People/hagan.html
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Patrick and James Hagan
Patrick and James Hagan were born (James in 1833, Patrick c. 1835) in Omagh, County Tyrone, sons of James Hagan (a publican) and Mary McLaren.
A Patrick Hogan [sic], convict no. 2573, is listed in a couple of places as having arrived on the convict transport Phoebe Dunbar 28 March 1854. As Hagan, he is shown in a number of the Perth Gazette in 1888 as an expiree, in relation to his holding a publicans licence, trading at the Victoria Hotel (Graham).
Erickson:
HAGAN, Patrick, b. 1835, d. 25.4.1891 at 56 yrs, m. Margaret b. 1843 d. 25.8.1811 (Frem). Fremantle Victualler "Victoria Hotel". Dep. for Vic. 8.10.1889 & returned 28.11.1889.
Patrick Hagan married Margaret in Ireland and went to Fremantle. He was the first in the family to go to the goldfields where he apparently struck it rich, finding a nugget which made him enough money not only to buy the Victoria Hotel, but also, allegedly, to donate a Connemara marble altar stone to the new St Patrick's Basilica. However, this is not mentioned in Geraldine Byrne's history, and may be an apocryphal family story.
At the meeting of the Fremantle Licensing Court in December 1888, he was granted a general licence of the Victoria Hotel (later to become the existing P&O Hotel), which he owned. Patrick Hagan died in 1891 at 56, his wife Margaret having previously died in 1877, aged only 37. He left his considerable estate to his brother, which brought the latter to WA .
Margaret Hagan, despite dying so young, had time to establish a reputation as a productive worker for the Catholic Church, and her funeral was very well attended and a fine gravestone placed on her grave – it was subsequently removed to the 'Heritage Trail' in the present cemetery. The Catholic Record wrote of her: 'To the poor of the town of Fremantle, she was a kind and generous friend, and the needy of that class have lost a ... certain and ready helper.' The Inquirer and Commercial News confirmed her reputation in the town when it reported that her funeral 'was probably the largest ever seen in the Port. All the vessels in the harbour hoisted their flags at half mast as a mark of respect.' (tba)
James had gone to Victoria, and married Eliza Anna Jeffery in Dunolly in 1863. They had seven children, of whom James Edward was the second child and eldest son. In 1892, he was granted a general publican's licence of the Victoria Hotel, and James Edward Hagan (his eldest son and second child) had the licence of the National Hotel, which his father and/or he had bought. James Edward returned to Victoria, and died there in 1932.
James sold both hotels in 1893 and went to the goldfields with most of his five sons.
The tombstone of Margaret and Patrick Hagan in Fremantle Cemetery. As their burials predate the opening of the 'new' cemetery, they must have been interred in St Patrick's Cemetery, the RC section at Skinner St Cemetery, where their remains continue to rest. The tombstone in the photo would have been removed with others in the 1930s and placed where I took the photograph, along the Heritage Trail that runs west-east through the middle of the cemetery. The memorial is almost the very last on the Trail, just near Wilson Drive.
James Hagan died in 1914, at which time he was resident in the Old Men's Home Claremont (later Sunset Hospital, Dalkeith) and was buried in a public grave at Karrakatta, where his name was wrongly recorded as James Hagen. James Edward Hagan returned to Victoria and died there in 1932.
Mary Ellen Hagan buried Fremantle Cemetery CO187 in 1909 was the youngest child of James Hagan.
James Hagan's youngest son Francis Hagan had nine children one of whose children (Michael?) include actors Jennifer Hagan and James Hagan.
(There is a John ['Joannes'] Hagan on record as having been buried 28 July 1857, aged 47: but he is not from the same family. He was interred in St Patrick's Cemetery by Fr. Thomas Lynch.)
West Australian Times, 31 August 1877
Patrick and Margaret Hagan
Mrs. Hagan, the wife of Mr. Patrick Hagan, of the firm of Scott & Hagan of this town, died on the 25th instant, after a prolonged illness, extending over several months at the age of 34 years. Her remains were interred in the Roman Catholic cemetery on Monday last. The funeral was a thoroughly representative one. The procession numbered over a hundred friends many from Perth besides a large concourse of the general public. Mrs Hagan devoted herself principally to the objects connected with her own church, and those of her own persuasion, but she was not without sympathy for others who were not of her belief. Without any display she entered with great energy into every thing she undertook to do. £500 were collected by her for the benefit of the Roman Catholic Orphanage. The monster public picnic given by the R.C. Young Men's Society at Point Walter was largely contributed to by her, and she was amongst the principal donors to all the bazaars connected with the church to which she belonged, and, on every occasion of the kind, she worked with surprising determination to overcome difficulties and make everything she was connected with a success. All this was done without ostentation. Her unremitting attention to the sick and general kindness to those in distress will be long remembered.
West Australian Times, 4 July 1876
FREMANTLE PORT TOPICS
The Lottery at the Roman Catholic School Room
Mrs Hagan, although not present at the drawing, did more, I hear, to carry out its successful issue than any other person. She provided several of the prizes, and disposed of, besides, a large supply of tickets. To her, more than any one else, was the satisfactory result of the drawing due. The stick reported missing at time of drawing and missed some days previously, was replaced by a gold locket, purchased in town at a cost of five shillings more than the value of the missing articles.
References and Links
Thanks to family member Mary Sullivan who supplied most of the above details.
Graham, Allen tba, Inns and Outs of Fremantle: A Social History of Fremantle and its Hotels, Xlibris.
This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 3 September, 2015 and hosted at freotopia.org/people/hagan.html (it was last updated on 11 February, 2024). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.