Rowney Family Tree

Thomas seems to have been born in early 1821 in the parish of Bletsoe, in Bedfordshire, England. He was baptised at St Mary's Church in the village of Bletsoe on 4 Feb 1821. His father was an agricultural labourer at that time. In the early 1830's the ROWNEY family may have moved out to the rural community of Whitwick Green, just a couple of miles north-east of Bletsoe, in Bedfordshire. This was their recorded place of residence in 1835, however it is possible that they may have actually been there from earlier times, and that the change of address at that time was a formality only.

In the 1841 census, Thomas (aged 20) was living with his parents at Whitwick Green (sp. Wittock Green). He was employed as an agricultural labourer at that time. His father and brothers were also working as agricultural labourers and his mother and sisters were lacemakers.

Thomas emigrated from England to South Australia at the end of 1844 with his brother William. There was also another young man named George ROWNEY who sailed with them on their ship, who may have been related. George does not appear to have been a sibling, but he may have been a distant cousin from the nearby village of Riseley. Thomas gave his age at that time as 23 years old, William said he was 19 years old, and George's age was recorded as 17 years. None of the three were married at that time. William's future wife, Maria FLAVEL, also sailed with some of her siblings on the same voyage. The FLAVEL family also came from Riseley. Their ship, the "Isabella Watson", departed London on 20 Dec 1844 and sailed via Plymouth on its way to South Australia. She was a 434 ton, three-mast ship, which was newly built in 1840, and was sailing under the command of Captain John HENDERSON, with 6 cabin class and 120 steerage class passengers. This was the first shipment of assisted migrants into South Australia since the suspension of the assisted migration program in mid-1840 due to the grave financial crisis which had existed in the fledgling colony at that time. They arrived at Port Adelaide (SA) on 3 Apr 1845. The "Isabella Watson" was later wrecked (SW 346) on the Corsair Rock outside Port Phillip Heads (Vic) on 21 Mar 1852 while transporting a load of migrants to Victoria.

In 1846, about a year and a half after their arrival, William ROWNEY married Maria FLAVEL. William and Maria initially made their home at Bowden (SA), in the Hindmarsh (SA) area north of Adelaide (SA). They lived there for a number of years before moving eastwards to the Campbelltown (SA) district, about 7km NE of Adelaide in the foothills of the North Mount Lofty Ranges.

In 1852, at the age of 31, Thomas became a father. The child's mother was Susan McMULLEN, who was around 18 years old at that time. Their daughter, Mary Ann, was born at Darley (SA), near Paradise (SA), a short distance from Campbelltown. There is no official record of Thomas and Susan having been married, although Thomas' death certificate indicates that they were married at Walkerville (SA), a short distance north-east of Adelaide. Little is known of Susan, her name is often misspelled, and recorded details about her are usually sketchy. It would seem that she was probably illiterate.

Thomas and Susan appear to have lived in the area around Darley over the following decades. All of their children except the last were most likely born in that area. After Mary Ann came another daughter, Agnes, who was born in 1853 at Paradise. Clara, their next child, was born in Darley in 1854, and their first son, Ted, was born at Darley in 1857. The next few years are poorly documented, so the exact details are uncertain. It is not clear whether Thomas and Susan stopped registering the births of their children, or whether they may have adopted or fostered children. In any case, there do not appear to be records of the births of the next few children, so their birth dates have been calculated from other information. Alice was born in early 1859, and Dolph around 1861. Alice died at the end of 1861 at Darley when she was just 2ư years old. Another son, believed to have been Walter, was born at Thorndon Park (SA) in late 1864. The SA Births Index records a child named Lifes born at this time, but no child named Walter. It is assumed there has been a transcription error, however other explanations are possible. The remaining births were again registered, so we know that their son Thomas was born at Paradise in 1867. Little Thomas died shortly before his first birthday in 1868 at Shepley (SA). Shepley was near Darley and the ROWNEY family were living there when young Thomas died. The family appears to have moved away from the Mount Lofty Ranges area sometime before the birth of their last child, Arthur. Arthur was known as Paddy, and he was born in 1870 at Unley (SA), now an inner suburb located just a few kilometres south of central Adelaide. Unley may have been a rural area at that time however.

Thomas and Susan's eldest daughter, Mary Ann, was married in Adelaide in 1871 when she was 18 years of age. Her husband was a 36 year old widower with two children, named John LANGEVIN. Mary Ann died just nine months later, in Adelaide, at the age of 19.

Their next oldest daughter, Agnes, married Charles POULTON in Adelaide in 1874, when she was 20 years old. Agnes and Charles took up a farm north of Adelaide at Mallala (SA).

Their third daughter Clara died in Adelaide in 1875 when she was just 19 years of age.

Three days after Christmas in 1876, Susan herself died. She was only 42 years old and she died in Adelaide, where her family were then living. Her family at that time would have consisted of Thomas (aged 55), and their surviving unmarried children; Ted (19), Dolph (15), Walter (11), and Paddy (6).

Thomas and his boys seem to have remained in Adelaide until around 1880. Ted is believed to have had a relationship with a girl named Zelpha BUTLER during this time, and they produced a son who was named William Butler ROWNEY. Baby William died soon after birth, and Zelpha was herself married to another man, George RIPLEY, in 1881. So the relationship would appear to have been shortlived. Perhaps Zelpha had been a houskeeper for the ROWNEYs after their mother died.

Around that time, Thomas and his family appear to have left Adelaide and headed northwards, to take up farming in the Dalkey (SA) district between Balaklava (SA) and Owen (SA). They seem to have been working land in the area in collaboration with the POULTON families. Dolph ROWNEY also married into the POULTON family in 1882, when at the age of 22, he married the recently widowed Elizabeth FINNEMORE (nee POULTON) at Dalkey. Elizabeth was the sister of Dolph's brother-in-law, Charles POULTON, she was 39 years old and had several small children when she married Dolph.

Ted seems to have headed even further afield. He was married in 1883, to a girl named Liz TREVORAH at her mother's home near Franklin Harbour (SA) on the Eyre Peninsula. Ted and Lizzie appear to have returned to Adelaide shortly after their marriage. Their first child was born at Plympton (SA) and their second at Payneham. Ted and his family moved across to Victoria sometime around 1888, when the intercolonial railway opened, and settled near Melbourne (Vic), at Caulfield (Vic).

Some of the ROWNEY and POULTON families from Dalkey made their own way across to Victoria a little later, in 1890, after their farms in South Australia were destroyed by floods. They initially took up selections in the Wimmera region around Galaquil (Vic) and Brim (Vic). It appears that some made the journey from South Australia even later still, in 1892, and the aging Thomas seems to have made the move at that time.

Walter ROWNEY was married to his brother Dolph's step daughter, Polly FINNEMORE, shortly after their arrival in Victoria in 1890. Walter and Polly lived around Brim, Warracknabeal (Vic) and Beulah (Vic), and had five children, before Walter died in 1899 at Warracknabeal. Polly was left to raise their young family alone. She never remarried and appears to have successfully managed her family's farm for many years afterwards.

It is understood that some of the farms around Galaquil were burned out in 1892 by a fire started by a spark from a passing train. This setback prompted another move northwards. Both the ROWNEYs and POULTONs eventually settled comfortably in the area around Cambacanya (Vic) and Hopetoun West (Vic).

The last of Thomas' boys, Paddy, was married in 1895, probably somewhere around Hopetoun. He was married to a South Australian girl named Sis MITCHELL and they settled at Hopetoun and raised their family there.

Thomas died in 1902 in Hopetoun at the age of 82. He died from "senile decay and bronchitis" which afflicted him for around 12 weeks prior to his death. His daughter Agnes POULTON from Hopetoun was the informant on his death certificate, so we can perhaps assume that he may have been living with her family at the time of his passing.