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)


 

Catherine Rowland, South Beach

Catherine Rowland with child thought to be Eileen Hamilton

Catherine ROWLAND was born on 26 August 1845, in Heidelberg, Melbourne, the first child for Christopher ROWLAND and Margaret ARBUCKLE (‘Barnall’). She was later baptised at St James Church, Melbourne.

Her father Christopher was from Co Cork, and had been transported to Australia as a convict in 1835. Her mother Margaret was from Strabane in Co Tyrone, and she was one of several women of the Arbuckle family who emigrated to Australia.

Catherine had a sister Margaret Jane Rowland, born in 1856 in East Brighton, Melbourne. She also had another younger sister, Isabella, born in 1853. However, Isabella died young in 1860 and is buried in the Kyneton General Cemetery, together with her mother Margaret. Catherine also had a half-brother, Robert Barnhill, who was born in Strabane.

It appears that sometime around early 1871, Catherine crossed the Tasman and ended up in Greymouth. On 14th September 1871, she married James LALOR in the Roman Catholic Chapel. A marriage notice appeared in the Grey River Argus, in which she was described as a native of Victoria.

Catherine and James had six children. Their first daughter, Margaret Jane, was born in 1872, while they were residing at South Beach, and subsequent children were named John, Mary, Robert, James and Thomas.

Catherine’s sister, Margaret Jane, was listed on the Victorian Children’s Register: her father Christopher had deserted and her mother Margaret had died. She was discharged in 1872, to her sister, Mrs J Lalor (Catherine Rowland) in Greymouth on the West Coast, per the Albion S.S.

Whereas for her husband James Lalor there were many references in the local newspapers, for Catherine, as a woman, there were few. There was a euchre and dance evening at South Beach for which she contributed some beautiful handwork as a prize. She donated 2s6d to an X-Ray Fund in 1920. And sadly, she was recorded as the one looking after a grandchild, Evelyn Schroeder, in 1903, when the toddler went missing and was found drowned in Nelson Creek nearby.

Catherine was left a widow in 1916 when her husband James Lalor died.

Catherine herself died on 3rd January 1934 at South Beach. She was said to have been in New Zealand for 62 years. She was buried in the (Karoro) Cemetery at Greymouth in a plot she shares with her husband and two grandchildren.

Her death was reported in the Auckland Weekly News, where she was described as ‘one of the pioneers of the West Coast’.

I have two important acknowledgements to make:
1) Much of the information about the Rowland family in Australia, and the Arbuckle relatives in both Australia and Ireland, has been researched by Mr Len Swindley of Melbourne. He has extensive knowledge of the various Arbuckle siblings and spouses that came to Australia.
2) Lois Guyatt who is a descendant of Catherine's sister, Margaret Jane Rowland, gave me a lot of my initial Rowland family information.