Charles Middleton

Charles Middleton (sometimes Meddleton) is one of the earliest recorded opal miners at Lightning Ridge. Charles was born on 21 December 1849 in Docking, Norfolk, England, the son of Clement and Phoebe Middleton.

After emigrating from England, Middleton spent decades working in gold mining across New South Wales, Queensland, and Victoria. He was at Coolgardie in 1894–95, worked in British New Guinea in 1897–98.

In 1903, Charles Middleton is listed as an opal miner on the Corcoran Lake (Weetalibah) electoral roll, with the occupation of ‘miner’, one of the earliest listings of a miner in the vicinity of Lightning Ridge. He is listed alongside Albert Holley, also a miner.

For some time it has been assumed that Charles Middleton was a misspelling or conflation of Charles Nettleton, as the spelling is obviously similar. However, this has been proven untrue as genealogical profiling and research on Middleton has identified him as a unique individual. Further evidence of Nettleton and Middleton being seperate people can be found in the electoral rolls - Nettleton himself is listed on the Walgett-Namoi electoral roll for 1903, while Middleton is listed on the Coocoran (Weetalibah) roll.

Middleton would later mine for gold at Lionsville on the Clarence River in 1917–18.

Middleton eventually settled in Grafton, New South Wales.

He died at Grafton Hospital on 10 October 1926, aged 76, and was buried in Grafton.

• Charles Middleton @ Find a Grave.

Article: Research by Russell Gawthorpe and Leisa Carney, edited by Russell Gawthorpe. Sources: Daily Examiner (Grafton, NSW), 16 Oct 1926, p.4; ‘Personal’, Daily Examiner, 16 October 1926, p. 4; ‘Grafton’, Observer and Evening Brisbane Courier, 22 Oct 1926, p. 2.