Charles William Adams (1840 - 1918)

Born 7 Jul 1840 in Buckland, Tasmania, Australia

Husband of Eleanor Sarah (Gillon) Adams — married 5 Jan 1870 in Dunedin, New Zealand

Descendants

Died 29 Oct 1918 at age 78 in Lower Hutt, Wellington, New Zealand

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Russell Adams [send private message]

Biography

Charles was born in 1840. He was the son of Henry Cay Adams, a farmer and Chaplain and his wife Jane Maiden.

He was educated at a grammar school run by W. Carr-Boyd in Campbell Town, where he received a good grounding in Mathematics. In 1859 he commenced a survey cadetship with the Survey Department in Victoria, before returning in late 1860 to Tasmania, where he carried out surveys of Crown land.

In 1862 Charles emigrated from Australia to New Zealand where he settled in Otago. He worked as an assistant surveyor in the provincial Survey Department, where John Turnbull Thomson and James McKerrow (later the surveyor general and assistant surveyor general respectively) were already established. He spent a long period as a field surveyor in Otago and Wellington, often working in arduous conditions. He was rewarded in 1867 with promotion to district surveyor in Otago.

Charles married Eleanor "Ellen" Sarah Gillon on 5 January 1870 in Dunedin, New Zealand ^[1].

They had at least 6 children; Cecil Francis Adams, Arthur Henry Adams, Cecil Francis Adams, George Frederick King Adams, Eleanor Juliet (Adams) Spicer and Ormsby Gore Adams.

He was a Surveyor, an Astronomer and public servant. Charles was involved in establishing meridians (determining the direction of true north) by astronomical observation, triangulation observations, and carrying out standard surveys in Canterbury. His astronomical work led him to detect, in 1877, an error in the Nautical Almanac for the position of the star Alpha Centauri.

Charles retired to Lower Hutt, Wellington in 1904, although he continued to edit and write for the New Zealand Surveyor.

Charles died on 29 October 1918 in Lower Hutt, Wellington, New Zealand ^[2], and was buried on 31 October 1918 at Old Taita Cemetery, Naenae, Wellington ^[3].

Married 5th January 1870. His occupation on the Record of Marriage is Engineer. He was noted as a Surveyor in family records. He passed away in 1905.

Sources

1. ↑ New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs : Births, Deaths & Marriages Online (digital index) Marriage Registration: 1870/8232 - Ellen Sarah Gillon and Charles William Adams
2. ↑ New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs : Births, Deaths & Marriages Online (digital index) Death Registration: 1918/8094 - Adams Charles William - Age at Death: 78 years
3. ↑ Hutt City Council Cemetery Search | ADAMS, Charles William

• https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/2a2/adams-charles-william

Marriage Record and recollections of Howard Adams, grandson.

Name: Charles Wm Adams Marriage Year: 1870 Marriage Place: New Zealand Spouse: Ellen S Gillon Folio Number: 1454 Source Information Ancestry.com. New Zealand, Marriage Index, 1840-1937 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014.

Original data: New Zealand Marriage Index, 1840–1950. Microfiche.