Cowley Family Sagaȅpart 2 Adventures of a Library Picturing Knoydart Then and Now the Ballad of John Keys Report on the 2014 Annual General Meeting

Ȉume 20, Number 3 ȈFall 2014 In This Issue The Cowley Family SagaȄPart 2 Adventures of a Library Picturing Knoydart Then and Now The Ballad of John Keys Report on the 2014 Annual General Meeting Family History Research The Cowley Family Saga³Part 2© BY CHRISTINE JACKSON On the 400th ǯ up the Ottawa River, Christine introduced us to a colourful pioneering Canadian familyȄthe CowleysȄand their connection ǯ Ǥ ͸Ͷͷ͹Anglo-Celtic Roots, she told us about Cowley family members who have included a riverboat captain, an Ottawa land developer and educator, and an NHL Hall of Famer. Here she takes the family history back to its English origins. ǯFamily Record from 1697 wrote previously about the unto the present day (1904).1 Mary ǯ the Agnes (1853Ȃ1922) was the sixth of I Ottawa Valley following a tragic the 12 children of Capt. Daniel start in the early 1830s in Montreal. Keyworth Cowley and his wife Mary But I was curious to know about McJanet, the first Cowley settlers in their English origins, of which the the Ottawa Valley. first few generations in North America were particularly proud. The second was a 1935 biographical There were hints of links to the first ǲǳ Duke of Wellington and Sir Francis ǯǡ Ȇ Ǩ Henry Cowley (1859Ȃ1927), written by his friend and colleague Robert So this account will explore what I Stothers.2 It includes extensive have been able to find out about information about Cowley family their lives back to the mid- history, much, if not all, taken from eighteenth century and reveal the ǯǤ sourcesȄsome of them quite unconventionalȄthat I have used in Ȇ putting together their story thus far. While Daniel Keyworth Cowley can ǯ Two principal pieces of family success in the nineteenth century, it memorabilia started me on my was his father, Mailes Cowley journey through Cowley history (1766Ȃ1832), who was responsible (Figure 1). The first was a collection for the Cowleys coming to North of handwritten drafts of Mary Agnes America. Anglo-Celtic Roots Ȉarterly Chronicle 2 Volume 20, Number 3 ȈFall 2014 However, a tantalizing record of an ǲǤǫǳǤ Lawrence steamboat from Quebec City to Montreal on 26 June 1831 could refer to Mailes Cowley.3 The timing is certainly right. On arrival in Montreal, Mailes is said to have established a house and garden on the site occupied in 1904 ǲǤ CaǤǳ4 Mailes died of fever in April 1832, a few weeks before the Figure 1: Cowley family documents ǯ Source: Author terrible cholera epidemic. He was described in the burial register as ǡ ǯ ǲChristopher Cowley, an Emigrant.ǳ not sure what made Mailes emiȆ Before his sad demise, Mailes had Ȇarriving, as he did, in Lower received some practical assistance Canada at the age of 65 with his in starting his new life here. A wife Harriot, aged 53, and their two younger brother, William Cowley, a young children. successful china merchant in Kingston-upon-Hull, Yorkshire, gave Daniel enjoyed talking about his ǲ [barrel] of ǯǤ china to sell when in this country to Agnes recorded his stories in 1904 help him over the new beginnings but said nothing, however, of any here.ǳ1 When William died in 1851, remembrances he must have had of his estate was worth approximately his own father, Mailes, who died $1 million ǯ when Daniel was 14 years old. dollars. At the time he emigrated in 1831, William was probably also a Mailes was describǲ Wesleyan Methodist lay preacher. ǳȋȌ The U.K. 1841 Census records that had apparently been commissioned he sent at least one of his sons to to bring over some soldiers from Wesley College, Sheffield, a school England.2 I have not found anything for sons of the laity; he also spoke to support a possible link between extensively in a March 1833 letter him and the military; nor have I to his nephew Daniel about building been able to find him, his family and a new chapel, about some of the ǯ local preachers, and about the passenger lists, as of July 2014. Anglo-Celtic Roots Ȉarterly Chronicle 3 Volume 20, Number 3 ȈFall 2014 construction of a new dissenting Grange Farm, Anwick, and Henry chapel in Hull.1 ǡǲǡǳ Elizǯȋ Mailes Cowley was born on 23 June whom was also named Mailes!) of 1766, in Ollerton, Nottinghamshire Thorpe Tilney, a small hamlet just a (Notts.). He was the fifth of the eight few miles from Anwick. Their children of Daniel Cowley and his signatures on the bond are strong wife Elizabeth who were born there. and literate-looking (Figure 2). Details of his early life are skimpy, but I know that in 1797, Mailes, aged 31, was liǯ home at Anwick Grange, Lincolnshire (Lincs.). I do not know if Mailes worked on the home farm or had another job. I like to think that his interest in ǲ ǳ Figure 2: Signatures of bondspersons on influenced by the presence, only 15 letters of administration, 1797 miles away at his Revesby estate, of Source: Lincolnshire Archives, ref. LCC the famous naturalist Joseph Banks Admons/1979/16 (later Sir Joseph). Banks had The next reference to Mailes Cowley accompanied and financed Captain that I found from this period may James Cook on his epic round-the- say something about his life in world voyage (1768Ȃ1771) aboard general. It made me wonder if he the Endeavour and had become had inherited some money from his immensely popular on his return to faǯ England. business, as at the age of 37, only Daniel died intestate on 13 March ǯǡ 1797 at Grange Farm, Anwick, and was obviously in financial trouble. Elizabeth was made administratrix A notice appeared in the 7 of his estate. She was one of three September 1803 issue of the people bound in the amount of Stamford Mercury newspaper £1,050Ȇǡ ǲǤley and representing about £34,000 or ǯffairs.ǳ C$62,000 today. The bond was to Mailes Cowley and Edward Bocock, ensure that they administered the ǲ estate properlyȆif not, they would ǡǳǡ ǡ forfeit the bond money. The other and called on their debtors to pay two were Mailes Cowley, ǯ what they owed to the appointed ǲǳǡliving at lawyer or risk being taken to court. Anglo-Celtic Roots Ȉarterly Chronicle 4 Volume 20, Number 3 ȈFall 2014 (There are no Lincoln city conformity in England. Before the directories from this period to help introduction of civil registration in determine what type of merchants 1837, however, for a small fee, it they had been.) kept a central registry of births mainly (but not solely) within non- On 11 April 1816, Mailes Cowley, conformist families, to avoid having 50, a bachelor, married Harriot to have a child baptized an Anglican. Holmes, 38, a spinster, in St. Margaǯ, the Anglican parish This may indicate that it was church of Westminster adjoining cheaper to record the birth at Dr. Westminster Abbey. At the time, ǯ ǲǤǳ Ǥǯǡ Pondering where this couple met, perhaps more likely, that Mailes however, it seems very likely that it and/or Harriot Cowley leaned must have been in Lincolnshire towards the nonconformity of the when Mailes was living in Anwick Wesleyan Methodist William with his parents. Cowley. Lincolnshire, the birthplace Ȇ leyȄ Harriot Holmes was baptized in always had been a hotbed of non- 1778 in the parish of Ruskington, conformity. near Sleaford, Lincs., where numer ǯ I have to wonder if Mailes and his the beginning of the 17th century, family subsequently lived in Hull, Ruskington being adjacent to the Yorkshire, for a number of years, parish of Anwick. She was the fifth perhaps with the support of brother of the six children of Joseph Holmes William. Certainly their other two (1742Ȃ1801), yeoman, and Eleanor children were born in 1818 and Todkill (1738Ȃ1782), who had 1823 in what is now Hull, and they married in 1772 in nearby Ǥǯ Dorrington, Lincs. Library but rather in the local Anglican church. Supporting this Exactly nine months after their con- ǯ marriage in Westminster, Mailes 1833 letter to Daniel, which ǯ ǡǡ suggests that Daniel knew Hull and born there on 9 January 1817. They its preachers, thus indicating that ǯrth on 3 Daniel may have lived there for February 1818 at Ǥǯ some part of his childhood. 1 Library on Cripplegate in London. At some point between 1823 and This is interesting, Ǥǯ 1831, Mailes and his family Library is now known primarily for returned to London, as according to its holdings of pre-nineteenth- Mary Agnes Cowley her grandfather century material on Protestant non- Anglo-Celtic Roots Ȉarterly Chronicle 5 Volume 20, Number 3 ȈFall 2014 was working ǯ husbandman [farmer] of Ollerton in Kensington Gardens before Nottinghamshire by the Steward of emigrating in 1831 with his family. the Manor and Liberty of the Hundred of Ollerton within the Daniel Cowley of OllertonȆ Honour of Tuckhill, Parcel of the and The Cowley Charter Duchy of Lancaster.6 It confirmed Moving back in time, I studied Dǯǡ ǯDaniel Cowley Jr. a right that was granted first in (1731Ȃ1797), who spent most of his 1629 by King Charles I and then ǡǤȆSherwood renewed in 1681 by Charles II to Forest. In 1774, at the age of 43, tenants of Duchy of Lancaster lands Daniel was the recipient of a in the Hundred of Ollerton. document that has become known ǲǡǳ Specifically, Daniel Cowley and his now know is the source of a servants were exempted from significant misunderstanding in paying various road and bridge tolls Cowley family history.

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