GOWAN - HISTORY

Gowan>Bacon>Phillips>Turner>Paul Turner

The GOWAN Family has been addressed in 3 large volumes by James H. B. Gowan of England. The family is traced back to Ir a son of Milesius of Spain. Ir settled the NE section of Ireland. The family within these pages concentrate on the Gowans of county Wexford, Ireland. John Hunter Gowan had legitimate children of whom one was Charlotte who married Edward Bacon of Waterford. and illegitimate children of whom one was Olge Robert Gowan.

To step back further in time we can look at the Gowan ancestry. The 'Genealogy of the Gowan Clan' by James H. B. GOWAN is an extensive three volume family tree. The descendants below focus on my family connection alone. I have started at the decadency from Philip GOWAN [1593- ]; prior to Philip (ascending] were Patrick MacGowan [b.1566] m. Jane Allen; Connall MacGowan m. Rose O'Donnell; Maurice MacGowan [b.1514] m. Joan O'Donnell; Connall MacGowan [b.1477] m. Ukn Odonnell; Rory MacGowan; Kian MacGowan; Turlogh MacGowan [d.1340]; Aongus MacGowan; Rory the Great; Heber Donn; Ir; Milesius of Spain [c.1300 b.c.] who married Scota a dau of Nectonibus, a Pharaoh; from Milesius we can trace back to Adam & Eve: http://www.araltas.com/features/milesius.html. The Gowan's are found all over the world and I have heard from cousins in Texas, USA and Australia.

Ogle Robert Gowan, his family and John Bacon (son of Charlotte Gowan and Edward Bacon) immigrated to Canada and first arrived at Montreal in 1829. Henry Gowan (father of Sir James Robert Gowan) and family arrived in 1832.

Ogle with not much luck in Ireland set off for Canada where he became involved in politics. A daughter of Ogle and Frances Anne Colclough-Turner (no relation to my Turner family) was Emily Jemima Gowan. Emily married Issac Ferguson. Of their issues was Emily Jemima Ferguson who married Rev. Arthur Murphy. They both were raised in the province of Ontario and the Reverend's ministry took him to the province of Alberta, Canada. There, Emily authored the famous 'Jennie Canuck' books and was responsible for getting the government to recognize women as 'persons'. A cousin of Charlotte Gowan was Sir James Gowan (knighted 1905) who moved from Toronto to Barrie, Ontario and was appointed to the Senate in 1885.

There are numerous websites that cover Ogle Robert Gowan and Emily Murphy. For those who know of Eileen Gowan island in the Muskokas, there is no known daughter or person named Eileen in the Gowan family and it is believed that the word Eileen in Gaelic means Island.