John Telfer

Role: Brother of Francis Telfer (1809–1895), stayed in Scotland

John Telfer was born ~1805 at Greenholm, near Newcastleton, Roxburghshire, Scotland. He was the sixth child of James Telfer (1761–1845), a hand loom weaver, and Elizabeth "Betty" Hutton (1774–1853).

He died in 1839, aged 33. He did NOT emigrate to Australia. While his brothers Francis and James emigrated to South Australia, John remained in Scotland for his entire life.

He is one of the "Other Children" on the family tree, distinguished from his cousin John in the South Australian branch.

Family Stories

The Son on the Headstone

John Telfer was born around 1805 at Greenholm, near Newcastleton — the sixth child and sixth baptism of James Telfer and Betty Hutton, entered in the Castleton Old Parish Register among the family's six Greenholm baptisms. The family later moved to Blackburnfoot, the little weaving settlement at the northern edge of Newcastleton, where their hand looms clacked and the family cow grazed on the hills above town.

Unlike his brothers Francis and James, who would cross the ocean to South Australia, John stayed. Born at Greenholm, he was living at Blackburnfoot when he died unmarried on 3 March 1839, at age 33, still in the Liddesdale valley where the family had its roots.

His name was carved on the family headstone in Castleton Cemetery:

"Also John Telfer their son who died at Blackburnfoot on 3rd March, 1839, aged 33 years."

The headstone also suggests something else. Blackburnfoot — the place where John lived and died — was still there in 1839. But by the time James Telfer died in 1845, the family had moved. Blackburnfoot was demolished when the railway came through in the early 1840s.

So John was the last of the Telfers to die at Blackburnfoot. His siblings scattered — some to Australia, some to other parts of Scotland — but John stayed until the very end. The railway tracks run over his old home now.

(From the Borders to the Bush, pp.17-20; Castleton Cemetery headstone)

Source: From the Borders to the Bush — pages 17–20