Andrew Mitchell (1859-1930)

Andrew MITCHELL married Lucy LITTLE on 21 Sep 1876 at Bishops Bridge (near Cessnock), aged 19 and 17 years respectively. They subsequenty produced four children (three of whom survived), the youngest of which was a son named Andrew William Benjamin MITCHELL born at Narrabri, NSW in 1884.

Andrew MITCHELL is believed to have fled the Hunter region some time between 1885 and 1888 when he changed his name to SMITH. It is believed that this man later appeared in Bourke (far north west NSW), where he met a local girl named Clara Louisa JONES (b. 1868 to Ellen FANNING). Andrew is believed to have bigamously "remarried" Clara Louisa JONES on 6 Mar 1889 across the Qld border in Thargomindah, where they subsequently raised a family of nine SMITH children. Andrew MITCHELL is believed to have died in Wentworthville, Sydney (aged 73 years) on 20 May 1930 under the name of Andrew SMITH.

The death at Morisset in 1934 (which is frequently attributed to Andrew MITCHELL) is actually that of a man named William MITCHELL from Gosford, presumably because his surname was MITCHELL and because his age at death indicated a birth year similar to that of Andrew MITCHELL.

With no reliable birth certificate for Andrew SMITH (who named his parents as William SMITH and Elizabeth BUDGE - the latter believed to be the Irish form of BUDDS misheard) - and in the absence of a reliable death certificate for Andrew MITCHELL, it is believed that these two people are both the same person.

There is a wealth of other evidence to support this belief, chief among them being the fact that Andrew MITCHELL's first wife Lucy (nee LITTLE) "remarried" a Scottish miner named John HADDOW on 28 Dec 1897 at East Maitland Court House. On that day, Lucy presented herself as a widow without benefit of a death certificate of the death of her husband or other proof of her widowhood, presumably waiting the mandatory seven years which would automatically allow a deserted wife to pronounce her missing husband as being legally dead, so that she could legally remarry and get on with her life.

For further information about Andrew MITCHELL-SMITH, please contact [mailto:dottles44@gmail.com dottles44@gmail.com].