Welcome to this weeks Scavenger Hunt.........It looks like a really interesting one, taking us from the UK to Australia, back to UK and then to the U.S. Phew.........it's tiring just thinking about it. Have fun.
Good Luck and Good Hunting.
Barbara
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Duncan Dunbar Tatham was born 20th March 1824 to Poplar surgeon Christopher Tatham and his first wife, Justina Dunbar Tatham. Justina was the sister of Duncan Dunbar II, a shipping magnate who was apparently the Ari Onassis of the time. DDT was the second child of three, and the only son. According the "The Times", it seems that, as a young man, he was involved in a scuffle with some felonious types - the newspaper reports indicate they tried to rob him whilst he was in the company of a young lady ... the felons claimed they were trying to blackmail him, because said young lady had removed her bonnet (scandalous!) in DDT's company.
Whatever the reason or cause, DDT then shows up in Australia. I believe he sailed on the "King William", arriving in Melbourne on the 12th September 1851. He worked as a shipping clerk with connections to his Uncle Duncan's firm ... until he, reportedly, passed a couple of letters of credit on Uncle Duncan ... for which he had no authority! Needless to say, his employment with the family firm seems to have ceased at this point.
The next we hear of him, he was married to Mary Ann Judd at St Peter's church in Melbourne on the 7th June 1853. In 1854, their daughter Justina was born at Chiltern, Victoria, ... and in 1856 they had a son, Duncan John Tatham. By this time, they were living in Geelong, and DDT was employed as a warder/turnkey at Geelong Gaol. However in 1857, his wife Mary Ann died. And this is where it gets strange.
There seems to be no trace of DDT after Mary Ann's death.
The two children were reportedly retrieved from Australia by their Aunt Phoebe, and taken back to "Blighty" aboard a Dunbar ship captained by one of DDT's uncles. As it was a Dunbar ship, we suspect the trip was a "family freebie", and records weren't kept precisely. We have found two Tatham children aboard a Dunbar ship, however their names were given as Elizabeth and John ... still not sure they're our babes. Back in England, Justina Tatham was taken in by Aunt Phoebe, and baptised at the age of 8 in Hatfield, Herts. Sadly, Justina died in 1870 aged just 16.
Duncan John was taken in by his grandfather and step-grandmother, Elizabeth Gordon Tatham. He was sent to a good boarding school in Kent, and around the time he left school, he inherited some money from the estate of his half-uncle Christopher. This, too, is interesting, because a codicil on the Will directs that he will be disinherited if he ever signs any of the money over to anyone else; - is this a clue that DDT was still alive?
Next, Duncan John shows up in Laramie City, Wyoming, on the 1880 US Census. He was working as a bartender and living in the home of a Mr Ivinson (the house is still standing, and a local tourist attraction, I believe).
But after 1880 there's no sign of Duncan John ... until a D J Tatham appears on the manifest of the "Port Henderson", which sailed from Kingston Jamaica to Avonmouth, Bristol, in December of 1910.
Is it possible these two fellows can be found?? I'm only one of a conglomeration of distant cousins, who'd love to know what happened to them!
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