William Macquarie Cowper (1810 - 1902)

Born 3 Jul 1810 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Ancestors

Husband of Margaret (Burrough) Cowper — married 27 Aug 1835 in St Saviour's Church, Dartmouth, Devon, England

Husband of Mary (Forster) Cowper — married 3 Jul 1866 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Descendants

Died 14 Jun 1902 at age 91 in the Deanery, St Andrew's Cathedral, George Street, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

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Biography

Macquarie Cowper is Notable.

William Macquarie Cowper was born on 3 June 1810 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. He was the older son of Reverend William Cowper, Military Chaplain to New South Wales and Minister of St Philip's Church, Sydney; and his second wife, Ann Barrell, born the year after his parents' arrival in the Colony and six months after the arrival of Governor Lachlan Macquarie, for whom he was named.^[1]Baby William was Christened in St Phillip's Church, Sydney, at six weeks of age.^[2]

William sailed from Sydney aboard the Portland on 9th February 1827 to train for the Church of England Ministry in England. Including undertaking a degree course at Cambridge University, he graduated in 1835. Before travelling home to New South Wales, he married Margaret Burrough on 27 August 1835 in St Saviour's Church, Dartmouth, Devon, England.

He succeeded his father as Minister of St Philip's Church, Sydney, in 1858. At the same time he was appointed the (Anglican) Dean and Archdeacon of Sydney. Iain Murray, in his 1988 book, Australian Christian Life from 1788, wrote that William Macquarie Cowper's ministry was an answer to his father's prayers for 'faithful, zealous, exemplary clergymen'.^[3]

William's wife Margaret died in 1854. He married for a second time on 3 July 1866 in Sydney, to Mary French, a widow, (née Forster). The following notice appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald, dated 7 July 1866:^[4] On Tuesday 3rd instant, at St Philip's Church by the Right Rev the Lord Bishop of Sydney, William Macquarie Cowper, Dean of Sydney, to Mary, widow of the late Major French, HEICS and daughter of Commander G B Forster RN."

Death and burial

'He died on 14 June 1902 in the Deanery, St Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney, aged 92.

Legacy

"He had lived to witness the Federation of the various British Colonies into the Commonwealth of Australia."^[5] He was buried in St Jude's Church of England (Anglican) Cemetery, Randwick, New South Wales.