Biography

Source: Lee Cahill, 15 September 2013 (Last updated 11 April 2016)

Collaborators: If you'd like to add to these notes, please do so in a separate section below as I'd like to preserve the integrity of my original notes. Thanks.

• My grandfather, William Edward John Wallace, was apparently born on board ship while his parents were emigrating from Kelso in Scotland to South Africa, although I've been unable to verify this. His birth was registered at Wynberg in the Cape Colony.
• Nothing is known of his childhood, except that he came from a relatively large family, which included one adopted child.
• He was a combatant in the Anglo-Boer War and fought on the British side. My maternal great-grandfather, Jacobus Hendrik Louw Nell, later nicknamed him 'The Irish' (even though he was of Scots descent), a tongue-in-cheek reference to the fact that they had been on opposing sides during the war.
• He was also a colonial soldier in World War I, during which time he served in East Africa. It was here that he contracted the amoebic dysentery that would later lead to his death.
• He was a qualified printer and, after the war, worked for the Diamond Fields Advertiser in Kimberley.
• After he lost this job (apparently for lighting up a cigarette in the printing works and causing some kind of explosion), he became a driver for the newspaper, and it was at this time that he met my grandmother.
• When he lost this job (apparently for making a detour on his rounds), the family moved to Lychtenburg, then Potchefstroom and later Johannesburg, where he found work as a taxi driver.
• At some point after moving to Johannesburg, he suffered what was then called a 'nervous breakdown' and the family went to stay with my great-grandfather and great-grandmother so that he could recover.
• It may have been at this time that he acquired a claim on the diamond diggings and worked as a digger.
• The family later returned to Johannesburg. moving into a terrace house at 288 Commissioner Street.
• My grandfather apparently died after he had been hospitalized for medical treatment and had been put in a bed near an open window. He contracted pneumonia, which was the immediate cause of his death. However, as the underlying cause was amoebic dysentery contracted on active service, Gran later qualified for a military pension, which she received for the rest of her life.
• Further information about my grandfather is recorded on my Gran's profile (Maria Petronella Nell Wallace).
• Deceased Estate Number: 3773/42; Passport Number: 466807 (from: Transvaal Deceased Estates Index 1855-1976 listed on Ancestry24.com)

Research Notes

• The only record I've been able to find for a Wallace born at sea in 1883 is on the United Kingdom Maritime Births, Marriages, and Deaths list for 1787-1933. This is for an infant whose parents are listed as John and Mary Wallace (see LDS records: https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/KH67-JN6), so it obviously wasn't my grandfather. I'm making a note of it, though, in case in turns out to be another family member.
• The birth order given in this record is approximate, based on the only two certain birth dates I have, that of my grandfather and his younger brother, Eddie.

Immediate Ancestors

Legend:

SV/PROG = Stamvader/Progenitor: the first male member of that family line to come to South Africa.

SM/PROG = Stammoeder/Progenitor: the first female member of that family line to come to South Africa.

Wallace Family

The earliest immediate Wallace ancestors I've been able to trace in my maternal line are William Joseph Francis Wallace (c.1860 - 1931) (Private), my great-grandfather, and his wife Catherine Wallace (Gordon) (c.1863 - 1913) (Private).

The relationship path to William Joseph Francis Wallace is as follows:

You → Gloria Leslie Cahill your mother → William Edward John Wallace her father → William Joseph Francis Wallace his father

Earlier Ancestors

William Edward John Wallace is believed to be descendent of Sir William "Braveheart" Wallace (Sir William Wallace of Elderslie, Kt.) but, as at May 2013, a relationship path could not be established.

Wallace Family: Surname History

Is this the most famous Scottish surname? It is certainly near the top of the tree given the exposure of tradition, myth, and Hollywood, which manage to combine both. It is therefore a surprise to most people to know that for many nameholders, the origin may not have been Scottish at all, but English, Welsh or Breton!

Recorded in the spellings of Wallace, Wallice, Walles, Wallis and Wallas, and first recorded in England, the surname derivation is from the Norman French word 'waleis', meaning a 'foreigner'. In England this was generally taken to mean a Welshman or a person living in the border counties of England and Wales, or a Celt from Cornwall, or a former Breton who settled in East Anglia after the Norman Conquest of 1066.

To add to the confusion the old 12th century British kingdom of Strathclyde, which nominally at least, owed sovereignty to the king of England, extended north from the west end of what is now the English-Scottish border, up to and beyond the Clyde Valley. The inhabitants of this region were known as 'walensis', and it was here that Sir William Wallace was born.

The surname is first recorded in England in the mid 12th Century, and early recordings include Robert Walleis in the Pipe Rolls of Norfolk, in the year circa 1168. The surname is first recorded in Scotland in 1190 when one Richard Waleis witnessed a charter relating to Kelso Abbey.

Sir William Wallace (1272 - 1305), the Scottish patriot, hero of romance, and joint Warden of Scotland, (he was also known as the "Terror Anglorum"), organised the Scottish army in 1296 and for ten years kept the invading armies of Edward 1 of England at bay. He was ultimately betrayed, taken prisoner, and executed as a traitor in London on August 24th 1305.

The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Osbert Waleis, which was dated circa 1156, in the "Book of Seals" of Warwickshire. This was during the reign of King Henry 11 of England, and known as "The Builder of Churches", 1154 - 1189.

Source: Surname Database (http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Wallace)

Gordon Family: Surname History

This famous surname, with spellings of Gordon, Gorden and Gourdon, is of locational origins. It is Scottish from Gordon in Berwickshire, or Anglo-French from Gourdon in the departement of Saone-et-Loire, France. The former was so called from the Olde Gaelic "gor", meaning large or spacious, plus "dun", a fort and the surname was first recorded in the mid 12th Century.

Adam de Gurdun, recorded in the Pipe Rolls of Hampshire dated 1204, is believed to have come from the French town, so called from the Gallo-Roman personal name Gordus, plus the locational suffix "-on(is)". One Geoffrey Gurdun appears in the Curia Rolls of Kent, dated 1220 and an Adam Gordon in the 1279 "Hundred Rolls of Cambridgeshire". Sir Adam de Gordon (deceased 1333) was Justiciar of Scotland 1310 - 1314. He obtained the Lordship of Strathbogie, which he named Huntly circa 1315. Branches of his family have since held the titles of Lord of Strathbogie, Duke of Gordon and Earl and Marquess of Huntly. Richard Gorden, was christened on the 5th March 1665 at St. James Clerkenwell, in the city of London. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Richer de Gordun. This was dated 1154, in the "Records of St. Michael's Church", Kelso, Scotland, during the reign of King David 1 of Scotland, 1124 - 1153. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

Source: Surname Database (http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Gordon)