William was born in 1819. He married Mary Robertson Spiers in 1839 [1] . They migrated to NZ in 1842, with Elisabeth (age 6M), and Ann (2), who died on board. The settled in Auclkand, then a farm at the He was a miner, and tried his luck on the goldfields of California, Victoria, and NSW, before settling in Thames in 1868. He passed away in 1903 age 83. [2]
MR WILLIAM LANG THORBURN is one of the very Old Settlers of the colony. He was born in Glasgow in 1819, and accompanied his parents to America. Two years later the family returned to Scotland, and Mr. Thorburn became an engineer and practical mechanic in Glasgow. He arrived in Auckland by the ship “Duchess of Argyle” in 1842, and settled in Mechanics' Bay, where he continued for ten years. In 1850 he went to California as a digger, but returned to Auckland after a few months. Subsequently he had three years' experience on the New South Wales and Victorian goldfields. In July, 1868, having returned to the colony, he settled at the Thames, and was for many years actively engaged in mining. He was for a number of years mine manager of the Wild Missouri mine, and was afterwards mining successfully on his own account. Subsequently he was engineer at the celebrated Caledonian mine, and was afterwards battery manager at the Golden Crown battery for about ten years. Mr. Thorburn was married, in 1839, to a daughter of the late Mr. A. Spiers, of Glasgow. This lady died in 1893, leaving seven daughters and five sons, and one daughter has since died. Mr. Thorburn has over 100 grandchildren. [3]
In the days of his activity there were few men better known about the Thames than Mr W. L. Thorburn, whose death at Tararu last week has thrown a large section of Auckland Province into mourning- for the ramifications of the Thorburn family are extensive. Mr Thorburn came to Auckland in the pioneer ship Duchess of Argyle over sixty years ago, and has lived in the province ever since, save for excursions to the Californian and Australian diggings in their early stages. When the Thames goldfield was opened he was amongst the earliest to rush it, and he has never left the district. He was for some time manager of the Wild Missouri mine, Tararu Creek, and afterwards engineer and amalgamator to the Caledonian and Golden Crown companies. For the last fifteen years he' has lived in retirement at his home in Tararu. His large family includes Mrs Maurice Casey and Mrs E. Johns, both of Auckland, and Mr R. S. Thorburn, till lately in business in Queen street ; and his grandchildren run into three figures. Mr Thorburn was a member of the Thames County Council back in the days when the late Alexander Brodie reigned in those regions as a mighty power.[4]
A publication titled "The descendants of William Lang Thorburn and Mary Robertson Spiers in New Zealand, 1842-1992" published by the Thorburn Family Reunion Committee is deposited at the Auckland Museum [5]
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T > Thorburn > William Lang Thorburn
Categories: New Zealand Colonists | Duchess of Argyle, sailed 9 June 1842