In 2000 when I was in Wales, at the Aberystwyth University Library I was allowed to peruse the old manor house books for Powis Castle, Powis, North Wales.
Powis Castle was, and still is a family home, and at the time in question was the residence of Edward James Herbert, 3rd Earl of Powis (1818-1891) whose father was the 2nd Earl - Lord Edward Herbert, 2nd Earl of Powis, a descendant of Baron Robert Clive - of Clive of India fame.
I did indeed find an entry for an Elizabeth Edwards, proving that there was an Elizabeth Edwards named as being a tennant, in the employment of the manor house in 1820, but photocopies were not permitted, and therefore nothing more could be proven. I have not been able to find a marriage for Elizabeth Edwards senior.

Joining the ship in Plymouth, Devon, England, on the 16th November 1854, the Davies family travelled via the Cape of Good Hope, Africa.
On arrival in the port of Geelong, Victoria, they first went to friends in Collingwood some 48 miles away - now an inner Melbourne suburb. Taking a very short time to settle on land after the long sea journey, they then set off on a three day trip overland to Golden Point, Ballarat - a trip of another 68 miles.
James Junior wrote in a letter that " I and my sister Mary Ann attended the Mt. Pleasant ( which is in the Ballarat area) school for a short time".
Meanwhile James Senior was working with a friend on a sawpit, but the allure of the goldfields induced them to abandon sawing and try their chance at the diggings. In 1856 the family followed the gold to Napoleons - an area about nine miles south of Ballarat, where they took up land and settled.

At first they conducted a tent store supplying meals to the miners - this being a slab of bread and cheese and a mug of ale. As most of the miners paid with gold dust there was much fear of thieves. Consequently they slept with loaded pistols under their pillow and dogs tied to each corner of the tent.
Eventually a timber house was built, but this was to burn to the ground in 1865. They all survived the fire to then build a bluestone house which is still there today. Elizabeth had two more children but sadly only one survived - Sarah.

James Davies Senior died in 1877 aged 57 but Elizabeth lived another 12 years. One of her grandaughters wrote of her "....she was a kind hearted old Welsh lady who still retained some of the traditional dress of her homeland, and always came laden with a basket full of cooking when she visited her family"

Within a three years of her arrival, and at the age of sixteen years old, Mary Ann Davies had met John Gordon, 11 years her senior, and they were married at the Ballarat Schoolhouse, by licence, on 6th September, 1857. The names of John's parents are listed as William Gordon and Jane Lowthian on their marriage certificate !

In 1858 John and Mary's first child, a boy which they named Robert was born, but sadly he died in that first year of life, in March 1859. Living in tents in Ballarat was very hot in summer and it was freezing in winter and sometimes even snowed a little. Water was easy to come by, was so disgustingly unpalatable that it had to be cleaned by filtering it through charcoal before use.

Many infants died at this time and it isn't surprizing that under these harsh living conditions, of the fourteen children that John & Mary had, only nine survived to adulthood. Luckily we have been able to profile all the surviving children and their details are with their photographs on the linked page. Interestingly enough only one of the girls married.