Mary Ann (Cowen) Bones (1834 - 1927)

Born 29 Sep 1834 in Trial Bay, Tasmania, Australia

Ancestors

Wife of James Bones — married 16 Jan 1852 in St Peters Church, Variety Bay, Bruny Island, Tasmania, Australia

Descendants

Died 21 Jun 1927 at age 92 in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

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Biography

Birth

Ann was born in Trial Bay in approximately 1834. Her parentage is uncertain, but Thomas Cowen acknowledged her as his daughter.

Administrative Appeals Tribunal and Independent Indigenous Advisory Committee findings 18 October 2002 (Extract from page 32)^[1]:

Mary Ann Cowen was born two years before her father married Mary Blease. Mary Cowen's natural mother was also named Mary. It is believed Mary Cowen was an aboriginal woman adopted by Thomas Cowen.

In the case of Mary Ann Cowen, the oral history is so strong as to an aboriginal line of descent that the historical record poses more questions than it answers. It cannot explain the features of Edwin Robert (Ned) Bones if Mary Ann Cowen was white and of white parents, much less can it account for Edwin Bones telling the applicant Baden Bone that Edwin’s mother Mary Ann Cowen was part aboriginal or the description of her as very dark skinned by her great grand daughter Beryl Denny.It is quite possible that those facts are counted for by Mary Ann Cowen being a part aboriginal child taken in by Thomas Cowen and his wife some years before they themselves married. on 18 October 2002.

Thomas was married to Mary Blease in 1836 and this is when Mary Ann was baptised, at St David's Church, Hobart. She was probably called Ann to avoid confusion between her stepmother and herself.

Of Thomas' seven children, local tradition has it that three are the children of Mary Blease and the other four are mothered by local aboriginal women. An eighth child was Mary's from a previous marriage. According to local legend, the children were either fathered by Thomas Cowen or adopted by him.

The truth of this story has not been confirmed or refuted, though often discussed.

Childhood

Mary Ann was the eldest child in her family, with her step-brother Charles Blease possibly older.

Little is known of her life. She was raised in forest, near the sea in an area where shipwrecks were common. Her father was an ex-convict-turned-farmer and sealer.

At some point the family moved to Port Cygnet; it is likely that the new Mrs Cowen did not want to live rough, or that she had had enough of doing so.

Somewhere, when she was about fifteen, Ann met someone, possibly a ticket-of-leave convict from Kent called James Bones.

Family

Ann's first child, a son which she named James, was born in August of 1850. Ann was now one month away from her sixteenth birthday. There is no official registration of this child but a baptism record is believed to exist. This record possibly gives the father's name.

Marriage

At the age of 17, Ann married James Bones, an ex-convict aged 31. James had just served out his sentence. James was a farmer and sawyer.

They were married at St Peters Church on Bruny Island. It is not known why Ann was on Bruny Island but this is not a long journey by boat. St Peters may have been the easiest church to reach.

Ann may have been quite familiar with water travel.

Family

The birthplaces of James and Ann's children read something like a local geaography lesson. It appears as if they had a child in every bay and inlet of the Huon River and the D'Entrecasteaux Channel.

Twelve children are known to have been born to James and Ann.

James and Ann moved to Victoria about October 1858 with their four young sons. They were living in Melbourne when the youngest, Henry, became ill and died of mesenteric disease. They clearly returned to Tasmania after this, in time for the birth of their fifth son Richard.

James and Ann settled eventually in the township of Gordon, where James died in 1899 ^[2].

Ann at some point removed to her daughter's home in Sandy Bay, possibly not long before her death.

Death

Ann died in Sandy Bay in 1927. An announcement was placed in the paper ^[3]:

BONE - On January 28, 1927, at the residence of her daughter, Mrs J Lovell, 2 Princes St, Sandy Bay, Ann, relict of the late James Bone, of Gardner's Bay, in the 98th year of her age.

Sources

1. ↑ http://www.chestnut-blue.com/Chestnut%20Blue-o/index.htm
2. ↑ Tasmania Death Registration RGD 35/68 322
3. ↑ The Mercury 31 Jan 1927 Deaths

• Baptism record State Library of Tasmania

Acknowledgments

Thank you to Irene Dillon for creating WikiTree profile Cowen-420 through the import of DillonFam3.GED on Jul 20, 2013. Click to the Changes page for the details of edits by Irene and others.