Our Christopher Rowland- a convict?

When I first starting researching my family history I heard a family story that Aunty Edith told that there was a convict in the family. It didn't take long to find out that Catherine Rowland's father was Christopher Rowland, and there was a convict called Christopher Rowland. What I wasn't so sure about for many years, was whether this convict was actually 'our' Christopher Rowland.

Somebody told me you needed to find something like a ticket-of-leave number on a wedding registration to prove a convict link. I never found that, but in 2020 lockdown I believe I have discovered a compelling trail of evidence that shows our Christopher was indeed a convict.

Christopher Rowland was tried and convicted for ‘stolen copper’ on 30 July, 1834, in Cork City, Ireland. He was aged 25, could read and write, and was married with two male children. He was a gardener’s labourer, and farm-labourer. He was sentenced to seven years, and was transported from Ireland on the ship “Hero” that arrived in New South Wales on 31 August, 1835.

He was granted a ticket of leave, No 39/2105, on 11 November 1839, and he was allowed to remain in the district of Braidwood. Braidwood is a town located on the Kings Highway linking Canberra with Batemans Bay. It is approximately 200 kilometres south west of Sydney, 60 kilometres inland from the coast, and fifty-five from Canberra.

When I first found this ticket of leave, I doubted this convict could be the same Christopher Rowland who married Margaret Barnall in 1843, as Braidwood is a long way from Melbourne.


However, I then found two more documents that showed how Christopher Rowland the convict was able to move to Melbourne in 1840.

Christopher Rowland was granted a Ticket of Leave Passport, No 40/186 in May 1840, and he was “allowed to proceed to Port Phillip in the employ of J Hawdon Esq for twelve months”, on the recommendation of J Hawdon Esq.


Joseph Hawdon, the employer of Christopher Rowland, had an article published about him in the Australian Dictionary of Biography in 1966. He first settled near Bateman’s Bay in 1834. In 1836 he began overlanding cattle to Port Philip (Melbourne). In about 1839 “He now made his headquarters in Melbourne, where he lived on his property, Banyule, at Heidelberg.”

So with the ticket-of-leave passport recommended by Joseph Hawdon, Christopher Rowland the convict was able to move from Braidwood, NSW, to Heidelberg, Melbourne, in 1840.

I have not found another Christopher Rowland in the area, and I think it is highly likely that this Christopher Rowland, the convict, is indeed the father of Catherine Rowland, whose abode at her birth in 1845 was Heidelberg.


References:
-Convict details originally obtained from Auckland Public Library, AO Fiche #714, Printed indents 1835 (X637) P118-119 
 
-Hawdon, Joseph (1813-1871) by Alan Gross, published in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 1 (MUP), 1966

-Biographical Database of Australia- images of ticket of leave (1839)and ticket of leave passport (1840)


 

Margaret Arbuckle

Margaret Arbuckle is my 2X great-grandmother, the mother of Catherine Lalor (nee Rowland.)

She was born in Strabane, Co Tyrone, Ireland, in January 1815, and she had a twin sister Hannah. Their parents were William Arbuckle, a publican (c1790-c1833) and Sarah STEVENSON (c1790-1833.)

There were at least three other known Arbuckle sisters: Mary Ann (1826), Ann (1832) and Sarah (1833). Sarah Stevenson died 24 December 1833 following the birth of her daughter Sarah, and family tradition relates that their father William died soon afterwards, leaving the five girls as orphans.

At some stage Margaret married Thomas BARNHILL, who was the landlord of the property that her twin sister Hannah was living in, at Longrow, on the Derry Rd in Backfence townland. (This is near the modern border with Co Donegal.)

Thomas and Margaret had one son, Robert Barnhill, born 1838.

Margaret arrived in Melbourne as a passenger on the Marquis of Bute in 1841. She was listed as an unmarried female, a house-servant, aged 24. She was said to follow the Protestant religion, could read (but not write), and was from Co Tyrone.

Margaret’s sister Hannah, with her husband George Hunter, and two sons, William and Robert, also arrived in Melbourne in 1841 on the Marquis of Bute. Robert was not their child, he was probably the son of the ‘unmarried’ Margaret. He was listed as being aged 4. He is a half-brother to Catherine  and Margaret Jane Rowland. (And I have some DNA matches to his descendants.)

Margaret Arbuckle married Christopher Rowland in Melbourne on 6 April 1843. Her name was listed as Margaret Barnall, widow. She signed the declaration with an X (her mark), which showed she could not write.

Catherine Rowland, their first child, was baptised on 20 December 1845, in the Parish of St James, Melbourne. Her father was described as a gardener, and the family abode was Heidelberg.

Their second daughter, Isabella was born on 22 March 1853 in East Brighton, Melbourne but died as a young child. She was buried in 1860, aged 7 years old, in the Kyneton General Cemetery.
The third daughter was Margaret Jane, who was born on 13 June 1856 in  East Brighton, Melbourne.

Margaret Arbuckle died at Green Hill on 27 August 1861 of consumption. She was buried in the cemetery at Kyneton, Victoria with Isabella. Her surviving offspring were Catherine aged 16 years, and Margaret Jane aged 4 years. She had lived in Victoria for twenty years.