Chabaud Lewis Tweedies great grandson Terry Tweedie has researched his family origins and recorded the history in the following document.

"Tweedie means 'The Powerful One' and the family crest Motto is 'Thol and Think' which means 'Wait and Think'," Terry Tweedie writes.

"Apparently the Tweedie's were a blood thirsty lot and were very aggressive people in the early years of 1200's in the Lowlands of Scotland. They settled down in the 1700's.

Our clan of Tweedie's came from the Lowlands of Scotland on the Tweed River. They were in a small village called Tweedsmuir and worked under Lord Oliver of Olivers Castle. They were flax growers and dressers and also sheep farmers at Tweedsmuir in the 1600's to 1700's. However they eventually moved to Edinburgh and were educated and became surgeons, dentists, legal people, merchants, accountants and business men.

They immigrated to London in the early 1800's. My great great grandfather was George Mitchell Tweedie a Wine Merchant on the Thames in the heart of London. However, he apparently got toused to drinking wine rather than selling it and finished up in a lunatic assylum in Gloucester where he died at 39 years of consumption.

George Tweedie's brother Alexander Tweedie was a noted physician and doctor in Harley Street, London and was quite famous in the medical world. He wrote many medical journals and was head of the London Fever Hospital for 38 years.

George married Jeanette Harriette Chabaud in 1832 in St Margaret's Westminster Church, London. Jeanette was born in London but her family came from Switzerland in the 1790's. They were French people, Heugenots who were persecuted in France by the Catholic Church, so they fled to Switzerland in the late 1500's and stayed there till 1790's before heading to London where they were watchmakers.

Emigration to Australia:

Jeanette Harriette Tweedie came to Australia in 1850 on her own with her six children, on the ship called the Minerva and started a new life in Sydney. The Tweedie children's names were Henry, George, Marion, Jeanette, Chabaud, and Denholm.

Jeanette H Tweedie started up a ladies school in Forbes Street, Woolloomooloo in Sydney and was a teacher there for many years. She had two town houses side by side. One was her home and the other was for the ladies school and I recently found them in Woolloomooloo still standing. Her children were educated in the Surrey Hills Grammar School which was a Church of England School.

One of her sons Denholm died at 26 in Sydney from TB. However three of the sons when they were old enough moved to the south of Sydney to the Southern Highlands and the Monaro. Henry went to Adelong and was a cordial maker, George went to Braidwood and started up a large Emporium Store and of course there was my great grandfather Chabaud Lewis Tweedie who moved to Bombala and started up a store and the Bombala Times in 1863. They all moved into business in the early 1860's. They appeared to follow the gold mining I think to set up these businesses," Terry Tweedie explained.

Chabaud Lewis Tweedie was 11 years old when he arrived in Australia.

"They settled at one time in "Bitterby" Glenmore Road, Paddington in Sydney. It is assumed that Chabaud L Tweedie went to school in Sydney and gained some form of education and about 1863 left Sydney and went to start a new life in Bombala in southern NSW.

The earliest record I have of Chabaud Tweedie in Bombala is 1867 where he was in a cricket match.

The actual date he moved to Bombala seems to be a mystery as there is no record of it. While 1863 was always the date the Bombala Times was started it's not clear if it was started by CL Tweedie then or he purchased it in mid 1860s to 1870. His son William George Tweedie makes a reference to the paper being purchased by his father about 1870 in an article in early 1900's. Maybe it started in the early period 1863 by someone else maybe it wasn't but I have never been able to confirm it.

Maybe Chabaud Tweedie wrote the original Bombala Times more like a newsletter for the community before it became officially known as the Bombala Times. The story of the Times beginning has always been passed down generation to generation as being started in 1863. I am sticking with 1863 anyway until proven otherwise.

In any case the history of this country newspaper since it was established in 1863 has had the name "Tweedie" written on it for a period of about 75 years. This must have been a unique family record in provincial journalism. When Chabaud L Tweedie became ill and eventually died in 1891 the Bombala Times was taken over for about six years by a Mr M M Emanuel.

During this period William George Tweedie the second son of Chabaud L Tweedie worked as a compositor and reporter for Mr Emanuel. In about 1899, WG Tweedie (Will) took over the Bombala Times from Mr Emanuel and conducted the Bombala Times newspaper business for the next 38 years until it was sold in 1938 to Jock Johnson from Bega.

The original machinery and printing presses are now housed in the Power House Museum in Sydney.

Chabaud Lewis Tweedie was born on September 25, 1839 at Wood House, Wandsworth, Surrey in England to George Mitchell Tweedie and Jeanette Harriette Tweedie (Chabaud). He was baptised in his father's house on August 13, 1840 by Reverend James C Burns (copy of birth certificate and original baptism certificate in the possession of Lewis Walcot Tweedie in 1910).

Chabaud Tweedie married Emma Groves at Bombala, on March 30, 1869. Emma Groves was born at Delegate on December 12, 1847. Chabaud Tweedie died at Sydney on July 26, 1891.

My great grandparents, Chabaud Lewis Tweedie and Emma Groves were one of the first parishioners to be married in the new St Matthias, Church of England at Bombala 1869. They lived in Caveat Street up the hill behind the showground.

Their children were:

1. Lewis Walcott Tweedie b. May 4, 1870 at Bombala. m. Clara Fisher at St Clements Church Marrickville in Sydney on August 17, 1892. Their issue Lewis b. January 5, 1895 and d. January 9, 1895.

2. William George Tweedie b. June 8, 1872. m. Fanny Mildred Chapel Cookes, July 17, 1902. Their issue: Howard Chabaud, Miriam Lala and Ella Caroline. William George Tweedie died in 1954 at Ivanhoe in Melbourne.

3. Alexander b. August 24, 1874 and died as an infant on November 16, 1875 at Bombala.

4. Percy Gordon b. March 9, 1877 at Bombala. m. Edith Evelyn Tinnel on November 8, 1907. Their issue: Francis Henry Gordon.

5. Frank White b. October 14, 1879. m. Olive Francis Isabell Howard on 28th April, 1909 at Tumut. He died on 22nd April, 1965 at Tumut. Olive died 29th April 1948 at Tumut. Their issue: Norma Gwendoline b. 26th April, 1912, d. 26th January, 1974.

6. Reginald Chabaud b. January 28, 1882 at Bombala. m. Mildred Norrie on June 7, 1911 at North St Leonards Presbyterian Church (Crows Nest) in North Sydney. He died October 15, 1922 at home at Hornsby. Their issue Beryl Lilian, Allyn Noel, Donald Kenneth, Valerie Margaret.

7. Florence Emma b. November 11, 1884. Never married. d about 1963 in Ashfield in Sydney.

8. Edgar Cecil b. April 28, 1887, Died 1954 in Leeton NSW

The death is announced in the Bombala Herald of Mr. C. L. Tweedie, who for many years was a prominent and useful townsman of Bombala. The paper records that he was Secretary to the Farmers' Joint Stock Mill, and to the Grand United Order of Odd fellows. He was Treasurer to the Bombala Exhibition Society. He took a prominent part in organising the Railway League. He was also an energetic worker in connection with matters and philanthropic achievements, having been for years a church warden of St Mathias' Church of England, while the Bombala: Hospital will ever stand as a monument to him who, was mainly instrumental in securing its construction and who acted as honorary secretary to that institution until illness and the increasing demands of business compelled him to resign. Mr. Tweedie died at the comparatively early age of 51, leaving a wife and large family to mourn him. "Bombala Herald, 1891".

This was the end to a very energetic man for the community of Bombala and district.

Reginald Chabaud Tweedie

Reg Tweedie was my grandfather who I never met as he died in 1922 and I was born in 1951. Reg was also born in Bombala in 1882 and grew up there attending Bombala Public School. My father told me he went to Waverly College in Sydney but I can't confirm that yet.

Reginald Chabaud Tweedie, married Mildred Norrie in 1911 at Crows Nest Presbyterian Church, North Sydney. They were an unlucky family as they had four children but only two survived infancy. There was Beryl Lilian, Allyn Noel, Donald Kenneth and Valerie Margaret. Allyn Noel died aged three months. Valerie Margaret died at birth. My father was Donald Kenneth Tweedie.

Reg learnt about the newspaper game from his brothers but also attended the Government Printing Office for a couple of years. In 1910 he took over the Delegate Argus Newspaper for three years. After that he went back to Sydney and had the Liverpool Times for a short time before heading to Hornsby. In about 1914 he started a completely new paper called the Hornsby Star and operated that paper till 1922. His younger brother Ted helped him run this paper at Hornsby, on and off.

In 1922 he died of a cerebral haemorrhage when he climbed a tree to get a possum down for his children to look at. He is buried in the Macquarie Northern Suburbs Cemetery at Lane Cove.

Just recently I was given the opportunity to visit and stay in what was called "The Rosary" cottage in Caveat Street, Bombala up behind the showground. At the time it was a Bed and Breakfast Cottage. This was where Chabaud and Emma Tweedie lived when they had their family. It was also the home of William and Fanny Tweedie. I found on the walls of this cottage the names of my ancestors who grew up there with all their heights marked on the wall.

I would like to ask the community of Bombala to forever keep this cottage as it was in the past. It would be a great piece of history to preserve for the memory of the Bombala Community, Bombala Times and the Tweedie name and what they achieved in those early days for Bombala. I haven't met the present owners but would love to hear from them.

In summing up, my ancestors came to Australia during the Industrial Revolution in the United Kingdom in 1850 to make a new life here in Australia while helping to build this nation with new enterprises. The Tweedie's originally came from Scotland and Bombala is so much like Scotland in a lot of ways. Bombala has a beautiful countryside with rolling hills and clear streams. I recently visited where the Tweedie's came from in Scotland in the Tweed Valley in the Lowlands or Border Country, as it is known as in Scotland. They came from a small village on the headwaters of the Tweed River known as Tweedsmuir. It was absolutely beautiful.

By Terry Tweedie

Bombala Times - 1863-1891