Talk:Robert Richard Torrens

This article is rated B-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
It is of interest to the following WikiProjects:

Politics of the United Kingdom

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Politics of the United Kingdom, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Politics of the United Kingdom on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Politics of the United KingdomWikipedia:WikiProject Politics of the United KingdomTemplate:WikiProject Politics of the United KingdomPolitics of the United Kingdom

??? This article has not yet received a rating on the project's importance scale.

More information:
/
	This article has been automatically rated by a bot or other tool because one or more other projects use this class. Please ensure the assessment is correct before removing the `\|auto=` parameter.

Biography

	Biography portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography, a collaborative effort to create, develop and organize Wikipedia's articles about people. All interested editors are invited to join the project and contribute to the discussion. For instructions on how to use this banner, please refer to the documentation.BiographyWikipedia:WikiProject BiographyTemplate:WikiProject Biographybiography
	This article has been automatically rated by a bot or other tool because one or more other projects use this class. Please ensure the assessment is correct before removing the `\|auto=` parameter.

Australia: Adelaide / Law / History / Politics Mid‑importance

	Australia portal Robert Richard Torrens is within the scope of WikiProject Australia, which aims to improve Wikipedia's coverage of Australia and Australia-related topics. If you would like to participate, visit the project page.AustraliaWikipedia:WikiProject AustraliaTemplate:WikiProject AustraliaAustralia
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.
	This article is supported by WikiProject Adelaide (assessed as Mid-importance).
	This article is supported by WikiProject Australian law (assessed as Mid-importance).
	This article is supported by WikiProject Australian history (assessed as Low-importance).
	This article is supported by WikiProject Australian politics (assessed as Mid-importance).
	Need help improving this article? Ask a Librarian^{What's this?} at the National Library of Australia.
	The Wikimedia Australia chapter can be contacted via email to helpwikimedia.org.au for non-editorial assistance.

Ireland Low‑importance

	Ireland portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Ireland, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Ireland on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.IrelandWikipedia:WikiProject IrelandTemplate:WikiProject IrelandIreland
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

British Empire Low‑importance

	British Empire portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject British Empire, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of British Empire on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.British EmpireWikipedia:WikiProject British EmpireTemplate:WikiProject British EmpireBritish Empire
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Untitled

Sir Robert Torrens was born in 1812, not in 1814 (see the Wakefield Companion to South Australian History. A man born in Ireland is a nIrishman, though the articles calls him an Australia. The River Torrens was named after Colonel Torrens, his father, not Sir Robert.

I don't have that book. Please add it as an external reference, and fix the dates if required. The article says he was born in Ireland, but was an Australian politician (ie a politician in Australia). It seems he was also an English politician, in the British House of Commons. --ScottDavis 04:46, 6 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Robert Torrens' father (also Robert Torrens) at least was a member of the House of Commons. He's referred to as Colonel Robert Torrens in the article (John Stuart Mill writes of him as "Colonel Torrens"). The Germans have an article on the father: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Torrens EnSamulili 17:52, 16 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Supposed date of birth: 31 May 1814

This was added on 30 September 2009, over three years ago, by this edit. The anonymous editor provided no edit summary and no citation. All of their 6 edits to Wikipedia were made on that day.

I can find no independent corroboration of the date. It has no authority, and the edit was clearly vandalistic.

I have now edited it out. Better late than never. -- Jack of Oz ^[Talk] 04:13, 11 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Year of Birth

Support for 1814 as his year of birth may be found in the (Adelaide) Express and Telegraph obituary, which says (in 1884) he had reached the age of 70 years. Weak perhaps, however its competitor, the South Australian Advertiser gives a number of milestones in his life, including 1814 as his YOB. The third Adelaide daily, the Register, gives no date, but its weekly, the Observer is adamant: 1814.

I have been unable to find any controversy in the newspapers, even from A. T. Saunders, who delighted in contradicting accepted wisdom, especially such articles as this by Fred Johns in the PS Review. Coming to the 20th century, the Encyclopedia Britannica; Australian Dictionary of Biography; Dictionary of National Biography (1885-1900); Heaton's Australian Dictionary of Dates and Men of the Time; Webster's Biographical Dictionary (two quite different editions); and Dictionary of Australian Biography; all give 1814, nem con, not to mention modern, and clearly derivative, collections such as What Happened When and Macquarie People and Places. None gives a day or month.

This does not make them right of course — they copy from each other — but that date stood for a long time before the Oxford DNB, Wakefield History and the SA Historical Society. Doug butler (talk) 00:29, 1 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Assuming 1812 is correct, I wonder if the "70 years" published by the Express and Telegraph only meant as an indication, but taken as precise, leading to an ineradicable and self-reinforcing furphy ? Doug butler (talk) 03:14, 1 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Robert Torrens. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20080517083043/http://www.placenames.sa.gov.au/ to http://www.placenames.sa.gov.au/

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 5 June 2024).

If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 12:07, 26 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Real Property Act, etc.

In case anyone is wondering, I'm still working on this article (in between other distractions), and am intending to hive off Real Property Act 1858 into a new article once I have finished adding and tidying a few bits I have. Then will update related articles (Torrens Title, etc.) and come back to review and finish RR Torrens. Any suggestions and copyedits welcome in the meantime, but just putting this there in case it looks a bit lopsided or untidy along the way. Laterthanyouthink (talk) 08:05, 12 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Okay, I have now finished with this one for now (and updating a whole series of related articles as per info found for this one). Seems to match up to B class, although I see that UK politics seems to revert to C anyway. Laterthanyouthink (talk) 06:14, 16 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

1814 and All That

We have 1812 (or 31 May 1812) as Torrens's DoB as "accepted by modern historians". This date is asserted in the article Sir Robert Richard Torrens G.C.M.G (1812–1884) in S.A.'s Greats: The Men and Women of the North Terrace Plaques, edited by John Healey. In our article, Peter Moore is said to be its author, though not so credited in my copy of the book. Moore was however the author of the topic "Torrens Title" in The Wakefield Companion to South Australian History where the career of Robert Richard Torrens is outlined but little in the way of biographic detail. Certainly no mention of 1812 as asserted in "Untitled" above.

Professor Croucher, in her 2008 address 'Delenda Est Carthago!' references the date 31 May 1812 from a biography of Torrens by P. Howell in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online edition, the International Genealogical Index, and private correspondence from Peter Moore, based on the baptismal register entry.

The International Genealogical Index (highly reputable) has 31 May 1812 for his DoB, so I find it curious that in the latest (2024) edition of The Wakefield Companion to South Australian History, in the topic "Torrens Title" Moore refers to him as Robert Richard Torrens (1814–1884). I have not changed any asserted facts in the article, just a few annotations. Doug butler (talk) 13:44, 21 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]