. She had been married in Tipperary at the age of 26 years to John Bourke, deceased, and their children were Michael 63; Patrick 61; John 59; Edmund 57; Joseph dead and Ellen 53.
Despite being buried in the Burramine cemetery, Judith’s grave, like many of the other Bourkes who are buried there, is unmarked.