A Link to a Socialite

Welcome to my first post in several months! A lot has gone on in this time: made redundant after nearly 25 years at Lonely Planet, I've been concentrating on taking the opportunity of this time off to get a lot of 'digital admin' done. I've also been lucky enough to score some casual genealogical work with Jan Worthington, who was my supervisor when I did my Diploma in Family Historical Studies in 2017-18. That work has made me less motivated to spend hours on my own research, but I'm starting to get back into it. And so here we are with some new material for your reading pleasure!

As you might remember I had been working on my Cowan ancestors, and had posted about my great-grandfather Joseph Cowan who was an architect and Mayor of Essendon. I am now delving into his children and their families. His eldest child was Magdalene Elizabeth Cowan (Dad's Aunty Madge). She married Herbert Rossiter, and it is through this family that we have a link to a woman who was well known in Melbourne social circles back in the day: Lady Susan Renouf, who had been Susan Sangster before that, and Susan Peacock, wife of one-time Liberal Party leader Andrew Peacock, before that. I can't recall if this was known by members of my family, I have a feeling it might have been; anyway, have a look at the chart below to see the link.

Note that Susan Rossiter's father Sir John Frederick Rossiter was famous in his own right, also as a politican in the Liberal Party. He was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly in 1955 as the member for Brighton. He served as a minister in the Bolte and Hamer governments from 1965 to 1973, and was Chief Secretary from 1973 until his retirement in 1976. He was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1978 (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rossiter).

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Tommy Roundhead: The Most Lawless Lawless of All

With the number of Lawlesses in my family tree, it was only a matter of time until I found one that truly lived up to the name. At first, I was incredulous at the discovery of this man's litany of 'drunk and disorderly' and obscene language charges, incurred far and wide. But upon closer reading of a handful of his convictions, I realised there was a darker and more disturbing side, and that this was perhaps a very troubled individual. Mugshot of Thomas Lawless from the records of the Bathurst Gaol Thomas Lawless was the second child of Patrick and Catherine (Kitty) Lawless. He was born about 1844 in Macedon, Victoria, but currently we know little about his early life. However, the Ancestry website revealed several 'hints' to NSW Gaol Description and Entrance Book records for a Thomas Lawless born about 1846 in Victoria, so thought I might be onto something. I had to be careful though, as there was more than one Thomas Lawless in the colonies around this time. A sea...

The Wreck of the Nashwauk

Back in October, I wrote about my Italian ancestor Antony Gasperino 'jumping ship' from the General Hewitt at Portland, Victoria in 1856. A little over a year before Gasperino's unconventional arrival, his future wife Hannah Hourigan (sometimes known as Hannah Hogan) had her own eventful introduction to Australia. Hannah was born about 1837 in Cork, Ireland; her father Matthew was a blacksmith but we do not know the name of her mother. Possibly Hannah was orphaned at a young age and with Ireland reeling from the devastation of the potato famine, was one of many single girls enticed to improve her lot by emigrating to Australia. And so on 14 February 1855 at Liverpool, 18-year old Hannah was one of 130 single Irish servant girls boarding the Nashwauk : an 18-month old, three-masted wooden-rigged sailing ship carrying 300 emigrants bound for South Australia.* Captained by Archibald McIntyre, the Nashwauk had an uneventful 89-day voyage to reach Gulf St Vincent. Having...

A Sacrifice, By Any Name

Prologue Before launching into today's story, I thought I might give an update on how my research is going. I started this blog back in 2019 as a way of communicating some of the more interesting stories about past family members, as I embarked on a 'redo' of all my original research. Having completed my Family History Diploma the year before, I'd learnt the importance of verifying information, and my family tree had plenty of information with no proven sources. Across the last four years I have completed the 'redo' of seven lines of the family: Phelan, Gasperino, Cowan and Davenport on Dad's side, and Atkin, Collins and Kenny on Mum's. I have also done a lot of work on the remaining maternal line, Lawless. But this line's Australian history goes back an extra generation, and has not just one but five brothers who emigrated here, so it represents by far the largest chunk of work to get through. As of now, I estimate that I've completed about 85%...

Phelan and Atkin Family History

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