John Henry McCan was born in 1778 in Irishtown, city of Limerick, son of Peter McCan and Ellen Kennedy. Of his education I know nothing but his handwriting, grammar etc. is excellent. Family story is that he was sent to Dublin, where a relative was a lawyer, to study but nothing definite is known. Wht is known is that in January 1806 he was married in the Townsend St. Chapel to Catherine Feroni. Catherine was a daughter of Alexander Feroni, an Italian art-dealer who had taken advantage of the Peace of Amiens in 1803 to travel across the Alps and through France to Dublin. With him came his family and several apprentices. If the age of 31 given by Catherine in the census of 1821 is correct, she would have been only 15 at the time of her marriage.
No member of either family is listed as witness to the ceremony, and the first son Henry Alexander was baptised in Feb. 1806 in the same chapel. Obviously the couple had loved not wisely but too well.

The next we learn about John henry is that he is living in Navan, a centre of the flour-milling trade, where he is employed in the Blackwater Mill, apparently to learn the business. Here four more children are born :
Ellen (1807), Mary Anne (1809), John (1811), Francis (1812). In 1812 John Henry had leased a flour-mill at Rathnally on the Boyne from the Thomson family. Here six more children were born (in the very pretty Mill House which still exists). They were George Michael Andrew (1814), Arthur Frederick (1815), Joseph (1816),
Susanna (1817), Teresa (1819) and Catherine Anastasia (1821). Finally in Dublin William (1824), twelve in all.

A word now on the business career of John Henry. It is fully documented in deeds in the Registry of Deeds but it would be tedious to relate them all. Suffice to say, that by 1927 he had four mills held on lease, a farm at Kilcooley in Co. Meath and a shop and flour store in Dublin. Two of the eldest boys were boarding at the Jesuit college at Clongowes Wood, fashionable and expensive. But in 1927 came a bank crash, all of John Henry's wealth was based on heavy borrowings. The result was inevitable. In 1828 John Henry was adjudged an Insolvent Debtor. His debts were discharged but in future he must pay cash in advance.
Nothing daunted, John Henry went to Dublin where he leased a new and expensive mill and carried on for a few months accumulating more debt. Up before the courts again, this time faced by very unfriendly creditors who demanded his imprisonment, he found himself in the Marshalsea, presumably along with his wife and at least some of the children. In Oct. 1830 he was signing a deed as a witness with an address in French St. a not very salubrious street at the time.

What happened to John afterwards ? In 1827, when he saw disaster coming up, he had applied for an Assisted Passage to Australia. Whether he ever received it or not I cannot say, but he and Catherine definitely did go there some time as they are witnesses to the baptism of their grandchild Francis, son of Joseph, in Auckland in 1848. Later they were witnesses to the baptism of twins in 1850. In Jan. 1854 John died at a house in Darlinghurst, NSW. When Catherine died I don't know.

As to the children, Henry Alexander died 1818 at school, John is unknown, Francis and Arthur are said to have been in the wine export business in Bordeaux, George Michael Andrew had a flour mill in Ballsbridge ,Dublin, in the 1860's (an old photo of him has "drowned in the Ganges 1868" written on the back. Must be a story there) William was goldmining in the Thames goldfield N.Z from 1860's. Joseph was my G grandfather who had an interesting career in Australia and N.Z., Clarence Town, Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland. He returned to Ireland in 1863.
What happened to any of the daughters is unknown to me but there is no record of any of them marrying in Ireland. Maybe some at least went to Australia with their parents.


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