Hello Colin, great to hear from you again. Below is a wad of stuff that will no doubt take you some time to absorb. Hopefully it will be of interest to our mutual extended family!
Robert Robertson (1)
b. 1783 Blairgowrie, Perthshire, Scotland
d. Feb 21, 1850, Blairgowrie
m. Elizabeth Anderson (b. 1787, d. 1831) 27 Nov. 1808
Children:
William, 13 Oct. 1809
James, 18 June 1811
Alexander, 30 Oct. 1813
John, 27 Dec. 1815
*Robert (2), 25 June 1817
1831, RR remarries: Margaret Hutcheon (b. 1810). Their children:
David, 1 July 1819
Margaret, 23 Aug 1832
Anne, 30 Jan 1834
John, 28 Sept 1835
Elizabeth, 15 March 1837
27 Dec 1842, son *Robert (2), who is a Corporal in the 1st 99th Foot Regiment (Wiltshire, Duke of Edinburgh), marries Janet (“Jessie”) Page in Chatham, England. The regiment is posted to Australia, with the troops escorting the convict ships to Hobart and Sydney.
1843 Robert (3), born at sea. Birth registered with NSW BDM
1845 Nicholas, (named after Janet’s father) born Sydney. Birth registered with NSW BDM
1847 Alexander, (named after Robert’s brother) born Sydney. Birth registered with NSW BDM
1849 Mary Elizabeth, born Hobart Tasmania. Birth reg. TAS BDM
1853 James, born Hobart Tasmania. Birth reg. TAS BDM
I have been advised that the whole family appear as resident in Perthshire, Scotland for the 1861 census. Don’t know precise date of their leaving Hobart. I assume Robert (2) and his brother James have finally received their inheritance from their father’s estate. I have a copy of RR(1)’s Will, where he states Robert and James have been naughty boys and won’t get the capital unless they can prove to the Trustees they have changed their ‘profligate ways’. Don’t know what James was up to back in Scotland, but Robert had 5 kids and was earning 9 pence a day and living in the boondocks surrounded by crims, so one would think not a lot of opportunity for profligacy! However their father was big in the Royal Bank of Scotland, so....
So that’s pretty much all I have of their Australian history. Alexander went to Glasgow University and added Page, his mother’s maiden name, no doubt to differentiate himself from his uncle and two first cousins, all with the same name. He became a very wealthy dental surgeon, grand poohba in the Masons, Elder of the Church of Scotland, more or less built St. Bartholomew’s Church in Gourock, Scotland and endowed it with marble altar, bronze eagle lectern and stained glass windows to commemorate his parents. He was my great grandfather. His son Alexander also became a dentist, and his son was my father. We were all born in Scotland and I lived there until migrating to Australia in 1962, 50 years next month! I did not discover the circuitous link with Australia until a few years ago when I began researching the family history. My wife and I have two daughters and five grandchildren. One son in law is a Glaswegian with a family tree covering in excess of 4000 McDonalds, so I’ll leave that branch of research in his capable hands!
I believe the adding of family names later in life to avoid confusion may also be where your James got his ‘Anderson’, being his grandmother’s maiden name. I have no early records of either brother having anything other than one given name and Robertson, so some of the early census documents are a little vague.
A gentleman in Gourock (which is where all my branch resided) helped with the research for St. Bartholomew’s and my GG’s connection with it. Because he had links with the Church authorities, he also supplied some details for James, who as an ordained minister seemed to be on call for the rest of the family for hatches, matches and despatches. I will try and dig that out, and send it with my next posting. If you Google my name you will connect to my website, blogs etc. and you’ll get an idea of what I’ve been up to since retirement. The contact button will let you do just that, if you have photos etc to send.
My mother remarried in Canada in 1963 and lived in Ottawa until her death just before last Christmas. We visited her last April with our eldest grand daughter to help celebrate her 90th birthday. This was our 20th visit to Canada, and we have many close friends on both coasts, particularly in Vancouver and especially Victoria BC, which we think of as our second home.
Who knows, we may even have passed each other in the street at some time!
Yours Aye,
Andrew Page-Robertson
PS This weblink below shows two historic letters from our mutual GGG which are of unique military and postal interest. The first is from Sydney, and I still have it, the second is a copy from the Auctioneer and it mentions James in Hobart. It sold for over A$6400, just in case you’re interested in collecting such items!
www.auspostalhistory.com/articles/218.shtml