Foreword

   Until fairly recently most of the Badgers in Australia, particularly those in South Australia and Victoria, appear to be descendants of John Badger of Haddington, East Lothian, Scotland. Unfortunately there is little known about John. The earliest definite information about him is of his marriage to Jean Peffers in Haddington on 8 May, 1798. He was, at that time, a soldier in the Essex Cavalry, which he joined as a private on 1 June, 1795 in Captain Sir William Andre's troop. Information about the place and date of his birth is less certain, but there are grounds for believing that he was the son of James and Susan Badger and was born at Hornchurch, Essex and christened there on 17 March, 1765. The Badger family had been in Hornchurch for several generations. John's grandparents, John Badger and Mary Fuller, were married at Hornchurch in January 1732 and James, their eldest son, was born on 16 May, 1735.
   John was stationed initially at Broadstairs, Kent, and later at Deal and Newcastle-on-Tyne before being transferred to Haddington early in 1798. It was there that he met and married his wife. The Peffers family were well established in the Haddington area. Jean's parents, David Peffers and Katherine Turnbul, were married at the nearby town of Whittingham, where David was a carter. David was born in 1750 and died in 1828 and apparently spent the whole of his life in the area. Jean was born at Whittingham on 13 September, 1775.
       Soon after the marriage of John Badger and Jean Peffers, the regiment in which John was serving went to Ireland and their first son, David (1799-1872), was born there. John was discharged from the regiment in August 1800 and the family returned to Haddington. Haddington is situated on the River Tyne, 16 miles east of Edinburgh, between Musselburgh and Dunbar on the North Sea. Its most notable feature in early days was the 13th Century Franciscan Abbey, where Duns Scotus (c. 1264-1308) is said to have taught, but no significant trace remains today. Close to the Abbey the parish church of St. Mary the Virgin was probably completed around 1425-6, but suffered severe damage during the English occupation of 1548 and after the Reformation, when the sanctuary, choir and transepts were allowed to fall into ruin and were separated from the nave by a partition wall. In recent years it has been restored to something of Its original spledour. There are some interesting headstones in the churchyard.
   Haddington suffered in the early days by being directly in the path of English invaders, but after 1707 it became more settled and sedate, It was for many years the centre of the northern grain trade and an important market town. It was here that John and Jean Badger settled on their return from Ireland. Their second son, William (1800-58), may have been born at Haddington but this cannot be established for certain. Two subsequent children, John (1803-63) and Edward (c. 1806- ? ), were born there and two children who died as infants were also buried there - one in 1807 and another in 1824.
   There is no available information about the deaths of either John or Jean. Their eldest son, David, went to live at Tranent, a small town between Haddington and Edinburgh, where he married, raised his family and died. The second son, William, lived at Haddington, where he became keeper of the Bell Inn. He was married on 7 October, 1821 to Moffat Johnston, whose father was a weaver from Duns, Berwickshire. It was William's second son, David, who migrated to South Australia in 1849 and established the line of Badgers about whom this story is written. The eldest son, Robert, married Ann Burnett and became an officer in the Excise. At least two of his sons were educated at Edinburgh University, the eldest, William, as a doctor and the second, Magnus, as a lawyer. The latter followed his uncle to South Australia in 1883 and established another branch of the family at Clare. William's third son, Magnus, married Margaret Hutton and one of his sons, Robert, went as a missionary to Safi, Morocco.
   There are no longer any Badgers in Haddington. The last surviving descendant of John Badger in Scotland bearing the family name is an elderly single lady, who lives in a nursing home in Edinburgh, (Daisy Badger 1897-1975). The family, however, is well represented m Australia and has several distinguished members who have served their country well.

I am glad to welcome this brief account of the life and work of our honoured ancestor. the Reverend David Badger. The author. Dr. Donald Badger. has been at great pains to make it as accurate and complete as the scanty record allows. I am proud to have been able to make a small contribution to its appearance by working with him in his researches.

Colin R. Badger

Melbourne November 1984

John Badger's Family

John BADGER b. 1765 d. circa 1830
m. 1798
Jean PEFFERS b. 1775 d. ?
  1. David BADGER b. 1799 d. 1872
    m.1 1819
    Janet HOGG b. circa 1800 d. circa 1845
      1. John BADGER b. 1824 d. ?
      2. J anet BADGER b. 1830? d. 1898?
      3. Moffat BADGER b. 1836 d. 1863
      4. Joan BADGER b. 1840 d. 1862
      5. Mary BADGER b. 1842 d. 1862
      6. Edward BADGER b. 1845 d. ?

    m.2 1850
    Margaret PRESTON b. 1805 d. 1871

  2. William BADGER b. 1801 d. 1858
    m. 1821
    Moffat JOHNSTON b. 1797 d. 1869

      1. Robert BADGER b. 1822 d. 1897
      2. Jane BADGER b. 1824 d. 1857
      3. David BADGER* b. 1827 d. 1890
      4. Anne BADGER b. 1830 d. 1848
      5. Magnus BADGER b. 1833 d. 1891
      6. Isabella BADGER b. 1836 d. 1867

  3. John BADGER b. 1803 d. 1863
    m. 1855
    Margaret TRUSTON
    1. Edward BADGER b. circa 1806 d. ?
      m. 1828
      Catherine HALLIDAY

        1. William BADGER b. 1830 d. ?

         

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