| [Index] |
| Thomas Wentworth Spencer WILLS (1835 - 1880) |
| Australian Rules player, cricketer, cricket coach |
| Children | Self + Spouses | Parents | Grandparents | Greatgrandparents |
| Thomas Wentworth Spencer WILLS (1835 - 1880) + Sarah Teresa BARBER |
Horatio Spencer Howe WILLS (1811 - 1861) | Edward Spencer WILLS (1778 - 1811) | Edward WILLS (1741 - 1814) | |
| Elizabeth (WILLS) (1739 - 1822) | ||||
| Sarah HARDING (1776 - 1823) | Thomas HARDING | |||
| Sarah Elizabeth (HARDING) | ||||
| Elizabeth WYRE MCGUIRE (1817 - 1907) | Michael WYRE MCGUIRE | |||
| Jane WALLACE | ||||
| b. 19 Aug 1835 at Molonglo Plains, New South Wales, Australia |
| +. Sarah Teresa BARBER |
| d. 02 May 1880 at Heidelberg, Victoria, Australia aged 44 |
| Cause of Death: |
| suicide - stabbed himself with siccors |
| Parents: |
| Horatio Spencer Howe WILLS (1811 - 1861) |
| Elizabeth WYRE MCGUIRE (1817 - 1907) |
| Events in Thomas Wentworth Spencer WILLS (1835 - 1880)'s life | |||||
| Date | Age | Event | Place | Notes | Src |
| 19 Aug 1835 | Thomas Wentworth Spencer WILLS was born | Molonglo Plains, New South Wales, Australia | V18353071 45B/1835 | 36 | |
| 17 Oct 1861 | 26 | Death of father Horatio Spencer Howe WILLS (aged 50) | Emerald, Queensland, Australia | Note 1 | 36 |
| 02 May 1880 | 44 | Thomas Wentworth Spencer WILLS died | Heidelberg, Victoria, Australia | committed suicide | 36 |
| Note 1: 1862/356
murdered by aboriginals |
| Personal Notes: |
|
http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A060443b.htm
WILLS, THOMAS WENTWORTH (1835-1880), cricketer and footballer, was born on 19 December 1835 at Molonglo Plains, New South Wales, eldest son of Horatio Spencer Howe Wills and his wife Elizabeth, née McGuire. He was educated in Melbourne until 1852 when he went to Rugby School where he played football and captained the cricket XI. Intended for Magdalene College, Cambridge, in 1856, he did not matriculate but he was included, by Oxford's permission, in the Cambridge XI in the inter-university match of that year. In 1853-56 he became a notable amateur cricketer in England, playing mainly for the gentlemen of Kent, but also for the Marylebone Club and on one occasion for United Ireland. Wills returned to Melbourne late in 1856 and played twelve games for Victoria against New South Wales in 1857-76, scoring 319 runs at an average of 21.27 and taking 72 wickets at 10.23. He played for several teams, but mainly for Richmond and for the Melbourne Cricket Club, of which he was secretary in 1857-58. Although articled to a Collingwood solicitor in 1859 he seems never to have practised. In 1861 he accompanied his father and others overland to take up a property at Cullinlaringo, Queensland; in October all but Wills and two others who were absent from the camp were killed by Aboriginals. After helping his brother to run the property he returned to Melbourne in 1864. Wills then became a cricket coach and trained the Lake Wallace region Aboriginal side that toured England in 1868. As a batsman he could be crudely effective, 'He uses a three pound bat and hits terrific' said James Lillywhite, but he was noted more as a bowler. Wills was constantly accused of throwing, especially his faster deliveries. But fast or slow, thrower or bowler, he returned some devastating analyses at all levels of cricket. A frequent and cantankerous letter-writer to the sporting press, Wills's most famous letter was in Bell's Life in Victoria, 10 July, 1858, calling for cricketers to take up a winter sport for fitness' sake. The response to this letter enabled him, his brother-in-law H. C. A. Harrison, and others to meet and draw up rules for a football game later to be known as Victorian or Australian Rules. Wills played over 210 games, mainly for Geelong, until he retired in 1876. The indulgence in drink that seemed inseparable from the cricket of those days found a too-eager practitioner in Wills. As early as 1873 there were thinly veiled public accusations that colonial beer was affecting his cricket and in later years he had to be put under restraint. On 2 May 1880 at his Heidelberg home he eluded the vigilance of a man set to watch over him and stabbed himself to death with a pair of scissors. The inquest returned a verdict of suicide while of unsound mind caused by excessive drinking. For one who had been called 'the Grace of Australia' and 'a model of muscular Christianity' it was a sad end. He was buried in the Heidelberg (Warringal) cemetery after an Anglican service, survived by his common-law wife Sarah Teresa Barber. Only one Melbourne paper, the Argus, acknowledged her existence and she finds no mention in Henderson's chapter on the Wills family. There were no children. Select Bibliography F. Lillywhite, A. Haygarth, Cricket Scores and Biographies,vols 4-5 (Lond, 1863, 1876); A. Henderson (ed), Early Pioneer Families of Victoria and Riverina (Melb, 1936); D. J. Mulvaney, Cricket Walkabout (Melb, 1967); Bell's Life in Victoria, 1857-68; Australasian, 8 May 1869, 8 May 1880; Age (Melbourne), 3 May 1880; Argus (Melbourne), 4 May 1880; Leader (Melbourne), 8 May 1880. More on the resources Author: W. F. Mandle Print Publication Details: W. F. Mandle, 'Wills, Thomas Wentworth (1835 - 1880)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 6, Melbourne University Press, 1976, pp 409-410. |
| Source References: |
| 36. Type: Book, Abbr: Edward Wills Family, Title: Ancestors Treasure Hunt, The Edward Wills Family and Descendants in Australia 1797-1976, Auth: R V Pockley, Publ: Wentworth Books, Date: 1976 |
| - Reference = 65 (Name, Notes) |
| - Reference = 65 (Death) |
| - Reference = 65 (Birth) |