John Lowrie
| First name | John |
|---|---|
| Last name | Lowrie |
| Country of Origin | Scotland |
| Date of Birth | 1833 |
| Year of Arrival in Australia | 1855 |
| Submitted by | Lillian Dillon |
Story
John Charles Lowrie was born in St. Vigeons a tiny hamlet just outside Arbroath Forfayshire Scotland around 1833, the son of John/Charles Laurie a Shepherd (later Guardsman) & Charlotte Grant. In the1851 John was a 17 yrs old carpenter. St. Vigeons has a beautiful & very old church was said to have no sacrament of the Lord’s Supper held from 1699 to 1763 because a fairy (kelpie) carried the stones from which the church was built. In a row of tiny houses in the street beside the church one house has been turned into a museum & holds a large collection of Celtic crosses & Pictish stones which date back before Christianity.
In 1856 in Australia John, a ship\’s carpenter, married Ellen Smith born in Edinburgh, Leith Scotland in 1835, daughter of James Smith a currier & Mary Glendinnan. He may have travelled as a crew member of the “Western Bride” on which Ellen’s family came to Australia arriving in Melb. on 26th Sept 1855 when she was 21.
They married only 3 months after her arrival in Melbourne at St. James Cathedral on 8 Jan 1856, & his marriage certificate lists him as a ship’s carpenter. Neither of their witnesses could write & signed their marks. St. James Cathedral was completed in 1847 on the site of the original wooden church which was erected in 1837. Until 1914 it was situated on the corner of William/Collins Sts. & was moved to its present site near the Flagstaff Gardens because of the development of the city & the drift of population. The foundation stone had been laid by Supt. La Trobe in 1839.
John & Ellen set up married life on the bank of the Yarra River where John started a business, first as a Shipwright & then as a boat builder. Ellen was a beautiful singer, a talent she passed on to her daughter Annie & subsequently to grandchildren. They had 9 children of whom only 5 survived.
Their daughter Annie Lowrie was born 5 Jan 1861 “On the South Bank of the River Yarra” Emerald Hill (now Sth. Melbourne). According to a handwritten note the family “came down to live in Sandridge” (now Pt. Melbourne) on 4 May 1873. In 1877 at 16 year Annie married 32 year old sea captain William Scott /Soren Thygesen from Norway at the Holy Trinity Church in Sandridge. Ellen’s brother James Smith was a bootmaker & in 1877 had his shop next to the Scotts Hotel in 40 Bay St. Pt.Melbourne, owned by Annie’s husband. Another Smith uncle was also a shipwright & lived in Dorcas St. in a small cottage. He & William Scott are believed to have worked together at ship building in Dumbarton Scotland.
John Charles Lowrie died 25 August 1855 in Pt.Melbourne aged 51 & is buried in Melbourne General Cemetery and Ellen Lowrie died on 21 Jun 1898 aged 63, and is buried with her husband. For full family history see http://pandora.nla.gov.au/tep/10421