• History of Cemetery
• Location/Plans
• Notable people
• Grimsley gravestones
• News
• Burials A–Z
• Current Work
• Photographs
• Restoring a grave
• Contact/Search

Mrs Maria Eliza ROWELL, née Brown (1854–1874)
St Mary Magdalen section: Row 16a, Grave D70

.

Maria Rowell was the young wife of the Oxford jeweller Richard Sydenham Rowell, and is buried alone in this grave

George Rowell established the family jewellery firm in Oxford in 1797. It then passed to his son Richard Rowse Rowell, the father of Maria's husband, who took the shop over in 1885 after his father's death and move it to larger premises at 115 High Street, where it remained until 1986

Maria Eliza Brown (later Mrs Rowell)

Maria Brown was born at 43 Cornmarket Street, Oxford in 1854 and baptised at St Michael's Church on 5 May. She was the daughter of the Oxford ironmonger John Beck Brown (born in PIddington on 8 October 1824 and baptised there on 9 November) and Emma D’Arville (born in Ardley in 1828 and baptised there on 18 May). Her parents, who both came from farming families, were married at Ambrosden on 28 May 1850 and had the following children:

• Annie Beck Brown (born at 43 Cornmarket Street, Oxford in 1851 and baptised at St Michael’s Church on 7 March)
• Charles John Brown (born at 43 Cornmarket Street, Oxford in 1852 and baptised at St Michael’s Church on 6 June)
• Maria Eliza Brown (born at 43 Cornmarket Street, Oxford in 1854 and baptised at St Michael’s Church on 5 May)
• Thomas Brown (born at 43 Cornmarket Street, Oxford in 1857 and privately baptised on 1 February by St Michael’s Church; received into the church on 13 May).

At the time of the 1851 census Maria’s parents were living over their ironmonger’s shop at 43 Cornmarket Street with their firstborn daughter Annie, who was one month old. John Beck Brown was recorded as being the employer of six men, and they had a house servant. Two women were visiting the family: Annie D’Arville (21) and Eliza Woodward (29).

The family was still living over the Cornmarket shop at the time of the 1861 census, now with two house servants. The two daughters were not at home: Annie (10) was staying with her widowed grandmother Harriett D’Arville in Bicester, but Maria (7) is hard to locate.

By 1871 Maria’s father John Beck Brown was becoming prosperous: he was now the employer of seven men and three boys, and the family no longer lived over the shop, but had a house at Park Crescent, Park Town.

---

Richard Sydenham Rowell

Richard Sydenham Rowell was born at Broad Street in 1848 and baptised at St Mary Magdalen Church on 7 July. He was the eldest son of Richard Rouse Rowell, a watchmaker admitted as a freeman of Oxford in 1834, and his first wife Emma Eliza Burgoyne: his father was described as a watchmaker of St Mary Magdalen parish and his mother as the daughter of a gentleman of Kidlington when they were married at Kidlington Church on 24 September 1846.

Richard Sydenham Rowell's grandfather was the jeweller George Rowell and his grandmother was Mary Rouse.

Richard’s mother Emma died at the age of 39 just after his birth, and her funeral took place at St Mary Magdalen Church on 19 June 1848. In 1851 Richard, who was nearly three, was living at 37 Broad Street with his father, who was a watchmaker employing two men, and his housekeeper. On 25 June 1855 he acquired a stepmother when his father married the widow Mrs Elizabeth Jarvis at St Michael’s Church.

At the time of the 1861 census young Richard was visiting John Sydenham, who was a doctor, at Islip, while fathe and stepmother were at their new home, 20 High Street in All Saints' parish. His stepmother Elizabeth Rowell died there on 3 August 1862.

Richard became a watchmaker and jeweller like his father, and the firm of Rowell & Son remained at 20 High Street until 1884.

---

Maria Eliza and Richard Sydenham Rowell and their baby daughter

At the time of the 1871 census, both Richard Sydenham Rowell (22) and his future wife Maria Eliza Brown (17) were staying at Stanton Harcourt in the home of the farmer George Castle. Also visiting the Castles were Maria’s older siblings Ann Beck Brown (25) and Charles John Brown (18).

By 1873 the Rowells were living at 40 Beaumont Street.

On 24 April 1873 at Ss Philip & James’s Church, Oxford, Maria Eliza Brown (19) married Richard Sydenham Rowell (24), and they had just one child:

• Maria Eliza Sydenham Rowell (born at 40 Beaumont Street, Oxford in 1874 and privately baptised at Ss Philip & James's Church on 18 June; received into the church on 2 August).

Mrs Rowell died shortly after giving birth and before her daughter's baptism:

† Mrs Maria Eliza Rowell née Brown died at Beaumont Street at the age of 20 on 11 June 1874 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 16 June (burial recorded in the parish register of St Mary Magdalen Church).

After his wife’s death Richard Sydenham Rowell moved to 69 Woodstock Road. He was admitted as a freeman of Oxford at the age of 30 on 8 March 1878.

On 8 December 1880 at Manchester Cathedral, Richard Sydenham Rowell married his second wife, Catherine Eliza Sedgley (born in Manchester in 1858). The following announcement was inserted in Jackson’s Oxford Journal on 11 December:

Dec. 8, at the Cathedral, Manchester, by the Rev. Arthur Jones, M.A., Richard Sydenham Rowell, of Allandale, Oxford, to Catherine Eliza, eldest daughter of T. G. Sedgley, of Balmoral Place, Old Trafford, Manchester.

At the time of the 1881 census Richard (32) and his new wife Catherine (22) were living Allandale, 69 Woodstock Road with his six-year-old daughter from his first marriage to Maria, and two servants.

Maria and Richard Sydenham Rowell's daughter

• Maria Eliza Rowell (16) was away at boarding school in Lewisham at the time of the 1891 census. She never married, and only lived three years longer than her mother, dying at the age of 23. She was buried on her own at Wolvercote Cemetery on 21 February 1898 (L¹/160).

---

Postscript: Richard Sydenham Rowell and his second wife and their children

Richard Sydenham Rowell and his second wife Catherine Eliza Sedgley had four children:

• Richard Rouse Sydenham Rowell (born in Oxford on 9 September 1881 and baptised at Manchester Cathedral on 12 January 1882)
• Florence Dorothy Sydenham Rowell (born in Oxford on 12 October 1882 and baptised at Manchester Cathedral on 28 December 1882)
• George Sydenham Rowell (born in Oxford on 17 March 1884 and baptised at Manchester Cathedral on 23 April)
• Guy Lennox Sydenham Rowell (born in Summertown in late 1892 and baptised there on 22 December).

On 1 April 1884 Richard’s father, Richard Rouse Rowell, died, leaving a personal estate of £8,327 13s. 11d. In that same year Richard Sydenham Rowell took out the first lease on 80 Woodstock Road.

In 1884 Rowell made a new chain for Oxford’s Lord Mayor.

In about 1885 he moved his shop to larger premises at 115 High Street.

At the time of the 1891 census Richard and his second wife Catherine were living with their first three children at 80 Woodstock Road; and his widowed mother-in-law Helen Sedgley and Catherine’s unmarried sister Florence were also part of the household. Rowell was becoming more prosperous, and they had four domestic servants.

By 1899 Richard and Catherine had moved to Cherwell Croft at 128 Banbury Road, where they can be seen in the 1901 census. Richard junior (19) was now a gold and silver smith like his father. There were still four servants.

Richard Sydenham Rowell died at Cherwell Croft at the age of 55 on 13 December 1903 and was buried at Wolvercote Cemetery (L¹/167). His personal estate came to £65,154 12s. 8d. His second wife Catherine Eliza Rowell died at the age of 64 and was buried in the same grave on 3 March 1923.

Their eldest son Richard Rouse Sydenham Rowell became a Major in the army. He and his wife Margaret Fletcher Rowell lived at Appleton, and then in Headington: first at Sandfield Cottage from at least 1911 to 1918, and then at Barton End in Headington from 1921 to 1923. Their son John Sydenham Rowell died in the Second World War.

---

Rowell's jewellery shop

Year	Address	Proprietors
1797	Probably  36 Broad Street	Founded by George Rowell
1834	Broad Street	George Rowell the founder died at Broad Street on 11 February 1834 at the age of 64 and was buried at St Peter-in-the East churchyard on 20 February 1834 (headstone survives)
1839–1841	36 Broad Street	George's widow Mary Rowell took over the shop, which was listed as M. Rowell & Son
1846–1852		George & Mary's son Richard Rouse Rowell now listed as the proprietor
1861–1884	20 High Street	Richard Sydenham Rowell (born 1848), the son of Richard Rouse Rowell, went into partnership with his father in a different shop
1885–1986	115 High Street	After the death of his father in 1884 Richard Sydenham Rowell moved to this larger shop on the south side of the High Street. The business remained in this shop for over a hundred years, but in its latter days was run by the Goldie family, who were related to the Rowells. They closed the shop down in 1986
1986–2020	12 Turl Street	Former employees of the Goldies started up a new jewellery business here, retaining the old name-plate. It is due to close down in 2020

---