When Thomas Cotterell took up a portion of 'Moredun Station' in the Ben Lomond area, in the early 1870s, it was natural that he should call it 'Tedworth', after the town where he had been born in Wiltshire, England, in 1825.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
He married Martha Ann Tarrant of Hannibal Lane, Stepney Green, London and not long after, in 1849 they sailed for Australia.
The couple may have been coming to an unknown country, but their future was guaranteed.
READ MORE:
By the time they left England Thomas had already secured a position as a bonded worker at 'Ollera', Guyra.
A document dated Sydney January 4, 1849 reads: 'Memorandum of Agreement made this day between Mr Edwin Everett of Ollera, New England on the one part and Thomas Cotterell, A farm immigrant, per ship "Walmer Castle" of the other part.
The conditions were that the said Mr Edwin Everett was to convey the said Thomas Cotterell to Ollera, New England, and provide him with employment as a farm labourer at the current rate of wages and usual rations in the district.
The witnesses whereof they have mutually affixed their signatures to the document.
It has been erroneously suggested that Thomas could neither read nor write, however signatures of both Edwin Everett and Thomas Cotterell appear on that document.
Cotterell was later employed at 'Moredun', from about 1861 to 1870.
In the early 1870s he selected 200 acres of 'Moredun' and eventually built up 'Tedworth' to 2000 acres (809 hectares).
In 'Old New England' R B Walker records: "The poor but able and active man sometimes overcomes the odds. Cotterell has done well for Himself' wrote squatter John Everett in 1879.
"With 450 acres of improved land, 2000 four-year-old sheep and a prelease, yet when I brought him out from Tedworth (England) the Parish paid for his outfit and the Government, his passage."
The couple brought out relations Janes Reeves and Edwin Tarrant from the 'old country' but had no children themselves.
The property eventually passed to Jane Reeves. However, she did not marry and lived well into her eighties and left 'Tedworth' to Mr and Mrs Jack Kerr who had worked the property for many years.
When Tedworth was sold for $419,000 in 1980 to Huntley and Cath Gordon they named it 'Cromarty', and since then there has been another change of ownership.
Make sure you are signed up for our breaking news and regular newsletters
