William Lang Thorburn

MR WILLIAM LANG THORBURN is one of the very Old Settlers of the colony. He was born in Glasgow in 1819, and accompanied his parents to America. Two years later the family returned to Scotland, and Mr. Thorburn became an engineer and practical mechanic in Glasgow. He arrived in Auckland by the ship “Duchess of Argyle” in 1842, and settled in Mechanics' Bay, where he continued for ten years. In 1850 he went to California as a digger, but returned to Auckland after a few months. Subsequently he had three years' experience on the New South Wales and Victorian goldfields. In July, 1868, having returned to the colony, he settled at the Thames, and was for many years actively engaged in mining. He was for a number of years mine manager of the Wild Missouri mine, and was afterwards mining successfully on his own account. Subsequently he was engineer at the celebrated Caledonian mine, and was afterwards battery manager at the Golden Crown battery for about ten years. Mr. Thorburn was married, in 1839, to a daughter of the late Mr. A. Spiers, of Glasgow. This lady died in 1893, leaving seven daughters and five sons, and one daughter has since died. Mr. Thorburn has over 100 grandchildren.Source: The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Auckland Provincial District] (1902) via New Zealand Electronic Text Collection https://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-Cyc02Cycl-t1-body1-d3...