Condron's Globe Hotel

Photo from the State Library of Victoria collection, courtesy of Alan Condron

In a blog post last December about John (Jack) CONDRON, discoverer of the Poseidon gold nugget, I asked who had owned the Globe Hotel in Bridgewater-on-Loddon, Victoria, Australia (pictured above). The inscription on the hotel apparently reads "Condron's Globe Hotel 1890". Thanks to fine detective work by correspondent Timothy Condron, I can now say that the hotel was in the hands of James CONDRON, brother of the John CONDRON.

Digging in the Trove online Australian newspapers archive, Timothy found the following advertisement in the Bendigo Advertiser for November 6th, 1895: "Tenders are required until 11th November, for the Purchase of the Globe Hotel, Bridgewater. Title perfect. Highest tender not necessarily accepted. Tenders to be addressed to JAMES CONDRON, Globe Hotel, Bridgewater".

The same newspaper for May 19th, 1897, records the transfer of the hotel's license: "INGLEWOOD, TUESDAY. LICENSING COURT. - At this court today, Mr. Greene, P.M., granted the transfer of the license of the Globe hotel, Bridgewater, from James Condron to John Carrick".

A "Mr. Condron, of the Globe hotel", presumably the same James CONDRON, was an innocent party in the drowning of an Edward RICHARDS in the River Loddon in March 1896. According to the report in the Bendigo Advertiser for March 3rd, 1896, while taking a ride in Condron's boat, Richards stood up and being inebriated fell and drowned in the river, despite Condron's attempts to save him.

As noted in my post of December last year, James and John were both sons of Thomas CONDRON and his wife Catherine (Murphy) CONDRON. Their link to the discoverer of the Poseidon nugget is confirmed by this notice in the Bendigo Advertiser for April 1st, 1907: "Mr. Thomas Condron, a resident of the Tarnagulla district for fully 50 years, died at Newbridge on Good Friday, at the age of 85 years. His son, John, was one of the lucky party who discovered the famous Poseidon nugget."

Indeed, the death certificates of Catherine and Thomas CONDRON dated 1906 and 1907 respectively, kindly supplied to me by Timothy Condron, reveal that the couple had twelve children: Honora (died before 1906), Mary Anne, Martha, John, James, Phoebe Jane (died before 1906), Jane, Thomas, William, Catherine, Eliza and Joseph. See my posting of December 2012 for more details. The first two children, appear to have been baptised at St. Nicholas's church, Dublin, Ireland, where Thomas and Catherine were married.

As an addendum to my earlier posting, another correspondent, Danielle Condron, tells me that James CONDRON and his wife Mary Ann McDONNELL had a fifth child in addition to the four I listed in that posting: a daughter, Amelia (Amy).

I am most grateful to Timothy and Danielle, and other correspondents, for continuing to send me details of CONDR*N families. Please keep sending corrections, comments and further information for the CONDR*N one-name study to me, Michael John Condran Thompson, at:
condran[AT]one-name.org
(replace "[AT]" with an "@").