The Students of the First Twenty Years, St John’s College

Abstract

Who were the first students to live at St John's Catholic College and where were they educated prior to enrolment at the University of Sydney? Perry McIntyre’s interest in nineteenth-century emigration, particularly from Ireland places her in a unique position, as an historian working as the Archivist at St John’s, to examine the backgrounds of the Catholic young men who sought to move up the social ladder in the colonies by acquiring an education at University. This paper will look at the backgrounds of the first group of students and, where possible, what doors their education may have opened for them. Dr Perry McIntyre’s monograph, based on her PhD thesis and entitled Free Passage: the reunion of Irish convicts and their families in Australia, 1788-1852, will be published in 2011 by Irish Academic Press. She has served on the History Council of NSW (President 2005, 2006) and on the councils of the Society of Australian Genealogists, the Royal Australian Historical Society and the Australian Catholic Historical Society.