[citation needed] Edmund Bowman (1818 – 14 August 1866) was born in Askham, Westmorland, and emigrated to Hobart, Tasmania with his parents and siblings.
John and William Charles arrived in South Australia together as youngsters, accompanying their father's herd of sheep.
[5] John, hitherto a bachelor, at age 52 married William Charles's widow Jane[6] and purchased a home, "Carolside" in New Town, Tasmania.
He may be the John Bowman convicted of insulting a railway official at Wodonga in 1889, after his cane had been stolen and his hat knocked off by some "larrikins".
In later years he shared his time between "Poltalloch", his adopted son's property in Gippsland and his summer residence "Carolside", where he died.
Thomas Richard Bowman (17 March 1835 – 17 February 1911) was born in Tasmania and moved to South Australia with his father and two sisters in June 1840.
Their destination was Western Australia, but (according to an account of T. R. Bowman)[20] the journey and conditions on the ship were so bad that on 31 March 1831[18] they disembarked in Van Diemens Land rather than carry on to Fremantle.
John Bowman rented a small farm near Hobart where he grew sheep and wheat and later purchased 1,200 acres on the shores of the Big Lagoon (or Stokle's Lagoon), and a swampy area facetiously named "Lake Tiberias", where T. R. Bowman was born, then Woodlands Farm, on the Coal River.
He came back to Adelaide in 1839 with a few sheep and horses, camping on a section[18][21] at Islington[15] (now known as Kilburn), and was followed by his father, who had decided to sell up and move to South Australia with the rest of the family except two daughters, who remained at school in Hobart.
According to T. R. Bowman's reminiscences the two brothers John and William, aged 13 and 11, came over with a consignment of sheep (and a shepherd[2]) in the Lady Emma, landing near Largs Bay.
However, shipping records show the Lady Emma carrying John Bowman snr and sons Thomas Richard (4 years old) and William Charles from Launceston arriving in S.A. on 13 July 1839 and John jnr (then around 11 years old) and William (around 8 years) arriving in S.A. on 18 September 1839 aboard Glenswilly – it is difficult to reconcile these, even given the notorious unreliability of shipping manifests of the time, unless Thomas misremembered the ships' names and William had been sent back to help John jnr.
[24] Two of the daughters married and went to live at Willunga where much of the flock was transferred, with the rest run between Dry Creek and Beefacres on the River Torrens.
They bought more sheep from John Kelsh (a friend who had also come out on the Fame), who had brought a flock from Tasmania in 1846, but grew discouraged by dog attacks, scab, and low prices.
[26] The brothers also bred horses, mainly supplying the British Army in India with remounts to replace those killed or injured in battle.
Edmund's brothers Thomas, John and William worked for around 20 years on the Crystal Brook run of 500 square miles which they in 1856 bought from Younghusband & Co.
The Government resumed (took back) the northern pastoral areas for farming settlements, including the Bowman Brothers' property Napperby, which they had run as part of Crystal Brook, and now includes the hundred of Napperby, a small farming community, 8 km north-east of Port Pirie, after which the original homestead fell into decay.
[36] They purchased three ships: one, the ketch Napperby, ran aground on shoals at Point Lowly near Whyalla on 5 November 1875 and was scrapped.
He migrated to Australia on the Champion of the Seas in October 1855, disembarked in Melbourne, Victoria and spent some time on the Victorian goldfields.
His wife was the daughter of Jacob Hooper, who migrated from Cornwall on the Isabella Watson in 1846 and eventually settled at Mount Barker.
Warburton, Elizabeth, The Bowmans of Martindale Hall, Department of Continuing Education, University of Adelaide (1979), 158pp (covers similar ground at book length, including lists of references)