The River Liddel

William (Bill) Loren Liddell and his daughter, Mylia, while on a trip to England in late May 2000, took a day to travel north to find the River Liddel.  They stopped at a little Inn near Canonbie, Scotland and were directed down a road to a bridge which crossed over the river.  There was a sign posted on a tree, Liddel Valley Estates, but no one in the local area could give us any information on how to contact them.  We had to return to New Castle that afternoon to make connections on the train back to London, so did not have enough time to visit the Castles further up the river.

William (Bill) Loren Liddell standing on a bridge crossing the River Liddel in Scotland.  He is a second cousin to William J. Liddell of Chicago and their grandfathers were sons of Parker Carr Lidell who was born in Hemmingford, Canada East.  Parkers father was William Lyddle, born 1809 in England, according to the 1850 census records.  Note the three different spellings of the name.  Parker used the spelling Lidell, however our grandfathers changed that to Liddell after Parker died in 1906.   The 1860 census showed the name spelled as Liddle, and we think that was probably the correct spelling of the name at that time.

Captain James Donaldson Liddell, Master Mariner-- Captain Liddell was born in Alloa Clackamannanshire, Scotland in 1807 of William James and Margaret (Donaldson) Liddell and died in 1887 of cholera in Victoria, Grant County, Australia. A lifelong master and owner of ships, and the son of a ship's owner and master, the Presbyterian captain and astute businessman  at only 22 was the first settler/farmer in the later-important New Zealand Kawhia trading area in the center of the west coast of New Zealand's North Island. His 12 children carried on the family's tradition of sailing and settlement in the “Down Under“ region. Athough he sailed the world, Liddell spent nearly all his adult life principally on the seas of China, Timor, Australia and New Zealand. He is important to the settlement and development of New South Wales Australia and of New Zealand, including its gold mining industry. He is sometimes shown in the records of those nations as a Liddle. One of his names among New Zealand’s Maori tribes was Hemi Kaihautu, translated as: "The person “James Liddell"--SHIP'S CAPTAIN) The montage and information used in this cutline were supplied by Team Member Raymond Noel Liddell of New Zealand, a gg-grandson of the captain.