Charles Cowley and Ann Killip
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CHARLES COWLEY & ANN KILLIP FAMILY
Compiled by Marilyn Breinholt Thomsen
Charles Cowley was born December 21, 1800, at Kirk German, Isle of Man, and was the son of Nicholas Cowley and Eleanor Kelly. He was christened, according to the order of the Church of England, January 20, 1801. At the age of sixteen years he joined the Wesleyan Methodist Church but after twenty years he was disfellowshipped because he was seeking for correct information concerning the will of God.
Ann Killip was born at Kirk German, Isle of Man, England, in July of 1814. In the same place, Kirk German, her father, Thomas Killip was born in 1780, and her mother, Ann Killey (1) was born in 1793. This had been the home of the Killip and the Killey families for four or five generations back. They were very well to do and prominent families in that time and place.
Ann was the second in a family of twelve children. Catherine was the oldest, followed by Elinor, Elizabeth, John, Thomas, Mary, William, Jane, Margaret, James and Maria. Her parents had the rare opportunity of rearing all of these children to maturity and to see them married, with the exception of the tenth child, Margaret, who died in her youth. (2)
When Ann became of marriageable age, she was courted by Charles Cowley, who was a very mature young man of sound judgement. He, too, belonged to an old and prominent family of Kirk German, Isle of Man. Ann was 18 years old and Charles was 33 years old when they were married on the 26th of December, 1833.
Surrounded by family, they made their home in Kirk German on the Close farm, and in due time Ann became a mother. Their first child, born November 17, 1834 was named after his father, Charles Caeser Cowley. Their second son, William Michael, was born Sept 29, 1838. Later in life he was called Billy Cowley, the walking dictionary, because his mother Ann had a way of disciplining him by asking him to go to his room and take fifty words from the dictionary, spelling them correctly and defining them. He could not leave his room until this was done. The results of this discipline were of great value to him in his career as a newspaperman.
They had three more children born there in Kirk German: Eleanor Caroline, born on 12 December, 1838, who only lived only 2 ½ months and Ann Elizabeth, born May 20, 1840, only a few months before the met their first missionary. The fifth child born on the farm was Thomas Nephi, who arrived July 5, 1842.
John Quayle, a first cousin to Charles, and his wife Catherine, a sister to Ann, went to Douglas, the capital of the Isle of Man, to hear a minister preach. They were very much impressed with the way he expounded the truth. When they told Charles and Ann about the missionary, they asked that he be invited to come to their home. (3) That night Ann dreamed that an American minister was preaching the Gospel, and then sang a song titled “Come to the Supper.”(4,5) The next evening the missionary, who was Elder John Taylor, came to their home to hold a meeting. Those present were Charles and Ann Cowley, John Quayle and his wife Catherine, Mathias Cowley and wife Ann Quayle Cowley, and another unidentified couple. When Elder Taylor opened the meeting with the song “Come to the Supper,” Ann began to sing as though she had known the song all her life. She had a beautiful voice, and at the end of the meeting she sang the closing song in tongues. Charles and Ann were immediately converted and were baptized the following day in the old mill-race on the Close Farm, and in the evening were confirmed members of the church. They all bore their testimonies and Ann and Charles spoke in tongues, which Elder Taylor interpreted. This event occurred in the October of 1840.
Charles was noted for his great kindness and generosity. A Mr. and Mrs. Tarbet knew him while living there on the Isle of Man, and related this incident. They said that one Sunday morning while they were at church, some thieves broke into their house, taking everything they possessed in the way of money and valuables. They had been preparing to sail to this country with their family, and this terrible loss would delay their journey to America. Charles Cowley, hearing of this disaster, gave them money to pay their way to this country.
Soon after being baptized, Charles sold his house and farm to his brother-in-law John Quayle and prepared to join the saints in Nauvoo, with his wife and children. They left the Isle of Man for Liverpool on January 1, 1843, and set sail January 17th on the ship Swanton. After a voyage of eight weeks and two days, they landed in New Orleans and traveled on to St. Louis, until they found the Mississippi river frozen over. After the ice had broken, they went up the river to Warsaw, Hancock County, Illinois. The family settled for a short time in Macedonia, a village twenty miles from Nauvoo. Here a son, John Abner, was born on July 5, 1845.
