Alexander Calder BMD

Alexander Calder (1818 - 1901)

Alexander Calder, his wife Jane and son Charles arrived in South Australia on the ship "Osceola" on 6 April 1851. Another son James was born on board, but he was to die within a short period of arriving in Australia. There was no mention of James in the relevant shipping records but there is record of a birth to a Mary Calder. The only female Calder on the ship was Jane.

Alexander and Jane Calder

BIRTH

The death records state that Alexander was born in Aberdeen Scotland in approximately 1818. No evidence has been seen to confirm this. A grandson retained a professional researcher to conduct a search of the Scottish records in 1956 and this search disclosed the following as a result of a search of the parish records for Cambusnethan in the period 1820 to 1832:

Alexander Calder son to John Calder, portioner, and Margaret Martin, his spouse, was born on the 11th May and baptised 3rd June 1826.

This would put Alexander as being 8 years younger than per his death records. In addition, the shipping records for his voyage to Australia state that he was 32 years in 1850, making him born in 1818. It therefore appears to be very unlikely that the above Alexander is the same one who married Jane Telford.

Assuming that the above conclusion is correct, nothing is known of his parents.

In the period 1836 to 1885 there were two Alex Calder's who went to South Australia as assisted migrants. Both of these arrived in 1851. The above Alexander Calder was the first, the second was a wood sawyer aged 31 years, single and came from Aberdeen. He embarked from Plymouth on 8 February 1851 on the "Catherine" and arrived at Adelaide, South Australia on 26 May 1851. Because of his occupation, he was required to pay an additional Ł6 for his fare. He was 31 years at that time. This Alexander Calder is most likely an ancestor of Jonathan Calder.

MARRIED

It is believed that Alexander married Jane Telfer on 31 December 1846 at Stane via Shotts Iron Works, Lanarkshire, Scotland. The minister was Rev William Bathsgate. Today, Stane is a small village southwest of Edinburgh.

Stane is very near the border of Shotts and Cambusnethan parishes. There are no marriage records for Cambusnethan between 1819 and 1854, and there is no record in Shotts between August 1845 and February 1848 of the marriage of Alexander and Jane.

Nothing is known of Jane's parents, or her exact birthplace in Scotland. The shipping records for the trip to Australia indicate that she was born in approximately 1823.

The 1841 Census for Scotland has the following record for Shotts and Cambusnethan:

"Address: Ligno Farm Shotts. Jane Telford, servant, aged 15 years, born in Lanarkshire."

There is no record of her birth, either in Shotts or Cambusnethan parish records between 1820 and 1832.

DIED

On 18 September 1901 Alexander died at the age of 83 years at Fairbank Victoria Australia. The cause of death was uraemia and exhaustion, from which he had been suffering for nine days. He was buried at the Poowong Cemetery on 20 September.

Jane died at Fairbank on 17 April 1907. She was aged 84 years and died of senile decay and heart failure that had been a problem for about one year. She was buried at the Poowong Cemetery on 18 April 1907.