William Macky

William Macky was born around 1815, according to the family reconstruction. He worked as a farmer in Ireland and married Susannah Dill. The Australian Dictionary of Biography identifies their son Rev. William Marcus Dill Macky as one of five children, born at Lisfannan in County Donegal in 1849.[1,2,3]

A family history attributes the loss of William’s Lisfannan farm to his refusal to pay tithes, placing it around September 1850. It dates his departure from Ireland for Victoria, Australia, to May 1852. According to the Australian Dictionary of Biography, he disappeared on the Victorian goldfields in the early 1850s.[3,4]

A 1913 family account says William intended his family to join him in Victoria. His letters stopped within a year; the last had come from Buninyong, a goldfields town in the colony.[2]

Their children also included Dr. James Dill Macky, Grace Macky, Rev. Richard Dill Macky and Dorcas Macky. According to the family history, Grace was born at Lisfannan on 26 September 1845 and Richard there on 13 September 1847; Dorcas was born at Derry on 3 January 1851.[1,2,4]