The Incredible Disappearing Augustine Hoy and His Namesakes Galore

Augustine Hoy has provided an enduring mystery for decades. He left many traces of his existence, including a large and fertile family. But then he vanished. His uncommon first name was repeated over and over again through several generations of his descendants, which has been a wonderful boon to research. Namesakes make the job of sifting through copious records so much easier. However, he is one of those ancestors who appear to have been abducted by aliens! There is no trace of him in death, probate or inquest records in the state of Victoria, nor in any other state of Australia. Nor anywhere else in the world that I have been able to find. Augustine, if you’re out there please wave!

What is known about Augustine Hoy?

Augustine Hoy was born in the county of Dublin in Ireland around 1814. No baptism record has been located, so that end of his life is similarly clouded in mystery. A family story survives in more than one branch of descendants that he came from ‘Silveroak Castle’. Of course, there is no such place in Ireland. But let’s take into account the ‘Chinese Whispers’ effect. There is a place known as Slieveroe (which could easily morph into Silveroak over several generations of repetition) near the border of counties Dublin and Kildare. The civil parish there is Newcastle, and yes indeed there are the ruins of a castle in the town.

The Catholic parish is also called Newcastle, and I believe this is his home parish. There were Hoys on land there in the Griffiths Valuation, but this was well after he left the country so I can’t physically place Augustine there. The parish records remain with the local church and are not digitised. I have written to them with no result as yet. So this remains my working hypothesis but further evidence is required before I can be fully confident. I’m currently working on the tree of a Dublin Hoy DNA match to see if I can get there from another angle.

He moved to England, but of course, no passenger lists survive. In 1833 he married Frances McGeow in Eccles, Lancashire. No fathers’ names are given, as this predated civil registration by just a few short years. Together they had three children in England…Ann, Margaret and Augustine, the first of his namesakes.

The Hoys in Australia

By 1841, Augustine and Fanny had decided to emigrate to Australia. They boarded the ship ‘Intrinsic’ on 10th June as bounty emigrants with Margaret and Augustine junior and headed for the recently settled colony of Port Phillip (now the state of Victoria).

The date is significant as it was just four days after the 1841 Census was taken. An earlier departure would have meant there would have been no trace of his family in any English census. They settled in the Western District, initially around Belfast (Port Fairy) and later at Grasmere, where he farmed a little land and Fanny raised a rapidly growing brood of children as well as being a cook for local whalers.

He was mentioned several times in the diary of another early settler, Augustus Bostock, who eventually took over Augustine’s land when he became insolvent in 1857. The insolvency did not necessarily indicate he was bad with money. Several of the locals found themselves in the same situation following a fire at Bateman’s store in Warrnambool. He, like many, had been paid for his produce in tokens issued by the business. These became worthless when the store was completely destroyed by fire on the eve of Bateman’s business practices being investigated by the bank.

For many years this was the last I heard of him. His children grew up, and several dispersed around the state – Margaret and Reuben went north to Ararat, Mary Ann even further north into New South Wales, Charles went to Geelong and Joseph went east to Sale in Gippsland. Fanny and the remaining surviving children (Augustine and Thomas) stayed around the Warrnambool area. She died in 1895. Her death certificate indicated she was a widow. The informant was Augustine junior, so this should be reliable information.

So where was Augustine Hoy between 1857 and 1895? In desperation, I purchased all of the marriage certificates of his children. A couple mentioned he was a gold miner, so it became apparent that he had sought his fortune on the goldfields. Not unexpected given the gold rush was in full flight in 1850’s Victoria.

It wasn’t until Trove grew to include a wider range of newspapers that I eventually found him mentioned in the mid-1860s up in Ararat where Margaret and Reuben were living with their families. This was probably where he had been mining, as their rush had started in 1857, just when Augustine had needed to start over. By then he was doing agricultural work as a ploughman. But still, no mention of his death. There was no death certificate issued. There is no record of him being buried in Ararat or anywhere else. He simply vanished.

Augustine’s namesakes

For such an elusive man, his family seem determined to remember him. At least four generations continued the name of Augustine. So far I have found over 20 descendants using his moniker, though often as a middle name. This has proved to be a wonderful way to verify the correct Hoy family amongst several others around the state. Let’s face it, Augustine is unusual, and we’ve already seen the usefulness of unusual middle names! But no one in the extended family seems to have any idea where he went, how he died or where he is buried. If only they could have remembered that!

Did he fall down a mine shaft, where his bones lay to this day? One would think that a total disappearance would have rated a mention in the newspaper. Especially given that the forfeiture of his entry in a ploughing competition in Ararat garnered a mention! Did he leave for greener pastures? I thought he may have followed the gold to the later rushes in New Zealand. His death isn’t registered there, nor any indication of his presence. He continues to baffle and flummox.