Rowney Family Tree

Susanna was christened in 1817 in the village of Roxton, in Bedfordshire, England. Her family appears to have moved from Roxton when she was very young and settled in the area to the north of Bedford city, around the small village of Bletsoe, in Bedfordshire.

In the 1841 census, Susanna (aged 24) was unmarried and employed as a farm servant on a property in the village of Keysoe, in Bedfordshire. The household consisted of farmer, William KARSOP (aged 32), his wife Elizabeth (aged 33), their four children, Elizabeth (aged 9), Eliza (aged 5), Rebecca (aged 3), and George (aged 8 months), as well as six servants and visitors.

Susanna was married to Moseley HOWELL in 1842 at Bletsoe. Moseley was an 18 year old labourer from Huntingdonshire. Susanna would have been around 25 years old when they were married.

Their first child was Eliza, who appears to have been born in the registration district of St Neots, which was situated on the border of three counties; Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, and Huntingdonshire, around the city of St Neots. Eliza appears to have died in the same district in 1844, when she was around 18 months old. Their next child was William, who was born in 1846, also around St Neots.

Moseley, Susanna, and their baby son William emigrated from England to the Colony of South Australia in early 1846. They sailed aboard the vessel "Phoebe", which made the voyage under the command of Capt. William DALE. The ship departed from London docks and sailed via Plymouth. They arrived at Port Adelaide (SA) on 28 Apr 1846, and were probably greeted by a couple of Susanna's brothers, Thomas, and William ROWNEY, who had emigrated to South Australia a year previously.

Susanna and Moseley's first child born on Australian soil appears to have been another daughter who was again named Eliza. She was born in 1848 and died just a week later. The family were living at Bowden (SA), near Adelaide (SA) at that time. Another daughter, who was named Mary, was born in 1849 at nearby Hindmarsh (SA), and then baby Sarah followed a couple of years later, in 1852. Sarah was born around the same area, at Brompton (SA). Susanna's brothers had also settled in this area just a short distance to the north-west of Adelaide after their arrival, and their sister, Edith, who arrived with her family in 1849, also appears to have lived there for a time.

Around 1853 or 1854, the HOWELL family seems to have left South Australia and made their way across to the Colony of Victoria. The other ROWNEY siblings also departed the Hindmarsh area around the same time. Some of them settled around Campbelltown (SA) in the foothills east of Adelaide, while some went further afield. Their probable cousin George ROWNEY went to Victoria around 1852, and Susan's brother William seems to have made his way there alone around the same time as the HOWELLs. Perhaps they were drawn to Victoria by the gold rush which was gathering momentum around that time, however the HOWELL family appears to have settled fairly quickly at the seaside town of Brighton (Vic), just a short distance from Melbourne (Vic). Their last child, Susanna, was born at Brighton in 1854. Both William and George ROWNEY seem to have returned to South Australia by around 1856.

In 1855, the HOWELL family was struck a double blow, when their 12 month old baby daughter Susanna died in Brighton, and then shortly after, Moseley himself died at just 30 years of age. He died in Brighton, from idiopathic tetanus, and was buried in the graveyard at the St Andrew's Church of England in Brighton. Moseley had been sick for just five days before he died.

Susanna may have struggled to support her family after this tragic turn of events, as she quickly remarried later in the same year of 1855 to a 51 year old widower named William DAVEY. She was 38 years old at that time and gave her place of residence as Moorabbin (Vic). William DAVEY was a farmer from Cornwall who had settled at Kannannook Creek (Vic), near Frankston (Vic). They were married in the St Andrew's Church of England in Brighton by the Anglican minister Samuel TAYLOR. The witnesses were John PARKER and Margaret WATT.

Susanna's children at the time of her second marriage were; William (aged 11), Mary (aged 6), and Sarah (aged 3). Her marriage certificate from this time indicates that she and Moseley had seven children in total, four of whom had died young. The missing deceased child has not yet been identified. Perhaps it was a still birth which was unrecorded. William DAVEY had six living children and nine previously deceased children when he married Susanna. His surviving children have not yet been identified. Susanna and William had two more known children together. Their first, a son named Charles, was born around 1857. His birth was registered at Mount Pleasant (Vic), although he later claimed to have been born at Frankston. Their second child, a daughter named Mary Ann, was born at Frankston in 1859.

The DAVEY family remained in the Frankston area for many years afterwards.

William appears to have died in 1880. His recorded age was 85 years, although if we accept the age given at the time of his marriage he may have been as young as 76.

Susanna died at Frankston in 1905 when she was 88 years old. Her death certificate indicates that she died of "senile decay" and "exhaustion". She was buried in the Frankston Cemetery [T.151 Wesleyan]. The informant on her death certificate was the local undertaker, Hector GAMBLE, and the information he provided is scanty and unreliable.