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The Adamthwaite Family at Quambatook
1878 - 1978
page 1 of 12
This article was written by Vida Adamthwaite in
1978. Vida was the daughter of Alfred Edmund Adamthwaite and Ellen
(Gulley) and granddaughter of Joseph Adamthwaite and Emma (Smith).
It has been edited by Elizabeth Adamthwaite.
The name of Adamthwaite is a
very ancient one in the county of Westmoreland, North-Western England, and
was first recorded in the Pipe Rolls of Cumberland (County North of
Westmoreland) in 1248 and 1249. The "thwaite" ending means "an open space
cleared in the forest". The prefix refers to the name of the settler as in
ADAMthwaite.
Down through the ages, there
seem to have been Adamthwaite farmers in Westmoreland, but there were many
interesting sidelights to their general character. For instance, there were
Adamthwaites who were Quakers at the time of the religious persecution in
the 17th Century.
One, John Adamthwaite, in the
Eighteenth Century, was a brilliant clergyman and passed his B.A. and M.A.
Degrees at Oxford and Cambridge, also his B.D. and D.D. In addition he was
a theological writer. A nephew of his was Principal of an Academy at
Winton, Westmoreland, at the time of Charles Dickens. Various reports
surround the conduct of this establishment, but it must have been a fairly
reasonable school, for it survived the Dickens' tirade.
[Elizabeth writes: no, it was awful, the boys
were starved and quite a few of them died whilst they were pupils at the
school. See **** for a truer picture]
 
Joseph Adamthwaite and his wife Emma (Smith)
Joseph Adamthwaite
(grandfather of the present Adamthwaites of Quambatook) was born at
"Woodside" near Winton, Westmoreland, and was the youngest of four sons
[of Edmund and Ann (formerly Stout)]. There
were also two sisters,
one of whom was younger than he. One of the older brothers, John, migrated
to Australia in the 1850s (the time of the Gold Rush). One (Christopher)
went to New Zealand, and their youngest brother, Joseph, followed to
Australia where his older brother
John had settled in 1854. He mined for gold at Ballarat and Ararat. [Christopher
eventually returned to Australia, where he died in Queensland in …]
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