Thomas Hamilton Ayliffe

Thomas Hamilton Ayliffe MD (1774 – 28 May 1852) was a medical doctor whose family were early settlers of South Australia, remembered in several place names, namely Ayliffe's Crossing and Ayliffe Hill, which is skirted by Ayliffe's Road.

Thomas Hamilton Ayliffe (1774 – 28 May 1852) was born into a wealthy and well connected family whose details are somewhat obscure, but around the age of 12 was orphaned and was, with a brother and two sisters, placed in the guardianship of George O'Brian Wyndham (18 December 1751 – 11 November 1837), the 3rd Earl of Egremont, who was also executor of their father's will, and their surnames were changed to the earlier form of "Ilive". The Earl went through a form of marriage in Europe with Thomas's eldest sister Elizabeth ( – 30 December 1822), who had several children by him, the eldest being George Wyndham (5 June 1787 – 18 March 1869), later to become Colonel Wyndham, then Lord Leconfield. Thomas was sent to St John's College, Cambridge to study medicine.

On 5 April 1796, before he had completed his course, Thomas, who had resumed the surname Ayliffe, married Hester Jinks. She was two years his senior, a Catholic and of unassuming parentage. The union was deemed unsuitable by the Earl, who withdrew Ayliffe from the university in disgrace and cut him out of his father's will. By the terms of the will this was within his rights until Thomas turned 28.

Ayliffe somehow completed his BA degree in 1800, and what formal qualifications he had to practise medicine are unclear, though he was styled "surgeon", and taught what he knew to his sons. After having six children, the Earl and Duchess were married legally then in May 1803 separated. The Earl died on 11 November 1837 and Col. George Wyndham (5 June 1787 – 18 March 1869), who inherited everything except the title, settled £40,000 on Ayliffe in the form of land in South Australia selected by Frederick Mitchell: some 160 acres (65 ha) in the Adelaide foothills near Sturt Creek (sections 12, 13 and 14, Hundred of Adelaide), some 600 or 700 acres (240 or 280 ha) near Clare, and a large area on Yorke Peninsula, as well as livestock and buildings. By the terms of the sale Ayliffe was obliged to settle on the property.

Thomas and (presumably) Hester with their three sons and families emigrated to South Australia on the Pestonjee Bomanjee, arriving in October 1838. Governor Gawler, who came out on the same boat, became a family friend. They arrived in October 1838 and camped at Glenelg, near the site of the present Town Hall. Also on Pestonjee Bomanjee were Henry Sanders and his wife Sarah née Knott, parents of George Ayliffe's wife Elizabeth (1810–1844) and Dr. Henry Ayliffe's future wife Esther Sanders (c. 1815–18). Other Sanders family members on the ship had been engaged by the Ayliffes as servants or employees. Among their staff was head groom Henry Ayers, later Sir Henry. They had brought with them some livestock including brood mares and a stallion. They settled on their foothills property, dubbed "Wyndham Farm", their first residence being a prefabricated wooden structure, a "Manning's portable cottage" or similar, and a substantial house was completed soon after.

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