Scottish Ancestors of the Telford Family of Ellinbank

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There are several independent Scottish forebears that have contributed to the genetic inheritance of the Telford family of Ellinbank.

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The patrilineal line originated with John Tellfoord of Blairlogie ( near Stirling) in the 17th century and was brought to Australia in about 1852 by his great great grandson William Telford who settled at Beechworth, Victoria.

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William's father John Telford worked for the Stirling Banking Company before migrating to Wellington, New Zealand in 1839. His father William was one of the original partners of the bank. John married Jane Wright, duaghter of one of the other bank partners, Thomas Wright and Elizabeth Littlejohn of Clifford House, Stirling.

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William married Jeanie Orr, daughter of William Orr and Jean Hunter. Both the Orrs and the Hunters were from Ayrshire, the earliest known ancestor being Rev. Thomas Hunter, rector of New Cummnock parish from 1706  to 1756. The Orr family were farmers from Irvine in western Ayrshire. The Orr family came to Victoria in 1852.

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William Telford's son John Dempster Telford married Charlotte Elizabeth Gordon Docker (Lottie) in 1896. Lottie was the daughter of Matthew Betham Docker and Helen Wemyss McArthur; the Dockers were from Westmorland county in England but Helen McArthur's forbears were from Scotland.

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The Wemyss family came from Fife and have a long pedigree which intersects with the Earls of Fife and back to the McDuff clan. The earliest Wemyss ancestor about whom we have substantial data is David Wemyss born 1740 and whose family grew up on a farm at Wester Lathallan. His daughter Elizabeth came to Sydney in 1835 together with her offspring and their spouses.

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Elizabeth Wemyss married Donald McArthur, an officer in the British army who fought against Napoleon's forces. The McArthur clan originated in Argyll but after Donald's retirement the family made their home in Edinburgh where son Donald Gordon McArthur met and married Elizabeth Kirby. Her father Jeremiah obtained a medical degree, M.D. at Edinburgh University although originally from England, his forbears being from Kings Lynn in Norfolk.

 

In December 1967 Alan Telford from Ellinbank married Isabel Robertson Mackie who had emigrated with her parents in 1962 from Edinburgh, Scotland. 

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