#12 ANCESTORS IN 12 MONTHS - 2022 - FEBRUARY - LANDED

LANDED - FEBRUARY

 

My ancestor Thomas Rowley after arriving in Port Jackson in February 1792 went on to become in my opinion one of the “Landed Gentry”. 

When Thomas arrived in the colony as a Lieutenant he obviously had plans of bettering himself. He was soon appointed to the role of Captain in June 1796.^⁠1 

From early on after arriving in the colony Thomas initially applied for a lease of 2 acres in May 1793. His thirst for acquiring land didn’t stop there.  

Over the next 11 years Thomas accumulated over 3000 acres of land through grants. Governors Grose, Hunter and King were instrumental in these grants^⁠2:

• 1793 - May 2 acres lease - between the Brickfields and corner of Church Street.
• 1793 - May 100 acres grant - Petersham Hill (Kingston Farm)
• 1794 - October 70 acres grant - Petersham Hill
• 1798 - August 85 acres grant - Banks Town
• 1799 - August 260 acres grant -Liberty Plains
• 1799 - October 150 acres grant - York Plains
• 1802 - March 190 acres grant - Liberty Plains
• 1803 - August 240 acres grant - Petersham
• 1803 - August 750 acres grant - Liberty Plains/Concord
• 1804 - July 700 acres grant - Banks Town

Thomas established his home on his initial couple of grants, which he named Kingston Farm, probably after his birthplace in Surrey, England.  It would have been here at Kingston Farm that his partner Elizabeth Selwyn raised their five children.  

Kingston Farm grew in size to over 700 acres with consecutive grants.  Much of the time Elizabeth would have been alone raising their children in a remote area in isolated bushland while Thomas attended to his Military duties.  Even with servants and convict labour to work the farm it would have been difficult without family support.

It is reported that soldiers were granted twenty-five acre lots and this indicates to me that Thomas Rowley’s standing in the Colony was of importance with the size of his landholdings over a relative short time.

I wonder how much he would have been capable of achieving had he lived longer.

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¹ B. H. Fletcher, 'Rowley, Thomas (1747–1806)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/rowley-thomas-2614/text3605, published first in hardcopy 1967, accessed online 12 February 2022.

² Ancestry.com. New South Wales, Australia, Registers of Land Grants and Leases, 1792-1867 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.,

2010.