June 2005 RootsChat Challenge

[Paul E]

Hi Denise

Annie's right - you've got an audience here waiting to hear what might be added to this intricate tale!

All best wishes

Paul

[MaryA]

Welcome to Rootschat Denise, how wonderful that you are able to add to this and also I hope you've got a lot from our research to add to your own family.

Regards
Mary

[Denise Thompson]

Hello to everyone interested in Christopher Tatham and Justina Dunbar. I am sure we can all help each other with this complicated family.
I know that Christopher and Justina had a daughter Phoebe who married William Brown, as the following Times citation of date 8 January 1847 proves:
"On the 7th inst. at Poplar Church, William Smith, eldest son of W.S.Brown Esq. of Brunswick- Terrace, Commercial Road, to Phoebe, eldest daughter of Christopher Tatham, Esq., of Poplar, and niece of Duncan Dunbar Esq. of Limehouse".

The 1841 Census for the Borough of the Tower Hamlets, Parish of Poplar lists the family of Christopher Tatham and his second wife Elizabeth, nee Gordon:
"Newby Place
Christopher Tatham, 50, Surgeon, No (not born in the same county)
Elizabeth Tatham, 30, yes
Duncan Dunbar Tatham, 18, Clerk, yes
Mary Ann Tatham, 9, yes
Christopher Tatham, 7, yes
Marmaduke John Tatham, 5, yes
Elizabeth Patty Tatham, 2 months, yes
Marmaduke Maxwell Tatham, 18, Apprentice, yes
plus servants etc..."

If the ages are correct then Duncan Dunbar Tatham must have been the son of Christopher and Justina. Does anyone know when he died?

Christopher Tatham had other children with Elizabeth, as the 1841 census suggests. There is also a Robert Gordon Tatham whose death notice appeared in "the Times", 4 December 1895:
"Tatham-on the 3rd inst., at his residence, 69 East India Road, ROBERT GORDON TATHAM, M.R.C.S. Eng., eldest son of the late Christopher Tatham M.R.C.S., aged 66. Friends, please accept this, the only intimation."

Elizabeth Patty Tatham married Walter Hamilton Bissett, and she died on 31 December 1893, as described in "The Times", 2 January 1894:
"BISSET-on 31st December, at 69, East India-road, the residence of her brother R.G.Tatham, ELIZABETH PATTY, Widow of the late WALTER HAMILTON BISSET, R.N.R, and daughter of the late Christopher Tatham, Surgeon, Poplar. Friends willaccept this intimation."

Many members of the Tatham family are buried in the Honble[sic.] East India Company Poplar Burial Ground (St Mathias?). I will list them next message since this is becoming too long I think.
Hope to learn more,
Denise

Welcome to Rootschat Denise, how wonderful that you are able to add to this and also I hope you've got a lot from our research to add to your own family.

Regards
Mary

[Manchester Rambler]

Hello and welcome, Denise!

We don't have a date for Duncan Dunbar Tatham's death - I haven't been able to find him on the 1861 census, but Tatham is a name which lends itself to mistransciptions. 

FreeBMD has a death entry for Marmaduke Maxwell in Hastings, Sep Q 1843 (Hastings 7 37).

As I understand it then, Christopher Tatham and Justina Dunbar's children were:

Duncan Dunbar (c1822)
Marmaduke Maxwell  (c1822)
Phoebe 

Plus - presumably - Justina, who married John Shores in 1848.

Christopher and Elizabeth Gordon's children were:
Robert Gordon  (c1829)
Mary Ann  (c1831)
Christopher  (c1833)
Marmaduke John  (c1835)
Elizabeth Patty  (c1841)

Look forward to learning more!

Rambler

[Paul E]

Crikey, MR .... this really is the thread that never dies!

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the censuses, 81 pages of collective research is kickstarted again!

I posted an APB for Claude today, too, so we may yet hear of his whereabouts!

Paul

[Manchester Rambler]

I must admit the Robertson-Molison-Muir clan feel  like part of my own family now!   (Except much richer....  )

MR

[Denise Thompson]

Hello everyone,
Sorry. It is not that simple! In the burial ground of the H.E.I.C. at St Matthias, Poplar there are records for another family (IGI film # 569204 and 569202). Marmaduke Tatham was also a surgeon and I suspect the brother of Christopher. Marmaduke was married to Mary Ann. Perhaps they were baptised at Bentham, Yorkshire in 1790 (Christopher) and 1784  (Marmaduke). If so their parents were Christopher and Anne. Marmaduke married Mary Ann Butcher.
Mary Ann Tatham, wife of Marmaduke died on 13 April 1829, aged 36.
Marmaduke Tatham, Surgeon, died on 3 September 1835, aged 51.
Sarah Ann, daughter of Marmaduke and Mary Ann Tatham died 14 June 1835, aged 14 years and (1, 4 or 7 months).
Mary Ann, youngest daughter of Marmaduke and Mary Ann Tatham died 5 March 1846, aged 16 years and 11 months
Marmaduke Maxwell, son of Marmaduke Tatham died 21 July 1843, aged 20 years and ten (?) months.
Chs. John, [Charles] last surviving son of Marmaduke and Mary Ann Tatham died 2 June 1848, aged 24 (His wife Louisa died 30 April 1848, aged 22). Charles of Northfleet, Kent died at the residence of his father-in-law at Blackwall.
So, the children of Marmaduke and Mary Ann were orphaned by 1835, and it appears that Christopher and Elizabeth Tatham took on some or all of their children as well as those of Christopher and Justina. So far I can only confirm Robert Gordon Tatham, Elizabeth Patty Tatham and probably Christopher John Tatham as Elizabeth's.
Did cholera kill off this family I wonder? Whatever happened to "Physician heal thyself" ?
I have a record of a Duncan Dunbar ship "Thames" arriving in Port Phillip in November 1858, and on board was Captain Marmaduke John Tatham. I don't know whether he was captain of the ship or a passenger.
The only other record I have for this family is the supposed death of passenger Mr Marmaduke Tatham in the foundering of the ship "Scoresby" in 1866 ("The Times" 29 November 1866).
I have just remembered why I gave up on this family some time ago!
I believe it is entirely possible that Justina Dunbar was born in Australia in 1854 and baptised in England in 1862. Compulsory registration of births in NSW did not take effect until 1856.
I hope my information is not straying too far from the original topic. I am very keen to learn more of this family and look forward to any replies.
Denise

Hello and welcome, Denise!

We don't have a date for Duncan Dunbar Tatham's death - I haven't been able to find him on the 1861 census, but Tatham is a name which lends itself to mistransciptions. 

FreeBMD has a death entry for Marmaduke Maxwell in Hastings, Sep Q 1843 (Hastings 7 37).

As I understand it then, Christopher Tatham and Justina Dunbar's children were:

Duncan Dunbar (c1822)
Marmaduke Maxwell  (c1822)
Phoebe 

Plus - presumably - Justina, who married John Shores in 1848.

Christopher and Elizabeth Gordon's children were:
Robert Gordon  (c1829)
Mary Ann  (c1831)
Christopher  (c1833)
Marmaduke John  (c1835)
Elizabeth Patty  (c1841)

Look forward to learning more!

Rambler

[Denise Thompson]

Molison-Dunbar-Tatham-Shores
Hello Everyone,
As you can see, I have no idea how to tune in and out of this site yet, so please forgive me. I have some information to add to my last posting.

Duncan Dunbar TATHAM married Mary Ann JUDD in Victoria, Australia in 1853 (#29944 Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Victoria).
Their daughter JUSTINA was born, and birth registered in Victoria in 1854 (#2448). Birth place was "CHIL"...not sure what district that stands for.
I could find no other child born to this couple.
Perhaps Duncan headed for the goldfields, either as a miner or a merchant.

I don't know how relevant the following information is, but in Dec. 1/4 1846 Charles John Tatham, probable nephew of Christopher, married Louisa SHORES at Poplar.
Was Louisa the sister of John Wallis Shores who married Justina Tatham in Stepney in Dec. 1/4 1848?
Cheers,
Denise

[JAP]

Hi Denise,

I note that Duncan and Mary Ann were married at St Peters.  This was in Melbourne - St Peters Church of England, Eastern Hill (my parents were married there and also one set of great-great-grandparents).  Nowadays it's just on the outskirts of the CBD.  'CHIL' might be Chiltern in NE Victoria - certainly it was part of the gold rush districts of the early 1850s.

Did you notice the possible death for Mary Ann?
TATHAM Mary Ann, father Henry Judd, no mother named, died age 34 at SOUT (could be anywhere?) in 1857 #6129.

A Mary Ann JUDD came as an assisted immigrant in 1849 - perhaps this Mary Ann?

JUDDs listed at:
http://proarchives.imagineering.com.au/index_search.asp?searchid=24
on the ship 'James Foord', 21 Nov 1849, were (suspicious coincidence of names and ages??):
JUDD Mary Ann, 27, Book 5 Page 8
JUDD Ellen, 21, Book 5 Page 8
and
JUDD Mary Jane, 27, Book 4A Page 193
JUDD Ellen, 21, Book 4A Page 193

JAP
PS: Earlier we had the christening of a Justina TATHAM from the IGI (presumably the one born in Victoria, Australia in 1854):
Justina TATHAM, parents Duncan Dunbar TATHAM and Mary Ann, bap 8 Jul 1862, Walthamstow Essex.
This is probably her death from FreeBMD:
Justina TATHAM, age 16, died Sep qtr 1870, Hatfield Hertfordshire, Vol 3a Page 251