Another Thomas Brown Orton

While I was looking for details about Thomas Brown Orton from Husbands Bosworth in Leicestershire, I came across another Thomas Brown Orton, this one born in Eaglehawk, Victoria, Australia in 1880. I was intrigued, since the name is not a common one, and it would be fun to discover some more Australian relatives. So I decided to find out a little more about him, to see if there was any distant connection between the two.

The Australian Thomas Brown was the son of James Orton and May Fulton Eaglesim. May's father's name was Thomas Brown Eaglesim, which probably explains where the middle name came from. (Correction - May's father was William Eaglesim, her mother was Ruth Moore Brown.)

This Thomas Brown Orton was the grandson of James Orton (born about 1817), who was transported to Australia for 14 years on the Barossa in 1839. James was tried and convicted (for what crime I don't know) in 1838 in Leicester. In 1844 James married a Jane Waddell who arrived on the ship Trinidad as a free settler.

It's tempting to think that perhaps James was somehow related to the Ortons of Husbands Bosworth, but I haven't been able to make any connection. He would be a contemporary of John Orton, but I don't have a firm date or place of birth for either of them.

York and Oriental Hotels,
 Kalgoorlie ca. 1900
image via wikipedia

The Australian Thomas Brown Orton lived in the Western Australian mining town of Kalgoorlie for a while. By a strange co-incidence he seems to have been a grocer, like the English Thomas Brown Orton. Unfortunately he died in Belgium in 1917 while fighting in the war.

If anyone can tell me more about the elder James Orton and his origins, or if you would like more details about where I found the information in this post, please contact me, either through the comments section or by email. (stella DOT budrikis AT gmail DOT com)