Captain Thomas Rowley ( – 27 May 1806) was a soldier and landholder in the

convict settlement A penal colony or exile colony is a settlement used to exile prisoners and separate them from the general population by placing them in a remote location, often an island or distant colonial territory. Although the term can be used to refer t ...

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

, Australia.

Biography

He was appointed adjutant of the

New South Wales Corps The New South Wales Corps, later known as the 102d Regiment of Foot, and lastly as the 100th Regiment of Foot, was a formation of the British Army organised in 1789 in England to relieve the New South Wales Marine Corps, which had accompanied ...

in 1789 and promoted to lieutenant in 1791. Rowley arrived at

Port Jackson Port Jackson, commonly known as Sydney Harbour, is a natural harbour on the east coast of Australia, around which Sydney was built. It consists of the waters of Sydney Harbour, Middle Harbour, North Harbour and the Lane Cove and Parramatta ...

in 1792, he had the convict

Simeon Lord Simeon Lord ( – 29 January 1840) was a pioneer merchant and a magistrate in Australia. He became a prominent trader in Sydney, buying and selling ship cargoes. Despite being an emancipist Lord was made a magistrate by Governor Lachlan Macqua ...

assigned as servant. He was promoted to captain in 1796 and in 1799 he commenced a tour of duty on

Norfolk Island Norfolk Island ( , ; ) is an States and territories of Australia, external territory of Australia located in the Pacific Ocean between New Zealand and New Caledonia, directly east of Australia's Evans Head, New South Wales, Evans Head and a ...

. When Captain John Townson departed prematurely in November, Rowley, as the senior officer, took charge of the settlement. During his rule he ordered liquor stills to be demolished to reduce the drunkenness on the island, and this move brought threats of prosecution from the owners. He was relieved by Major

Joseph Foveaux Joseph Foveaux (1767 – 20 March 1846) was a soldier and convict settlement administrator in colonial New South Wales, Australia. He was also a sheep grazier and breeder, being the largest landholder in New South Wales by 1800. Early life Fovea ...

in July 1800 and returned to Sydney. He claimed that his rule was sufficiently creditable to earn the respect of the settlers and Governor

King King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

. In 1802 he resigned his commission and became a farmer. He had received his first land grant in 1793, and accumulated land at a steady rate at

Bankstown Bankstown is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located 19 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district and is part of the Canterbury-Bankstown region. Bankstown is the administrative centre ...

, Petersham and Burwood. By 1805 he owned 519 sheep, but made no effort to breed from them. He was interested only in meat production, not wool growing. In 1802 Rowley was given responsibility for the management of the civil and military barracks and became captain of the Sydney company of the Loyal Association, of which he became commandant in 1804. In the same month he became a magistrate. He died of

consumption Consumption may refer to: * Eating *Resource consumption *Tuberculosis, an infectious disease, historically known as consumption * Consumer (food chain), receipt of energy by consuming other organisms * Consumption (economics), the purchasing of n ...

on 27 May 1806, leaving his property to his children and to his partner Elizabeth Selwyn, a former convict who had arrived on the ''Pitt'' in 1792.

Family

He had five children, four with Elizabeth Selwyn. His eldest daughter died in 1808 aged 17.

References

* ''

Australian Dictionary of Biography The ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'' (ADB or AuDB) is a national co-operative enterprise founded and maintained by the Australian National University (ANU) to produce authoritative biographical articles on eminent people in Australia's ...

'', Vol. 2. * Hazzard, Margaret, ''Punishment Short of Death: a history of the penal settlement at Norfolk Island'', Melbourne, Hyland, 1984. * ''A Cameo of Thomas Rowley'', Self-published Ian Ramage, 200 pps extracts can be found a

External links

Thomas Rowley research and genealogy site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rowley, Thomas 1740s births 1806 deaths 19th-century deaths from tuberculosis Norfolk Island penal colony administrators Tuberculosis deaths in Australia Colony of New South Wales people Infectious disease deaths in New South Wales