Above: One of my most prized possessions- the only photo I have ever seen of Rosa Corvan. The bottom photo is Rosa with three of her grandchildren: Bill Stephenson and his sister Irene (children of her daughter Margaret Brown Stephenson) and Constance 'Connie' Grose (daughter of Rosa's eldest child, Penelope).
Rosa Constance Corvan was born at 73 Lisson Grove North, Marylebone, London, on Friday, January 10, 1851.She was the fourth child and daughter born to Anthony Edward Corvan, a baker, and his wife Mary Healy. At the time of her arrival, Rosa had two elder living sisters- 4 1/2 year old Ellen and 2 year old Mary. Eldest sister Catherine died in her infancy in 1846.The middle name 'Constance' did not appear on Rosa's birth certificate. She may have acquired it later as a confirmation name, as it was used on official documentation in her adult years.
The house in which Rosa was born was described as follows in the London Times in May of 1850, when her father was in the midst of bankruptcy proceedings and having to sell his two bakery shops and premises:-
"A very substantially brick-built messuage, being number 73 Lisson Grove, late in the occupation of the bankrupt, with a handsome and modern plate-glass front to the baker’s shop, in mahogany frame; and on which premises a very large trade has lately been done, together with the Goodwill of the business."
Despite her father's bakery business failing and he being jailed for bankruptcy,Rosa and her family were still living at 73 Lisson Grove at the time of the 1851 census on March 31.Her father was in the Queens prison in Southwark on the night of the Census, but three month old Rosa was at Lisson Grove with her 25 year old mother Mary, her 3 year old sister Mary and her 69 year old Irish grandmother Ellen Healy.
Once Anthony Corvan's bankruptcy proceedings were dealt with and he was released from prison, the family decided to emigrate to Australia. Gold had been officially discovered in Victoria in June of 1851, so this may have influenced Anthony's decision to settle there when he left England in late 1854. His wife Mary had delivered her fifth child, a son named John, in late June/Early July 1854. Unfortunately, the baby died aged only eight weeks, and it was very soon after this event that Anthony boarded a ship and headed for Victoria.Up until this point the Corvans were still living at 73 Lisson Grove, and Anthony's occupation was still 'baker', so the business was still carrying on despite Anthony' bankruptcy.
His wife and three little daughters sailed in a later ship, the Mooresfort, which arrived in Melbourne on March 19, 1855. Rosa was four years old, and her sisters Ellen and Mary were aged almost 9 and 7 1/2 respectively. Their mother Mary Torsa Healy Corvan was twenty nine years old.
Upon their arrival in Melbourne, Anthony must not have been there to greet them , as Mary was forced to place several notices in the Argus newspaper informing Anthony Corvan that his wife and family had arrived per the Mooresfort. One such notice read:" Anthony Ed. Corvan. Send your address to Chisholm's Stores, Elizabeth Street, Melbourne. Your wife has arrived", and was published on March 24, 26 and 27.The initial notice was published the day after they arrived, and stated "Anthony Edward Covan, wife and three children have arrived in the Mooresfort. Apply at Chisholm's Store, Elizabeth Street North."
One assumes that Anthony didn't take too long to be reunited with his family, as sometime in April, their sixth and last child was conceived.He was a goldfields baby...named Anthony John Corvan, he was born on January 29, 1856, at New Chums Gully near Bendigo.His father registered his son's birth and stated that his occupation was 'storekeeper', but the Sandhurst Directory of 1856 has an entry for 'Edward Corvan, miner, New Chum", so it is apparent that he tried his hand at both.
Baby Anthony lived for even less time than his deceased brother back in England...he died just sixteen days after his birth, on February 14, 1856. He was noted as being ‘Anthony James Corvan – storekeeper’s son’, and was buried two days later at the Junction Cemetery.
From this point on until her marriage in 1869, Rosa Corvan's life is a complete mystery.There are thirteen years which are a blank slate, and I have no idea if we will ever be able to fill these pages of her life.
I have a feeling that Rosa's childhood was not a secure happy one.There is no record at all of what happened to her mother after the birth of baby Anthony, and I don't know if she and Anthony remained together as a couple or if she took another partner. This was very common on the goldfields, particularly amongst Catholic couples who could not seek divorce even if they did have the means to do so.
When Anthony resurfaced in 1863, joining the 1st Waikato Volunteers to fight in the Maori War in New Zealand, he stated on enlistment that he was single.He may have been lying, as he also took several years off his age in order to enlist, or Mary may have died or left him.
Whatever the case, it almost certainly means that Mary did not follow her husband to New Zealand, as I spent many years assuming since I couldn't locate her death in Victorian records.
A family legend passed down through Rosa's eldest daughter, Penelope, suggests that the Corvan girls spent time in a Victorian orphanage.The actual story goes:
"Sir Anthony Edward Corvan (in England) married a Spanish lady against her family''s wishes, and after his early death she "got herself to a nunnery" and the three young children were shipped out to Australia and brought up in an orphanage in Melbourne."
The only thing I remember my grandmother saying about her ancestors was mentioning that somewhere in the tree was a bad-tempered red-haired Spanish gypsy! Another line from one of Rosa's children also mentions the Spanish connection-it is such an obscure thing to fabricate that I believe there's some truth to the whole Spanish descent thing.
Similarly, the mention of the sisters being brought up in a Melbourne orphanage also rings true.If they were deserted by both parents, or even if Mary died and Anthony couldn't or wouldn't care for them,an orphanage upbringing would be the only course three young girls with no other family in the colony could have taken.
And like families of convict descent having to fabricate stories to hide an undesirable skeleton in the closet, Rosa may have felt she had to invent a grand story to hide the miserable childhood shared by herself and her sisters Ellen and Mary.The fact that their father ended up a homeless old drunk on the streets of Auckland, in and out of Mount Eden Goal so often that he probably regarded it as home, may have induced her to invent the tale of Sir Anthony Corvan and his beautiful Spanish lady as a more palatable reason for why they ended up in an orphanage.
At present I have a researcher checking orphanage records from 1860-1863 for the Corvan girls, and if that comes up negative I will have to employ a researcher to delve into earlier records for me.
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