Holdsworth Vick White Arnot Anderson

Cornelius Boyle was on the ship, "Lady Elma Bruce" which arrived in Sydney on 14 Jul 1859. When questioned by the Immigration Board he advised that he was the son of Cornelius and Fanny Boyle in Gweedore and while his mother was alive, his father was dead.

It's possible that Fanny died between 1859 when she was alive at the time of her son Cornelius' departure for NSW and 1864 when birth death and death registrations commenced. However, Fanny shared land in Ardnagappary, which includes Middletown, in the 1857 Griffith's Valuation and death of an 80 year old in 1875 in the same area is also her possible death. A Nellie Boyle registered the death. Fanny had a daughter-in-law named Ellen, a name commonly known as Nelly which increases the likelihood that the death is Fannys.

Cornelius Boyle was killed in a railway accident which occurred at night near a sector where rail was being laid. He was one of four men sitting on a railway truck carrying ballast which was one of about 18 in front an steam engine. The coupling between two trucks broke and there was nothing to prevent the trucks from moving at speed down the hill. There was an enormous pile up of trucks and ballast with Cornelius and another killed and a third injured. The fourth jumped to safety.

Cornelius was seeking work and not well known but was identified as being from Gweedore, Ireland and having arrived a week after the wreck of the Dunbar, a ship which carried immigrants, all of whom perished apart from one crew member. Given so much of the population had arrived by ship an event like that would have captured their attention. He was also identified from letters and papers in his pockets. He was considered to be about 40 and a temperate man. Both bodies were very badly mangled. The men were buried in the Haydonton cemetery.

Two inquests were held with many newspapers reporting the accident and inquests. The second inquest was intensively reported in the Singleton Argus and the Upper Hunter General Advocate of June 12th and while readable the image quality is poor.

Cornelius and the other dead man, Hugh McBride, were buried in Haydonton Cemetery. They were unearthed for the second inquest on 5th June 1878.