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Introducing James Theopilus Adamthwaite – a VERY interesting man!

James Theopilus ADAMTHWAITE’s  memorial card (see  above) gives his date of birth as 18 April 1839 and his date of death as 28 May 1912 – age 73 years 1mo 10 days.  We know for certain that he died in Burleson, Texas … but where was he born?

The photo above was taken and developed by James T Adamthwaite himself and his descendant tells us : James Theopilus ADAMTHWAITE, was born Apr. 18, 1839 in London.  He received his education in England, then he went to Calais, France where he completed his education.  He returned to the Isle of Wight where he served to a chemist for 5 years where he acquired a great proficiency to that science. (His neighbors here in Texas called him Doc.)  He went to Italy where he served under the banner of General Guiseppe Garabaldi. I have some medals from that time, dated around 1860. After that war was over, he returned to England for several years, then he made 2 trips around the world.  He spent 2 years working for the East India trading Co. on the Western shores of Africa.  He also spent some time in the West Indies. He landed in New York 1875 (can’t find those records either) and found his way to Burleson County Texas where he bought a farm which I live on now.  He died here May 28th 1912. (with thanks to PM)

From his year and place of birth in London in 1839, he appears to be James Adamthwaite the son of John Allen ADAMTHWAITE and Susan Anglin (BRYAN) as we have found in the 1841 and 1851 censuses in London, though there is a discrepancy in the exact date of birth with that given on the first James’s christening record.  And indeed his descendant possesses letters written to James from the family of his sister-in-law Elizabeth Johnson ADAMTHWAITE (the widow of William Vipond ADAMTHWAITE), as well as a Vipond Adamthwaite family bible.  So clearly, if he was the brother of William Vipond ADAMTHWAITE this confirms his parentage.

He first appears in United States records in Texas, in the census of 1880, as  James ADAMTHWAITE, living with his wife Maggie E ADAMTHWAITE (nee BAINS and formerly married to a Mr Billingsley), a step son Henry BILLINGSLEY and son Pleasant ADAMTHWAITE (b. in US in ~1879).  Census data for the state of Texas for the years 1890 and 1900 is sadly missing, but he appears in the 1910 census, again with his wife Maggie and three more sons, Cecil A, Arthur and Charlie (all born between 1884 and 1889).   According to US census data, James Theophilus was born in England as was his father – his mother was born either in England or Scotland (info varies between censuses).  The naturalisation papers for James Adamthwaite (no mention of the middle name Theophilus) completed on 31 October 1892 in Milam County, Texas, state that he had resided in the United States of America for five years since making his application for naturalisation on 26 May 1886 and that he arrived in the port of New York on or about the 16^th day of November 1876 from England.

It is hard to find an explanation for this as a James ADAMTHWAITE, son of John Allen ADAMTHWAITE the public notary certainly appeared to have died in London in 1859 - we hold a death certificate, a burial record and Letters of Administration for him.  Our first suspicion was that his brother John Allen ADAMTHWAITE, when he disappeared from records in England in about 1860, assumed the identity of his dead brother James and left the country, eventually turning up in America in around 1875/76 where he married his third wife.  But we then discovered John Allen Adamthwaite in London in the 1881 census and found the death certificate for John Adam Thwaite in the following month of May 1881.  So, unless he managed to fake his own death, this seems to rule out this possibility.  It is also highly possible that the John Allen, a widower born in Stoke Newington aged 37 who was a commercial clerk, who was visiting the Tuggey household in the 1871 census is actually our John Allen Adamthwaite. 

It seems unlikely that anyone else assumed James’ identity and became James Theophilus, because how would an unrelated person have been in correspondence with James’s sister-in-law Elizabeth (Johnson) Adamthwaite? 

So it now appears that James was not dead at all!  It is possible that he and his brother John Allen colluded in some way to obtain a death certificate in order to obtain their inheritance a year before it was due to be paid out.  But it seems much more likely that John Allen Adamthwaite was solely responsible for obtaining a death certificate in James’s name (perhaps after James had set off on his travels) in order to claim the whole of his father’s legacy.  And was John Allen’s first wife Eliza’s income arranged by John Allen Adamthwaite senior’s executors?  If so, were they aware of the mysterious reappearance of James? And WHO is buried in that family grave in Nunhead Cemetery?  Why was William Vipond's widow Elizabeth not puzzled by the existence of James in Texas when she must have been aware that there was a James buried in the same grave as her husband? Though now we have learned that there was no memorial stone on the family grave, perhaps she would not have known about James burial, as by March of 1859 she was in Manchester (where her son Frank Vipond Adamthwaite was born) and by the time of the 1861 census she had settled in Nottingham with her children.

We know from the recollections reprinted above that James Theopilus was a great traveller – perhaps John Allen was too, which could explain his absence from the 1861 UK census.  But we have not managed to find records of either of them on passenger lists to America or elsewhere.  If James fought for Garibaldi, was this in the volunteer army of 1860 when Garibaldi invaded Sicily and Naples?  And was John Allen fighting too? 

Perhaps a clue can be found in the record for James ADAMTHWAITE’s death in 1859 at 40 Leicester Square, which was reported by a Chas HOLLOWAY, also of 40 Leicester Square.   

In the 1861 census, the HOLLOWAY family (but no Charles) were still living at this address:

• William HOLLOWAY, head, 48, messenger and Chelsea Pensioner, b Hants Monxton

• Charlotte, wife, 42, b. Berks Reading

• Charlotte Esther, dau, 18, dressmaker, b. Middx Westminster

• Elizabeth Matilda, dau, 15, dressmaker apprentice, b. Middx Westminster

• Mary Jane PEROVER, cousin, 11, scholar, b. Kent Woolwich (believe this is Mary Jane PECKOVER – d of William HOLLOWAY’s married sister Jane)

In 1851 this family had been living at New St, Salisbury, where William was a Sergeant in the Army.  However there was still no Charles in the family – so who was the person who reported James ADAMTHWAITE’s death?

And surely it is no coincidence that John Allen Adamthwaite senior’s executor Alexander Ridgeway had lived at 42 Leicester Square in the 1841 census?  So many questions, and to date, no satisfactory answers!

There was clearly a link between the Vipond Adamthwaites in America: the son of  William Vipond jr and his wife Elizabeth (Johnson), Frank Vipond Adamthwaite, emigrated to New York in 1880 where he raised a family.  We have been told that James Theophilus Adamthwaite's son visited his aunt Elizabeth on a trip to England and brought back a family bible.

Inscriptions on the Vipond Family Bible (with thanks to WA):

And interestingly – John Allen ADAMTHWAITE jr and Eliza’s son Mark appears to have also emigrated to the US and continued his father’s tradition of bigamy!  He also possessed amazing powers of everlasting youth, as can be seen from his story ....

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Read more about Mark Adamthwaite