Hamish Lonsdale-Wrathall


Hamish Lonsdale-Wrathall of Victoria , who can be reached at hl(at)riversholme(dot)com(dot)au, sent information in the summer of 2000 regarding his branch of the Australian Wrathalls. His information is particularly interesting, as it concerns not only an addition to the Australian branch of the family tree, but also connects with Susan Wrathall and the Earl of Lonsdale, the ancestors of Jeremy Wrathall of Surrey . (Click HERE to read Jeremy's information.)
My name is (or was) Hamish Lonsdale-Wrathall, and I was born in Huyton near Liverpool in 1947. My father was Gordon Wrathall, his was Henry. The family had a Company called Wrathall and Co, which operated from the Albany Building in Old Hall Street, Liverpool from sometime in the 1880's to 1970. The business was based on importing Cocoa, rosin and other produce from the West Indies. Family lore has it that the Lonsdale part of the name started when a Susan Wrathall had an affair with one of the Lonsdale Earls (Lowther family) and the resulting offspring added the Lonsdale part, but it could just as easily have come from the Vale of Lonsdale where I believe that numbers of Wrathalls lived.

Years ago when I was naturalised in Australia, I dropped the difficult to pronounce and spell Wrathall, and now my family are all Lonsdales. I do know that there were at least two families of Wrathall in Bolton, as they were cousins. All the Australian Lonsdale-Wrathalls are now much confused about the use of the names Wrathall, and Lonsdale-Wrathall. It seems to have been optional for several generations, and my paperwork shows both varieties on birth certificates, passports etc.
Having discovered a very detailed family history amongst the papers of his father, Leslie Gordon Wrathall, Hamish and his wife decided to transcribe and edit the document for use by future generations. Click HERE to read it. Thanks to the work of Derek Wrathall of Skipton in transcribing the Westhouse census, we were able to determine the parents of Susan Wrathall, the shared ancestor of Jeremy and Hamish. Click HERE to view their updated descendancy.


In August 2001, Hamish transcribed Wrathall Vital Records for Tasmania (1832 -1918) and Wrathall Vital Records for Victoria (1837 -1984) from microfiches in the Geelong Centre.