John Jennings (my great-grandfather’s brother)

Curator of Sydney Cricket Ground 1899-1911

John Jennings was born in Arbut, Galway, Ireland in about 1863.  He was the third child of Thomas (1837 – 1917)and Bridget Jennings nee Conroy (1839-1908).  As a one-year-old, he travelled to Australia with his parents, and two older brothers Jeremiah (1858- 1944), and William (1861-1931)  on board the vessel Sirocco, arriving in Australia on 28/1/1864.

By 1865 convicts were not being transported to Australia so the colony was experiencing a labour shortage.  There had been an influx of immigrants during the 1850s when gold had been discovered and the lure of making a fortune led to many making the decision to make the voyage to Australia. The journey to Australia was arduous, taking up to four months or more. Because of poor hygiene and cramped living conditions, the death rate was high.  One in 10 adults and one in 5 children were known to perish.  Storms presented a particular problem; when the crew “battened down the hatches” it meant the passengers were confined to their quarters.  For those in cabins this was bad enough for those in steerage it would have been intolerable.  They were confined to their quarters with all the other passengers, in total darkness, with no ventilation and limited toilet facilities.  Seasickness was rife at these times because of the boat pitching in the storm.  

After a short period of quarantine, the family would have been “released” into the care of Bridget Tiernan.  Bridget was Thomas’s older sister who had travelled to the Colony with her sibling Margaret on board the Hilton in 1855.  Bridget had sponsored the family’s migration to Australia allowing them to travel as Assisted Passengers during the voyage.

Initially, the family lived in Pitt Row, Sandhills (which was the area around Nobbys) with Bridget and her family. Sometime later the family moved to the Adamstown area. 

Once in the Colony, the family had four more children Thomas (1865 – 1866), Patrick (1867-1940), Mary (1869-1869) and Michael William (1870 – 1943).

Whilst not much is known about his early life in Newcastle, John’s father Thomas had various periods of incarceration, generally for offences relating to alcohol use, with sentences ranging from a day to a week.  Thomas was always in work however but I imagine his childhood would not have been easy.

On 12/01/1889 at the age of 25 John married Casina Elizabeth Hickens (Kickens)  (1861-1919 )in Sydney. Casina had a troubled background have spent several years from the age of 6 at the Randwick Asylum for Destitute Children following her father’s desertion. In 1875 at the age of 13, she was apprenticed to Mrs G Berne of Bega. This was the year that Mr Berne died under mysterious circumstances. Returning on horseback from an auction, carrying 500 pounds his body was washed away in the Bega flood. The cash was never located but an empty money belt and the remains of a foot in a riding boot were found weeks later. The local bootmaker was said to have identified the boot as Mr Berne’s.  The Bernes’  eldest daughter Dagmar was the first woman to enrol in medicine in Australia at the University of Sydney in 1885.  

In 1899 John Jennings or Jack as he was known took on the position of caretaker of the Sydney Cricket Ground. The couple had no children of their own and lived on-site at the SCG. Family stories and research indicates many of their nieces and nephews visited them there. John held the position till his untimely and unexpected death from bowel cancer on 30/09/1911.

In an article on the SCG “From Horses to Computers – Curators of the SCG” the SCG wicket was credited as one of the best batting strips in the world under John Jennings’ curatorship. 

This was largely due to his introducing covers for the wicket and levelling the rise that had developed in the Randwick end of the wicket area due to years of constant topdressing. 

Casina passed away in Sydney on 19/03/1919. At this time she was residing with a niece at Florence Villa, Cameron Street, Rockdale NSW.