Margaret Telfer

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

Margaret Telfer was born ~1802 at Blackburnfoot, Newcastleton, Roxburghshire, Scotland. She was the fifth child of James Telfer (1761–1845), a hand loom weaver, and Elizabeth "Betty" Hutton (1774–1853).

She did NOT emigrate to Australia and died in 1884 in Scotland.

The book states: "We have no further information about four members of this family; namely Isobel, Adam, Margaret and William." Like her siblings Isobel, Adam, and William, Margaret's fate after the family records is not documented beyond her death.

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

Family Stories

Stayed Behind

Margaret Telfer was born around 1802 at Blackburnfoot, Newcastleton — the fifth child of James Telfer and Elizabeth Hutton. While her brothers Francis and John crossed the ocean to South Australia, Margaret stayed in Scotland. She never emigrated and died there in 1884.

Like her siblings Isobel, Adam, and William, the book has no further record of her life. But her death in Scotland tells its own story — while a new branch of the family took root on the other side of the world, Margaret remained in the valley she was born in, part of the old world that the emigrants left behind.

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