Edwin Stephen Rouse

Early Photographs of Edwin Stephen Rouse and his wife Bessie

The family Rouse outside their home in 1859

Edwin Stephen (1849-1931) married well, in 1874, and Bessie Buchanan (1843-1924) became the mistress of Rouse Hill. (His mother, Hannah, lived much of the remainder of her life in England with two of her daughters). Again the house was redecorated, in Bessie's fashionable taste for Art Decoration, while Edwin Stephen improved the estate, notably by the building of impressive stables in 1876 designed by the architect John Horbury Hunt.

Edwin and Bessie's two daughters, Nina and Kathleen were born in 1875 and 1878, into the leisurely confident world of the late 19th century squattocracy, but the financial troubles of the 1890s - the economic depression that affected city and country alike - cast shadows over this sunlit landscape of picnic races, house parties and seasons in town. Those shadows grew with the 20th century and Edwin Stephen's lack of business sense.


In 1895 Nina Rouse made a socially suitable match with George Terry of nearby Box Hill, where they lived extravagantly for a few years and brought up their five sons, but returned to Rouse Hill, bankrupt and resented by Kathleen, soon after Bessie's death in 1924.


Kathleen, in love with a Latvian emigreé refused residency in Australia and working in Manchuria, travelled to see him in 1930 and again two years later. She never returned from Manchuria; in August 1932 she was murdered in Harbin. The exclusion of her sister and her nephews as beneficiaries of her will caused further conflict within the family and the furnishings of the house narrowly escaped dispersal.


Nina and George Terry remained at Rouse Hill, George dying in 1957. Nina lived on with her reminiscences and the remnants of an affluent past until her death in 1968. As her grand-daughter, Caroline Thornton has written 'Granny seemed to hold the key to another world'.


Attrition of the farm through subdivision left only 100 acres, but in and around the house little was changed, little was added. Nina's son, Gerald, and his family lived in the cottage beyond the farmyard; another son Roderick lived nearby. After further subdivision between her sons, all that remained of the estate was 20 acres (13 hectares) in the ownership of Gerald and Roderick Terry. In 1977 Roderick sold his share of Rouse Hill to his daughter Miriam, and her husband Ian Hamilton.

Rouse, Edwin Stephen (1849–1931)


Mr. Edwin Stephen Rouse, who died at his residence, Rouse Hill House, Rouse Hill, on Tuesday, was a member of a very old Australian family. He was 82 years of age.

Born at Guntawang, he was the younger son of the late Mr. Edwin Rouse of Guntawang and Rouse Hill and a grandson of Mr. Richard Rouse, the pioneer. He was educated at Macquarie Fields and resided at his home at Rouse Hill since 1854. In 1874 he married Miss Elizabeth Ann Buchanan at St. John's Church, Darlinghurst. He and his brother Richard Rouse of Guntawang, were the breeders of a noted breed of carriage horses and also were successful on the turf, winning the Sydney Cup for two successive years with their mare, Viva, the trainer being the veteran Mr Harry Rayner of Randwick. Mr. Rouse was for 60 years a member of the Union Club. Mrs Rouse predeceased him. Two daughters survive him.

The funeral took place at St. Matthew's Church of England cemetery, Windsor, after a service held in the Rouse Hill Church.

The chief mourners were—Mrs. G. A. Terry and Miss Kathleen Rouse (daughters), Mr. G. A. Terry (son in law), Messrs G. R. E. G. and N. Terry (grandsons), Miss Marian Rouse (niece), Mrs. Stanley Rouse (niece), Mr. John G. Rouse (nephew), Mrs. R. B. Terry (granddaughter), Among others present at the graveside were:—Mr. W. Young (representing Mr. R. R. Dangar (nephew), Mr. and Mrs. J. E. Gosling, Miss Pringle, Miss Pendergast, Mrs. Haigh, Miss Mildred Callaghan, Mr. and Mrs. Crowley, Mr. Norman Cox, General Paine, Messrs. J. B. Johnstone, Horsley, Cecil Iceley, Arthur Thompson, Wright, Pearse (senior), E. and C. Pearse, Jamieson, and Nash and the staff of Rouse Hill House.