THE MARRIAGE of ELLEN DARBY and WILLIAM LAXTON was celebrated on 12th August 1826 Barking Church, Tower Street, City of London.
A Son was born Friday 14th May 1830.
I would be interested to hear from any family descendants.
Please contact me by email: mary.cowie@hotmail.com
I am really thrilled with my new Blog and hope you enjoy it too. I have been Blogging now since 2007 and really enjoy all the lovely and interesting comments I receive. Many new relatives and I have found each other here and been able to share our Family histories of over a hundred plus years ago thus recreating so many long lost threads. Its so exciting!
Special thanks to my dearest daughter Cathy for all her time and the artistry which makes this site so appealing and interesting.
Always interested to hear from any realitive or kindly person. Please contact me my email is: mary.cowie@hotmail.com
My daugher, Cathy Fitzgerald, and myself, are delighted to announce the publication of a book about my grandmother, Annie Cowie and her wonderful paintings of the remote Huikumu area of New Zealand, from the 1890s.
Annie Cowie (1858-1917) was the first European woman to live in the remote Huikumu region of New Zealand in the 1890s. Living on a large farm close to the Whanganui River, her sensitive paintings and sketches reveal vivid details of the wild riverscapes and mountains, the Maori people of the area and personal portraits of the family home she loved so much.
The Whanganui River, with its origins high on of the mountains of the Tongariro plateau (Mt Ruapehu was frequently painted by Annie Cowie) is the longest navigable river in New Zealand at 234 km. It was the home of several Maori tribes and later settled for a time by Europeans. Of interest is that early settlers tried to farm this area but harsh conditions and poor soil fertility meant that many later abandoned their farms. Today, the surrounding area of the Whanganui area is much as it was in Annie Cowie’s day.
‘Ruapehu is the mountain,
Whanganui is the river,
Te Atihau nui a papa rangi
are the people’
The lowland forests of the area consist mainly of kamahi, tawa, hinau and pigeonwood trees… mosses, creepers and tree ferns live along the banks of the Whanganui River and in Annie Cowie’s paintings.
Here’s a poem that suits my favourite painting from Annie
by Dorothy Frances Gurney
The Lord God planted a garden in the first white days of the world, and he set there an angel warden in a garment of Light enfurled, and I dream that these garden closes with their shade and sunflecked sod, and their lillies and bowers of roses were laid by the hand of God.
So near to the peace of Heaven the hawk might nest with the wren. For there in the cool of the even God walked with the first of men.
The Kiss of the Sun for Pardon
the Song of the Birds for Mirth,
one is nearer God’s heart in a garden
than anywhere else on earth.
10 to 12 cups peeled sliced cucumbers
6 peeled sliced onions
1 tablespoon mustard seed
4 cups white or cider vinegar
1 tablespoon sea salt
2 teaspoons tumeric
1 teaspoon celery salt
3 cups white sugar
Cover cucumber and sliced onions inwater for at least 1 hour. Drain. In a saucepan bring to the boilsugar, mustard seed, vinegar, tumeric and salts.
Add cucumbers and onions to this sauce and return to the boil. This then is the pickle. No thickening required. Sauce can bedrained over lettuce, fish etc.
The MARRIAGE was solemnised 19th August 1827 at St. Mary, Lewisham, Kent, England of RACHAEL DARBY and EDWARD JOSEPH HODGES
I would love to hear from any descendants please email
me at mary.cowie@clear.net.nz
Mary Cowie's family history 