#52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 2024 - Week 2 - Origins

What were the origins of my family to Australia? 

My first ancestors to arrive and settle in Australia happened in 1792 on my maternal side.^⁠1 

On February 14 1792, my Great Great Great Grandmother Elizabeth Selwyn arrived in Port Jackson, Australia, as a convict and was assigned as housekeeper to Lieutenant Thomas Rowley who arrived on the same convict ship the Pitt.^⁠2 

Elizabeth originally was from Great Britain and possibly Gloucester as she was tried at the Gloucester Assizes, Gloucestershire on 23 March 1791 for stealing clothing worth 34 shillings from her employer.^⁠3 

As I have written previously in posts on my blog I will just give a quick profile of them in this post.  

She had five children to Thomas Rowley from 1792 to 1803, Isabella(1792), Thomas(1794), John(1797)^⁠4  Mary(1800)^⁠5 and Eliza(1803/4) who was my Great Great Grandmother. I haven’t found birth records for Eliza but she was mentioned in Thomas’ Will, so she did exist!^⁠6

Although having five children with Thomas there is no evidence that they ever married, in fact she was still recorded as Elizabeth Selwyn on documents up until her death on 22 June 1843.^⁠7 

Thomas served in the NSW Corps becoming a Captain in 1796.^⁠8  He also did a stint as Commandant in Norfolk Island between November 1799 til July 1800. Thomas resigned from the military in November 1801 due to ill health. 

He then turned his hand to farming after receiving many land grants around the Georges River area.  He named their  homestead “Kingston Farm” after his home (allegedly) in Great Britain.  This will be another area of research in helping me to establish further information as to his earlier life. Thomas died in 29 May 1806.^⁠9

So my origins in Australia are definitely in the Sydney, New South Wales area.  This is where Elizabeth Selwyn and Thomas Rowley settled, although the country may not  have been their choice, the area was and they did manage to put down roots for those that followed.

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¹ Ancestry.com. New South Wales, Australia, Convict Indents, 1788-1842 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. This collection was indexed by Ancestry World Archives Project contributors.

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. 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.

⁶ 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.

⁷ Ancestry.com. Australia, Death Index, 1787-1985 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Original data: Compiled from publicly available sources. Retrieved June 1 2016.

⁸ B. H. Fletcher, 'Rowley, Thomas (1747–1806)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/rowley-thomas-2614/text3605, published first in hardcopy 1967, accessed online 3 February 2018.

⁹ Ancestry.com. Sydney, Australia, Cemetery Headstone Transcriptions, 1837-2003 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016.

Original data: Sydney Metropolitan Cemetery Records. Society of Australian Genealogists, Sydney, Australia.