Places Called Warburton

Following recent interest in places called Warburton, this post catalogues places around the world that I know of. I have divided it into two parts, towns, and Others. Towns covers all settlements of any size, presented in size order, except the Cheshire village that is the origin of the name is given pride of place. Others includes any other geographical feature or place of note. At this stage I will not attempt a catalogue of Warburton street names.

Towns

1. Warburton, Greater Manchester Warburton was originally established as a Mercian fortified settlement on the southern bank of the River Mersey, probably in the 10th century. It was named after St Werburgh, a Mercian princess whose tomb is in Chester Cathedral. The River Mersey later formed the boundary between the counties of Lancashire to the north, and Cheshire to the south. Today it is a small hamlet with a population (in 2001) of 286 within the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford in Greater Manchester.  The River Mersey at that point has dried up due to the construction of the Manchester Ship Canal. It does boast 2 churches, both dedicated to St Werburgh. The older 700+ year old church was replaced by  new church on a new site in 1883, but it still stands today.
2. Warburton, Punjab, Pakistan Warburton is described by Wikipedia as a mid-sized city, population (2017) 30,738. The city was built on a tract of land granted to John Paul Warburton (1840–1919), a high ranking police officer of the Raj period, whose exploits earned him the soubriquet “Button Sahib: The Controller of Devils”. The Warburtons were a prominent Anglo-Indian family but John Paul officially was adopted, originally being called Jan Dad Khan. His mother Shah Jahan Begum began her relationship with Robert Warburton, an Irish Artillery officer, in Kabul during the First Afghan War, subsequently divorcing her first husband, marrying Robert, and escaping with him, and two sons, back to India. However, the story within the family is that John Paul was indeed Robert’s son. His daughter Durrani commented of her grandparents: ”They were certainly shooting grouse before the twelfth”  John Paul’s residence at Warburton was turned to a high school which is still functional. This area is surrounded by textile industries. There is a police station, a post office and a girl’s college. The main business in Warburton is rice and mobile phones.

3. Warburton, Mpumalanga, South Africa Warburton is a township on the N17, 275 kilometres east of Johannesburg. Its population was 2,847 in 2011.
4. Warburton, Victoria, Australia This town had a population of 2,012 people in 2016. It was named after a Police Magistrate called Charles Warburton Carr. Charles’s mother was Susannah Mongon which suggests he was given the name Warburton in honour of Bishop Terence Charles Warburton of Cloyne, who was born Mongon, but whose change of name to Warburton was reported in the London Gazette in 1792.
5. Warburton, Western Australia is an Aboriginal Australian community just south of the Gibson Desert . It had a population of 576 in 2016. It was named after the explorer Peter Egerton-Warburton, who crossed the Great Sandy Desert in 1873, whilst establishing an overland route from Adelaide to Perth.
6. Warburton, Ontario, Canada Warburton is a community within the Leeds and  Thousand Islands township of Ontario. It is 68 miles south of Ottawa. It doesn’t warrant its own Wikipedia entry, and on a satellite view it doesn’t look to be much more than a couple of houses.

Others

1. Warburton Green, Hale, Cheshire (now the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford in Greater Manchester). Warburton Green is one of 7 Greens in Hale and was named before 1600. It probably signifies that  a significant Warburton family held land there, though the family has long since died out. The nature of the holding was probably similar to my own family’s holding at Hale Barns (about 3/4 miles away). This was held in perpetuity on a peppercorn rent on land formerly owned by the Stanley family, probably in return for services rendered at the close of the Wars of the Roses. 
2. Warburton Manor, Maryland This was the home of the Digges family on the banks of the Potomac opposite George Washington’s home at Mount Vernon. It seems that the name goes back to around 1640, but I am still no wiser as to reason for the name.
3. The Warburton River (or Warburton Creek) is a freshwater stream in the far north of South Australia that flows in a south westerly direction and discharges into the eastern side of Lake Eyre. It is one of the state’s largest rivers, and is part of the Lake Eyre Basin. It was named after the explorer Peter Egerton Warburton.
4. Mount Warburton Pike is a mountain on Saturna Island in the Gulf Islands of British Columbia, Canada. It is the highest summit in the Gulf Islands, other than Saltspring Island. The mountain is named for Warburton Pike (1861–1915), who alienated land on Saturna in 1886 and whose ranch included the mountain. Pike was an explorer, sportsman and author and wrote a book on his experiences in the Canadian North, The Barren Ground of Northern Canada.  Pike’s family were clay miners in Dorset. Warburton was used as a middle name within the family as a result of a marriage in 1803 between William Pike and Anne Warburton who was from a family of Staffordshire potters.
5. Warburton Island Alaska Warburton Island is a small uninhabited island in the Nicholas Passage. It forms part of the Alexander Archipelago, and is about 20 miles south of Ketchikan. It was named in 1883 by Lieutenant Commander H. E. Nichols, U.S. Navy (USN).
6. Warburton Island, Ontario, Canada Warburton Island is situated in Manitou Dock, close to Martin Island, Georgian Bay, Lake Huron.
7. Warburton Island, Saskatchewan, Canada This island is situated in Lac La Ronge.

Street Names

There are many streets, roads, lanes and avenues around the world called Warburton. A search on Google maps of Ontario shows Warburton street names in Kingston, Minden, and Ajax.  I am also aware of Warburton street names in Townsville, Queensland and Albany, Western Australia. A Warburton Highway runs 35k from Melbourne to Warburton, Victoria.