Australian Wool Merchant

James Twycross (1792-1862)

James Twycross was born in 1792 at Godalming to John Twycross (1746-1840) and Mary Carey (1755-1836). James was baptised on 8 January 1792 at St. Peter & St. Paul Godalming. He had five bothers and three sisters. His sister Ann (1777-1840) married Thomas Burchatt (1777-1821) in 1799 and their daughter Rebecca married Henry Hatch Reffell in 1835.

James married Mary Howell (1794-1837) in Wiltshire on 19 December 1812 and they spent most of their married life living at the Brook Wokingham Surrey. They were to have eleven children in their twenty five years of married life together.

  • Eliza (1817-1876) married George Hills (1807-1880) on 1850 and had four children; James Albert George, Arthur John, Augusta Philips and Olivia Elizabeth.
  • George (1818-1890) married Honora Mabella Raines (1838-1923) in Milnrow Lancashire by her father who was the reverend there. The had four children; George Francis, Francis Robert Raines, John Beswicke and Honora Mabella. The daughter Honora was to be married three times, one of these lasting only four months.
  • Mary (1821-1885) did not marry and died at Church Stretton.
  • John (1822-1899) emigrated to Australia in 1853 and married Charlotte Elizabeth Burrell (1834-1908) there in 1870. She had been born in Bury St Edmunds and had previously been married to Samuel Henry Clutterbuck (1825-1861) with whom she had three children; Samuel Henry, Arthur William D’Agnall and Alfred Charles Ernest. John and Charlotte had another two children; John William and Ida Lillian Katie. John was a very successful wool merchant and developed an interest in collecting art, and after moving into a grand thirteen room house on the corner of Glenhuntly Road, Caulfield called Emmarine. Later a two storey extension was added to house and display his art treasures.
  • Emma (1823-1897) married John Milne (1822-1871) and had one child John Milne. She was later married to James Arnott (1820-1907) and they both died at Shide Hill House, Newport, Isle of Wight.
  • James (1825-) married Ellen Mousley in 1861 at Rochdale Lancashire.
  • Ann Sophia (1828-1893) moved to Australia where she married William Routledge (1826-1891) in 1858. They had four children; William Scoresby, Elizabeth Louisa, Agnes Mary and Annie Georgina Halleberton.
  • Georgina (1831-1903) married William Faussett (1811-1880) in 1868. He was Irish and they lived in Ireland where Georgina died at 4 Castle Park Road, Glenageary in Dublin.
  • Olivia (1832-1853) did not marry and died at the age of twenty one.
  • Louisa (1836-1913) did not marry and died in the Asylum at Peckham.
  • Augusta (1837-1908) married Robert Smith (1835-) in 1858 and had seven children. She died at 20 Eastern Road in Wood Green

In the 1851 census, John was a widower and his occupation was shown as a farmer and wool stapler master employing 43 persons in trade. In 1861 he is listed as an Australian merchant.

Mary died on 3 December 1837 at Wokingham at the age of 43, and only a year after her mother’s death. James lived another twenty five years before dying in the same place, on the same day in 1862. They are buried at All Saints in Wokingham.