Christopher Rowland : Short Biography

Christopher Rowland was tried and convicted for ‘stolen copper’ on 30 July, 1834, in Cork City, Ireland. He had no previous convictions. On the convict shipping list it said 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. We don’t know what happened to his wife and two children when he was sent away.

He is described physically in his convict shipping record as being 5’6” tall. He had a fair complexion, brown hair, and grey eyes. He was described as having a long and thin nose, a perpendicular scar on the inner corner of his right eyebrow, and a mole on the same.

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 in New South Wales. On his ticket-of-leave document it gives his year of birth as 1813.

In 1840 he was granted a ticket-of-leave passport that enabled him to proceed to Port Philip as an employee of J Hawdon Esq, who had an estate in Heidelberg, Melbourne.

Christopher Rowland married Margaret “Barnall” (Barnhill, née Arbuckle) in the Melbourne Wesley Chapel in Melbourne on 6 April 1843. Both of them were described as being widowed on the marriage certificate.

Len Swindley, who has done extensive research into the Arbuckle family, found a second Rowland/Arbuckle marriage in 1850 at Brighton, Victoria. We can only speculate about why there was a second marriage ceremony, but many Arbuckle marriages are recorded in the register at the same church.

Catherine Rowland, their first child, and my great-grandmother, 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 in 1853 but died aged 7 years old. She was buried in the Kyneton General Cemetery. Their third daughter was Margaret Jane, who was born on 13 June 1856 in  East Brighton, Melbourne.

Christopher’s wife Margaret died at Green Hill on 27 August 1861 of consumption. She was buried in the cemetery at Kyneton. Catherine was aged 16 when her mother died, but Margaret Jane was aged only 4 years old. Sadly, Christopher Rowland abandoned Margaret Jane at some stage, and in November 1864 she was committed to a children’s home because of neglect.  

After this, I have not been able to find out anything more about Christopher Rowland.