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.
We do not have full confirmation, however it is most likely that William came to Australia aboard the Nairnshire which departed from Springfield Quay at Greenock on 31 Mar 1878 and arrived in Brisbane on 24 Jun 1878. Nairnshire was a 965 ton ship in the charge of Captain Walter B Niven. It was under contract fromThomas Law and o to the Queensland government, and on this journey included 340 emigrants - 110 single men, 70 single women and 70 married couples and their families. Applicants were selected by the shipping agent for inclusion in the program. The emigrants were taken upriver by the steam Setter and landed at Queens Wharf just after 8pm on 24th Jun. They were made available for engagement on the morning of 25 June
There is one other minor possibility - William came to Australia as a seaman upon the City of Berlin (not to be confused with SS City of Berlin) It a 1012 ton iron ship built by Connell in Glasgow and launched in 1864 for Smith & Sons. It London on 31 Jan 1874 and arrived in Port Adelaid on 17 Apr 1874. The City of Berlin departed Adelaide for San Francisco on 14 May, and there is a William Hardy deserts the ship in Adelaide, where he is arrested on May 30 and charged with with desertion and on 3 July he is 5 pounds or in default six weeks imprisonment. If that is the case he would have been 19 at the time, and would have been free to make his own way after serving out his fine.
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 in 1882, and they were in Borehole in 1885. Apparently William and Jessie raised Bennet Pringle as their own child. 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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