William Ada

02/05/1807 — 19/03/1883
A brief biography

Ancestors


Thomas Ada ±1710 —
Thomas Ada ±1734 —
William Ada 1767 — 1837
William Ada 1807 — 1883
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Mentioned in

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History of the Ada family in Australia
The 1806 marriage of William Ada and Jan ...

Spouse/Partner and Children


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Sophia Fletcher 1811 — 1883   Sophia Fletcher Ada 1833 —   William Ada 1834 — 1911   Elizabeth Ada 1835 —   John Fletcher Ada 1836 — 1837   Merea Ada 1838 —   Mercy Ada 1838 — 1906   John Fletcher Ada 1840 — 1917   Ann Rebekah Ada 1841 — 1925   Hannah Ada 1843 —   Mary Jane Ada 1845 — 1930   Martha Ada 1848 — 1888   Emily Ada 1850 — 1851   Kate Ada 1851 — 1876   Joseph William Ada 1853 — 1944   Emily Ada 1855 — 1944  

William Ada


Son of William Ada and Jane Mary Jeffress. .

Born in 1807, the forty-seventh year of the reign of King George III, and died aged seventy-five in the forty-sixth year of the reign of Queen Victoria  He has 158 direct descendants in the family.

In his father's footsteps


St Mary The Virgin, Dover

In 1828 he joined his father in Customs & Excise at Dover, where he humbly desired to be instructed by Mr William Ada Officer of Dover 1st Division.
After a year he was ordered to Canterbury Collection, where his father had previously worked, to be an assistant in the room of William John Gore. A year later he was dropt from Canterbury Division due to reorganisation following the repeal of the duties on beer and cider, awaiting a vacancy. After waiting for six months, William Ada, Assistant in the 11th District, Town Establishment, succeeded William Wilson, officer of Stroud 2nd Ride, Gloucester Collection, and William Haythorpe, Expectant in Hull Collection, became Assistant in the room of Ada, on Sir John C Mortlock's Recommendation.
William moved to Stonehouse in Gloucestershire, returning to marry Sophia Fletcher in St Mary The Virgin, Dover in March 1832. After nearly four years in Stonehouse he requested to move to Wadhurst to succeed George Bishop, Officer of Wadhurst 2nd Ride, Sussex Collection.


From Scotland to Maidenhead

Three years later, he was ordered to Scotland, to Kirkintilloch 5th Division near Glasgow, where after only six months he managed to get himself transferred to Denny Division, Stirling Collective.
After three years in Stirling he was granted permission to transfer from Denny Division, Stirling Collection to Arundel Division, Sussex Collection, where he had his longest posting - six years - then in 1848 he requested transfer to succeed Thomas Greader, Officer of Gosport Division in Portsmouth.
He set up home at 1 Upper South Street, Gosport, where their fourteenth child, Joseph, was born in 1853. Three months later he was made redundant, one of dozens of Excisemen who became unemployed as Customs & Excise reorganised their Divisions, due to the abolishment of the duty on soap and changes in the mode of taxing Post Horses.
He and his family moved to Market Street in Maidenhead, later moving to East Street where they lived out the rest of their lives until both William and Sophia died in 1883.


Gosport was surrounded by ramparts

The Portrait





This portrait is believed to be of William Ada. Dating of the portrait suggests he was stationed in Sterling, Scotland around the time it was painted.
The portrait hung in the home of John Fletcher Ada, his second son, and was then inherited by his great-grand-daughter Gillian Ada, by which time it was known as "Portrait of an unknown Ada".
It had pride of place in the living room of Gillian Ada, when she passed away in 2003 she bequeathed in to Tim Richardson who had it restored.


Click on the image opposite to see the back

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