William Owen and his wife Christina (née Cock) emigrated to South Australia from London in 1838 on the Rajasthan arriving on 16 November 1838.
[3] In conjunction with A. L. Elder, chartered the 94 ton brigantine Emma Sherratt for a sugar buying expedition, a consequence of which was a libel suit by Owen against competitor William Younghusband.
The Fiji Pastoral, Agricultural and Commercial Company, provisional manager David Wilkinson (c. 1832 – 8 January 1910), was formed to exploit the country's largely untapped natural resources of timber, arrowroot, cotton, coconut, tobacco and so on.
[9] (When Fiji became a British colony, Wilkinson, who had a strong command of the language, was appointed Chief Interpreter for the government,[10] later Commissioner of Native Lands.)
Owen was appointed by Sir John Young as British Consul for the Fiji Islands, and was later commended by Earl Russell for the manner in which he performed the duties of his office.