Emily Sandercock was born at the hamlet of St Thomas Street, Launceston, Cornwall on 22 April, 1853, and was therefore only 2 ½ months old when the Sandercock family came out to South Australia. She was probably educated at the Misses Tuck’s school at Kenton Valley like her younger sister Sarah. When Emily was 21 years old she married John William Cossey, a blacksmith of Gumeracha at the Wesleyan Parsonage, North Adelaide. The witnesses were Annie Lloyd possibly the wife of the Rev. Thomas Lloyd, who officiated at the marriage ceremony, and a Jane Scriven. John William was aged 23 and the marriage took place on 19 February, 1874.

John William Cossey was born on 2 April 1850 at Kenton in Devon. (This Devon village was the home of Mary Ann Randell, wife of the Gumeracha pioneer.) John Williams parents were William Cossey, a labourer, and Ellen, nee Taylor; the latter could write her own name when she informed the Kenton Registrar of her son’s birth. There was at least one other son, named William J(ames?) Cossey. The Cossey’s year and place of arrival in Australia is not known.

Emily and John William had four children. A son John was born in 1875 at Norwood, but probably died as an infant. Another son Ernest William was born in 1877, followed by a daughter Hilda Olive in 1879. A second daughter was born some time later, but neither the name nor date of birth was recorded. (It is therefore presumed that the child was stillborn.)

John William Cossey obtained a lease of Allotment 1, Section 260, on the corner of Magill Road and Brownhill Creek Road, Norwood, on 21 June, 1876. He bought the allotment on 27 July, 1877, when it was mortgaged to Elizabeth Sandercock, his wife’s mother. (On her death in 1879, the mortgage was first transferred to Richard Sandercock senior, and later to his daughter Elizabeth until 1884.) in 1877, the name of John William appears in the S.A. Directory as a blacksmith. In 1883 he was in the same calling, but now operating his business from Kensington Park. in 1884, John William bought part of Block No. 1 on Magill Road, with a house block on the side, Kent Street. Here the Cosseys lived.

Not far away from their home were the schools their two children attended. Ernest went to St. Peters College as a secondary student, and Hilda went to Hardwicke College - both schools were in the neighbouring suburb of St. Peters. They were both good students by all accounts, and seemed to take after their mother Emily, who was the business woman behind her husband’s business. He had expanded his blacksmithing business and was now making horse-drawn vehicles as well. He and his brother William J. Cossey were operating as independent businesses in the Norwood-Kensington-Burnside area, according to the S.A. Directories. (William J. Cossey and his wife died in 1930 and 1922 respectively.)

John William was a volunteer fireman for the Norwood Fire Brigade - there was no paid fire fighting force in those days. It seems Emily was a bit ‘psychic’ about fires, and always seemed to know in advance when her husband was to be called out to fight a fire in the Norwood area. At some stage their own blacksmith/coach-building business was burnt to the ground. The Cossey house was evidently built for the family, in the Adelaide ‘villa’ style. Emily’s sister Elizabeth lived with the Cosseys for some years.

Soon after Ernest had finished his secondary schooling at St. Peters, he visited a friend who, unknown to anyone, had contracted typhoid fever. Ernest, Hilda and their mother Emily all caught the disease; Emily, always a delicate person, was taken by the typhoid first, and died at Kent Terrace, Norwood, on 9 January, 1895, aged 41 years. Her son died three days, later, and mother and son were buried at the Payneham cemetery. Hilda, who may have actually contracted typhoid fever later than the other two, was under the care of another doctor. He advised Hilda should be given a milk-fortifying diet and this may have helped to save her, though she remained unwell for some time. After Emily died, Hilda went to live with her aunt Elizabeth at Kent Town, as she was in need of extra care following her close call with death.

John William was advertising himself in the S.A. Directory of 1896 as … ‘Coach Builder, general smith, and wheelwright; Wagons, springcarts, buggies and all kinds of farming implements made to order and replaced.’ On 26 February in 1896 he had remarried his second wife being Margareta Grey. There were no children from his second marriage. (His daughter Hilda was to marry in 1900 and leave Adelaide.) in 1898, John William sold his Kent Street business to James Evans. He went to Sydney where it is believed he lost his money in a hotel deal. Later he went to in live at Bemboka, in south-east New South Wales, and died there on 6 September, 1923, at the age of 73 years. He was buried at the Church of England cemetery, Bemboka, on 8 February.