Settler Wedderburn research

The details given in the W.B. about the children of Christopher Wedderburn’s son George ‘b. 1810’  are wrong - and George was bap. at St. James’ Church, Manchester, on 23/4/1809, not 1810’.  The family-tree produced in 1965 by Dorothy Ward (née Wedderburn) - living in what was then Rhodesia - shows that George married, on 2 Nov. 1841 (her 20th birthday), Mary Croft, the elder d. of Dr. Charles Thomas Croft by his second wife, Mary Hancock. (Dr. Croft was a son of Thomas Croft of London and Lady Elizabeth Hamilton, who were m. in 1785 at St. James’ Church, Westminster. - Dr. Charles Croft had married his first wife, Elizabeth ---, in London c1819, and they travelled to S. Africa with the 1820 settlers aboard the ship “Aurora”.) - George Wedderburn & Mary Croft had one son James Hamilton Wedderburn, b. 14/8/1843 [not two], and four daughters: Mary Elizabeth (Libby), b. 15/3/1845 (who m. Capt. William T.J. Attwell in 1865); Esther Ann, b. 3/2/1847 (who m. Thomas Frederick Berrington on 16/4/1866); Margaret Quail, b. 21/2/1849 (who m. George James Hill on 22/5/1873); and Emma Louisa, b. July 1851 (who m. Timothy William Lake on 22/3/1871).  ‘Nancy’ Wedderburn ‘widow of William’ is not the mother of the Christopher who went to South Africa in 1820, as ‘A.W’. assumes in the W.B. - She is Anne Gorrell [not ‘Serrell’, as it shows in the Lancs. IGI], who m. William Wedderburn at Pennington in Furness on 6/4/1795. - It is their son Christopher, bap. at Ulverston on 24/11/1805, who was present at his mother ‘Nancy’s’ death in 1840.  William Wedderburn, mariner, is the eldest son of John Weatherburn (in the Lancs. IGI John’s surname is shown as Wedderburn) and Ann Hodgson, who were m. at Whittington, Lancs., on 27/4/1755, by licence. [The marriage licence cannot be traced.]  Their elder daughter Jane ‘d. of John Wetherburn’ (sic) was born at Whittington and bap. at St. Michael-the-Archangel, Whittington, on 1/1/1755. Their eldest son William ‘s. of John Weatherburn’ was born at Lindale, Dalton, Lancs., and bap. on 2/2/1758 at St. Mary’s Church, Dalton. The St. Mary’s baptismal register contains the baptisms of several more children of John Weatherburn who were all ‘born at Lindale’: Anne bap. 20/5/1760; John bap. 21/8/1763; George 3/11/1765; Adam bap. 5/6//1768; Christopher bap. 15/3/1772 & James bap. 11/2/1774.  [These baptismal entries were found by cousins Alison France and Lynne Hall. - They are descendants of John Weatherburn’s & Ann Hodgson’s daughter Jane, who m. James Postlethwaite at St. Mary’s, Dalton, on 7/9/1777. - Jane and James had a d. Elizabeth bap. at St. Mary’s on 8/3/1777 and another d. Ann ‘born at Lindale’, was bap. at St. Mary’s on 7/11/1779. - James Postlethwaite died at Lindale in 1779 and was buried at St. Mary’s Church on 7/2/1779. - Jane remarried two years later, on 29/10/1781. Her second husband, John Bleasdale, was a witness to the marriage of Jane’s brother William Wedderburn (bap. 1758) to Ann ‘Nancy’ Gorrell at Pennington in Furness on 6/4/1795. (A Robert Gorrell was the other witness.)]  Lynne & Al have discovered that Ann Weatherburn ‘wife of John’ died at Lindale, Dalton, in Dec. 1789. She was buried at St. Mary’s on 2/1/1790. Her widower, John Weatherburn, died at Low Greaves, Pennington in Furness, in Aug. 1795 and was buried at St. Mary’s on 31/8/1795.  William Wedderburn, mariner, and Ann (i.e. ‘Nancy’, née Gorrell) had a d. Ann born at Upper Greaves, Pennington, and bap. at Pennington in Furness on 6/12/1795. Their son William was born at Low Greaves, Pennington, who was bap. at Pennington in Furness on 3/12/1797. [This William is undoubtedly the ‘William Wedderburn, mariner’, shown on W.B. p. 505 (under the heading “The Wedderburns in Liverpool and West Derby”) as having died at Liverpool on 4/3/1844, aged 46. - ‘A.W.’ states that “he is probably identical with the William Wedderburn, mariner, who married  Mary Tilsley ‘or Tinsley’ and had issue”.]  After William’s birth in 1797 William and ‘Nancy’ moved to Ulverston. They had three more children born there: Robert (‘s. of William Wedderburn, mariner’) bap. 12/4/1801; Jane (b. 9 Feb., ‘d. of William Wetherborne, mariner’) bap. 14/8/1803 [Jane died on 8/10/1806, aged 3, and was buried at St. Mary’s, Dalton, on 10/10/1806]; and Christopher (b. 27 June, ‘s. of William Wedderburne’) bap. 24/11/1805. - [These last three baptisms are mentioned by ‘A.W.’ in his account of Christopher b. 1772 (and his descendants) although he apparently did not realise that it was Christopher b. 1805 who was present at the death of his mother ‘Nancy’ in 1840  - or that the Christopher born 1772 - who emigrated to South Africa in 1820 - was his first cousin .] The Lancs. IGI has two entries showing ‘Christopher Wedderburn, b. 12 Feb. 1772’. [One shows that ‘Christopher Wedderburn, s. of (blank) Wedderburn, was born on 12 Feb.1772 at Lindale’; the other shows that he was born on that date at ‘Lindal in Furness’.] - It also has two marriage entries: One shows that Christopher Weatherburn m. Ann Jeuill at Manchester Cathedral on 6 July 1795; the other shows that Christopher Wedderburn m. Ann Quail at Liverpool, on 25 Aug. 1799. [It seems likely that both of the ‘birth’ entries - and that showing the marriage which is said to have taken place at Liverpool in 1799 - were taken from the family-tree compiled in 1965 by Dorothy Ward. - It does not reveal the fact that Christopher was baptised and married as a ‘Weatherburn’..]  Lynne & Al have found the marriage entry of Christopher Weatherburn and Ann Quail ‘of Salford, Lancs.’ at Manchester Cathedral on 6 July 1795. (‘Jeuill’ in the IGI is obviously a misreading of ‘Quail’.) The Lancs. IGI shows that between 1798 and 1814 three boys and four girls (five of whom are the children who went to South Africa in 1820) were baptised at St. James’ Church, Manchester, as son or daughter of Christopher Weatherburn. - The first child, Christopher, was bap. on 2/9/1798. [He is not named as one of the children who went to S. Africa, so presumably he died young.] William, the elder of the two sons who went to S. Africa, was bap. on 20/4/1800, and George, the younger, was bap. on 23/4/1809. Only three of the four girls are named in the W.B. (and the family-tree), so Ellen, bap. 11/1/1807, must have died.  Ann, who m. George Duffield ‘of co. York’ (presumably in S. Africa - there is no record in the IGI), was bap. on 26/12/1802 (not ‘b. 1808’, as is shown in the W.B.); Elizabeth was bap. on 15/9/1811 [not ‘b. 1812’]; and Esther [‘Hester’ in the W.B.] was bap. on 3/7/1814.  The details given in the W.B. about William (b. 1800) and his descendants mostly accord with those shown in the family-tree. The W.B. (not the family-tree) provides the information that when Christopher died on 18/7/1848 he was buried at Salem and that it was his younger son, George, who inherited the estate of ‘Lindale’. - Three years afterwards, on 15/9/1851, George was killed in the Kaffir War and was buried at Grahamstown.  On 20/3/1861 George’s widow Mary (née Croft) married Philip Amm, who then became the proprietor of ‘Lindale’.  Mary died on 2/3/1875. [The family-tree adds the information that Mary’s sister, Elizabeth Croft, b. 1826, married Frederick Short (not ‘Silcot’, as shown in the W.B.), who died in 1851. Elizabeth married secondly, John Wedderburn b. 1832, the second son of George’s brother William and his wife Martha Patrick - i.e. George’s sister-in-law married his nephew.]  On 18/8/1865, George’s only son, James Hamilton Wedderburn, married Charlotte Gush Amm, b. 7/2/ 1847, d. of Mary Hannah Gush and Philip Amm. [Mary Hannah Gush was a d. of Richard Gush (“the Hero of Salem”) and Elizabeth --, who went to S. Africa with the 1820 settlers in the ship “Brilliant”. - Mary Croft’s second husband, Philip Amm, was Mary Hannah Gush’s widower (though the family-tree does not make this clear). - In common with other families at that time, many members of the Wedderburn family had spouses to whom they were closely related!] *********  In footnote¹ on W.B. p. 510 (which continues at the foot of  p. 511) ‘A.W.’ states that he “has received, quite independently, an account of an Adam Wedderburn, formerly living in Manchester as a coachman, who died there about 1825……”.  The coachman’s daughter, Mrs. Matilda Warren ‘b. 1817-18’ - who, in 1891, was living at Eagleville, Montgomery, Pennsylvania, USA - ‘could give him but few details’, ‘A.W.’ says. She told him that her father had a brother John, ‘who had a family of seven children and went to Africa in 1820 as a missionary’. Her grandparents, she said, came from Aberdeen.  In the footnote, ‘A.W.’ says that Adam-the-coachman’s wife, Ann ---, “died at 23 Dumville Street, Manchester, in 1847, aged 70, having had issue two sons: 1. John, ‘who m. Mary Walthur and died s.p. [without issue] at Altrincham, Cheshire on 24 Aug. 1814, aged 46’ [i.e. b. c1768!]; and 2. Adam, ‘a tailor in Manchester, b. 1810, who died there on 29 Sept. 1848, married but s.p.’; and two daughters: 1. Harriet, ‘b. 1820, who died May 1884, having married at Manchester Cathedral on 5 Dec. 1859, George Kershaw, a tailor in Manchester, and by him had two sons, James (or John) and William, and a daughter’; and 2. Matilda, ‘b. 1817-18, married at Manchester Cathedral 24 Dec. 1838, to William Warren. (In 1891, the two sons of  Harriett Wedderburn and George Kershaw were engaged as travelling comedians “ playing under the assumed name of  Wedderburn”. - It was from them and their aunt, Mrs. Warren, ‘A.W.’ says, that he obtained the account of Adam Wedderburn.)  The Lancs. IGI tells a different story. - It shows that an Adam Wedderburn married a Mary Baxter at Manchester Cathedral on 8/2/1795. Adam & Mary had five children bap. there: Elizabeth on 17/1/1802; Harriot [sic] on 7/7/1805; Jane on 7/6/1807; Richard Coxter on 9/7/1809 and Adam on 9/12/1810. [The fact that ‘A.W.’ excluded the surname ‘Weatherburn’ from his research explains why the entries in the Dalton in Furness entries were not extracted from those registers but not how the marriage of Adam Wedderburn to Mary Baxter at Manchester Cathedral on 8/2/1795 apparently remained undiscovered - nor why was the baptismal register for Manchester Cathedral “was not searched beyond 1800”. (‘Manchester Cathedral’, the collegiate church, did not receive Cathedral rank until 1848, on the erection of the See.)]   [Richard Coxter W’s and Adam’s baptisms (1809 & 1810) are in the IGI under ‘Widderburn’, as is that of Richard, ‘son of Alexander Widderburn & Amelia’, who was bap. at Manchester Cathedral on 1/9/1805. - The baptism of Matilda, said to have been b. 1817-18, does not appear at all, nor does that of Matilda’s ‘elder brother John’. - There is, however, a gap of six years between Adam (senior’s) marriage to Mary Baxter and the baptism of their daughter Elizabeth. A letter written by Christopher Wedderburn’s nephew John, in 1833, indicates that he was Adam’s son. - John says that his ‘eldest sister Mary Ann is dead’, that ‘Brother Adam is single yet’ and mentions ‘sister 'Betsy' - who must be Adam’s & Mary’s daughter Elizabeth, bap. 1802. - The John who is said to have married Mary Walthur, and died in 1814, aged 46, cannot be this John as, if he was aged 46 when he died on 24/8/1814, as A.W. states, he was born c1768. - Lynne & Al have checked the burials for Altrincham, Cheshire, but could find no trace of the burial of a John Wedderburn (or Weatherburn) in 1814.]  Lynne & Al have discovered that Adam-the-coachman, who is said in the W.B. to have died in Manchester ‘about 1825’, was buried at St. John’s, Deansgate, on 3/8/1824 as Adam Weatherburn. He was then aged 57, so he was born c1768.  As John Weatherburn & Ann Hodgson’s son Adam was bap. at St. Mary’s, Dalton, in 1768, it seems highly probable that he is their son - and therefore a brother of Christopher Wedderburn who went to S. Africa in 1820. (Christopher’s brother Adam is said to have ‘died from a fall from a horse’, which was no doubt a hazard that went with the job of coachman!)  [Did A.W. misinterpret his notes or was Mrs. Warren confused when she told him that her father’s brother John had seven children and went to Africa ‘as a missionary’ in 1820? - John did have seven children but there is no evidence that he went to Africa in 1820. (See below) It seems likely that she meant Christopher.]  ‘A.W.’ states that Adam-the-coachman’s wife Ann --, died at 23, Dumville Street, Manchester, in 1847, aged 70 [i.e. born c1777], ‘having had issue two sons and two daughters’. (Although the Manchester Cathedral register shows that Adam married Mary Baxter, the General Register of Deaths’ Index does show that it was an Ann Weatherburn who died in 1847. As ‘Mary Ann’ was the name of Adam & Mary’s eldest daughter, perhaps Mary was also a ‘Mary Ann’ but was known as ‘Ann’?)  The Lancs. IGI shows that Adam Wedderburn [bap. 1810 as ‘s. of Adam Widderburn &Mary’] m. Ann Scott at St. Mary’s, Manchester, on 28/9/1835.  Mrs. Warren is supposed to have said that her brother Adam died ‘s.p.’ but it could be a daughter of his (named Harriet), who married George Kershaw at Manchester Cathedral on 5/12/1859. [It cannot be Adam & Mary’s daughter Harriott (sic), bap. in 1805 ‘who married in 1859 and had two sons’!] - Ann Wedderburn, a widow aged 35 (d. of Thomas Scott), m. Theophilus Parkinson at Salford, Lancs. on 10/7/1853. (Misc. Refs., W.B. p. 508)  The baptism of an Alexander Widderburn (sic), whose son Richard was baptised at Manchester Cathedral on 1/9/1805, cannot been found, but, as Adam-the-coachman & Mary had a son baptised there in 1809 as ‘Richard Coxter Widderburn’ a connection between them seems likely. - Indeed, in a “History of the Wedderburn family since their Arrival in South Africa with the British Settlers of 1820” written by Christopher Wedderburn’s great-grandson, George Richard Wedderburn (b. 1866, d. 1948), George states that John Wedderburn & Ann Hodgson’s second son Alexander “emigrated to Jamaica and became a Sugar planter, and was reported to have become very wealthy”. - Alexander is not mentioned in the W.B.! Many inter-related Wedderburns from Dundee, and further north in Scotland, went out to Jamaica after 1745 and some died there. It is not inconceivable that some of the children of ‘unidentified’ Weatherburns in England - and Wedderburns in Scotland - were, in fact, the offspring of these ‘planter’ Wedderburns - sent home to be attached to less prominent Weatherburn and Wedderburn families. (An Amelia Wedderburn who married Edmund Chorlton at St. Mary’s, Manchester, on 22/8/1835 seems likely to be a daughter of Alexander ‘Widderburn’ &Amelia ---, the parents of Richard bap. in 1805, although there is no baptism of an Amelia W. in the Lancs. IGI.) [I recommend that anyone who believes that all children brought up in a married couple’s household must be the couple’s own offspring should read Amanda Foreman’s biography of “Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire”,  published in 1998!]  *********  In his “History of the Wedderburns in S. Africa”, George Richard W. states that John Wedderburn & Ann Hodgson’s eldest son William ‘became an officer in the Indian Army’. - This does not accord with Lynne & Al’s discovery that William, born at Lindale and bap. at St. Mary’s Church, Dalton, on 2/2/1758, became a mariner. William m. Ann ‘Nancy’ Gorrell (not ‘Serrell’, as shown  in the IGI) on 6/4/1795 and they appear to be the parents of William Wedderburn, mariner (b. 1798), a brief account of whom appears on W.B. p. 505 under the heading “The Wedderburns in Liverpool & West Derby”. [They are also the parents of Robert b. 1801, Jane b. 1803 (d. 1806) and the Christopher b. 1805 who was present at his mother ‘Nancy’s death in 1840 and John Wedderburn’s letter to his cousin William in S. Africa in 1833 indicates that, by then, their uncle William (bap. 1758) was deceased.]  John Weatherburn and Ann Hodgson’s son John (bap. at St. Mary’s, Dalton, on 21/8/1763), like his brother Christopher (b. 1772), had seven children - but John was not ‘a missionary in S. Africa’. He married Elizabeth Kendall at Urswick on 18/7/1789 and, at his marriage, John was described as a ‘husbandman’. Lynne & Al have discovered that he died at Great Urswick in 1813, aged 51. - It is not he, therefore, who married ‘Mary Walthur’ (no marriage found in the IGI) and who is said to have died in 1814, aged 46.  John Weatherburn and Elizabeth Kendall had five daughters and two sons: Jane, Anne, Elizabeth, Mary, Phoebe, William Ware and Thomas, who were all born at Great Urswick. (Thomas was b. on 30/11/1811. At his baptism, in Jan. 1812, his mother is shown as ‘d. of George and Jane Kendall’. - Phoebe was b. on 17/12/1804 and at her baptism, on 19 Dec., John is described as a ‘mason’. William Ware was b. on 30/1/1807 and at his baptism, on 9 Feb., John is described as a ‘waller’. - Their eldest d. Jane, bap. 12/3/1790, m. schoolmaster Thomas Dixon on 15/11/1817 at Urswick. Witnesses were Hannah Dixon & Robert Reid.)  Nothing more is known about John Wedderburn and Ann Hodgson’s younger daughter Anne, b. 1760, or about their son George, b. 1765. [Christopher’s grandson William told A.W. that he went to India. (Footnote on W.B. p. 510)]  Nothing more is known, either, about the youngest son, James, b. 1774. - Maybe he is ‘the brother who went to Australia’ - or perhaps, as William thought that Christopher was ‘the youngest child’ in his family, James died young?  *********  Lynne & Al have found that, some years before John ‘Wedderburn’ and Ann Hodgson were married at Whittington, Lancs. in 1755, there were ‘Weatherburns’ already settled at Stainton and Bardsea - both in the parish of Urswick, near Dalton in Furness. - They have searched the Urswick records (which do not appear in the Lancs. IGI) but have not been able to trace John’s ancestry.  (Possibly there is a connection between these earlier Weatherburns and a branch of the Wedderburn family in Berwick upon Tweed who, with all their male descendants, were made Freemen of B-on-T, although their origins are also ‘unknown’.)

These pages prepared by:

Peter Garwood
L'Eau Salée
Malaucène
84340 France

(Photo and letter provided by Settler Wedderburn descendants in Canada and South Africa)


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