Mrs Mary Anne Bowker was the wife of Octavius B. Bowker*. She was born as Mary Anne Stubbs, but was adopted by a Mrs Wilmot, whose name she used as her maiden name. During 1855-1861 she and her husband farmed in the Eastern Cape, and then on the farm "Champagne" near Zastron in the Free State. Mary also accompanied her husband on his gun-selling trips. She collected plants in the Free State and sent a parcel of them via her sister-in-law, Mary E. Barber*, to W.H. Harvey* in Dublin. Harvey thanked her for this interesting parcel in the preface to Volume 3 of the Flora Capensis (1865). Mary Anne died before her husband, that is, before 1899.

List of sources:

Family: Octavius Bouchier Bowker / Mary Anne Stubbs http://1820settlers.com/genealogy/familygroup.php?familyID=F121&tree=master

Gunn, M. & Codd, L.E. Botanical exploration of southern Africa. Cape Town: Balkema, 1981.

Harvey, W.H. & Sonder, O.W. Flora Capensis (Vol. 3, Preface). Ashford, Kent: Lovell Reeve, 1894 (originally published 1865).

Mitford-Barberton, I. & Mitford-Barberton, R. The Bowkers of Tharfield. Oxford University Press, 1952.

National Automated Archival Information Retrieval System (NAAIRS). http://www.national.archives.gov.za/naairs.htm Documents relating to Mary Anne Bowker.

Compiled by: C. Plug

Last updated: 2020-04-23 17:30:14