The HAMILTON's of Kirkcudbright, Scotland
and later Maitland, NSW, Australia
Captain John HAMILTON
and the "Western Wave"
Captain John HAMILTON was born in Colvend, Kirkcudbright, Scotland on or about 31st July 1823. At present, his parents are unconfirmed but it is very likely they are Robert HAMILTON and Jane ADAMS or ADAMSON.
On 7 October 1853 in Dalbeattie, Scotland, John married Mary WATSON, (b 14 April 1830 in Borgue, Kirkcudbright) daughter of James WATSON and Catherine SHAW.
John was a seaman and progressed to being a Captain, the position he held when he died at sea in the Bay of Biscay on 13 April 1874, while Captain of the "Western Wave". Mary had died 2 years earlier on 3rd August 1872.
John and Mary had 5 children
Catherine (b 29 September 1855, Dalbeattie, d 18 August 1878)
Robert (b 5 September 1859, Dalbeattie, d 4 June 1935, Maitland, NSW)
John (b 10 September 1862, Dalbeattie, d 14 December 1936, Maitland, NSW)
James (b 10 January 1869, Dalbeattie, d 10 January 1892, Maitland, NSW)
Elizabeth (b 29 September 1855, Dalbeattie)
No other information is known about Catherine and Elizabeth, but the three brothers, Robert, John and James migrated to Australia and settled in Maitland, NSW.
Robert HAMILTON
migrated aboard the "S S Aberdeen", White Star Line in 1882. In 1884 in Sydney, he married Mary Cowper ERSKINE b 17 August 1861 in Liverpool, England to Chief Engineer James Erskine and Mary Cowper BLACK, and they moved to Maitland and had 7 children, John James Watson, Robert, Mary Cowper, Beatrice Lindsay, Cyril Erskine, Gordon Kenneth and Jean Clarice Henrietta.
Descendant surnames from these children are SMITH, MORRIS, BEGG, ELLIS, HALLET and HACK concentrated initially in the Maitland area of NSW around the turn of the century (1900).
Robert worked for his mother's brother, James WATSON who owned and ran the first horse drawn bus company in Maitland. James WATSON's wife was Catherine DUNCAN.
Robert and Mary's daughter Beatrice is my husband's grandmother.
John HAMILTON
migrated to Australia in 1886 and settled in Maitland, NSW. In 1893 he married Mary Ann WEEKES, b 1863 in Muswellbrook to Walter John WEEKES and Isabella SPENCER. John and Mary also had 7 children, Mary Isabelle (Belle), Hilda, Walter John, Ina Watson, Harold Shaw, Kate and Margaret.
Descendant surnames from these children are PORTER, McDONALD, GARDEN, LEVERTON, PRICE and TRESTRAIL.
James HAMILTON
migrated to Australia and lived in Maitland. He died on his 23rd birthday, 10th January 1892. He never married.
My email is [email protected]
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