Rowina Shepley

## Rowina Goshawk (née Shepley)

**Rowina Goshawk** (née **Shepley**) (25 May, 1890 - 1 June, 1972) was an English pure-blood witch who attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry from 1 September, 1901 to June 1908. She was born in Puddletown, Dorset, England, and she was the daughter of Baldo Shepley and his wife, Dulcibella Shepley (née Prince). She was the sister of Henrietta Blishwick (née Shepley) and Melesina Moon (née Shepley).

She married Phineas Goshawk in late 1908, and they had a total of nine children together, all daughters. She was the mother of Keziah Pettigrew (née Goshawk), Sabina Fenwick (née Goshawk), Tabitha Liddell (née Goshawk), Gertrude Hornby (née Goshawk), Augusta Evermonde (née Goshawk), Dulcibella Edgecombe (née Goshawk), Rosanna Goshawk, Selena Goshawk, and Miranda Goshawk, the celebrated author of *The Standard Book of Spells* series.

Rowina Goshawk passed away at the age of 82 in Hadleigh Heath, Suffolk, England. She was the grandmother to eight.

## Biography

### Early life

Rowina Shepley was born on 25 May, 1890, in Puddletown, Dorset, England. She was the middle child of Baldo Shepley and his wife Dulcibella Shepley (née Prince). She had an older sister, Henrietta, and a younger sister, Melesina. Puddletown, the area in which Rowina was born, is one of the many villages throughout Britain where witches and wizards settled in numbers after the International Statute of Secrecy to rely on each other for mutual support, living alongside a Muggle population, located on the river Piddle. It is home to the Puddlemere United Quidditch Team.

The Shepleys were quite a wealthy family in the mid-19th Century. Rowina's father, Baldo Shepley, was an incredibly influential elected member of the Wizenagmot. He fell on the more liberal side of the aisle, much like Henry Potter, his contemporary. Despite this, he was married to Dulcibella Prince, a member of a traditionalist pure-blood family. Later in his life, Dulcibella would influence his decisions, leading the Shepley family to take a more conservative stance.

It was believed that Shepley was so influential that he would someday become Minister for Magic, but it never came to pass. He was beaten by Archer Evermonde in the election of 1912.

#### Hogwarts years

Rowina Shepley received her Hogwarts letter in the summer of 1901. That same summer, she visited Diagon Alley, located in London, and purchased a wand made of black walnut and dragon heartstring from Ollivander's Wand Shop. On 1 September, 1901, she boarded the train for Hogwarts and was sorted into Slytherin House that same night. She shared a dormitory with a girl called Clotilda Avery, who would later became the wife of Septimus Malfoy II.

Rowina Shepley was a student devoted to her studies. She was a member of the Latin Society from her second year. The Latin Society was a recreational club at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for students interested in studying Latin. Students would meet weekly and the club also functioned as a tutoring system for younger students. Students automatically become members of this club when they achieve an Exceeds Expectations or higher on their Latin language O.W.L.

She left the school upon completing her seventh year in June of 1908.

#### Marriage

Rowina Shepley married her longtime beau, Phineas Goshawk, on 24 September, 1908, at the age of 18. Her parents did not approve of the relationship and her mother was particularly cruel and stubborn to Goshawk, who did not come from much money. Even still, Rowina followed him to Hadleigh Heath, Suffolk, where the Goshawks lived in East Anglia. Their first child, Keziah, was born about thirteen months after their marriage, in November 1909.

As a contrast to her sisters, Rowina did not marry a wizard that was considered equal to her status. Rather, she married for love. This caused her relationship with her mother to suffer. Her sister, Henrietta Shepley, had married Gerard Blishwick in July 1908, and was favoured clearly over Rowina and her younger sister, Melesina. Henrietta also gave birth to a daughter in November 1909, Valerie. It was clear whose daughter was favored more: Dulcibella Shepley doted on the pretty young baby that Valerie was becoming, and Keziah was ignored. In an effort to impress their mother, Melesina flaunted her relationship with Barnabas Moon, and they soon became engaged in June 1910, much earlier than Dulcibella had expected. She became preoccupied with the wedding arrangements and the couple married in July 1911.

Meanwhile, Rowina and Phineas were expecting their second child. She arrived in August of 1911, and they named her Sabina. Rowina was not so much disappointed at the birth of a second daughter, and rather, she embraced it: she gave birth to a third daughter the following year, in 1912: Tabitha.

#### Death of Mother

Rowina's mother, Dulcibella Shepley (née Prince) passed away on 28 June, 1914, which brought her and her sisters closer together than they had been before, and suddenly without the woman which had encouraged their competitive nature.

#### The Want for a Boy

Rowina and Phineas would have a successive four more children, all within separate years of eachother: Gertrude, born in June 1913, Augusta, born in August 1914, Dulcibella, born in July 1915, and finally Rosanna, born in September 1916, before they decided that they would not be blessed with a son as Phineas had hoped.

Despite this, Rowina and Phineas would have two more children, who also turned out to be girls: Selena, born in October 1919, and Miranda, born in January 1921. Their eldest daughter, Keziah, was due to begin Hogwarts in September of 1921.

### Later life

Rowina's eldest daughter, Keziah, was sorted into Ravenclaw House on 1 September, 1921. The next year, in 1922, her daughter, Sabina, would follow Keziah into Ravenclaw. This continued in 1923 when Tabitha was also sorted there. However, Phineas and Rowina's fourth daughter, Gertrude, was sorted into Slytherin on 1 September, 1924. Their fifth daughter, Augusta, followed Gertrude into Slytherin the next year, in 1925.

Dulcibella, the sixth-oldest, was sorted into Ravenclaw on 1 September, 1926, and in 1927, Rosanna, the seventh of nine daughters, was sorted into Gryffindor. Rosanna Goshawk became the only daughter of Phineas and Rowina to be sorted into Gryffindor. Selena and Miranda both went to Ravenclaw.

#### Death of Father

Rowina's father, Baldo Shepley, passed away on 17 July, 1928, at the age of 68. The Shepley sisters held a funeral for him in Puddletown, Dorset, that summer. His will stated that all three of his daughters would split his own personal estate, while his brother inherited a few several thousand galleons.

#### As a Grandmother

Rowina and Phineas's oldest daughter, Keziah, married her longtime sweetheart, Wilfrid Pettigrew, on 29 March, 1929. They were both nineteen years old at the time. Wilfrid was an employee of the Knight Bus and Phineas Goshawk approved, although it is unlikely that the rest of Rowina's family did.

Rowina's daughter, Gertrude, was just sixteen when she met a muggle her age who lived in the village, Albert Hornby. Gertrude was a Slytherin, but not a great student, and decided to drop out of Hogwarts at the end of her fifth year in 1929 to marry Albert when she found out that she had become pregnant. At first, she attempted to hide the fact that she was expecting a child from her parents, but when they found out, Phineas Goshawk allowed the marriage, even though it was a stressful time for the family. Gertrude married Albert on 18 July, 1929, and gave birth to their daughter on 31 August, 1929. She named her baby Olive, and the couple moved in with Albert's parents. Neither Albert Hornby nor his parents were told about magic, and were convinced that Gertrude had formally been a student of some faraway boarding school. They believed it, for the time being, and remembered her from the time she had been around in Christmas of 1928. The Hornbys were reliant on social welfare and required that Gertrude get a job, and she did.

The next year, on 2 August, 1930, Rowina's second oldest, Sabina Goshawk, married Jeremy Fenwick, who was of similar prospects: he was a shop cashier for Quality Quidditch Supplies, and was not a high-flyer, but Phineas liked him. Rowina became a grandmother for the second time on 18 August, 1931, when their daughter, Lucia Fenwick, was born. The following year, on 19 September, 1932, Keziah Pettigrew gave birth to a son, Stefan.

On 22 August, 1934, Rowina's daughter, Dulcibella, got married to Philander Edgecombe, from the Edgecombe family of Derby, at the age of 19. The couple had a daughter, Enid Edgecombe, on 28 April, 1935.

On 22 May, 1937, Rowina's third oldest daughter, Tabitha, married Horace Liddell, of the Liddell family of Somerset, at the age of 24. They had a daughter together, Mary Liddell, on 14 April, 1938, followed by a son on 28 June, 1940, Andrew Liddell.

#### Global Wizarding War

During the Global Wizarding War, Rowina's daughter, Rosanna, was caught up in a duel in Southgate, Greater London, and died on 18 February, 1943. She was only 27 years old, and it was a tragedy for the closely-knit Goshawk family. Rosanna had been unmarried and so most of her things, including her London flat, went back to her parents to be sold. Rosanna's old school things had originally been Rowina's eldest daughter, Keziah's in the first place, and so she got many of her schoolbooks back after her sister's death.

On 10 May, 1943, Rowina's daughter, Tabitha Liddell (née Goshawk), gave birth to a daughter, Anne Liddell, and Rowina and her husband Phineas became grandparents for the seventh time.

#### Peacetime

On 16 August, 1950, Rowina's daughter, Augusta Goshawk, married Gaius Evermonde, of the influential Evermonde family. The union was particularly special because Archer Evermonde had defeated Rowina's father, Baldo Shepley, in the election of 1912, and now Evermonde and Shepley's grandchildren were getting married.

Their union was childless until 19 December, 1958, when Augusta gave birth to a baby boy, named Euan.

#### As a Great-Grandmother

Rowina's granddaughter, Enid Edgecombe, married Clement Fawley on 19 September, 1954 in Derby, Derbyshire, England, at the age of 19. Rowina became a great-grandmother when Enid gave birth to a baby girl, Evaline Fawley, on 20 October, 1955.

Rowina's granddaughter, Anne Liddell, married Ivan Fortescue on 21 July, 1959. Rowina became a great-grandmother for the second time when Anne gave birth to a baby girl, Alice Fortescue, on 14 August, 1960.

Around the same time, Rowina's grandson, Stefan Pettigrew, had married a witch named Joan Soley on 27 July, 1959. She became a great-grandmother for the third time on 30 August, 1960, when Joan gave birth to a baby boy named Peter Pettigrew. Her granddaughter, Enid, gave birth a second time on 15 November, 1960, to a baby boy named Geoffrey Fawley.

#### Death

Rowina Goshawk passed away at the age of 82 in Hadleigh Heath, Suffolk, England, on 1 June, 1972. She was the grandmother to eight, and the great grandmother to five. After her death, she would become the maternal second great-grandmother to both Daphne and Astoria Greengrass, when her great-granddaughter, Evaline Fawley, married Ignatius Greengrass in 1979.

## Etymology

The name Rowina is a variant of the name Rowena. The meaning of this name uncertain but it may be a Latinized form of a Germanic name derived from the elements *hrod* "fame" and *wunn,* "joy, bliss".