John Kernan started leasing Merai Farm in 1856. Had he just arrived, and, if not, what was he doing previously?

PUBLICANS' LICENSES - The following is a list of the applications filed for publicans' licenses for the City of Melbourne and County of Bourke;
John Cosgrave, King-street ; Robert frost, Flinders -streut ; Thomns Moiinhan, Sw auston-street ;


Count? or Bourke.--Vi. M. Atkinson, South Yarra ; "John. Brien, Will Will .Rook (Broadmeadows)'; Waller Butler, Williams Town ; Edward Bishop, PuscoeViilc; I?. Donohoe, Deep Creek ; John Kernan,junction of the Mount Macedon and Kielor roads; C McDougall, Kalkallo James Mitchell, Keilor; John Mill?, Mornington; JurneB Mooney,Brighton; D. W.t CNial, Springs; William liOdrgO BtllllWBY,'iiruii??Fii.n t;,."""". -?"'."-I'son,1 Darebin Creek ; George Vutgo, Somerton ;Sarah Wulle, Pentridge.
(The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957) Tuesday 1 April 1851 p 2 Article)

COMMENTS.
Only three publicans in Melbourne have been included, for reasons given below. Most in the county of Bourke have been deleted before John Kernan but following entries have been left intact so that his entry can be easily located near the end of the article.

Digitisation has not been corrected so that you can appreciate finding an article that you can just copy and paste into your family history. That is why I get so frustrated when after finding articles,spending hours correcting the text and linking them with comments,I cannot submit the fruits of my labour.

John Kernan's hotel would have probably been on the site of the Moonee Ponds Town Hall*. I think Grant Aldous mentioned a hotel having previously on that site in THE STOPOVER THAT STAYED. It couldn't have been on the site of today's Moonee Ponds Tavern because Robert Shankland built the original section of Dean's Hotel in 1852, according to his biography in VICTORIA AND ITS METROPOLIS.

John Kernan had earlier applied for a licence for a hotel in Melbourne but been refused.
John Kernan, Block Bull Hotel, Melbourne,refused, on the petition of the inhabitants of the locality, the house not being required.(P.2, Argus, 15-4-1850.)

*It is highly unlikely that the road junction was the Bulla/Keilor Rd. corner at North Essendon because Tulip Wright's Lincolnshire Hotel would have been in the process of construction in 1851. There is not one mention of the hotel in 1851 in the Argus and Tulip would have given the hotel this name from its opening, being a native of Lincolnshire. In 1852, Tulip, obviously the first licensee, transferred the licence to Edward Wilson.

Three roads were often called Mt Macedon road at the time: the road to Sydney past the Young Queen (i.e.Pascoe Vale Rd, Postlethwaite's address for his large estate near Broadmeadows Township in 1850); the road to Deep Creek (early address for Colonel Kenny's Camp Hill at Tullamarine); and the road to Keilor(whose main street was Macedon St.)

JOHN KERNAN.
The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957) Thursday 27 January 1853 p 4 Family Notices
... instant, at the Clarendon Hotel, Collins-street, Melbourne, William Postlethwaite, Esq., of Glenroy, fourth son of John Postlethwaite, of llroad Broad- stonce, Dalton, Lancashire, aged 33 years.

The above is half of the proof that Pascoe Vale Rd. was called Mt Macedon road. I saw the other half in a copy of an electoral roll included in a Keilor Historical Society newsletter by Chris Laskowski in the 1990's. It read ? Postlethwaite, (Mt?)Macedon road, Glenroy. The question marks indicate details not clear in my memory but I am absolutely certain about the rest. I have searched the 1849 list of electors in the Port Phillip and Postlethwaite's name is not on it, but that was probably a preliminary list so that electors could check if they were included.(P.4, Argus, 3-7-1849.)

Pascoe Vale road was called "the road to the Young Queen" in a map found on a sketch of title and the bridge at Pascoe Vale was built in 1843. It was not a government road used as a boundary for crown allotments but a track, forged by early squatters seeking pasture, which passed through crown allotments in Doutta Galla north of Woodlands St, Fawkner's grant at Pascoeville in Jika Jika and the Glenroy Estate in Will Will Rook.

Moreland?s natural landform and the way it was mapped and organised for subdivision also set a pattern for how its roads and transport routes would emerge and develop in the municipality. Brunswick?s parish land was divided into relatively narrow strips on either side of Sydney Road. Many of its thoroughfares subsequently evolved from lanes that ran along the boundaries of larger allotments, giving Brunswick the tight grid of streets that characterise its urban setting today. The north-south road that became Sydney Road was the one public road that surveyor Robert Hoddle reserved when he surveyed the northern part of the (JIKA JIKA)parish. It acted as a boundary between the elongated east and west allotments thus providing these properties with access to a central road. Its northerly route took it to the village of Pentridge, but the narrow dimensions of the road would suggest that it was merely intended as an agricultural road for servicing farming allotments, not the major axial thoroughfare it is today.

By contrast, the route of Pascoe Vale Road developed from a track that followed the natural contours of the
landscape. Unlike Sydney Road, it did not begin as a route to service the needs of an emerging settlement.
Rather, explorers and squatters initially used it as a means to investigate Melbourne?s hinterland and claim
pasture as well as a route to herd sheep and cattle. Their journey would have followed the path well trod by the first inhabitants, the Wurundjeri-willam clan of the Woiworung Aboriginal group.

The Moonee Ponds Creek was named after a Woiworung Ngurungaeta, Mooney Mooney. Little is known of him except that he was blind in one eye and was also acquitted of sheep stealing on the Werribee River in 1838. He died in February 1840, aged sixty-six.63

The Flemington Bridge crossing began as a ford and in 1839 was upgraded to a log bridge, the first vehicular
bridge in Melbourne. It was built to facilitate the significant loads of stone being brought in to build Melbourne?s churches and other public buildings such as the Russell Street gaol and the new treasury.71 The bridge provided a direct route along Mt Alexander Road, which deviated at Holmes Road into Pascoe Vale Road. The route crossed Moonee Ponds Creek again near John Pascoe Fawkner?s village of Pascoeville, in today?s Pascoe Vale/Oak Park area. At first the crossing used a ford ?that was on a circuitous path and was often blocked by subdivisional fences,? writes Lay, but pressure of increased usage of the route as a Sydney link led to its replacement by a bridge in 1843, the second bridge in Melbourne.72 The structure was built with government funding as well as funding from the new licensee of the Young Queen Inn, William Smith.
([PDF]THEMATIC HISTORY - Moreland City Council - Victorian Government
www.moreland.vic.gov.au/.../city%20of%20moreland%20thematic%20h...‎)

Pascoe Vale Rd was an early road to Sydney which deviated through Broadmeadows Township (Westmeadows) and up the Ardlie St hill to join the present Mickleham road,which further north is still called Old Sydney Rd. This was a significant detour and as William Smith announced after the Pascoe Vale bridge had been swept away (see below)the road past the Young Queen was being linked to the new Sydney road (i.e. at Somerton.)

AND THAT WAS WHEN THE GENEALOGICAL PUZZLE REGARDING JOHN KERNAN COMMENCED!
John Kernan was still alive and kicking on Merai Farm at Pascovale while John Kernan was running the Somerton Inn and the Somerton family's folklore states that they were not related. Both families were linked by PascoeVale Rd and relationship to the McNamara's. John Kernan Snr of Merai farm married Mary McNamara (title document)and one of Somerton John's sons married a McNamara girl!

Some details of Somerton John are given in the Craigieburn Historical Interest Group's website (place and year of birth, marriage at Coburg)but nothing about his arrival in Australia.

As I could not submit the information gathered about the two Kernan families an email conversation with a descendant of Somerton John about the two families will be posted here if the gremlins allow it.
CONTINUE





THE OTHER PUBLICANS.
JOHN COSGRAVE.
John Cosgrave,supposedly an Alderman (Melbourne or Hotham?) was a pioneer of Kensington and Bulla. Title documents regarding Kensington show that Cosgrave was the council officer and 12 year old Oswald Daniel added the Alderman tag in his history of Bulla.

ALLOTMENT 20.(East of Kensington Rd.)
This was granted to William Highett who came to the Port Phillip District to manage the Union Bank. Highett also received a grant in the parish of Yuroke near Craigieburn Rd.
His land dealings fill many pages of the lands title index; no doubt many were in Highett. The entrance in Dynon Rd between Kensington Rd and the railway bridge is actually Highett St.
Not long afterwards, Highett sold allotment 20 to lawyer, Henry Jennings, after whom Henry St was probably named. In 1854, Jennings subdivided the land, selling the land north east of Derby St in 78 lots. The main buyers were F.J.Coote, William and David Winder, and John Cosgrave. Coote was a partner in Jennings? legal firm and Cosgrave was treasurer of the Corporation of Melbourne. William Winder was a brickmaker and David Winder had purchased the land between Stubbs St and the Macaulay Station site in 1849.

The McMeikans bought land from Cosgrave in 1864 and Coote in 1868 to extend their property to Bellair St. In 1863, J.T.Smith bought all of Cosgrave?s land east of Gower St (sold to Durham in 1879). Smith also bought six of Cosgrave?s blocks south west of the (Holy Rosary)church site, Robert Wallace buying the other 9 blocks (to Derby St) in 1869.(From my EARLY LANDOWNERS: PARISH OF DOUTTA GALLA.)

The section extending from Musgrove's corner to the late Andrew Carroll's was owned by Mr William Wright, who cut it up and sold it about the year 1852, Messrs Musgrove, Johnson, Daniel, Carroll, Tulloch and Waylett were among the original purchasers. Mrs Mary Daniel purchased two blocks of the estate, one of which is still held by her grandson, Mr A. F.Daniel.

The adjoining block she sold to the late John Cosgrove, who was alderman and first treasurer of the City of Melbourne. Mr Cosgrove used to cycle out on a 'bone shaker,' (a term given to a certain make of early cycles) that must have had an earlier history than the famous machine of the late Professor Kernot, and in his trips from North Melbourne to the farm he used to arrive with such an enormous appetite that one of his standing boasts was that he could eat anything that was put before him. On one occasion a crow was prepared, and he was invited to have a meal of crow. After he had finished the meal he remarked : 'Humph ! I can eat crow, but I don't hanker after it.'
Mr Cosgrove afterwards sold to Messrs Hunt and Standen. Mrs T.H. Dean, of Moonee Ponds (a daughter of Mr Standen) next possessed the property; then her son, Melbourne; and it has now become the property of
the Hunt Club. ("Sherwood", Melway 178 C6.)
OSWALD DANIEL. (Age, 12 years 10 months). ((P.2, Sunbury News, 4-6-1910.)

ROBERT FROST.
Robert does not seem to have been running the Bridge Inn at Bulla circa 1860 but a beer there would have been a Frosty one,so there was possibly a family connection.
Advertising
The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957) Friday 17 August 1860 p 1 Advertising
. TO LET, the DEEP CREEK INN, Bulla. Apply to Arthur Frost, Bulla.

The relationship between (Arthur?) and the Bulla Road Board became FROSTY when a payment was asked for the use of a room by the Board.
A meeting was called on 23rd October, 1862, at the Bridge Inn for the purpose of forming a Road Board District.
...After holding two or three meetings at the Bridge Inn Mr Frost wanted to charge the Council for the use of the room and Mr Melville of the Inverness came to the rescue, and allowed the council to have a room free of charge. (Oswald Daniel, as above.)

THOMAS MONAHAN.
I had not known that Thomas Monahan was a publican,but I suspect that he was successful in this occupation. He was able to engage in land speculation in the parish of Kangerong near Dromana and suburban blocks at Rye (parish of Nepean) on the Mornington Peninsula.

JOHN BRYAN.
DEATHS.
BRYAN. ?On the 16th inst., at his residence, Victoria Hotel, Broadmeadows*, Mr. John Bryan, aged 55
years. (P.4, Argus, 17-6-1859.) Jane Bryan carried on the hotel after John's death.It was destroyed by fire in 1879.

A plaque on the Broadmeadows Hotel refers to the Victoria Hotel having been on the site of the Broady's car park which would be clear enough if there wasn't a car park at each end of the Broady. Luckily an early purchase by J.Bryan shown on the Broadmeadows Township map (the one showing the two ends of Ardlie St joined by the 1854 timber bridge) indicates that the Victoria was a few blocks uphill of the original Broadmeadows Hotel site.

*Broadmeadows Township is north of Forman St and south of Kenny St in present-day Westmeadows. The hotel was described as being in (the parish of)Will Will Rook in 1851 because nobody would have known where Broadmeadows Township was,having only been declared the year before. The Fawkner St part of the township was in the parish of Tullamarine.

EDWARD BISHOP.
The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957) Wednesday 2 March 1853 p 6 Article
... Young Queen, Pascoeville, from Edward Bishop to John William Roberts. Postponed to the 11th In Inst ...
(The Young Queen Inn became a landmark for travellers to Sydney and Pascoe Vale Rd was labelled in a pre-1850 survey as "road to the Young Queen Inn". After the direct route through Pentridge (Coburg) became the NEW ROAD TO SYDNEY, and the bridge at Pascoeville was swept away in about 1850,William Smith launched an extensive advertising campaign to reverse the declining number of travellers using the old route (one of the problems being the steep climb in either direction from the creek at Ardlie St in Broadmeadows Township.) Smith pointed out that a new bridge was being built and that the road now connected with the new Sydney road (probably via Cliffords Rd at Somerton.) He called his hotel the ORIGINAL Young Queen Inn because another hotel of the same name(which later became Father O'Hea's residence if I remember Richard Broome's BETWEEN TWO CREEKS correctly) had been built beside the direct road through Pentridge.

It seems that the campaign didn't work and Smith (son in law of Tulip Wright, according to sources) moved to Bulla and built the bluestone store which was for so long the post office/store of the (William) Bethell family. He would have been delighted that Edward Bishop wanted to run the pub, which was, according to the City of Moreland Thematic Heritage Study Volume 2 on the corner of Pascoe Vale and Main St (Oak Park), but title documents indicate it was near Bass St,just north of the bridge.

(PHILLIP?) DONOHUE.
The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957) Wednesday 16 April 1851 p 2 Article
... Rest, Dandenong Grunted. P. Donohoe, Bridge Inn, Deep Creek.
(William "Tulip" Wright had transferred the licence of his hotel at Bulla to Donohue while he got the Lincolnshire Hotel at North Essendon up and going. Tulip later returned to Bulla and died there.)

DAVID WILLIAM O'NIALL.
David established the LADY OF THE LAKE Hotel at Springs (Tullamarine) in about 1847. He planted a cape broom hedge and his two shy little daughters, Catherine and Minnie, watched in awe through the hedge as Robert O'Hara Burke's expedition straggled past on its way to the second encampment by the Inverness Hotel (near the north end of the north-south runway.) The associated farm, "Broombank" is discussed in my journal (O'NIALL/BEAMAN.) David died young and his widow married Richard Beaman. The hotel burnt down and its land became part of Broombank (leased by John Cock, the late Colin Williams' parents and Ray Loft.)

Ray wanted to buy the property but Catherine and Minnie refused to sell for sentimental reasons and it was not until the death of the two sisters, about three years apart in the early 1930's, that Ray was able to buy the property, which was subdivided in 1952. The Broombank homestead was set back about 70 yards from Bulla Rd,the driveway from the main road becoming Millar Rd, but was derelict so Ray and Maggie lived at 3 Eumarella St on the subdivided 40 acre portion of Tommy Loft's "Dalkeith" west of Broadmeadows Rd. The Loft and Millar families were both associated with the Greenvale and Tullamarine areas so Ray Loft may have met Maggie Millar in either area, Greenvale by about 1920 or Tulla afterwards. Robert Millar occupied the Junction Estate (Northedge, Andlon and Londrew), which adjoined Broombank, before his death in 1912 and his son Alex may have continued there until the Lofts arrived from Greenvale before buying John McKerchar's "Greenvale" which he renamed the Elms. (Sources for this entry would fill an A4 page. Private message me for details.)

GEORGE VINGE.
New Somerton Hotel Page
www.chig.asn.au/new_somerton_hotel_page.htm‎
The Somerton Hotel with owner John Kernan and his wife pictured out front. ... George Vinge ran the hotel from 1847 to 1853 (Cole Hotel Index) and was known ...

Convict Records: George Vinge
www.convictrecords.com.au/convicts/vinge/george/116095‎
George Vinge, one of 168 convicts transported on the Red Rover, ... April 1842: Took over the licence of the Golden Fleece Hotel in Sydney Road, Somerton, ...
TO BE CONTINUED.