From Alan Hattle of South Africa:
Further to the focus on the weekend of 18/19 July on the fisher families of the Greenses, Berwick-upon-Tweed, I am hoping that someone will be able to give me clarification on the Burgon(e) side of my family tree.
My great-grandfather John Hattle married Isabella Elspeth Burgon(e) in Berwick in 1865, and her birthplace (November 1844) in censuses is given as Sunderland. Several descendants after that were given the middle name of Burgon (my father, born 1914 in South Africa) was John Burgon Hattle.
My research notes were all lost in a fire, so I need to follow this line up again, but I suspect the following:
Isabella Elspeth Burgone was the daughter of James Burgone and Elizabeth Douglass, and had siblings Mary (born 1840), Peter (born 1846) and possibly Elizabeth (born 10 years later in 1856).
James Burgone was possibly the son of John Burgon and Mary Fowlerton (I have copies of family letters from the early 1950s in which my grandfather and some siblings try to unravel the family tree, and comment that they believed Isabella Burgon(e)'s father was a James, and that her grandmother was a Mary).
And I suspect John Burgon was one of the sons of Peter Burgon and Ann Elliott, whose line down through other sons seems to be well-documented.
I have no knowledge of the ancestors of Elizabeth Douglass, other than her mother was probably a Sarah.
Regarding the name Burgon/Burgone, I have a copy of a 1954 letter to my grandfather from his sister, Mary Burgon Hattle (then living in Edinburgh) in which they discuss the difficulties of tracing the family tree, and at one point, Mary writes,
"By the way Mother's birth and marriage lines as she always told us it should be and we copied on her headstone - Burgone. The E she said gradually got dropped - perhaps considered locally "Swank", though her Rothesay cousins went a step further and added the Y - Burgoyne. French ? extraction which may add a thrill to .....'s (I can't make out the handwriting) imagination. I remember Alice was keen for me to join Edin. P O savings bank lent me 2/6 and to put Mary "Burgoyne" but at Ber got matters put right told them Burgon these things can be very awkward later on."
Alice was one of Thomas and Mary's sisters - great aunt Alice married Alexander Duncan late in life (1927 at age 49) in Hartington Gardens, Morningside District, Edinburgh.
If you can help Alan, please put a comment below.
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Showing posts with label Alan Hattle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alan Hattle. Show all posts
Wednesday, 2 September 2015
Sunday, 5 July 2015
Hattle Family Photographs
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| Thomas Hattle and Mabel Smith |
The previous articles were Thousands of Miles by Taxi, a Trip by Thomas Hattle, who emigrated from Berwick to South Africa in 1901 and More about the Hattle Family .
These photos are of Thomas' wedding to Mabel Smith in South Africa in 1911.
Can you identify them ?
Tuesday, 30 June 2015
More about the Hattle Family
I separated this from the earlier post, Thousands of Miles by Taxi, a Trip by Thomas Hattle, who emigrated from Berwick to South Africa in 1901 so as to have one post about Thomas Hattle and his family.
From Alan Hattle:
The 1829 will of Thomas Hettle/Hattle (my great-great-great grandfather, of Windmill Hole in the Borough of Berwick), mentions a son, Jess, "who is at present in America". I have not established whether this Jess(e) stayed in America and/or had any children. I did have some data on another distant Hattle cousin who moved to Massachusetts in the 1800s, but my files were lost in a fire and I need to explore that line again. There were at least two other Hattles (one a female married to a Robertson) who made it to South Africa at some stage, but those are also lines I wish to explore more.
While most of my ancestors and their families remained in the Berwick/Berwickshire/Borders area, a few ventured further afield in Scotland.
A first cousin, 4 times removed (Thomas Hattle, born 1832, son of Young Hattle and Isabella Lyal(l)) emigrated to Canada, and there is a growing branch of the Hattle family in Ontario.
I would be thrilled to hear from locals in Berwick who have links to my family.
If you would like to contact Alan, please comment below with your email address (the email address won't be published).
From Alan Hattle:
The 1829 will of Thomas Hettle/Hattle (my great-great-great grandfather, of Windmill Hole in the Borough of Berwick), mentions a son, Jess, "who is at present in America". I have not established whether this Jess(e) stayed in America and/or had any children. I did have some data on another distant Hattle cousin who moved to Massachusetts in the 1800s, but my files were lost in a fire and I need to explore that line again. There were at least two other Hattles (one a female married to a Robertson) who made it to South Africa at some stage, but those are also lines I wish to explore more.
While most of my ancestors and their families remained in the Berwick/Berwickshire/Borders area, a few ventured further afield in Scotland.
A first cousin, 4 times removed (Thomas Hattle, born 1832, son of Young Hattle and Isabella Lyal(l)) emigrated to Canada, and there is a growing branch of the Hattle family in Ontario.
I would be thrilled to hear from locals in Berwick who have links to my family.
If you would like to contact Alan, please comment below with your email address (the email address won't be published).
Monday, 29 June 2015
Thousands of Miles by Taxi, a Trip by Thomas Hattle, who emigrated from Berwick to South Africa in 1901
From Alan Hattle:
My paternal grandfather, Thomas Hattle, was one of ten children of John Hattle and Isabella Elspeth Burgon(e), and apparently the only one to emigrate.
A brother, James Burgon Hattle died in 1915 in an accident aboard the HMS Macedonia while in the Falklands on service during World War I, and is buried in the cemetery at Port Stanley.
Thomas had six children (all born in South Africa) and 19 grandchildren, most of whom stayed in southern Africa, although some descendants have since emigrated to New Zealand and Australia, and one has spent many years teaching in China. He was born on 19 February 1876 in Berwick, worked in the Telegraph Department of the North British Railway Company from 1890 until 1901 when he secured a job in the post and telegraph offices of the Cape of Good Hope, based in Port Elizabeth.
Thomas Hattle must have been an interesting and determined gentleman (unfortunately he died when I was a small child so I never really got to know him). He made a taxi trip covering some 4,714 miles, which appears to have been (at that time at least) a world record.
P.E. Man Recalls an Adventure
A recent report emanating from Cape Town to the effect that a Mr. R. Oliver, a businessman from India on holiday in the Union, had employed a taxi to carry him from Cape Town to Mombasa – a distance of nearly 6,000 miles – has prompted a Port Elizabeth man, Mr. Thomas Hattle, to relate his story concerning what he regards as the longest taxi trip ever undertaken by a South African.
In fact, two overseas newspapers, the Berwick Advertiser and the Newcastle Weekly Chronicle, published accounts of Mr. Hattle’s long taxi ride of just under 5,000 miles driven all the way by a Port Elizabeth taxi-driver, Mr. S. Blom. The feat took place in 1937 and both overseas papers printed the story in 1939 when Mr. J. H. Curle, noted English traveller and author, set out on a 2,500-mile taxi trip which the American Press claimed as a world record.
Mr. Hattle’s trip of 4,714 miles occupied a full month and embraced travelling over some of the country’s worst roads and frequently over mere footpaths, over steep passes and through swirling rivers. His task was concerned with telephone development study in the vast Transkeian territories as far north as Port St Johns.
An interesting feature of this trip was the meeting of Mr Hattle and Chief David Dalindyelo of Moekezweni. The Chief acted as interpreter to His Majesty the King when the Royal Family visited Umtata a week or two ago, and in 1937 he took great pride in signing his autograph in Mr. Hattle’s notebook, which is still in the latter’s possession.
Since Mr R Oliver is not expected to reach Mombasa until April 1, it is possible that the achievement of Mr Hattle and his driver, Mr Blom, in covering 4,714 miles in a single taxi trip in the same car, stands at the moment as a record for this country and possibly a world record."
Thomas Hattle's son, John Burgon Hattle (my father) was a meteorologist, and had the distinction, as a wartime Major in the South African army, of opening the meteorological station on the remote South Atlantic island of Tristan da Cunha, and operating it for many months during the World War II years. As a child, before the destructive Tristan volcano, I remember him frequently receiving letters from the many friends he made among the island community.
I would be thrilled to hear from locals in Berwick who have links to my family.
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| Thomas Hattle |
A brother, James Burgon Hattle died in 1915 in an accident aboard the HMS Macedonia while in the Falklands on service during World War I, and is buried in the cemetery at Port Stanley.
Thomas had six children (all born in South Africa) and 19 grandchildren, most of whom stayed in southern Africa, although some descendants have since emigrated to New Zealand and Australia, and one has spent many years teaching in China. He was born on 19 February 1876 in Berwick, worked in the Telegraph Department of the North British Railway Company from 1890 until 1901 when he secured a job in the post and telegraph offices of the Cape of Good Hope, based in Port Elizabeth.
Thomas Hattle must have been an interesting and determined gentleman (unfortunately he died when I was a small child so I never really got to know him). He made a taxi trip covering some 4,714 miles, which appears to have been (at that time at least) a world record.
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| Berwick Advertiser, 24 August 1939 |
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| Newcastle Weekly Chronicle 2 September 1939 |
An article in the Port Elizabeth Advertiser, 18 March 1947 said:
"Thousands of Miles by TaxiP.E. Man Recalls an Adventure
A recent report emanating from Cape Town to the effect that a Mr. R. Oliver, a businessman from India on holiday in the Union, had employed a taxi to carry him from Cape Town to Mombasa – a distance of nearly 6,000 miles – has prompted a Port Elizabeth man, Mr. Thomas Hattle, to relate his story concerning what he regards as the longest taxi trip ever undertaken by a South African.
In fact, two overseas newspapers, the Berwick Advertiser and the Newcastle Weekly Chronicle, published accounts of Mr. Hattle’s long taxi ride of just under 5,000 miles driven all the way by a Port Elizabeth taxi-driver, Mr. S. Blom. The feat took place in 1937 and both overseas papers printed the story in 1939 when Mr. J. H. Curle, noted English traveller and author, set out on a 2,500-mile taxi trip which the American Press claimed as a world record.
Mr. Hattle’s trip of 4,714 miles occupied a full month and embraced travelling over some of the country’s worst roads and frequently over mere footpaths, over steep passes and through swirling rivers. His task was concerned with telephone development study in the vast Transkeian territories as far north as Port St Johns.
An interesting feature of this trip was the meeting of Mr Hattle and Chief David Dalindyelo of Moekezweni. The Chief acted as interpreter to His Majesty the King when the Royal Family visited Umtata a week or two ago, and in 1937 he took great pride in signing his autograph in Mr. Hattle’s notebook, which is still in the latter’s possession.
Since Mr R Oliver is not expected to reach Mombasa until April 1, it is possible that the achievement of Mr Hattle and his driver, Mr Blom, in covering 4,714 miles in a single taxi trip in the same car, stands at the moment as a record for this country and possibly a world record."
He must have indeed been a very fit man, as I recall seeing a report in which it was noted that he never took a sick day off in his long career. Of interest is the attached note confirming that 10 years before his retirement (1936, at age 60), he had accumulated 644 days of leave credit. Sadly he was only paid out for 180 days!
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| 644 days of leave credit |
During my grandfather's boat trip to South Africa in 1901, and his first months in South Africa, he wrote a long detailed account of his adventures and impressions (including an account of his train journey from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth), and this journal was published sometime in late 1901 / possibly early 1902 in several long instalments in the Berwick Advertiser (possibly headed 'Diary of a Berwick Man').
Thomas Hattle's son, John Burgon Hattle (my father) was a meteorologist, and had the distinction, as a wartime Major in the South African army, of opening the meteorological station on the remote South Atlantic island of Tristan da Cunha, and operating it for many months during the World War II years. As a child, before the destructive Tristan volcano, I remember him frequently receiving letters from the many friends he made among the island community.
I would be thrilled to hear from locals in Berwick who have links to my family.
If you would like to contact Alan, please comment below with your email address (the email address won't be published).
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