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Monday, June 30, 2014

JOHN EVAN MAWBEY FOUND & REUNITED

A very interesting story has developed as a result of now being able to link two Mawbeys who have been dealt with separately on this blog.
They are John Evan Mawbey and Ann Clifford (nee Mawbey) who came to Australia as a couple in 1857.
According to a small piece in The Sydney Morning Herald of 13 August 1859, the former (known as 'Evan') had died at Parramatta River the previous month.
It claimed he had been a compositor, formerly of the Times office, London, and was aged 42.
*
There were several settlements along the Parramatta River, and one of them was Tarban Creek, near today's Gladesville.
It was the site of Sydney's lunatic asylum.
That was where Evan Mawbey [Mowberry] died, as a 'lunatic',on 21 July 1859.
*
Some four years later, in September 1862 (two months before my GG grandfather, George Mawbey died in Sydney), a widow, Ann Mawbey, remarried at Camden, south of Sydney.
At the time she was the housekeeper at the country estate of Charles Cowper, a son of Rev William Cowper, and several times premier of New South Wales.
The name of the estate was Wivenhoe.
*
Evan and Ann Mawbey had arrived together in Sydney from London on the Alnwick Castle on 12 January 1857.
At first, I could not find a death record for John Evan, nor a coroner's report, which seemed strange.
Then around midnight a couple of weeks ago, I did a BDM search, typing in just the word 'Evan' and his year of death.
Lo and behold his entry appeared, as 'Evan Mowbery' with his surname misspelt.
*
Meantime, I had joined forces with another member of the Mawbey family in Canberra, part of Evan's wider family, and she obtained his death certificate.
Lo and behold yet another surprise!
That he had died in a lunatic asylum.
His death death certificate gave his age as 30, but he was older, around 35.
*
Evan Mawbey came from a family of males who worked in various capacities at The Times.
So far my GGG does not appear to have any direct connection with this branch of the family.
Three generations of its males emigrated to Australia.