A trust fund containing $132,000 – the estate of the late Richard Kenna – has been lodged with the Office of State Revenue after painstaking attempts to locate relatives failed.

Mr Kenna, who was an innkeeper in Bathurst, died on June 20, 1879.

Toomey Pegg Lawyers of Sydney act for the trustees of Mr Kenna’s estate.

Consultant James Mills said Mr Kenna was the father of two daughters and three sons, born in Bathurst between 1855 and 1864.

“There was no issue of Richard who survived to inherit his estate,” Mr Mills said.

“One half of the resident of Richard’s estate passed to the children of his brother, Michael Kenna, and the remaining half passed to the children of Richard’s sister, Margaret Cox (nee Kenna).

“The present balance has accrued over years from a small undistributed part of the residue of the estate.

“It belongs to the two beneficiaries or the persons entitled to their respective estates.

“None of these ultimate beneficiaries resided in Australia.

“After extensive unsuccessful enquiries in Ireland, over a considerable period, the present trustees of the estate lodged the balance of the funds held by them as trustees with the Office of State Revenue in NSW as unclaimed moneys.”

Mr Mills said that in the course of their enquiries, they discovered that the family name underwent a few changes.

“At first it was MacCionaoith, then McKenna, then Kenna and Kinna and, for the Irish now, back to McKenna,” he said.

In an intriguing twist, though, investigations by the Western Advocate have revealed Richard Kenna was at the centre of a dispute with the Catholic Archbishop of Bathurst, Matthew Quinn, which divided Bathurst in the 1870s.

Bathurst Historical Society president Alan McRae said Mr Kenna had two sons, one of whom he sent to Sydney Grammar School, a non-Catholic school.

“Bishop Quinn demanded that Mr Kenna remove the boy from Sydney Grammar or there would not be a place for him in the Catholic cemetery,” Mr McRae said. “Mr Kenna refused the bishop’s demand.

“In anticipation of his death, Mr Kenna had constructed a vault near the Milltown Cemetery, but on private land in lower Lambert Street.

“After his death, a short private service was conducted by his nephew and he was buried in unconsecrated ground.

“In an ironic twist of fate, years later Mr Kenna ended up in the Catholic portion of the Bathurst Cemetery [pictured on page one] as many of the remains from the old cemetery in Lambert Street were transferred there for reinterment.”

Richard Kenna operated the Carrier’s Inn in George Street in 1853, changing the name the next year to the Carrier’s Arms Inn.

“It wasn’t long before he appeared before the Police Magistrate after he was caught selling a bottle of champagne at 4am. He was required to pay a five shilling fine,” Mr McRae said.

A successful entrepreneur, Mr Kenna bought up many Bathurst properties, including Tattersall’s Hotel, which was then located in Howick Street.

Mr Kenna died on June 20, 1879, aged 63.

“His estate was worth many thousands of pounds,” Mr McRae said. 

“His will was entailed and was described in a court case many decades later as ‘a long and complicated will – a remarkable testamentary document’.

“Entailing was a practice in which an inheritance could be passed down a family line for their use only while each descendant lived, then pass only to their direct kin.

“Mr Kenna’s children, Richard, Mary, Eleanor and James, planned to improve the estate by constructing the Grand Hotel on the corner of Russell and William streets, where the Knickerbocker Hotel stands today.

“The Grand Hotel was constructed during 1890 and 1891. 

“The two-storey building was easily identified by its impressive wrought ironwork around the verandahs and it soon became a local landmark.”