Hi agho,
My Haskett like comes from Clare & Tipperary. Here is part of a story I wrote about my great great great grandfather:
Big Davey Haskett was born in Ireland in 1793. Born a Protestant, he met and fell in love with a Catholic girl, by the name of Mary Finucane. At the age of 19, Big Davey secretely married Mary in Killaloe Co. Clare on February 1st, 1812. Due to the nature of their relationship, they were married by license - this was a way for the church to authorise a marriage that would otherwise have been deemed illegal. A Bond was usually taken out in the Diocese of the Bride to be. The Groom and a relative or friend would pay the church a sum of money a 'surety' or guarantee that there was no just cause or impediment that the marriage should not take place. The marriage license bonds records David's surname as "Hastings". The secret marriage was revealed after a 5 years and Big Davey was driven from his home in Ballyvalley Townland. They settled in Tountinna, Tipperary, across the river from Killaloe, and had several children, including John, Michael, David, Thomas, George, Mary, Kate, Margaret, and Robert.
Tountinna is centred around Tountinna hill, the highest peak of the Arra Mountains, at 459 metres. It means "Hill of the Wave" which refers to a tremendous flood that, according to the ancient Book of Invasions, drowned all the first Irish inhabitants except those survivors who took refuge on Tountinna. These mountains were formerly an important slate producing area and at one point some 15,000 tons of slate product was exported through Killaloe.
Fast forward to 1850 - the height of the Great Famine in Ireland. Big Davey's first wife, Mary, had died. He is now 57 years old and is married to Johanna Cummins (since 1845), a sister of his son John's wife. According to Griffiths Valuation, he is still living in Tountinna. The house he lives in was worth 14 s. (shillings), and his land was worth £1, 9s (About 151 euro in 2012 terms). Content of land was as follows: 5 acres, 1 rood, and 18 perches. Francis Spaight Esq. was his landlord. Spaight purchased the land, which was part of the the Derrycastle and Burgess estate in August 1844, and over the course of a number of years, he systematically cleared the land of peasant tenants. The estate was 3,000 acres in total. As well as being a wealthy landowner, Spaight was a major importer of lumber from several maritime ports of Canada. During the mid 1800s, he saw an opportunity to fill his out bound vessels - owned and chartered ones - with people instead of water for ballast and profit.
Son Michael by Big Davey's first wife Mary, and wife Mary Howard, emigrated to Canada in 1854, and some of his siblings also show up in the 1861 Canadian census. Big Davey himself emigrated to Canada some time in the 1860's, when he was aged between 67 and 77, along with several of his sons and daughters and his second wife Johanna, probably aboard one of Spaight's ships. The cost of passage per head was about £3, although it is possible that his sons, already living in Canada, may have paid for his voyage. They left from the Port of Limerick - the journey was hazardous and many of Spaight's ships were lost at sea during the 1800's. The ships on the Limerick-Quebec route were regularly inadaquately provisioned and the passengers would arrive at their destination in a very poor state of health, often starving. Conditions were crowded and filthy aboard the vessels, resulting in many passengers dying from cholera and dysentery. The voyage took about 45 days. Berths were simple spaces consisting of wooden platforms, usually six foot square and built into the ship’s timbers on either side of the hold, with a gangway down the middle. Each adult was usually allotted one quarter of a bunk, or 18x72 inches of bed space. There was no bedding, which is why passengers were advised to get a mattress before going on board. Passengers had to do their own cooking on deck. Food was often either half-cooked or not cooked at all, since when the weather was bad they were not allowed on deck. It is thought that the ship which carried Big Davey and his family was shipwrecked and that the passengers were miraculously saved, however, no record of this exists, and it is probably just a family legend. It is likely that they entered Canada through the port of Quebec. After some journeying, the family eventually settled in Newmarket, north of Toronto, in Ontario. Newmarket at that time was a thriving community, the first railway in Ontario had reached it in 1853, and it was the commercial hub for loading goods and produce from the surrounding farms and lumber mills for shipment to Toronto.
In the 1871 Newmarket census, Big Davey was listed as being 70 years old, of Irish origin, Roman Catholic, and a butcher by profession, married (to Johanna). Interestingly, both he and Johanna are listed as being unable to read or write. It is possible that his age is listed incorrectly, as it doesn't tally with his death record.
He died March 05, 1880 in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada, at the age of 87. He was buried in Newmarket Catholic Cemetery. Unfortunately, no headstone exists for his burial plot.
