My great-great-great grandfather Anthony Edward Corvan was the youngest of the Corvan sons, and the sixth of eight children born to Patrick and Ann Corvan.He was born in London, England, after the arrival of his family from Ireland c. 1815.
This man has proved to be the most difficult of all of my ancestors to track, and after two decades I still can't find the deaths of he and his wife, or even the countries they occurred in.He has many descendants spread throughout Australia, but it seems as though elaborate stories have been weaved over the years to cover up some shady patches of his life...one branch even proudly carried the story of "Sir" Anthony Corvan, a wealthy Englishman who got himself into a spot of bother with a girl totally unsuitable. Nicki Blake, a lovely fellow Corvan researcher, was kind enough to relate to me the story that was passed down to her generation through one of Anthony Corvan's granddaughters:
"A quote from my mother-in-law''s autobiography will probably strike a chord with you: 'On Grandmother Brown''s side is an even more dramatic story; Sir Anthony Edward Corvan (in England) married a Spanish lady against her family''s wishes, and after his early death she "got herself to a nunnery" and the three young children were shipped out to Australia and brought up in an orphanage in Melbourne.' "
Nothing, in fact, could be further than the truth, but it is interesting to note that the 'Spanish' theme also popped up in my family line (my great grandfather, John Brown, was Anthony Corvan's grandson, and the brother of Penelope Brown whose family were told the 'Sir Anthony' story). I was told by John Brown's daughter- my maternal grandmother Ivy Ellen Brown -that in her lineage there was a bad-tempered red-haired Spanish gypsy! Anthony's wife carried the unusual middle name of "Torsa", which always struck me as exotic enough to hint at gypsy heritage, but I am yet to chase the "Spanish" or "Gypsy" leads.
Anthony Edward Corvan was, in a nutshell, a failed London baker who married the local Catholic undertaker's daughter, left England for Australia to seek his fortune on the goldfields, and then ended up in New Zealand to fight in the Maori Wars, at last sighting,perhaps, ending his days there as a drunken old nuisance.
The fact that Anthony was born in St. Giles,in the heart of the Rookery, home to London's most notorious thieves, prostitutes and worse, makes it even more amazing that the "Sir Anthony Corvan" story was created as a cover story. Or perhaps it shouldn't come as a surprise...there was a fair amount of Anthony's life that his children and grandchildren in another country would perhaps have liked to keep under wraps. I wish my grandmother had lived long enough for me to have questioned her more about her Corvan grandmother. I would love to find some descendants of her grandmother's sister, Ellen Annette Mary Corvan, who married in Australia a man named Thomas Matthewson..it would be fascinating to discover if a version of the Sir Anthony legend has passed down through that branch of the family.
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