'First Fleeter' John Gowen's grave

Born in England, John Gowen (1763-1837) joined the British Marines and sailed to the colony of New South Wales in the first fleet aboard HMS Sirius as a Corporal of Marines.

In October 1788, John was sent to Norfolk Island to work in the penal settlement there, where he remained for five years. He worked there as a marine for the first three years, after which he was honourably discharged, on request. He remained on Norfolk as a settler, where he farmed for two more years.

John married Ordery Appleyard (an ex-convict originally sentenced to seven years’ transportation) in Sydney in 1805. They had six children, one of which (Frances) married a Baptist Minister, William Sutherland. William was sent to Kiama in 1835 to administer his religious duties, and was then appointed as Police Constable for Kiama in 1836.

In 1835, John Gowen moved to Kiama to live with his daughter. He died two years later and was buried on 28 April 1837 in the Protestant Cemetery at Church Point, Kiama (the headland at the end of Terralong Street). The Church of England (now the Christ Church Anglican Church) was built adjacent to the little cemetery in 1859, and John Gowen's grave remains there to this day.