Anthony Brough (1836-1889)

Anthony Brough (1836-1889) of England, New Zealand and Australia had two wives and eleven children. Below is some genealogical and historical information on Anthony Brough and his descendants.

Anthony Brough – My Great-Grandfather

by Rev’d Barbara Ann Williamson Dineen
29 September 2020
Dunedin, New Zealand

Written for the
2020 International Brough Reunion
of the Brough Family Organization

Greetings to you all! I thank you for the opportunity to share the story of a rather interesting Brough family member who just happens to be my great grand-father – not that I knew that until just over 20 years ago, when a cousin started exploring the origins of what we always thought of as the Williamson family, but which was in fact a line of descendants of one Anthony Brough. His story still has many unknowns about it, but there is much we know, and indeed much to like about this man.
Anthony was born in London in 1836, and in 1857 married Emma Law. We don’t know much about his life in England, except that by 1862 he was obviously running two households, and had three children to Emma, and one to Eliza Warren, his mistress. For reasons unknown, he immigrated to New Zealand, and brought both women with him. He began work in Dunedin, where I live, finally obtaining his Law qualifications here in 1868. It was shortly after this that he moved to Clyde, a sleepy little town in Central Otago now, but then caught in the hustle of the gold rush – so an ideal place to set up a Legal Practice. If you’ve seen my data show, you’ll have seen the house he built, but also I hope glimpsed the wild countryside around, not much different from when he was there.
So here we have Anthony with five legitimate children, and five illegitimate sons, the eldest of whom is my grandfather.
Anthony ran a successful practice in Clyde – I have seen his grocery bills, walked in his house, and steeped myself in such history as is available. But in 1872, things changed – I suspect that Emma might have got sick of this ménage à trois arrangement, and pressed him to move to Australia! In any case, that’s what happened – I’ve been able to discover quite a lot more about his life there, where he became Mayor of Hay, in Sydney, and judging by his Obituary in the press, was a highly regarded and loved member of the community when he died unexpectedly.
But the story didn’t end there, obviously! Eliza, who seems to have changed names rather more than one would expect, caught the eye of the local policeman, one Gilbert Percy, who proposed marriage once Anthony was gone. Did he also make the proposal conditional on her not saddling him with five little boys? In the event, they were married in Knox Church, Dunedin, and set sail for South Africa, where they had two sons.
This is the one part of Anthony’s story that is hard to swallow: how could a father and a mother abandon 5 little boys, ranging in age from 2 to 8, to the tender mercies of the Poor House? – in this case, the Caversham Industrial School, where they would be brought up in the Anglican faith – that’s where I got it from! – and apprenticed out at age 14. Nor did they make any financial provision for the boys; we have the court records, plus a letter written by Anthony as evidence that this was so.
There must have been a certain appeal in returning to the area around Clyde, for the four elder boys all returned there. I’m not sure, though, how well they got along as family, though; there are stories of fallings-out, cheating, and even a broken partnership over land. But the fact that there is a creek named for the family, now known as Williamson, a house built by one of the boys, gravestones and places where they lived, however briefly, makes it a special part of this country for me, one I never tire of.
The name Williamson is something of a puzzle: all my life up until the age of about 50, I’d been told that the Williamsons had originated in the Shetland Islands, though this was before genealogy became fashionable, and facts were never checked. So my cousin’s book, The Williamson Family, came as something of a shock when he first talked to us about it. It seems Eliza / Elizabeth Warren adopted the name Williamson on the birth of her third (illegitimate) son, and that it later was adopted by all the boys. And curiously, Anthony’s sons’ poor relationships seem to have continued within the family until quite recently – now I know new relations, and enjoy sharing this interesting story with them, and now you.
Just a word about my life, so you can have a little glimpse of these Kiwi Broughs! My dad, Bill Williamson, was the third son of Anthony and Eliza’s eldest son Archibald; Archibald married Marjory McLaren, also from Central Otago – she was born on the goldfields! – and worked as a miner, dredge operator and horseman until his early death left Marjory with six children to bring up as a sole parent, in times where there was no social welfare and times were hard. Fortunately she had trained as a teacher, and worked in remote country schools while raising her family. If you saw my data show, you’ll have seen how tidy and well-dressed they are – she must have been pretty capable! And all six children graduated from High School, and the boys went on to tertiary study. My Dad was a Chartered Accountant, and lived and worked here in Dunedin. He married Rae, my mother, in 1937, and they had 2 children, Me in 1945, and my brother David in 1950.
I attended school here, and though my childhood is unremarkable, I did acquire a passion for French language and culture, so decided to follow my Grandma’s footsteps and become a teacher – but of French. It was a very happy decision, for it was at University that I met Roy, a graduate student, also in French. He had just been awarded a Scholarship to do a Ph.D. in France, so we were married and set off on the big adventure! We spent 4 very happy years in France, Roy studying, and me waitressing to keep us alive. It was a wonderful place to be young in the 1960s! On our return to NZ, we both took up teaching, Roy at our University and me in a number of High Schools, pausing to have two children, Katherine and Andrew.
I had for some time felt a call to Ordained ministry, and on leaving teaching, was ordained in the Anglican / Episcopal Church in NZ. I serve as Chaplain to several Aged Care Facilities, and also as Priest Assistant in St Paul’s Cathedral, which is where I am right now!
And our children have flown the nest and are far from home – Katherine in France, with her two, our grandchildren Benjamin and Keira, where she teaches English. Andrew is married to Alison, and lives in Vancouver, BC.
So that’s it. They say “It’s a wise child knows its own father.” Anthony, you sure proved that right! But it’s still providing us with all kinds of adventures as we explore all you have been and done. And I am very grateful to belong to his Foundation that makes family of us all.

Why Anthony Brough may have left England for New Zealand and Australia

by Michael H. McMichael
Australia, 30 September 2020

My research indicates that Anthony Brough went bankrupt in London while running a wine and liquor business at a time when bankruptcy resulted in a stint in debtors' prison. I don't have any evidence, but I suspect that the Law family hustled him out of England to New Zealand and that all his life he was what we in Australia call a "remittance man", i.e. he had the benefit of an income from relatives back in the United Kingdom.
I'm guessing that Emma came into control of the Law family moneys and that might have been the catalyst for the move away from New Zealand. As a lawyer I find it slightly ironic that part of his practice on the goldfields appears to have been in respect of the bankruptcy of the miners who didn't manage to make their fortunes. Hopefully, he was empathetic to his clients.