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James Trego Williams (abt. 1836 - 1903)

James Trego [uncertain] Williams
Born about in Bury St Edmonds, Suffolk, Englandmap [uncertain]
[sibling(s) unknown]
Husband of — married 30 Nov 1865 in Res. of the Bride's mother, LeFevre Tce, North Adelaide, South Australia, Australiamap
Descendants descendants
Died at about age 67 in Adelaide, South Australia, Australiamap
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Profile last modified | Created 14 Nov 2015
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Biography

In 1865 James Trego-Williams, husband of Margaret (nee Malcolm) was the manager of the National Bank in Gawler, until his resignation in December of that year. In November of the same year he had purchased some land in the Hundred of Mudla Wirra at the S.A. Government auction comprising of sections 686, 687, 690, and 694 - a total of 573 acres. He took out a generous bank loan, as he was not able to buy his land outright. Nearby 5 acres had been taken out of lot 704 for trust as a cemetery, so he did not buy this section.
James and Margaret Trego-Williams named their property 'Olive Hill Farm', although at this stage the olive trees that Margaret wanted to plant were not there. James moved to the property and built two small rooms (wattle and daub) for him and his wife to live in while he was repairing the existing house on the property.
Margaret meanwhile was still living at the house behind the National Bank in Gawler, and in December 1866 (just before Christmas) she gave birth to twin daughters. Both babies however were extremely weak and died in infancy, one week after they had settled on their farm. They were not allowed to be buried in the churchyard at Gawler, as they had not been baptised, thus they were buried on the land set aside for a cemetery, on the outskirts of their property.
This personal tragedy and the drought conditions that prevailed during 1867 finally forced then off their land. James was unable to sow a crop that year and Margaret who was pregnant again was sent to Gawler where she gave birth to a daughter towards the end of 1867. The land was sold to James Wright Sawle, a farmer in the area who had been quite successful although he too was to face the problems caused by the continuing drought and shortage of other readily available water.
Olive Hill Farm was one of the first habitations built in the mid 60's in this area and it was later to become the residence of the various Principals of Roseworthy Agricultural College. The house is situated on a low hill near the southern boundary of the main College landholding and has excellent views of the hills in the northern Mount Lofty ranges. Some of the original olive trees planted by Margaret were still growing 100 years later and today , their descendants, seeded from these original trees are still thriving. Margaret Trego-Williams was apparently superstitious about these trees and the story has been passed down that there must always be olive trees there.

JAMES TREGO WILLIAMS 1836- 8/9/1903
The death is announced of Mr James Trego Williams, at his residence Belgrave Tce., College Town on Tuesday morning. The deceased who was 67 years of age, was a well known identity in banking and commercial circles. For a number of years he had charge of the National Bank at Gawler, but resigned to enter into farming pursuits. He afterwards settled at Mt. Barker and joined the late Mr F.C.Cornelius in partnership, and carried on business in stock agents and auctioneers. He was employed as accountant about 15 years ago in Adelaide by Mesers Liston, Bagot and Shakes, but latterly acted as the Adelaide agent of the late Mr A.B. Murray. Mr Williams was a deacon of the College Park Congregational Church, a position he occupied for about 8 years. He married a sister of Mr J. Malcolm of Wallaroo, and his widow and grown up family survive.
REGISTER SEPT 9, 1903
Newspaper articles downloaded from the National Library of Australia’s TROVE web site. Copyright has expired.

This is a works in progress and any assistance with information or source details would be very much appreciated.

Source

  • Information is taken from the book “From Weavers to Wapstraw” by Ben Evans.

South Australian Genealogy Index of Birth, Death and Marriage.
Marriage
1865 64/466 WILLIAMS James Tryo MALCOLM Margaret Adelaide
Death
1903 297/37 WILLIAMS James Trego undefined Norwood
Link to Index
South Australian Genealogy Index of Birth, Death and Marriage.
https://www.genealogysa.org.au/resources/online-databases.html

Burial: Date: 09 SEP 1903 Place: Payneham Cemetery, Payneham, South Australia, Australia.





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DNA Connections
It may be possible to confirm family relationships with James by comparing test results with other carriers of his Y-chromosome or his mother's mitochondrial DNA. However, there are no known yDNA or mtDNA test-takers in his direct paternal or maternal line. It is likely that these autosomal DNA test-takers will share some percentage of DNA with James:

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