Obituaries Australia

Mrs. Constance Cockshott, whose funeral took place at Waverley Cemetery yesterday, her death having occurred at St. Aubyn, Woollahra Point, on Saturday, belonged to a well-known Sydney and Melbourne family. She was the sixth daughter, and the last surviving member of the family of the late Captain Sylvester John Browne, at one time of the East India Company's service, who settled in Australia about 1831. Captain Browne was engaged in pastoral pursuits and also in the whale fisheries. He established himself at Enmore, that suburb taking its name from the house—recently demolished—that he built there. The late Mrs. Cockshott was born in 1837, and in 1860 she was married to James Tobin Cockshott, of Liverpool, Lancashire, who spent several years in Sydney, and died in 1867. Their only son was Mr. H. M. Cockshott, the well-known Sydney barrister.

After residing at Enmore for some time Mrs Cockshott's father, Captain Browne, went to Melbourne, and took a prominent part in the affairs of that city in its early days. There, again, he engaged in pastoral pursuits, and acquired considerable landed property. At one time he owned a large area at Toorak, where the Federal Government House now stands. He made his home at Hartlands, Heidelburg, now a suburb of Melbourne.

To Mrs. Cockshott's eldest brother, the late Thomas Alexander Browne, who wrote under the pen-name of Rolf Boldrewood, we owe one of the most stirring stories of the bushranging days—Robbery Under Arms. Her youngest brother was Mr. Sylvester Browne, who was well-known as a squatter, and on the mining fields of Gympie, Broken Hill, and Coolgardie. He resided more recently at Singleton, and died about two years ago. His wife was the eldest daughter of Sir William Stawell, formerly Chief Justice of Victoria. Of Mrs. Cockshott's five sisters, all of whom are deceased, the oldest, Corientia, was married to Mr. William Walker, who built and lived at Redleaf, Double Bay, and was the first commodore of the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron; Emma was married to Mr. Molesworth Greene, of Greystones, Bacchus Marsh, Victoria; Anette was married to Mr. Robert Massie, and was the mother of Mr. H. H. Massie, general manager of the Commercial Banking Co. of Sydney; Lucy was married to Sir Frederick Darley, formerly Chief Justice of New South Wales; and the youngest, Lilias, married Major-General Sir Peter Scratchley, for many years military adviser to the Australian Governments, and the first Administrator of New Guinea, who died on his way back from that Island in 1886.

The funeral at Waverley Cemetery yesterday morning was a quiet ceremony, attended by the immediate relations and a few intimate friends.