CURIOUS - JANUARY
There are many of my Ancestors or incidents involving my Ancestors that I have found curious. So the challenge for me is to choose just one!
As I am going to visit Norfolk Island in April for a week’s holiday, I am going to choose my first Ancestor on Australian soil, Thomas Rowley. I have mentioned Thomas Rowley elsewhere on this blog in Uni Assignments and Creative Non-fiction stories about Elizabeth Selwyn, his partner. I will not rehash all the information that I have found on Thomas but keep my ramblings to just the “Curiouser” of them! In the coming few months I will continue with other prompts that may lend themselves to more ramblings on Thomas Rowley.
Lieutenant Thomas Rowley arrived in Port Jackson on the 14 February 1792 after an arduous seven month voyage, on The Pitt. Historian C.J.Smee lists ten soldier’s wives sailing on the Pitt, one of which is listed as Mrs Elizabeth Rowley.1 But there is no record of a Mrs Rowley disembarking.
First Curious Fact……..What happened to Mrs Elizabeth Rowley?
On arrival in the Colony, Lieutenant Rowley was assigned a convict Elizabeth Selwyn as his housekeeper.2 Elizabeth had been sentenced for transportation for seven years and she had also had arrived on the Pitt.3 In November of that same year Elizabeth Selwyn gave birth to her and Thomas’ first child.4
Second Curious Fact……. Elizabeth Selwyn gave birth to Isabella Rowley on 19 November 1792. Was she pregnant when she arrived in the colony with Thomas’ child?
Elizabeth and Thomas went on to have a further four children, Thomas Rowley (1794), John Rowley (1797), Mary Rowley (1800 )and Eliza Rowley (1803) before Thomas died in 1806. These five children were all named and provided for in Thomas’s WILL.5 It is reported by other researchers that another child was born after Thomas died when Elizabeth was six months pregnant. I have yet to substantiate this fact.
Third Curious Fact….. Why didn’t Thomas marry Elizabeth?
There are other curiosities with this Ancestor, but I may touch on more as the year unfolds, as I have said some of them lend themselves to other prompts.
As most Family Historians will attest to, there are many curious finds while researching, that will have researchers rolling their eyes and pulling their hair out.
I look forward to reading other’s #52 Ancestors and #12 Ancestors stories, as the year unfolds.
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1 Smee, C. J. 1992, Fourth fleet families of Australia containing genealogical details of two hundred & five fourth fleeters, their children & grandchildren / compiled & edited by C.J. Smee Fourth Fleet Families of Australia Artarmon, NSW
2 Ancestry.com. New South Wales and Tasmania, Australia Convict Musters, 1806- 1849 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007. Original data: Home Office: Settlers and Convicts, New South Wales and Tasmania; (The National Archives Microfilm Publication HO10, Pieces 5, 19-20, 32-51); The National Archives of the UK (TNA), Kew, Surrey, England. Retrieved May 20 2016
3 STARR, MARION, Unhappy Exiles Convicts of the Pitt and Kitty 1792, Australia 1016, p141.
4 Ancestry.com. Australia, Birth Index, 1788-1922 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Original data: Compiled from publicly available sources. Retrieved April 15 2015.
5 Ancestry.com. London, England, Wills and Probate, 1507-1858 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.Original data: London, England, Wills and Probate. London, England: London Metropolitan Archives and Guildhall Library Manuscripts. Images produced by permission of the City of London Corporation Libraries, Archives. Retrieved June 10 2016.
