John Bowhey

(1843-1903)

and

Elizabeth Bowhey (nee Day)

(1843-1929) 

Elizabeth Day was born on the 30th September 1843 at a place named Salt Water Springs in South Australia. 
It is not exactly certain where that was, but presumably it was in or about the area later known as Tam O’Shanter Belt, 
and now known as Regency Park, in the northwest suburbs of Adelaide. Both her birth and death 
certificates give her place of birth as being ‘Salt Water Springs’.  



She was the fourth child, but first daughter, of Richard Day and Mary Ann Day (nee Harris). 
Her father was described on her birth registration as a ‘dairyman’ and his address was ‘Section 411, 
Hundred of Yatala’. Her parents were early pioneers of South Australia, having arrived on the ‘Royal Admiral’ 
in 1838, and commenced dairying and farming, first at Prospect, then at Tam O’Shanter Belt from around the time 
of Elizabeth’s birth. 



Elizabeth was raised on her parent’s farm at Tam O’Shanter Belt, which grew into a thriving and busy 
enterprise over the years. As the farm grew, so did the Day family, and Elizabeth was to become one 
of twelve children, eleven of which were to reach adulthood. Of these there were eight boys and three girls, 
with all but two brothers (Robert and Thomas) being younger than Elizabeth, so one can imagine that her childhood 
home was always alive with boisterous activity. Being the eldest girl, Elizabeth was no doubt a great help to her 
mother with all the grinding household chores women did in that era, and in caring for the younger children.  



On 15th September 1870, at the age of 26 years, Elizabeth Day married John Bowhey, a 27 year old local farmer. 
The wedding took place at her parent’s farmhouse, still described at that time as being at a place 
named Tam O’Shanter Belt, and the witnesses were her brother and sister, Walter and Harriet Day.  



It is unknown how the young couple came to meet, but John was baptised in Yealmpton, Devon, on 18th June 1843 
and his parents, John and Maria (nee Lapthorne), both of Devonshire origins, had migrated from England in 
about 1852. According to family tradition, his father had worked for a time as a London ‘Bobby’ before emigrating 
with his young family. Soon after arrival his parents were grain and dairy farming at Torrens Road, Kilkenny, 
now part of Adelaide suburbia, and in the same region as the Day family farms. Whether the Bowhey family purchased 
their farm, or just leased it, is not known.  



John spent his teenage years working on his parent’s farm and no doubt moved about the district and got to know 
the many teenagers in the Day family. When his father died in July 1862, John was only 19 and, being the 
eldest son, John worked the farm himself, both before and after his marriage to Elizabeth. John is listed in 
an 1876 directory as being a “farmer, Kilkenny”, and in 1877 “farmer, Torrens Road”. After their 
marriage John and Elizabeth were soon to begin a family and Elizabeth had their first child, Maria, in January 1872, 
at her parent’s farmhouse at Tam O’Shanter Belt.  



In the 1860’s, perhaps sensing that his farming enterprises were under inevitable threat from the encroaching 
suburbia of Adelaide, Elizabeth’s father, Richard Day, began to look to the Adelaide plains north of Gawler, 
where land was becoming available for survey and farming settlement. Richard Day began to buy farms in 
the districts of Kangaroo Flat and Reeves Plains, and set up his adult children to work these farms, with the 
plan that they would eventually inherit those farms.  



Under these arrangements, John and Elizabeth accepted a 472 acre farm at Kangaroo Flat, 8 kilometres northwest 
of Gawler, and moved there to live and to work the farm. When the SA Government assessed the property in 
1885 for Land Tax it was valued at 1,986 Pounds. They named the property ‘Pine Farm’ after a fine stand of 
native pine trees near the homestead, which had a park-like appearance.  



The couple were to spend many years of hard work farming ‘Pine Farm’, and raised a healthy family of six 
children, two boys and four girls. All the Bowhey family children attended the Kangaroo Flat School, 
along with many of their cousins from neighbouring Day family farms, but all were also involved in the 
farm chores. Grain farming in those days was hard work, everything being done by human and/or 
animal power, whether it was ploughing, seeding, or chaff cutting, as well as the household chores 
of milking, cream separating, and all hands were needed to lighten the work.  



Elizabeth was of medium height and had a strong build, probably the result of her hard working life on farms. 
She was remembered as being very tough, just like her father Richard Day, when it came to controlling 
their children, although she was basically kind-hearted. John was similar in many ways, being of stocky 
build, he is remembered as a quiet natured Christian, but firm with his children. He is always known to 
have had a full beard, which in later life was snow white like his hair.  



At some point Elizabeth and John became involved with the Seventh-Day Adventist Church and both became 
ardent followers for the remainder of their lives, raising their six children strictly within the precepts of 
that church. As such, they were heavily involved in the activities of the church, both formal and 
social, particularly those which took place in the nearby town of Gawler. The church imposed strict moral 
and health codes which extended to dress and diet.  



With most of Elizabeth’s brothers on farms in the Kangaroo Flat and nearby Reeves Plains district there must 
have been many social occasions when the Day and Bowhey families visited each other. One such likely event have 
been the wedding celebrated at Pine Farm in 1895 of their eldest daughter, Maria, to Walter Goodall from Hindmarsh. 
Also during these years the Bowhey family would, from time to time, catch the train from Gawler to Adelaide, 
then Adelaide to Croydon, to visit Elizabeth’s parents at their grand new homestead ‘Croydon Villa’. One special 
such occasion was for her father’s 80th birthday in March 1899, when all the Day family had a big reunion there. 
They would also visit John’s mother and his sister Mary Ann and her family at Modbury. His sister had married 
James Dicker and owned Ladywood Farm in the foothills at Modbury, and his mother lived in a cottage nearby.  



On 20th March 1903 John died suddenly at home of a stroke, aged 59 years. The cause of his death was recorded 
as “Cerebral apoplexy and Bright’s Disease (now nephritis)”. He was interred in the Willaston Cemetery and on 
his white marble tombstone Elizabeth placed the epitaph, “Sleep on beloved, sleep, and take thy rest”, no doubt 
in recognition of the hard working life that he had.  



And so their eldest son, Walter Bowhey, took over running Pine Farm at Kangaroo Flat. Elizabeth remained on 
the farm for several years until about 1908 when her younger son, Richard Bowhey, was old enough to be 
helping his brother on the farm. She then moved into Gawler township and bought a home at 8 Water Street 
(now believed to be named Eighth Street) and lived there alone as a widow.  



For the first five or six years she was in Gawler she also lived from time to time at the homes of her married 
daughters, but from about 1913 she lived alone in her Water Street home. In 1925, now aged over 80 years old, 
and due to her age and infirmity, she left Water Street and moved back to her son’s farm at Kangaroo Flat. 
For the next three years she was cared for by her son Walter and his family. It was there, during the night of 
14th June 1929, that Elizabeth peacefully died in her sleep, sitting in a chair in her bedroom, where in the 
morning she was found dead, aged 85 years. The family all regarded such a peaceful end as a special 
reward for her good life. The official cause of death was recorded as being from “a senile heart”. 
She was interred in the Willaston Cemetery beside her husband John.  



Their children, in order of age, are: 

1. Maria – pronounced ‘Mariah’, full name Maria Elizabeth Bowhey, was born 6/1/1872 at the home of 
her grandparents, Richard and Mary Ann Day, at Tam O’Shanter Belt. In 1895 she married Walter Albert Goodall, 
who had been married before but whose first wife had died in 1892 (presumably through childbirth) after only 
one year of marriage. The couple lived most of their married life at Croydon in Adelaide, where Albert worked 
in a large glass factory. Late in life they bought a farm at Ki-Ki, 160 km east of Adelaide on the Dukes Highway, 
and settled there. Maria died at Ki Ki on 8/12/1940 and Albert died at Tailem Bend on 23/9/1956. They had 
twelve children, seven girls and five boys, all born at Hindmarsh/Croydon, but many died as infants, 
only five, three girls and two boys, reaching adulthood. Descendants of the couple still farm in 
Goodall Road at Ki Ki, as well as other farms in the district.  



2. Ada – married Ernest Sheppard, who within the family had a reputation as a miser. They settled 
on a farm at Burnside Estate, near Strathalbyn, and had three known children: Arthur, Stanley, and Alma. 
Upon retirement the couple moved to Cooranbong, in the Blue Mountains of NSW. 



3. Walter – Married Bertha Davey. He was twice married, the second being to Ida Pritchard. 
He had one child, a boy named Walter Romaine Bowhey (d. 1989), by his first wife, and who was always 
known by his middle name, pronounced ‘remain’, to distinguish him from his father. Walter inherited 
Pine Farm at Kangaroo Flat, which he continued to work until he retired, whereupon he sold the farm and 
moved to the suburbs of Adelaide and bought a house at Klemzig.  



4. Eliza – married Joseph (Joe) Steed, a painter by trade, although most of his life he owned 
and operated Mindacowie Guest House at Middleton Beach, south of Adelaide. Joe and Eliza had three daughters, 
named Melva, Rhoda, and Elsie, one of which married and the other two remained spinsters and operated the guest house.  


The last two were unusual in that a brother and a sister married another brother and a sister, 
all having met through their involvement in the Seventh Day Adventist Church: 



5. Richard – full name Richard Day Bowhey, married Edith Mary Hannah Powell (sister of Lindsay Powell) 
and farmed most of his life at Kangaroo Flat. 
The couple had two children, Hazel and Rex, and adopted two more, a boy and a girl. 



6. Effie – full name Clarice Euphemia (‘Effie’) Mary Ann Bowhey, born 6/4/1889 she married 
Lindsay Herbert Powell, whose family was from Clarendon, on 2/5/1911 at Gawler. Lindsay was in turn a 
farmer, second-hand dealer, builder, Singer sewing machine salesman, and insurance representative and 
the couple lived at Tooperang, Pinnaroo, Enfield, Gawler, and then Manningham in Adelaide. The couple 
had three children: Ray, Dulcie, and Jack. She died 11/4/1969 and Lindsay died 31/7/1978.  



Researched in 1972 and collated in 2005 by Max Slee

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