John Rowe (1816 – 17 Dec 1886) was a mineral assayer and mine manager who had a brief spell as member of South Australian parliament. He was born at

St Agnes, Cornwall St Agnes ( kw, Breanek) is a civil parish and a large village on the north coast of Cornwall, UK. The village is about five miles (8 km) north of Redruth and ten miles (16 km) southwest of Newquay. ''and'' An electoral ward exists s ...

, and emigrated with his wife to

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

on the ''David Malcolm'', arriving in Adelaide on 23 January 1847, and advertised his availability as a "practical assayer". In 1849 they settled in

Kapunda Kapunda is a town on the Light River and near the Barossa Valley in South Australia. It was established after a discovery in 1842 of significant copper deposits. The population was 2,917 at the 2016 Australian census. The southern entrance ...

, where he worked as an assayer. In 1859 he was appointed manager of the Mochatoona copper mine, near Angepena Station in the

Flinders Ranges The Flinders Ranges are the largest mountain range in South Australia, which starts about north of Adelaide. The ranges stretch for over from Port Pirie to Lake Callabonna. The Adnyamathanha people are the Aboriginal group who have inhabi ...

, but left in mid-1860 after criticism by the board, compounded by the difficulty of transporting the ore to Port Augusta, and returned to Kapunda. In 1862 he was elected to the seat of

Light Light or visible light is electromagnetic radiation that can be perceived by the human eye. Visible light is usually defined as having wavelengths in the range of 400–700 nanometres (nm), corresponding to frequencies of 750–420 tera ...

in the

House of Assembly House of Assembly is a name given to the legislature or lower house of a bicameral parliament. In some countries this may be at a subnational level. Historically, in British Crown colonies as the colony gained more internal responsible governme ...

to fill the casual vacancy opened when F. S. Dutton was appointed Agent-General, and sat from May 1862 to November 1862, when Parliament was dissolved. He did not seek re-election. He moved to Thames, New Zealand in 1869 where he joined his brothers William Rowe (MHR for Thames) and Abel Rowe, there he was advertising himself as a Practical Mining Manager and Assayer in February 1870. By 1872 he was in Sydney, again advertising himself. In December of that year and was appointed Manager of the Edina Mine in Queensland. He returned again to Kapunda. He died of a heart attack shortly after assisting in the local mayoral election.

Family

John Rowe married Eliza Richards ( – 5 April 1893) on 20 August 1846; they had three sons and one daughter: *John Rowe (11 August 1848 – ) married Emma Bosher on 24 May 1879, of Goodwood *James Richard Rowe (10 May 1853 – ) married Elizabeth (c. 1856 – 3 September 1936), lived at Morgan, then

Mile End Mile End is a district of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in the East End of London, England, east-northeast of Charing Cross. Situated on the London-to-Colchester road, it was one of the earliest suburbs of London. It became part of the m ...

*Elizabeth Rowe (30 July 1855 – ) married Charles Luscombe Chapple (c. 1849 – 23 June 1922) on 29 March 1875, of Hergott *Samuel Rowe (16 February 1857 – )

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rowe, John Australian miners Members of the South Australian House of Assembly 1816 births 1886 deaths Australian people of Cornish descent British emigrants to Australia People from St Agnes, Cornwall 19th-century Australian politicians