This book belonged to John Cowtan. He was a purchaser of land near Cassady’s Bridge in Warrnambool and an important and early settler in Port Fairy. The land that John Cowtan selected was bought by Williaam Cassady whose sister, Ann, was married to John Cowtan. Cassady established the property, Boughton where Cassady’s Bridge is today. This book came from a Cassady estate sale early in the 21st century. Between 1839 and 1844 John Cowtan was a ship’s captain for John Griffiths, a shipowner and entrepreneur. In 1844 Cowtan established a merchant trading and produce business in Port Fairy with John Bland. In the 1860 John Cowtan went to live in Melbourne.This book is of great interest because of its early date (one year after the founding of Warrnambool) and because of its association with John Cowtan, a pioneer settler of Port Fairy with connections to Warrnambool.This is a brown leather cover book of 385 pages. The spine has gold lettering. The binding has come apart and has been mended with white cotton material on the inside of the cover. The insides of the cover have a brown, white, blue and yellow mottled pattern. The cover is stained and torn at the edges and has a deep gouging on the front. The first page has been torn and mended with tape and some of the pages are stained. There are two pressed fern fronds, one loose newspaper cutting and a bookmark with a sepia-coloured image, lace paper edges and coloured embroidery contained within the pages. The book has a preface and 58 chapters. The inscription is handwritten in black ink. ‘J. Cowtan 1848’ john cowtan, port fairy history, william cassady

This book is a 19th Century treatise on aids to navigation. It belonged to John Cowtan who held land near the Cassady's Bridge area in Caramut Road today (he was related to the Cassady family) and who is mainly important in the history of Port Fairy. Captain John Cowtan was a ship's master for John Griffiths and a Launceston entrepreneur and ship owner between 1839 and 1844. In 1847 he went into partnership with John Bland, establishing a merchant's business with riverside buildings at the Port Fairy wharf. He left Port Fairy in the 1860s. The date of John Cowtan's signature in this book is 1849 (certainly a very early one in our history) and inside the front cover he has written notes about the local weather, mainly as it affected sailing conditions in late 1849 and early 1850. These notes are of great historical interestThis book is of great interest because it belonged to a Port Fairy historical figure and because of the hand written weather notes inside the front cover. This is a hard covered,leather bound book of 680 pages. It contains printed text, illustrations, tables, maps and sketches.One page is torn Some pages are stained. . J Cowtan 1849john cowtan, port fairy

This book was written in 1801 in an epic poem form. It is unrhymed. It falls into the category of fantasy. The original owner of this book seems to have been John Bland. He is most important in the early history of Port Fairy and had a business in Port Fairy with John Cowtan (corn millers and general merchants). The Cowtans originally had land in the vicinity of the Cassady property of Boughton, Merri River (in Caramut Road near Cassady’s Bridge today) and were related by marriage to the Cassadys. A later owner of the book was William Anderson whose father came to the Yangery district in 1854 and established the property of Rosemount and William remained in this area until his death in 1909. The Andersons were related by marriage to the Cassadys and this book came to us following a clearance sale at the Cassady property, Boughton. This book is of great interest less for its literary content than for its ownership which probably dates back to the 1840s. It is associated with the families of Bland, Cowtan, Cassady and Anderson, all early settlers in Warrnambool and district.This is a brown leather-covered book of 271 pages. The cover has gold decorative borders and patterns and gold lettering. The pages are gilt-edged. The book is the fourth edition of volume one of a Robert Southey poem and has a Preface and Books 1 to 5 with Notes. The inscriptions are handwritten in black ink. One signature has not been deciphered. ‘Wm. Anderson’ ‘John Bland’ william anderson,, rosemount, william cassady, john bland, john cowtan, thalaba the destroyer, warrnambool, poem thalaba the destroyer, 19th century poems, robert southey books

This painting of the barque Sydney Griffiths and two smaller ships, ‘the brothers’ and Essington’ graced the offices of Powling solicitors for 3 generations. This painting illustrates the scene of the first export of wool from Belfast to England.Depicts a significant moment in time when the first shipment of wool from the port was being loaded for London.A watercolour painting on paper and linen in a gold and Black frame showing the Barque "Sydney Griffiths" sailing before Griffith island, also shown "Essington" and "The Brothers" John Griffiths House and other buildings on shoreThe Barque "Sydney Griffiths" Capt. Cowtan leaving Port Fairy for London, February 8th 1851. "Essington" "Brothers"local history, illustrations, powlings, watercolours, exports, essington, sydney griffiths, shipping, the brothers, wool export, capt cowtan