Thomas Hamilton Ayliffe


Thomas Hamilton Ayliffe MD was a medical doctor whose family were early settlers of South Australia, remembered in several place names, namely Ayliffe's Crossing and Ayliffe Hill, which is skirted by Ayliffe's Road.

History

Thomas Hamilton Ayliffe was born into a wealthy and well connected family whose details are somewhat obscure, but around the age of 12 was orphaned and was, with a brother and two sisters, placed in the guardianship of George O'Brian Wyndham, the 3rd Earl of Egremont, who was also executor of their father's will, and their surnames were changed to the earlier form of "Ilive".
The Earl went through a form of marriage in Europe with Thomas's eldest sister Elizabeth, who had several children by him, the eldest being George Wyndham, later to become Colonel Wyndham, then Lord Leconfield. Thomas was sent to St John's College, Cambridge to study medicine.
On 5 April 1796, before he had completed his course, Thomas, who had resumed the surname Ayliffe, married Hester Jinks. She was two years his senior, a Catholic and of unassuming parentage. The union was deemed unsuitable by the Earl, who withdrew Ayliffe from the university in disgrace and cut him out of his father's will. By the terms of the will this was within his rights until Thomas turned 28.
Ayliffe somehow completed his BA degree in 1800, and what formal qualifications he had to practise medicine are unclear, though he was styled "surgeon", and taught what he knew to his sons.
After having six children, the Earl and Duchess were married legally then in May 1803 separated. The Earl died on 11 November 1837 and Col. George Wyndham, who inherited everything except the title, settled £40,000 on Ayliffe in the form of land in South Australia selected by Frederick Mitchell: some in the Adelaide foothills near Sturt Creek, some near Clare, and a large area on Yorke Peninsula, as well as livestock and buildings. By the terms of the sale Ayliffe was obliged to settle on the property.
Thomas and Hester with their three sons and families emigrated to South Australia on the Pestonjee Bomanjee, arriving in October 1838. Governor Gawler, who came out on the same boat, became a family friend. They arrived in October 1838 and camped at Glenelg, near the site of the present Town Hall. Also on Pestonjee Bomanjee were Henry Sanders and his wife Sarah née Knott, parents of George Ayliffe's wife Elizabeth and Dr. Henry Ayliffe's future wife Esther Sanders. Other Sanders family members on the ship had been engaged by the Ayliffes as servants or employees.
Among their staff was head groom Henry Ayers, later Sir Henry. They had brought with them some livestock including brood mares and a stallion.
They settled on their foothills property, dubbed "Wyndham Farm", their first residence being a prefabricated wooden structure, a "Manning's portable cottage" or similar, and a substantial house was completed soon after.
He lived at "Wyndham Farm" with his family, and opened a medical practice with his sons George and Henry as T.H., G., & H. Ayliffe, in the former residence of R. Craigie, Angas Street near Drummond's Scotch Secession Church. George died in 1844 and the practice continued as T.H. & H. Ayliffe.
Thomas died peacefully after a few hours' illness. Of the fate of his wife Hester there is no record to be found. Her name appears on the Pestonjee Bomanjee passenger list but, as with their son Thomas Hamilton Ayliffe, that is no proof of her having arrived in South Australia.

The immigrants

Two married daughters remained in England, and their second son Hamilton Ayliffe, though booked on the Pestonjee Bomanjee, did not emigrate until years later; the reason is not clear. It is also not certain that Thomas Ayliffe's wife Hester was on board; no record of her death, or her being in South Australia have been found.
George Hamilton Ayliffe, in full perhaps George Edward Frederick Hamilton Ayliffe, and his wife Elizabeth née Sanders also emigrated on the Pestonjee Bomanjee in 1838, and settled in "Belle Vue" cottage, South Road, St Marys. They were particular friends of Sir Dominick Daly and Lady Daly. He succeeded H. T. Whittell as Registrar of Births Deaths and Marriages in January 1889.
He died after a painful and protracted illness. His wife Elizabeth never remarried and continued to live at "Belle Vue". She brought up their children with the financial support of her late husband's cousin, Lord Leconfield.
Their children Thomas Hamilton Ayliffe, Ettie Bode, Cecelia Hill, George Hamilton Ayliffe and William H. Ayliffe all had long and productive lives. Elizabeth died peacefully with all her faculties intact and in excellent health up to the last days.
Thomas Hamilton Ayliffe was four years old when the family left for South Australia.
At age 18 he joined the gold rush to Victoria and sent 6 oz. of gold to his mother.
He was a contractor who did a lot of business for the Government, including the Bay Road, the South Road, the Morphett Street bridge and the Clarendon bridge and became quite wealthy. He developed on his property a valuable quarry, from which much quartzite and bluestone was obtained. He subsequently engaged in cattle speculation, and lost heavily, and was declared insolvent in 1861.
In 1873 he went to New Zealand, where he invested in gold mining ventures, then eight years in the Northern Territory, then worked in Adelaide from 1881 or earlier as an auctioneer and commission agent, with offices in Currie Street. He returned to gold mining in Western Australia, and died in Kanowna.
Elizabeth Esther "Ettie" Ayliffe was born in Exeter, a daughter of Dr. George Ayliffe, who emigrated to South Australia when she was two years old. She was trained as a teacher, reportedly by T. A. Caterer, though this is most unlikely. Perhaps a confusion with Elizabeth Esther Cecelia Ayliffe daughter of Dr. Ayliffe of Angaston, who taught at Daveyston for many years.
Was she the Miss Ayliffe who ran a boarding school for ladies at her home "Saltram", in Glenelg in 1875 and 1876?
She married Joseph Adolphus Bode on 23 March 1877, lived at "Sunningdale Park" near Strathalbyn. She was his second wife; Martha Bode having died in 1865. J. A. Bode was eldest son of Gustavus Adolphus Bode of Mount Pleasant, Staffordshire, England, a prominent military man. J. A. Bode was a regular guest at Government House and a frequent writer to the Press on all manner of subjects.
She was the author of many poems printed in the daily Press, such as Want, Christmas Sonnet, The Story of Cree and Cri and published poetry collections:
and several novels serialized in South Australian newspapers:
Cecelia Hamilton Wyndham Ayliffe was born on the Pestonjee Bomanjee. She married journalist and elocutionist Thomas Padmore "T. P." Hill on 26 November 1859. She was author of Checkmated, a roman à clef about the lovelife of J. E. Neild. In later life, while in transit from Venice to Sydney by the R.M.S. Mirzapore, Cecilia was one of the passengers detained at the Torrens Island Quarantine Station in January–February 1882 during an incident of smallpox. Cecilia made trips to New Zealand in 1887 and San Francisco in 1889, during which she falsely claimed that she was a correspondent for the London Morning Post. She subsequently left for England in search of a possible inheritance, but her court case failed due to forged documents; she died on 6 November 1915 in St John’s Wood, Middlesex.
Thomas Hamilton Ayliffe was recorded as a passenger on the Pestonjee Bomanjee with his father and two brothers, but in fact came out later, perhaps via Hobart on 10 July 1843 or via Launceston, as an Ayliffe arrived in Adelaide on the Raven from that port in December 1847. One account had his vessel shipwrecked off New Zealand and he lived with Maoris for a year.
He worked for a time as a ship's carpenter on a vessel working between Tasmania and New Zealand. made a visit to New Zealand, where he was made prisoner by the Maoris, but escaped at night and swam out to a trading boat which took him back to South Australia.
He was a highly literate man and well-versed in history. He had some medical training, as had his brothers, but unlike them never went into practice.
He married Jane Bell in 1845.
He settled in the Sturt district, then moved to the Stockport – Hamley Bridge area, where he lived for 35 years.
He served as clerk of the Local Court, on the Stockport District Council, and returning-officer for Wooroora and Light for several years.
He was a pioneer of fruit-growing on the River Light.
He died leaving a widow, six sons and three daughters.
Dr. Henry Ayliffe FRCS, LSA studied medicine in London under his father, and emigrated to South Australia on the Pestonjee Bomanjee in 1838 with his father, brother George, nephew Thomas and nieces Elizabeth and Cecelia.
He set up in practice and lived in Hindley Street to 1843 then Brown Street in the city.
He returned to England for further medical training and higher qualifications at Guy's Hospital and St Bartholomew's Hospital, and returned to Adelaide in 1853, but not without incident, as the ship Anne Milne was wrecked off Portland, Victoria. He resumed practice in Grote Street, close to the Catholic chapel.
He moved to Angaston, where he set up in practice, and in 1867 was appointed Government medical officer to the destitute poor.

Family

The list below is not exhaustive, but is expected to include all members of the family likely to be encountered in histories of early European settlement. Bold entries denote members whose biographies appear in "The immigrants" above.
Dr. Thomas Hamilton Ayliffe married Hester Jinks on 5 April 1796. They had two daughters and three sons:
Thomas Hamilton Ayliffe married Jane Bell on 23 July 1845, farmed at Hamley Bridge. He was a brother of Dr. George Hamilton Ayliffe and Dr. Henry Ayliffe.
Dr. George Hamilton Ayliffe married Elizabeth Sanders in England.
Dr. Henry Hamilton Ayliffe married Esther Sanders in 1844, lived in Angaston. He was a brother of Thomas Hamilton Ayliffe and George Hamilton Ayliffe.