Jane Horsington

Notes from Carlene Harris:

One of the names you mention ‘Ewing’ is a match with my maternal grandmother. Jane Ewing b abt 1818 in County Armagh, Ireland, fathers name John, no other details. She was an assisted immigrant to New South Wales, Australia arriving with a child born at sea on her voyage here onboard ‘The Duke of Roxbourgh’ in 1841. She married John Horsington now (Oslington) on 28/2/1843. He was a Convict working on a property near where she was working,

Her son named William John Ewing took up the Oslington name after the Rankin marriage of his mother. From there William married a Rankin many children but one was Alice Oslington then after Alice’s marriage to a Downey my grandmother was born. Then 2 more generations to my mother and then me.

Note about place of origin

Notes from Carlene Harris:

Jane boarded her ship The Duke of Roxburgh at Cork. Her ticket/voyage was paid by her employer from the Grampian Hills in New South Wales.

Ewings in County Armagh were rare enough that I can find no Ewing baptism records from this period of time at all. Baptism records for the 1830-1850 range do not show any John Ewing. I have been able to build these Armagh families:

• Samuel Ewings
• George Ewing

The latter could be a sibling of Jane; the former does not meet the criteria. For now I will connect these, as it does give some location affinity we can work with later, but my sense is that Jane was more likely born in Donegal.

I've found some evidence of an Armagh branch of the Donegal Ewings via two DNA matches that appear to have Armagh origins for Ewings. These all must have come from Donegal at some point. Donegal's Ewing naming is very consistent in what male names are used.

The names Jane Horsington chose for her own children have some Armagh elements but are mostly straight Donegal names:

• Jane
• Louisa
• Mary
• Ann
• Alice
• Therese
• George
• Cornelius
• John
• James
• Matthew
• William

Of these, Cornelius is from neither place of origin, nor is Therese. George could possibly be her brother. The others line up very well with Donegal Ewing naming.