Eccleston(e) Family - From Wolverhampton to Tasmania then Melbourne

The Ecclestone Family

Wolverhampton at the beginning of the 19th Century

Pre-History

Thomas Eccleston was born in 1780 at either Leigh, or Mossley, in Lancashire. He joined the Army in 1793 at the age of 13. His army exploits are here.

After returning from the Peninsula War, Thomas Eccleston left the Army, becoming a Chelsea pensioner in 1817, returning to civilian life and settling in Wolverhampton. He married Susannah Moult in 1808 at Rocester in Staffs. She had been born at Barlaston in the Staffordshire Potteries in 1791. She was probably from a Huguenot family.

William Eccleston was seemingly their first born, and as no records of his baptism exist, it is most likely that he had been born in Ireland before their return. The couple then had several other children.

Whether by design, or misfortune, they ended up in Wolverhampton's notorious Carribee island district at number 54. This was one of the worse slums in all Britain and was densely populated by Irish immigrants. Susannah became a "boarding house keeper" in this street and was shown there (with her husband) through several census cycles. He dies at the ripe old age of 79 in November 1860 and was described as being a farm labourer. Susannah died in 1870 and the Carribee Island zone became one of Britain's first slum clearance projects in the 1880s.

The Zealandic

The RMS Zealandic was built by Harland & Wolff in Belfast and launched on the 29th of June 1911. It was delivered to the White Star Line on the 12 October 1911 and sailed on its maiden voyage on the 30th of October 1911 (Liverpool to Wellington run). The ship had gross registered tonnage of 10,898 and measured 500 ft by 63 ft. It was twin screw with a speed of 13 knots. It carried 6 first class passengers and 1,000 steerage. In June 1926, it was chartered to the Aberdeen Line and renamed Mamilius and made the London to Australia run. In 1932, it was sold to the Shaw Savill Line and was renamed Mamaric. In 1939, it was sold to the British Admiralty and rebuilt as an imitation of the aircraft carrier Hermes, to act as a decoy. On June 4th, 1941, it ran ashore off Cromer, Norfolk during a German air raid and became a total loss.

An excellent site to register and research variants on the Ecclestone name is: http://hometown.aol.com/mregleston/index.html