1838-1916
Father
Mother
Siblings
Elizabeth, Harriet, Annie, Mary Agatha, Elinor Mary Angela (Ellen), Thomas Henry, William P, Honora Mary (Nora)
Married
Children
Mary Ellen (Molly), George Henry, Anne Beatrice, Alodia, Maria Bridget, Joseph, John Thomas, Joseph Andrew, William Bernard, Henry Charles, Hannah
Maria’s Life
Maria was the second daughter of Henry York, a convict transported with a seven year sentence for larceny who arrived on the ‘Fame’ in 1817 and Mary Murphy, born in Ireland.
Mary’s Father, Patrick Murphy was convicted of ‘Uttering False Notes’, sentenced to 14 years and transportation to Australia. He arrived on ‘The Brampton” in 1823. On arrival, Parick petitioned the Governor to have his wife and children bought to the colony as well. This was granted and Maria, along with her mother Honora and six other children arrived on the ‘Sir Joseph Banks’ in October 1828.
They settled at South Creek. The Yorks lived close by, and Henry York and Mary Murphy were married at South Creek in 1835.
Maria’s father, Henry, his brother, Charles and half-brother John Cosgrove had taken up large swathes of land at Adaminaby. Her mother, Mary is thought to have been the first white women to live in the Monaro District where they moved after their first child was born.
In 1856 Mary died in a house fire at Adaminaby leaving eight children, the youngest being a year old. Henry had moved his family back to the Penrith district by 1860. An excerpt from the Maitland Mercury in November 1860 reported that “The daughters of Mr Henry Yorke, of Emu Plains, were crossing the punt in a dog cart, when the horse was startled and backed into the river… The young ladies were several minutes under water, and the horse was drowned. We are, however, happy to learn that they have recovered from the effects of the fright and ducking they encountered.” Maria may well have been one of the daughters involved.
Maria married John Paul in Penrith in 1863. Soon after their marriage they entered the hotel keeping business at Dargan’s Creek, Western Line and later had a hotel at the Toll-Bar, Mt Victoria, and subsequently at Woodford (then known as Bull’s Camp). A lucrative endeavour when considering the vast number of settlers ‘heading west’. These hotels along with the birthplaces of their children may indicate that they followed to building of the Western Line Railway over the Blue Mountains.
Maria and John had eleven children, they also raised Honoria York, Maria’s sister, who was a babe when their mother died.
John had died after a month’s illness at Prince Alfred Hospital in 1909.
Maria died at Nepean Cottage Hospital on 8 October 1916. She is buried at Emu Plains.