William Stoddart Hardie (1856 - 1935)
William Stoddart Hardie was born at 4:30am on Feb 12 1856 in Macmerry Gladsmuir, East Lothian, the eldest child of William Hardie and Jessie Stoddart. He was born a full 22 months before his parents marriage, which explains the use of Stoddart in his name, it also explains his place of birth, because Macmerry was where Jessie' mother Christina Smith lived.
By the time he was 14 (1871 census) he was working as a miner at Penston in Gladsmuir, where he was living with his family. There is limited information available after this, however it is known that he emigrated to Australia at around age 19 or 20 (ie around 1875/76). Nor is any detail known about his early years in the colony.
The first information available about William in Australia is his marriage in 1881 to Margaret Perry Dilley (b. 1859 - 1924) daughter of Frederick Dilley and Elizabeth Perry.
William appears on the Electoral roll for Bundamba, QLD in 1882, and then were in Borehole, Ipswich, QLD in 1885. H Bennett attended Bundamba School in 1885 (from the Bundamba School Records) and his father is noted as a pitman - so by this time William Sn was working in the mines.
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