page_title: James Dempsey (builder)
section_title: Dempsey, the Catholic community and St Mary’s Cathedral
hierarchical_section_title: James Dempsey (builder) / Dempsey, the Catholic community and St Mary’s Cathedral
caption_attribution_description: English: Format: Photograph Find more detailed information about this photograph: acms.sl.nsw.gov.au/item/itemLarge.aspx?itemID=412199 Information about photographic collections of the State Library of New South Wales: acms.sl.nsw.gov.au/search/SimpleSearch.aspx From the collection of the State Library of New South Wales www.sl.nsw.gov.au
context_page_description: James Dempsey was the founder of the first Christian community in Australia and was a major contributor to the building of the first Catholic cathedral in Australia.
context_section_description: James Dempsey was a prominent and devout member of the Catholic community in Sydney.  Before Father Jeremiah Francis O'Flynn arrived in the colony in 1817, a group of Catholic men and women met regularly at Dempsey’s house in Kent Street to recite the rosary and to sing Vespers.  Paul Chandler believes ‘that Dempsey had some confraternity members residing with him in Kent Street; if so, this must have been Australia’s first Christian community.’  
  The brief appearance in Sydney of an unauthorised Catholic priest, Father O’Flynn, for just over six months in 1817-1818 led to a consecrated host being left behind when O’Flynn was deported.  It has become a heated issue whether this host was protected by James Dempsey or by another prominent Catholic William Davis, who donated the site of St Patrick’s Church near his home on Church Hill. The much later letters and speeches of three Fitzpatrick brothers who had been around Dempsey’s house as children in Macquarie’s time give powerful testimony, claiming that before Father Therry arrived in 1820 the host was kept inside the Kent Street house, in a private room watched over reverently by a group of Catholic men. It is in fact likely that the host was consumed in 1819 by a visiting French priest. (15)
  After 1820 Dempsey worked closely with Father Therry on the construction of a suitable chapel for Catholic worship.  The site of what became St Mary’s Cathedral near Hyde Park Barracks had been chosen by James Meehan, the deputy surveyor-general who had also been transported from Ireland for his support to the 1798 rebellion.
  Dempsey was a prominent member of the committee raising funds for the chapel.  Therry was not a good businessman and when there was no money to pay the labourers in 1823 Dempsey paid the men out of his own pocket for a while. Dr Waldersee, a leading authority on Father Therry, concluded that without Dempsey, the first St Mary’s would not have been completed.
  In an unsuccessful attempt to raise funds, Dempsey travelled to Calcutta in India in October 1825 and did not return until the following May.  The expenses incurred on the trip exceeded the meagre donations raised in India.
  Eventually Dempsey returned to Sydney, sailing from Liverpool in 1831.  He had the satisfaction of seeing the completion of St. Mary’s and attending the first mass there on Christmas Day 1833.  He remained on the committee raising funds for the interior decoration and furnishing of the church and saw the arrival of Bishop Polding in 1835.
  But he was now in his mid-60s.  He gave up his Kent Street house and moved to a small plot in Clarence Street which he was granted in October 1836.  In failing health, he made his will on 5 January 1838.
  Dempsey’s funeral service was held at St Mary’s and he was buried in the Devonshire Street cemetery on 12 February.  The funeral notice described him as ‘for many years a Builder in this Town’.  The gravemarker was removed to Botany Cemetery when Devonshire Street was closed to allow for the construction of Central railway station in 1901 and its text was transcribed before it was destroyed in the 1980s.
caption: The former St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney, ca. 1870 (built 1843, destroyed by fire 1865) showing surviving belltower built to designs by A W N Pugin. St Mary's Cathedral.
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