Martin Burke

Martin BURKE was my great-great-grandfather, who was born in Co Mayo, Ireland. His family moved to Perth in Scotland when he was a child, around the time of the Great Famine in Ireland.

Not much is known about Martin before his marriage to Ann Philp, on the second of February 1861, in St John’s Catholic Church, Perth, Scotland. He was aged 19 at the time, and his usual residence was given as Perth. His parents were named as Michael Burke, labourer, and Bridget Burke, whose maiden name was listed as Flinn. His wife Ann gave her usual residence as Abernethy, and she was aged 21.

Image from Family Search microfilm back in the days of their microfilms!

Shortly after their marriage, the census was taken for Scotland, on 7 April 1861. On this night, Martin was with his Burke family in a house at 134 High Street, Perth, Scotland. (At least one other family shared the house with them.) Martin was described as married, aged 19, and a ploughman. There were five other family members listed at the address on census night- his parents Michael (52) and Bridget (49); his unmarried brothers Thomas (20), a ploughman, and John (16), a cabinet maker apprentice; and his sister Mary (9). At the date of this census, his wife Ann appears to be with her father in Balvaird Cot House in Abernethy, as a housekeeper.

In the census, the Burke family all had their birthplaces described as “Ireland”, except for Mary, who was born in “Perthshire, Perth.” Mary was aged 9, so must have been born around 1851/52. If John was born in Ireland some 7 years earlier than this, around 1844/45, the family presumably left Ireland sometime between 1845 and 1851, during the Famine. Maggie Gaffney, a third cousin and fellow Burke descendant, has done extensive research in the baptismal/marriage records in Perth, and has discovered that several related Burke/Flynn families also came to Perth.

We haven’t found a baptism for Martin Burke. In the census, his birthplace was just listed as Ireland, though his death registration in New Zealand says he was from Co Mayo. Maggie Gaffney discovered the likely townland/parish origin of the Burke/Flynn family and eventually found they were from Derrycraugh (Derrycraff) in the RC Parish of Aghagower. The location was finally confirmed when an 1844 baptism record was found for John Burke, Martin’s brother. (Maggie has a record of this from rootsireland.ie, though a transcript can also be found on FindMyPast.)

Tower at Aghagower, Co Mayo, from Nigel's Photo Blog

 In 1862, Martin and Ann’s first child, Mary Burke, was born on 21 August at Polgavie Cottar’s Houses, in the Parish of Inchture in the County of Perth. Martin Burke was the informant for the birth as father, and he was again described as a ploughman.

We next hear of the family when they emigrated to New Zealand, arriving in Lyttelton on 16 February 1864, on the Mermaid, from London. Martin Burke was listed as a ploughman, aged 22 from Fifeshire, with wife Ann aged 21, and one child Mary, who was listed as being 5 months- though Mary must have been 15 months old by this stage. I was told by Sr Martina Burke that there is an oral story told in the Burke family that Martin Burke hoisted Mary onto his shoulders for the walk over the Bridle Track from Lyttelton.

There were two more children born into the Burke family in New Zealand. In December 1864 a second child, Ann (Annie) was born at Addington in Canterbury. Their third child, Thomas, was born in September 1866 in Christchurch.

At some stage the Burke family moved out to the rural area of Burnham where they were farming. In the Wises’ directories we can find a listing for ‘Burke, Martin, farmer, Burnham”, from 1880-81. Electoral listings for 1887 (Lincoln) and 1890 (Selwyn) list “Burke, Martin, freehold, Burnham, farmer, rural sec 28098.”

This indicates where the Burke rural section was in Burnham. I obtained a copy of an old Leeston survey map that had similar numbers along Hawkins and Burnham Rd, but couldn’t find section number 28098. Maggie Gaffney then found an earlier map online with the correct section number included- it became clear that two sections had later been joined and renumbered.

It's not clear exactly when Martin Burke sold this piece of rural land, but by 1898 it was clearly owned by a Mrs E Burdon, who was offering sections 28098 and 28099 for sale. (Papers Past, Press, 20 August 1898, page 12.)

In 1892, Martin and Ann faced the death of their firstborn daughter Mary Riordan née Burke, aged 29, of consumption. She was buried in the Darfield Catholic Cemetery, one of the earliest burials there.

In 1895, Martin faced two other significant deaths amongst close family. In January, his brother John Burke died at Burnham. He was 52, a labourer, and was said to have died of cancer of the liver. He had been in New Zealand for 12 years so must have arrived around 1883. He was unmarried, and was buried in the Darfield Catholic Cemetery near his niece Mary (Riordan, nee Burke) who had predeceased him.

Then just over two months later, on 13 March 1895 at Burnham, Martin’s wife Ann died, aged 53. She was also said to have died of cancer of the liver. She was buried in the Darfield Catholic Cemetery near her daughter Mary Riordan and brother-in-law John Burke. (A quartet of graves was completed in this cemetery in 1911 with a fourth headstone for Patrick Riordan, Mary Burke’s husband.)

Graves for John Burke, Ann Burke née Philp, and on the other side, Mary Riordan née Burke and Patrick Riordan. Darfield Catholic Cemetery

 Martin Burke died on 27 November, 1918 at Nazareth House, Sydenham aged 78, of chronic heart disease and heart failure. On his death registration it said that he was born in Co Mayo, Ireland, and had been in NZ 53 years. He was buried in the Sydenham Cemetery, Block Number 22B, Plot number 63. A newspaper death announcement said he died at Nazareth House, but was late of Harewood Road, Papanui. 

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/LT19181128.2.3.2

There is presently no headstone on Martin’s plot, but a small one is being erected and will be unveiled in February 2024 at a Burke Family Gathering.

Martin Burke made a will with the Public Trustee as executor on 24^th April, 1918, giving his address at the time as Guthrie’s Boarding House, Moorhouse Ave, Christchurch. He described himself as a retired Farmer. He gave two bequests. He gave £100 to the Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese, Canterbury, for the Cathedral Building fund; and £100 to his son Thomas. His freehold property of 35 acres at Redwoodtown, Blenheim was left upon trust for his daughter Annie Burton, the wife of Francis. On 31^st October 1918, less than a month before his death he added a codicil to this will, giving the sum of £40 to Nazareth House, Sydenham, ‘for the benefit of orphan boys and girls who are inmates thereof’. 

There is an M Burke listed on a marble plaque listing benefactors that was in the now demolished Cathedral in Christchurch. It seems likely with his donation(s) that this was our Martin Burke. I understand this large plaque has been rescued, so it will be interesting to see if it finds some kind of place when a new Cathedral is erected.

An earlier, shorter version of this blog post appeared here.

Margaret Riordan, 9 December 2023
Please contact me if you are also a Burke-Philp relative, or if you would like copies of sources etc. 

See website for the Burke Family Gathering or the associated Facebook page .

 

Ann PHILP- from Scotland

Ann Philp is my one great-great-grandparent from Scotland. She was born around 1840, in Ceres, Fife, (estimated from the 1851 census), though we have not been able to find her baptism entry.




She married Martin Burke, (originally from Co Mayo in Ireland), in February 1861, in Perth, with her residence at the time given as Abernethy. Her parents are named on her marriage entry as Thomas Philp, ploughman, and Isabella Philp, whose maiden name was Nicholson. From the 1851 census we find that Thomas Philp was born in Strathmiglo, and Isabella Nicholson was born in Ceres.

(copied from microfilm in FHC)

 Ann was the sixth child in a family that had 10 children that we know of, some of whom we know were born in Ceres, Fife, others in Dunbog, Fife, and the youngest, Fanny (Euphemia) was born in Abernethy. Ann was said to be 11 in the 1851 census, and a scholar. When her mother Isabella died in Abernethy in 1855, Ann was listed amongst her children, and was said to be 15.

By the time of the 1861 census, Ann had married Martin Burke. However, rather than appearing in the Burke household in the census, she is listed as being in Abernethy with her father Thomas, as housekeeper at the Balvaird Cot House. Her youngest sister Euphemia is also there, aged 12, as well as another female child, Isabella Forrester aged 10. (I don’t know how/if Isabella fits into the family at this stage.)

The following year, on 21 August 1862, Ann Philp became a mother, with her firstborn child being Mary Burke, my great-grandmother. The young family were living in the Parish of Inchture at this time.

Mary Burke was just a young child when the family of three embarked for Canterbury in New Zealand, and they arrived in the port of Lyttelton on the ship Mermaid, in February 1864. From the newspaper account of the voyage we read that:- During the voyage the passengers had the benefit of fine weather nearly all the way out, and, in their own language, “there was scarce one evening but they could dance on deck.” 

Ann gave birth to two more children in New Zealand. Ann Burke was born in December 1864, and a son Thomas was born in 1866.

The family were living in Burnham when Ann Philp died in March 1895, aged 53 years old. Her death entry says she died of cancer of the liver. However, her brother-in-law John Burke died just two months earlier of a cause also said to be cancer of the liver, so we must wonder whether in fact there was some infectious cause.

Ann was buried in the Darfield Catholic Cemetery in a group of four family graves, near her daughter Mary, her brother-in-law John Burke, and Mary’s husband Patrick Riordan. The four graves are amongst the oldest in the cemetery.

I’d like to acknowledge the help Maggie Gaffney (third cousin) has given me in my research about the Philp family, especially by sharing the 1851 census and the 1855 death entry for Isabella Philp nee Nicholson.

Martin Burke

Recently we had an afternoon tea- a meeting of the third cousins- Burke-Burton style. I realised then that I had never summarised what I knew about Martin Burke, my grt-grt-grandfather. I have since done that, and this post shares a few bits from the summary. Feel free to contact me if you think you might be another third cousin!

The first reference I found for Martin Burke was in the 1861 Scottish census, when he was living with his family in Perth, at 134 High Street. Martin was described as married, aged 19, a ploughman. There were also five other family members listed at the address- his parents Michael (52) and Bridget(49); his brothers Thomas (19), a ploughman, and John (16), a cabinet maker apprentice; and his sister Mary (9). (Mary was not listed as attending school.)

Martin Burke married Ann Philp in February 1861, at St John’s Catholic Church, Perth (Scotland). Thomas Burke was a witness. Her parents were Thomas Philp, ploughman, and Isabella Philp, whose maiden name was Nicholson.

Martin and Ann’s first child, Mary Burke, was born in August 1862 in the Parish of Inchture.

Martin, Ann and Mary emigrated to New Zealand in 1864. On the passenger list for the Mermaid which arrived 16 February 1864,  from London, Martin Burke was listed as a ploughman, with wife and one child, from Fifeshire. I was once told by Sr Martina Burke that there is an oral story told in the Burke family that Martin Burke hoisted Mary onto his shoulders for the walk over the Bridle Track from Lyttelton.

Martin and Ann’s second child, Ann (Annie) Burke, was born in 1864 at Addington. Their third child,Thomas Burke, was born in 1866.

John Burke, the brother of Martin Burke, died in January 1895 at Burnham. He was 52, a labourer, and was said to have died of cancer of the liver. He had been in New Zealand for 12 years (ie arrival c1883.) He was unmarried, and was buried in the Darfield Catholic Cemetery near his niece Mary (Riordan, nee Burke) who had predeceased him.

Ann Burke, the wife of Martin Burke, died in March 1895 at Burnham. She was buried in the Darfield Catholic Cemetery near her daughter Mary Riordan and brother-in-law John Burke.

Ann Philp, Martin Burke, and child

Martin Burke died in November 1918. On his death registration it said that he was born in Co Mayo, Ireland. He was buried in the Sydenham Cemetery, but there is at present no headstone on his grave. There are currently cousin-plans afoot to erect a small headstone.