Quantrill Information

Kindness of Nancy

Not sure whether Nancy received your message as it came to me.

I provided this info and a few photos below to her when we were in the States earlier in the year, but she may not have passed it on to the members of your group.

To clarify, the link to William Clarke Quantrill may be a tenuous one, but I have a suspicion we are related to him, albeit distantly.

So is it Quantrill, Quantrell or Quantrelle ?

Although I was born in Wangaratta, Victoria Australia and grew up in Mitcham which is in the Eastern suburbs of Melbourne, my family is firmly linked to the South West. Sally & I have lived in Pomborneit Nth, Carpendeit, Terang and now Warrnambool. Our work has also taken us to Timboon, Camperdown, Noorat, Gnotuk, Bookaar, Hamilton, Portland and many other places around the Region.

My father looked into the origins of the Quantrelle family-name a bit before he died.....though much of the info below is from my own research [Google is a wonderful thing]

Quantrell[e] is of Gallic derivation from mercenary soldiers who fought with William the Conqueror in the Norman conquest of England 1066. Apparently they eventually settled in England. There is a town called Quintrell Downs near Newquay Cornwall where Mum and Dad visited on a trip to the UK. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quintrell_Downs_railway_station  

Our other claim to fame is that there was an infamous guerilla soldier during the American Civil War called William Quantrill:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Quantrill  

 
He had a band of rebel soldiers called "Quantrill's Raiders" [Cantrell's (sic) Raiders] which even had a movie made about them in 1958: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052103 
 
I have a friend in Maryland on the West coast of the USA who's a bit of a history buff and he was really excited by the possible link we may have to that part of the States too.

My Dad [Glen Richard] grew up in Hamilton, Victoria where my Grandfather [Glen Stuart] was married to NelIie. Glen Stuart was a barber, however I never met him as he died when I was young. Sally and I actually visited the old barber shop [now an opportunity shop] in Gray St when I worked in Hamilton in 2001-2002.

My Grandfather was originally from Tasmania, but left there in the 1920s to come to the Australian mainland when for  reasons unknown, he added the letter “e” to the end of his surname.  I still have a second cousin in Hamilton who I stay in touch with, and one relative, Noel Quantrell [also a retired barber] in Ulverstone. We visited him and his wife Billie in March 2012. They were very generous with their time when we dropped in at short notice. This was a very special time and Sally and I felt very honoured and privileged to spend it with them “filling in the gaps” as it were in the Quantrell(e) family heritage.

Noel entertained us with stories and photos of the Quantrell clan from days gone by….. quite fascinating. He explained that my Grandfather (Glen Stuart) and his Father (Leonard Edwin) were twin brothers which was a surprise and I was most excited to discover that we were more closely related than I thought. He also explained that my Grandfather Glen’s nickname was “Bottler” which was quite a revelation and I’ll treasure his accompanying anecdotes about him and the other family members for many years to come.  As our photos from the time attest, the family's barber shop is referenced in the Ulverstone Museum as well.

My father was really pleased to have a Quantrelle back in the Western District and working in Hamilton, and shared this with me before he passed-away in 2001. He actually met my mother when playing tennis in Hamilton when she was on a holiday from Melbourne there staying with a friend !!

I presume, the family's origins being Tasmanian suggest a Convict heritage from England in the early 1800s,  possibly confirmed by the following listing for W[illia]m Quantrill on the Governer Ready in 1835 for TLK [Ticket Of Leave King's Birthday]:
http://www.hotkey.net.au/~jwilliams4/tascons5.htm   

Dad had a twin sister, June and another younger sister, Yvonne. He also had an older brother, Stuart Burnley [aka Jack], however he was raised by Nellie’s parents when she became very ill when Yvonne was born and couldn’t cope with all the children. Glen & June and Faye stayed with their parents . Jack had three sons who all have families but I don’t know the children’s names. So that is the extent of the family name on the mainland - that we know of. An interesting side-note to all of this is that apparently Jack’s family have all dropped the "e" of the end of the name [Quantrell] as our current spelling [Quantrelle] was innovated by my Grandfather. The original spelling and that used by the remaining family in Tasmania is spelt "Quantrell" too.
http://search.ancestry.com.au/cgi-bin/sse.dll?gl&gst&rank=1&=%2C&gsfn=Mauge&gsln=Quantrelle&db=auselectoralrolls&gss=angs-d 

Ironically Dad's family colourings are of the fairer kind - he was blonde !! This explains why I have two sisters with blonde and auburn hair and fair skin.

I believe Josh's European look, [ie tall dark and handsome] actually comes from the Clodd and my Mother's side of the family.[Darch] Mum's parent's immigrated from the UK in the 1920s, however Mum also has relatives in Italy. Her father Harold, Josh, an Italian relative and I all have a striking resemblance.....although Josh now has squarer Clodd hair-line, not the receding Quantrelle, which is an improvement !!

Feel free to share the information with your fellow Quantrill’s Guerillas supporters.  (I can send it as a one page  .pdf if that helps) ;-)

I trust that assists.

Cheers,

Robert G. Quantrelle
35 Timor Street
Warrnambool, Victoria,  Australia 3280
Phone: 03 55612946
Mobile: 0419 385 483 rsquantrelle@bigpond.com

http://www.quantrillsguerrillas.com/en/