James Telfer (1761–1845)

Role: Scottish progenitor — father of South Australian immigrant Francis Telfer (1809–1895)
Born: ~1761 — baptised 14 Jul 1761, Castleton, Roxburghshire, Scotland
Died: 19 December 1845 — Castleton, Scottish Borders, Scotland
Buried: Old Castleton Cemetery, Newcastleton, Scottish Borders, Scotland
Spouse: Elizabeth Hutton Telfer (1774–1853) (m. ~1795)

⚠️ Same-name note: This James Telfer — baptised 14 Jul 1761, son of John Telfer of Castleton, father of SA immigrant Francis Telfer (1809–1895) — is a distinct person from several other Telfers also named James in the same Castleton parish. Do not merge him with the Sorbietrees Jameses: James Telfer (of Sorbietrees) (~1740–?) (m. Margaret Armstrong) and that family's son James Telfer (bap.1762) (bap. 24 Sep 1762 — a different, younger James born barely a year later). Also distinct: James Telfer (1829–1913) (South Australian pioneer). Public user trees routinely blend the 1761 and 1762 Jameses into one man — that is wrong (see Corrections Log, 30 Aug 2026).

Family

Life Summary

James Telfer was born around 1761 in the Liddesdale/Castleton area of Roxburghshire, Scottish Borders. He was baptised at Castleton on 14 July 1761, the son of John Telfer of Castleton. He married Elizabeth "Betty" Hutton around 1795.

James and Betty raised at least eight children in the Castleton parish, Roxburghshire, near the English-Scottish border. Their son Francis emigrated to South Australia in 1838 aboard the Prince George, establishing the Australian Telfer branch.

According to Donald Telfer's From the Borders to the Bush (1989), James was known as a hard-working farm man in the Liddesdale region. His descendants in Scotland continued farming the same area.

James died on 19 December 1845 at Castleton and was buried at Old Castleton Cemetery, Newcastleton. His wife Betty outlived him by eight years.

Timeline

Family Stories

The Newcastleton Valley

The Telfer name reaches back deep into the Scottish Borders, to the Liddesdale valley in Roxburghshire — the country around Newcastleton. It is a landscape of rounded hills, small sheep farms and winding valley roads, and it is the ground the family stood on long before Australia was ever a twinkle. Newcastleton sits where the Liddel Water runs, ringed by the Liddesdale hills. In the photo above, the village is seen from the hillside on the property of Mrs. Margaret Henrs, the clustered roofs and chimneys among the trees with the fields climbing toward the hillsides.

This was the world James Telfer was born into and never left. He and his wife Betty farmed the little holdings at Greenholm and later Blackburnfoot in the same valley, weaving wool on home looms as their neighbours did. Historians trace the family's presence here before the Jacobite upheavals of 1745; generation after generation lived and died within sight of these hills. When his son Francis eventually crossed the world to South Australia in 1838, he carried this valley with him — it is the wellspring of the Australian branch of the Telfers.

(From the Borders to the Bush, p.6)

The Ballad of Jamie Telfer of the Fair Dodhead

The same Liddesdale hills that James Telfer farmed carried a much older Telfer story. The hill country had been raided back and forth across the English border for centuries — "worked over many times by the English (with fire and sword)". The Ballad of Jamie Telfer of the Fair Dodhead, written about the middle of the 16th century, tells of one such raid: the English under the Captain of Bewcastle rode up into the valley to drive off the herds, and were met on the way back. It is the oldest trace of the Telfer name in the Borders, and the book spells out what it means for the family: "The Telfers must have been affected by the constant wars and skirmishes which took place all about them." The old stone sheepfold in the plate above is exactly the kind of dry-stone enclosure the valley's herds were kept in in those centuries.

(From the Borders to the Bush, p.7)

Douglas Square — Sheep Through the Main Street

The same hills and village streets feature a third plate: the main street of Newcastleton as it passes through Douglas Square, with a flock of sheep being driven along it under the eye of several men, between the traditional stone buildings and mature trees. It is the very street of the village that grew up where Castleton had stood — the lane the Telfers would have walked, herding and trading and attending the kirk. Douglas Square is the old heart of Newcastleton, and a flock of sheep on its cobbles is the Borders made visible — the world the book describes when it says the Telfers "were shepherds for several generations, hard working, but not well monied." The photograph gives that line a face: this is what the shepherd's life looked like on the home ground, not in the abstract hills but right along the main street of the family's own town.

(From the Borders to the Bush, p.9)

The Greenholm Years

James Telfer didn't start out in Castleton itself. He and Betty lived first at Greenholm, a little farming area in Liddesdale where their first five children were baptised between 1796 and 1805 — James, Isobel, Adam, Margaret, Robert, and John. Life was simple and hard. The Telfers were sheep farmers and hand-loom weavers, like most of their neighbours in the Scottish Borders. They worked their small land holdings with the seasons, shearing and weaving wool to make ends meet.

The Move to Blackburnfoot

Sometime between 1805 and 1809, James moved the family from Greenholm to Blackburnfoot — another farmstead in the same Liddesdale valley. It was there that their last two sons were born: Francis in February 1809, and William in April 1811. Francis would go on to become the one who crossed the world. But back then he was just another bairn in a packed cottage in the Borders, learning the shepherd's trade from his father.

A Hand Loom Weaver's Life

In those days the Telfers of Roxburghshire were what the old parish records call "hand loom weavers" — men who worked wool at home on their own looms, spinning and weaving the fleece from the sheep that grazed the Cheviot Hills. It was honest, calloused-hand work that paid just enough to keep a family fed. The Industrial Revolution was already reshaping Scotland, but up in Liddesdale, the old ways held on a little longer. James lived and died in that world, never leaving the valley he was born in.

(From the Borders to the Bush, pp.17–20)

Sources

• Source: Donald Telfer, From the Borders to the Bush (ISBN 0 7316 6387 X), pp. 6, 7, 17–20 — extract via vision_analyze 18 June 2026
• FindAGrave: James Telfer (1761–1845) — memorial 170769918, Old Castleton Cemetery. Accessed 27 May 2026.
• WikiTree (via son's profile): Francis Telfer (abt.1809–1895) — son's profile confirms mother as Betty Hutton, father as James Telfer. No dedicated WikiTree profile exists for James Telfer (1761–1845). Accessed 27 May 2026.
• Castleton OPR baptism records — FamilySearch batch C11865-1, microfilm 1067953