Early Life and Education
Wills was born on 19 August 1835 on his father's property on the Molonglo Plain near present day Canberra, in what was the British colony of New South Wales, to Horatio Spencer Howe Wills, and his wife, Elizabeth (née McGuire). Both his parents were descended from convicts: his mother was the daughter of two convicts transported from Ireland, and his father was the son of Edwards Wills, who was originally sentenced to death for highway robbery before having his sentence commuted to transportation. Wills' parents had married in December 1833, with Horatio Wills at the time serving as editor of the Sydney Gazette. A year after Wills was born, he was baptised Thomas Wentworth Wills after William Wentworth, a famous native-born emancipist in early colonial New South Wales.
The Wills family lived at Burra Burra near Gundagai until around 1840. In November that year, Tom moved with his parents and the rest of his family to the Mount William area of Victoria. A couple of years later at the end of 1842 they moved to Lexington, a 125,000-acre (510 km2) property in the Ararat District of Western Victoria. He was educated in Melbourne for two years.
There is no evidence that Wills played Marn Grook, an Aboriginal game alleged to have similarities with Australian rules football; however, the connection may have had some influence. Wills was fluent in the language of the people with whom he grew up, the Djab wurrung, knew their songs and dances, mimicked their gestures, and the first games he played were with local Aboriginal children. Due to his family's extensive interaction with local aborigines, it is assumed that he would have at the very least seen the game being played and some believe this may have had an influence on his rules for Australian football. Lawton Wills Cooke, the grandson of Tom's brother Horace, reported that "Tom played some form of football with Aboriginal kids. We have no documents to prove this, but there is a family story that they kicked a possum skin sewn up in the shape of a ball."
Read more about this topic: Tom Wills
Famous quotes containing the words early life, early, life and/or education:
“... business training in early life should not be regarded solely as insurance against destitution in the case of an emergency. For from business experience women can gain, too, knowledge of the world and of human beings, which should be of immeasurable value to their marriage careers. Self-discipline, co-operation, adaptability, efficiency, economic management,—if she learns these in her business life she is liable for many less heartbreaks and disappointments in her married life.”
—Hortense Odlum (1892–?)
“Men and women are not born inconstant: they are made so by their early amorous experiences.”
—Andre Maurois (1885–1967)
“Adolescence is a tough time for parent and child alike. It is a time between: between childhood and maturity, between parental protection and personal responsibility, between life stage- managed by grown-ups and life privately held.”
—Anna Quindlen (20th century)
“The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound. Fortunately in England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever. If it did, it would prove a serious danger to the upper classes, and probably lead to acts of violence in Grosvenor Square.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)