select here for Patrick John Dunne's early years
It is not known exactly when Patrick and Jane moved from Yass. In the separate information, their son Peter Augustus Dunne is quoted to say that in 1851 he was attending the seminary school at St Mary's cathedral in Sydney. Caroline Dunne reports that Patrick and Jane were residing:
- in late 1851 at the time of the birth of when their daughter Catherine Amelia, in George Street, Sydney.
- in mid 1853 at the time of the birth of their daughter Julia, in Botany Road.
- in mid 1855 at the time of the birth of their son James Christopher, in Parramatta Street.
- in the latter part of 1857, at the time of the birth of their son Joseph, in Riley Street, Woolloomoolooo.
- in the latter part of 1858, at the time of the birth of their son Patrick Martin, still in Riley Street, Woolloomoolooo.
- in the latter part of 1863, at the time of the birth of their son William Thomas, residing in Surry Hills.
- in the end of 1865, at the time of the birth of their son Alfred Ernest, residing in Waterloo Street.
There were no telephones, of course, in those times and of course there were no "yellow pages" directory. However there was a directory of names and postal addresses of private individuals as well as businesses. The John Sands Company commenced producing the Sands' Directory of Sydney in 1858 and every year or second year thereafter. The information is consistent with the information above. The Sands Directory would have been compiled in advance and information in the edition for 1858 may have been correct late in 1857 or early 1858 but may have changed by the end of 1858.
- in 1858, Patrick Dunne, carpenter, was residing at 7 Crown Lane, Sydney (off Chapel Lane). (In 1999, there is no Chapel Lane although there is a Chapel Street; Crown Lane in East Sydney does not extend to Chapel St now, but perhaps it did in the past.
- In December 1858, at the time of the death of infant child Patrick Martin Dunne, they were residing in Riley Street, Woolloomooloo.
- in 1861 he was residing at 220 Riley Street, on the east side, on the south eastern corner of Gipps Street between Campbell and Ann Streets. (The former Gipps Street was later renamed Reservoir Street, so that it appears the Dunne's residence at that time would now be the south-eastern corner of Riley and Reservoir Streets in Surry Hills. In the aerly 21st century, 220 Riley Street is at the southern edge of the multi-story Cambridge Inn hotel; 220 is either included in the land on which the hotel was constructed or it is the block immediately adjacent to it, so it would seem that residences in Riley Street may have been renumbered at some time.)
- in 1863 he was residing at 3 Campbell Place, off Crown Street. (no street named Campbell Place has been identified in 1999, but presumably it was close to Campbell Street.)
- in 1864 he was residing at 10 Waterloo Street.
- in 1865 & 1866 he was residing at 14 Waterloo Street (off Devonshire Street, between Adelaide Place and Cooper Street); Adelaide Place still exists but does not intersect with Waterloo Street, there is also Adelaide Street which does intersect with Waterloo Street. (In the late 20th century, Waterloo Street between Adelaide Street and Cooper Streets is the site of the "Reader's Digest" office and warehouse edifice.) Patrick's neighbours were Robert Martin, a cab proprietor, living with Mrs Anderson at No 12, and William Gorman, a tailor, at No 16.
- in 1867 he was residing at 2 Hill Street, on the north side of the street which ran from Macquarie Street South (now known as Commonwealth Street) to East Street (which no longer exists). Apparently No 2 was on the corner of Commonwealth Street with seven houses in the block and then the "Native Home Inn" on the corner of Brisbane Street. This street no longer exists, but it ran from present day Commonwealth Street, between Goulburn and Campbell Streets. There is a small street called Hill Street between Bourke and Flinders Streets, but that it does not seem possible to relate the above information to that street.
- in 1869 and 1870 "Patrick Dunne, carpenter" was residing at 368 Macquarie Street South, one house south from the corner of Goulburn Street. Originally Macquarie Street Sydney extended from Fort Macquarie which is now the site of the Sydney Opera House, through Hyde Park and into the area known as Surry Hills. Late in the 19th century the road through Hyde Park, referred to as Little Macquarie Street, and was converted into a pedestrian walk only and the Surry Hills end was known as "Macquarie Street South". Early in the 20th century following federation, Macquarie Street South was renamed Commonwealth Street and the house numbers appear to have been renumbered.
- in 1871, Patrick was still at the same address but his occupation was now listed as "carpenter and joiner".
- in 1873, Patrick is listed but without any occupation, possibly he had retired. Although he would have been about age 60, retirement age was generally older in those times. In 1873, Patrick resided at 374 Macquarie Street South, just a few doors from his prior address. Sadly, while living there, Jane died in September 1873. In 1873, along the north side of Commonwealth Street there was John Watsford, a butcher, on the corner of Goulburn Street, then 368 Macquarie Street South (Patrick's previous address) was vacant, Charles Shearsby resided at No 370; 372 was vacant; Patrick Dunne lived at 374 on the corner of Little Hill Street. Then resided John Williams at No 376, John Smith at 378 and William Lane at No 380. Then there was Hill Street (in 1867, Patrick had lived at No 2 Hill Street closest to Macquarie Street South), there were then houses numbers 382 to 408 then Hunt Street and a little further was Campbell Street.
- In April 1876, Patrick was the informant for the death of his daughter Jane. Jane died at either 682 or 692 George St., Sydney and Patrick's address is stated as Campbell Street.
Subsequent records of Patrick's residence have not been located until the place of death.
As noted earlier, Patrick could neither read not write. However it appears he learned to sign his signature; two examples are shown here :
 |
 |
|
Patrick's signature as witness to the death of |
Patrick's signature as witness to the death of daughter Jane in 1876 |
In the death certificate of his daughter Jane, for which Patrick was the informant, his occupation is described as "carpenter". His own death certificate states that he was a "builder". His death certificate states that Patrick John Dunne died on 16 September 1897 at 85 years of age, after suffering "senile decay" for six months. Much of the information on the death certificate is consistent with information already known, so that there can be no doubt it is the certificate of the correct person. However either the presumed date of birth was not correct or an error was made in stating his age at death. Given the detail included in the documentation for convicts, it is likely that the date of birth was correctly recorded in the earlier documents but that his age was not accurately known by his second youngest surviving son, who was the official informant of his death.
Patrick died at Hannell Street, Wickham, in Newcastle, New South Wales, and his death was officially notified by "E. Dunne", his son, of the same address. The death certificate shows seven of his children still alive at the time of his death in 1897 with 10 children having pre-deceased him. One of the surviving children was Edmund G. Dunne, aged 35 years, and it appears Patrick was living with his second youngest son at the time of his death.
It seems likely that Patrick Dunne's last years were spent at Hannell Street, Wickham, Newcastle, New South Wales. Langton Dunne, great grandson of Patrick Dunne, provided this photograph of one of the last houses left in Hannell Street. The photograph gives some idea of what the houses probably looked like in this street back in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
It had been reported that the location of Patrick's burial was not known. However the Sandgate Cemetery Trust (Newcastle, New South Wales) has advised that its records show that "Patrick Joseph Dunne" was buried in grave number 102, section J common, in the Catholic Section of the Cemetery.
The cemetery was visited in April 2000 and the burial site located. There is no monument or marker at his burial place. The "common" section was for those who had no private burial arrangements, sometimes referred to as "paupers' graves". The Catholic No 1. section is adjacent to Wallsend Road, and the grave location is approximated by the "x" in the diagram above. The single row of graves closest to Wallsend Road is section N. Moving away from the road, are a double row of graves "back to back" which is section M, then a double row which is section L, then a double row which is section K and a double row which is section J. Walking along the main pathways, if one looks closely, one can see a letter of the alphabet on one of the end graves, helping to identify the sections.
If there is no monument and the cemetery records show the burial place as being "Patrick Joseph Dunne" while the death certificate states "Patrick John Dunne", is it possible that there has been an error and that Patrick is buried elsewhere? There is another Patrick Dunne (middle initial "W") who died in 1898 and was buried in the nearby "K common" section. But no other has been identified.
In the "common" section, there were no reserved plots or anything similar and people were buried approximately in the order of death. So what were the dates of burials in the "J common" section of the Catholic portion of the cemetery? Graves number 98 and 100 have an iron fence around them; the stone on grave number 100 records it as the burial place of John Colgan who died on 14 September 1897, and his son and daughter-in-law who died at later dates. Grave number 104 has a stone commemorating Berthe Ardrienne wife of Julian Vincent, who died on 21 September 1897. The person buried in grave 102 would have died between those dates. Patrick Dunne (irrespective of whether his middle name was "Joseph" or "John") died on 16 September 1897 and the evidence of these dates removes any doubt that he is the person buried in the unmarked grave number 102, in "J common" section, of the Catholic No 1 portion of the Sandgate Cemetery.
