Elizabeth was a maternal great grandmother of my late wife, Helen Jean Barlow. She was born in Brisbane, Australia, in August 1854 and christened Elizabeth Marion BOWLES in October of that same year.[1] St John’s Church of England, then located on the corner of Queen and George Streets, was a former convict workshop, which was converted in the 1840s and used by the Church before St John’s Pro-Cathedral was completed and dedicated in a different location in late October 1854.[2] That is five years before Queensland was proclaimed a separate colony from New South Wales.[3] This is part nine of my continuing story of ‘Enjoying My Next Genealogy Journey’.
Elizabeth’s parents had married in St John’s Church, Brisbane in November 1853, the same church in which Elizabeth was later christened.[4] Their next two children were also born before Queensland became a separate colony and they had four further children after that. Neither of their parents was born in Australia. Elizabeth’s father, Philip BOWLES, was born in Devonshire, England in 1821, and her mother, Elizabeth Ann CHARTRES, was born in London, Middlesex, England in the same year.[5] Perhaps they met on a ship from England or maybe they arrived in different ships and met in Brisbane after their arrival?
Since they married in Brisbane, Elizabeth Ann’s travel and arrival would have been recorded with the surname, Chartres, also spelt, Charters, Chartens, or even Charteris in some records. Many children arrived in the colony with their parents, so my research focussed on families arriving in New South Wales as either Assisted or Unassisted Immigrants. I tried searching Ancestry, Findmypast, My Heritage and The Genealogist for a family of Chartres or any of the alternative spellings. On Findmypast, an Eliza Charteris arrived in New South Wales, Australia on 13 September 1852 on the ship, ‘Rajah Gopaul’. She was a domestic servant aged 31, born in Middlesex and arrived with a group of other female domestic servants.[6] On a different listing from the Queensland Government, an Elizabeth Ann CHARTENS, age 31 and born in Middlesex arrived in Brisbane on 14 September 1852 on the ship ‘Rajah Gopaul’. This list bears the same names of the other female domestic servants as the earlier list.[7] Both of these are the same person, the surname spelt differently by each person hand-writing the list.
Elizabeth Ann’s husband, Philip BOWLES does not appear in any immigrant lists, nor could I find his arrival through any subscription site. However, he was a merchant seaman, his record being the only confirmation of his birth that I could find. He was in Queensland by May 1852, as he was appointed by the Governor to be an Assistant River Pilot for Moreton Bay.[8] So as a seaman, it is likely he could have arrived in Australia as a crew member of a ship, though not the ‘Rajah Gopaul’ as it arrived in Brisbane in September 1852.
Check other subscription sites, as each one may access different records and databases. I found Philip In the merchant seaman records of Findmypast. He went to sea as a Cabin Boy in 1836 and his Seaman Ticket was issued in London in 1845 at age 24. It was this record that confirmed his birth in Torquay, Devonshire in December 1821.[9] I found no record of Philip in the England Census of 1841 or 1851, so it is likely he was at sea.
In June 1865, just a couple of years after his marriage to Elizabeth, Philip began acquiring land in the Kangaroo Point area of Brisbane.[10] The Kangaroo Point area was quite notorious in the 1840s due to the “stinking pall” from the slaughterhouse there and the brutal murder and dismemberment of Robert Cox for which his friend, William Fyfe, was wrongfully hanged.[11] By 1865, the slaughterhouse was long gone but could land values have dropped after Patrick Mayne’s deathbed confession in August of that year, that he was the one who had murdered Robert Cox?
Bowles family members continued to live in Kangaroo Point. Philip died in July 1877, at just 55 years old, after a long and painful illness. Elizabeth Ann remained in Kangaroo Point and died in John Street in August 1911.[12] They share a grave in the South Brisbane Cemetery.
[1] Birth record of Elizabeth Marion BOWLES, born 28 Aug 1854, Queensland Births, Deaths, Marriages, 1854/BPP/1066, from church records, https://www.familyhistory.bdm.qld.gov.au/; Birth of Elizabeth Marion BOWLES to Philip Bowles and Elizabeth, 28 Aug 1854, Brisbane, New South Wales, Australia, Births and Baptisms, 1792-1981, Myheritage.com, accessed 28 Jan 2023.
[2] Early St John’s Church of England, Brisbane, https://www.churchesaustralia.org/list-of-churches/locations/queensland/all-towns/directory/4585-st-johnand%2339%3Bs-pro-cathedral-former
[3] Proclamation of Queensland as a separate colony from New South Wales, https://www.qld.gov.au/about/about-queensland/history/creation-of-state
[4] Marriage record of Philip BOWLES to Elizabeth Ann CHARTRES on 9 Nov 1853, Brisbane, New South Wales, from church records, https://www.familyhistory.bdm.qld.gov.au/, 1854/BMA/232.
[5] Philip Bowles’ Seaman Record, Britain, Merchant Seamen, 1835-1857, The National Archives, Series BT113, Piece Number 8, Findmypast, accessed 25 Mar 2026; Birth of Elizabeth Ann CHARTRES to Peter and Mary Ann Elizabeth CHARTERES, 24 Aug 1821, Tower Hamlets, London, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1924, ancestry.com.au, accessed 1 Mar 2026.
[6] Eliza Charteris, Domestic Servant, Assisted Immigrant, Australia, Inward, Outward & Coastal Passenger Lists 1826-1972, Findmypast.co.uk, accessed 16 Mar 2026.
[7] Elizabeth Ann CHARTENS, Assisted Immigration to Queensland 1848-1912, www.data.qld.gov.au/dataset/assisted-immigration-1848-1912.
[8] Philip BOWLES, appointment by Governor as Assistant River Pilot for Moreton Bay, 1 May 1852, Queensland, Australia, Government Gazettes, 1859-1918, Ancestry.com.au, accessed 1 Mar 2026.
[9] Philip Bowles’ Seaman Record, Britain, Merchant Seamen, 1835-1857, Findmypast, accessed 25 Mar 2026.
[10] Philip Bowles, property acquisition Kangaroo Point, 1865, Real Property Transfer Notice, Queensland Government Gazette 1865, Part B, p. 435, Queensland, Australia, Government Gazettes, 1859-1918, ancestry.com.au, accessed 1 Mar 2026.
[11] Rosamond Siemon, The Mayne Inheritance, University of Queensland Press, 1997, Paperback edition, 2003, pp. 11, 28-29, 100-101.
[12] Death of Philip BOWLES, 26 Jul 1877, Queenslander, 28 Jul 1877, p. 1, Family Notices, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/19760625; Death of Elizabeth Ann BOWLES (nee Chartres), 5 Aug 1911, Telegraph, 12 Aug 1911, p. 6, Family Notices, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/175835242.
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