McGowan Family History - Plymouth, Devon

UPDATED September 2012

This information has been gleaned from internet sources, and is not necessarily 100% accurate. Please remember this when reading it.

Mary McGowan was married to James McGowan, a jeweller, and gave birth to her son Charles Henry, who went by 'Henry',  in 1833 in Newtown (?), Ireland.

We do not know why  Henry moved to Plymouth. It may be that he travelled on an assisted passage to avoid the famine in Ireland, and that he came with his whole family. There were certainly a number of McGowans in Plymouth at the same time.

At about the same time, on 10th Jan 1834,  Mary  and William Lang from St Sidwells in Exeter,welcomed their sixth child, a daughter called Mary Ann into the family. William was a coachman, and they lived at James (?) Court in St Sidwell Street.Mary Ann went on to become a house servant, and shows up on the 1851 census living at 255 High Street, Exeter, as house servant to Samuel Glenn, a widower living with his sister, his son and his daughter-in-law.

Henry McGowan married Mary Ann Lang  on 3rd December 1859 in Plymouth, Devon. She is shown on the marriage certificate as living a 8 Ebrington Street, Plymouth, but we do not as yet know how or why she travelled to Plymouth. Her father, William Lang, is shown as being a cab driver, but was sadly deceased at the time of her marriage. It is interesting to note that there was plague in Exeter about 1833, so the whole family may have moved out of the town to avoid being infected. One of the witnesses at the wedding was a Henry Lang, possibly Mary's brother. At the time of the marriage, Henry was living in the Mill Bay Barracks, as he was a private in the Royal Marines, a rank he never seems to improve.

The couple's first child was William Henry James McGowan, born in 1861 in East Stonehouse, where the couple lived. The 1861 census shows the small family Wm H J, Maryann and Charles Henry living  at 24 George's Street. Henry's occupation is still listed as Royal Marine. There are eight other families living at the same address, totally 31 people in all.

A picture of some Royal Marines from about the right era.

Margaret M McGowan was Henry's second child,  born in  1863 in Mylor,Cornwall, a village just outside Falmouth, where Henry might have been posted. As a Roman Catholic couple, they would have had to cross the water to St Mawes for the child's christening.  The third child, Elizabeth A McGowan was born in 1965 in Llandreath, Pembrokeshire, Wales, and is noted on the census return as being an imbecile.  Llandreath  is very near the Pembroke Dock, where Royal Marines were stationed at about that time.

Three boys completed the family:  James Nevins McGowan born in 1869 , Henry Hubert McGowan born in 1871 and Albert J. McGowan born in 1877 All the boys were born in East Stonehouse in Devon, possibly in Adelaide Cottages, East Stonehouse, an area off Union Street, now no longer there.

In the 1871 census, Henry and Mary are shown as living in Quarry Street in a very poor part of Plymouth. They and four children lived in a house with four other families. Henry is shown as being a Private in the Royal Marines, on HMS Cambridge. The Cambridge was a training ship/camp at Plymouth. Mary's birthplace is shown as Exeter.

By the time of the 1881 census, Henry has died, and Mary A 'Melton' is the head of the household. Henry didn't live to see his 50th birthday. Margaret and William have left home, and the four younger ones still live together. Elizabeth would normally have left home at 15, but due to her condition stayed with the family. She helped Mary, who was a washerwoman. James, too, had left education and was employed as an errand boy. The address is given as 6 Adelaide Mews, Plymouth, and they seem to have the house to themselves. Interestingly, Mary has put her marital status as 'married' and not 'widow', although she is the head of the household.

By 1891 the family has moved to 5 Adelaide Cottages. Elizabeth is now 25, and is 'not employed'. James has left home, Henry is a labourer and Albert, at 13 years old is a carpenter's apprentice. Mary is 56, and is now listed as a widow. However, the children's names are listed as Elizabeth Milton, Henry Milton and Albert Milton (see below). Mary supports herself and Elizabeth by being a laundress. I wandered round the Adelaide Street area last summer, and couldn't find a row of cottages called Adelaide Cottages. This doesn't mean they aren't there somewhere still, but they may well have been pulled down by now.

Mary died in 1899 and Elizabeth went to live in the East Stonehouse workshouse. Sadly, the records were destroyed in the war along with the building so no information can be traced apart from that given in the 1901 census, where she is merely listed as 'inmate'. I believe she died in 1910.

Speculation as to Mary 'Milton''s name and marital state may be due to communication difficulties between her and the census taker. Having seen the original document, it doesn't look like a transcription error, but if she had a strong local accent, that could have made McGowan sound like Milton.

Henry Hubert McGowan went on the marry Matilda Jane Rosevear, and in 1901 they were living at 6 Princess Street, Plymouth. They had three children, and were joined by Henry's brother James, whose occupation was listed as 'labourer'. At this time, Henry was a groom in a stable. They occupied two rooms in a house that held five other families.

Henry and Matilda moved to 4 Navy Cottages, where they were living at the time of the 1911 census. Their eldest daughter, Rosina, had left home, John was an errand boy, and Henry, James and Mary went to school. Lilian was only 2 and stayed at home. The two adults and five children live in three rooms. Henry is listed as being an invalid, but there is no information at to the reason. He died three years later in 1914 from 'sudden death', following at least 12 months of asthma and bronchitis. He was 42.

Young Henry received his papers in in 1916, calling him up to the army. He gave his address as 33 Newport Street, East Stonehouse, Plymouth, Devon. It seeems that he didn't join fully until 1918, when he joined the Devonshire Regiment. I do not have the full details.

James, who worked for The Plymouth Brewery,  went on to marry Beatrice A.V.M. Frude in June 1921. He died in 1966 aged 62. James and Beatrice had thirteen children between 1922 and 1946. Beatrice died in 1985.

Joseph John McGowan was born to the couple in 1926 in East Stonehouse and worked as a drayman and in the Cattedown B power station in Plymouth. His siblings were James Joseph J.H., Gordon Albert, Alfred J, Thomas Albert, Beatrice M B, Dorothy J., Patrick Alfred, Shirley I.M., Iris J., Michael Albert, Jean V., and Victor.

Joseph married Monica Jean Webb and the couple had three children, Elizabeth (1951), Wendy (1954) (who sadly only survived one day) and Colin (1957). Joe's last marriage was to Phyllis Patricia in 1986, but just one year later he passed away in 1987 at the house where his mother Beatrice had lived, aged 61.

A young Elizabeth McGowan..