Category Archives: New Zealand

N is for New Zealand

17 Monday Apr 2023

Posted by in A to Z 2023, military, New Zealand, Toker

≈ 10 Comments

One of my first cousin five times removed was a soldier named Arthur Branthwayt Toker (1834–1866). Born at Eaton Place in London on 18 July 1834, he was the second son of Philip Champion Toker (1802–1882) and Elizabeth née Branthwayt (1808–1889), the third of their eight children. Alliston Champion Toker (1843-1936) (see ‘L is for languages‘) was Arthur’s younger brother.

Arthur’s father was a proctor of Doctors’ Commons, a London society of civil-law lawyers. Proctors were like attorneys in common-law courts and solicitors in the courts of equity.

In 1854 Arthur joined the 65th Regiment of Foot as an ensign by purchase.  He served first in the Crimea, then in 1860 he was transferred to New Zealand.

From 1860 to 1865 the 65th Foot had 41 officers and 940 other ranks stationed there, all on the North Island, at Auckland, Wellington, Wanganui, Napier, and Taranaki.

Toker fought in the Māori Wars from 1860 to 1861 and in further hostilities in New Zealand from 1863 until his departure in 1865.

The War began with a dispute between the government and Māori landowners over the sale of a property at Waitara. The result was inconclusive. Although there was a ceasefire  neither side explicitly accepted the peace terms offered to it. The British claimed that they had won the war, but it was widely held that they had suffered an unfavourable and humiliating defeat.

The “Roll of the Officers of the York and Lancaster Regiment” (George Alfred Raikes, 1885) records Toker’s service in New Zealand:

present in the following Engagements and Skirmishes, viz.: —Kohea Pah, March 17th and 18th, 1860 ; Expedition to Warea, April 20th to 30th, 1860, Chief Officer in Command, Colonel C. E. Gold ; Mahoetahi, November 6th, 1860 ; Kairau,December 29th and 30th, 1860 ; Huirangi, February 10th, 1861. … Served also at the Storming and Capture of Rangirui, New Zealand, November 20th and 21st, 1863 ; Mentioned in a Despatch from Lieutenant-General Sir D. A. Cameron, K.C.B., to the Secretary of State for War, dated Rangirui, November 26th, 1863.
From The New Zealand Wars vol. I, by James Cowan. 1922. frontispiece retrieved from archive.org

In the Battle of Rangiriri on 20 and 21 November 1863 more than 1400 British troops defeated about 500 Māori warriors. This battle cost both sides heavily, more than any other engagement of the New Zealand wars. A hundred and eighty Māori prisoners were taken, a loss which sharply reduced Māori capacity to oppose the British.

A Despatch from Lieutenant-General Sir D. A. Cameron, K.C.B., to the Secretary of State for War, dated Rangiriri, November 26th, 1863 was published in the London Gazette of 19 February 1864 (pages 770-2).

Cameron described the enemy position:

The enemy's works consisted of a line of high parapet and double ditch, extending, as I have before stated, between the Waikato and Lake Waikare, the centre of this line being strengthened by a square redoubt of very formidable construction, its ditch being ] 2 feet wide, and the height from the bottom of the ditch to the top of the parapet 18 feet. The strength of this work was not known before the attack as its profile could not be seen either from the river or from the ground in front. Behind the left centre of this main line and at right angles to it, there was a strong intrenched line of rifle pits facing the river and obstructing the advance of troops from that direction.

Toker led a detachment of 72 men with scaling ladders and planks. Cameron planned that “The skirmishers of the 65th Regiment were to cover the advance of the ladder party, and when the latter had succeeded in escalading the entrenchment, were to follow with the support”. Cameron noted the enemy defended with great tenacity and resolution. Cameron praised his officers, including Toker and the ladder party, for gallantly leading their men.

The repulse of the Royal Navy storming party, Rangiriri Pa. (20th November 1863). From The New Zealand Wars page 323 retrieved from archive.org
Earthworks of Rangiriri Pa, taken 20th Nov. 1863 watercolour by Charles Heaphy
Looking along the top of an earth wall at right. There is a trench to the left of it, and the left wall of the trench has regular arched niches in it. In the right background is a lake with canoes on it. Two cabbage trees are on the left.
The defence works were built on the ridge between July and November 1863, by the Waikato supporters of the Maori King movement, in preparation for a confrontation with British troops under General (Sir) Duncan Alexander Cameron.
Image from the National Library of New Zealand.
From The New Zealand Wars page 321 retrieved from archive.org

In 1865 the 65th Regiment was recalled from active service in New Zealand where it had been stationed for 19 years. The ‘John Temperley‘ was chartered to transport the troops home. It left Auckland on 25 October 1865 with 267 troops of the 65th Regiment, including Lieutenant Toker and his fellow officers and their families and “7 staff sergeants, 1 schoolmaster, 14 sergeants, 5 drummers, 150 rank and file, 18 women, and 29 children”.

On 6 December, with the regiment still at sea, the London Gazette announced the promotion of Lieutenant Arthur B. Toker, from 65th Foot, “to be Captain, without purchase, on half-pay”.  By going on half-pay he was effectively retiring from active service.

Sadly, Toker was never to enjoy a peaceful retirement. On 1 January 1866, just before reaching England, he died of typhoid fever.

Arthur Toker never married.

Included in a series of photographs of officers of the 65th regiment in the collection of the National Library of New Zealand

Related post

Wikitree: Arthur Branthwayt Toker (1834 – 1866)

John Narroway Darby

08 Wednesday Jan 2020

Posted by in 52 ancestors, court case, Darby, New Zealand, Portland, Tasmania

≈ 4 Comments

One of my husband’s 3rd great-grandfathers was a compositor and printer named John Narroway Darby.

John Darby was born in 1823 in Exeter, Devon, son of a joiner and carpenter named Joseph Darby (abt 1780 – 1865) and his wife Sarah Darby née Narroway [sometimes spelled Narraway]. Joseph and Sarah were married in 1807. They had at least six children of whom John, baptised on 3 March 1823 at Saint Mary Major, Exeter, was the third.

At the time of the English census of 1841, John, then a printer’s apprentice, was living in Exeter with his parents and three siblings.

In July 1842 following the publication of banns, John married Matilda Priscilla Moggridge (1825 – 1868) at St Mary Arches, Exeter. The consent of Matilda’s parents had been given.

Five months later Matilda and John emigrated on the Westminster to New Zealand. The Westminster was the first planned emigrant ship from England to Auckland. It sailed from Plymouth on 4 December 1842 and arrived 31 March 1843.

On a February 1844 list of all men within the District and Town of Auckland in the Colony of New Zealand and liable to serve on juries, there is a John N. Derby, compositor, living in Queen Street, Auckland.

Auckland Queen St 1843

Queen Street Auckland in 1843 from page 53 of The Project Gutenberg EBook of The City of Auckland, by John Barr, first published 1922 and retrieved from https://www.gutenberg.org/files/46925/46925-h/46925-h.htm#Page_53

In April 1844 John Darby wrote to the editor of the Auckland Chronicle with his views on the future of the Government Printing Office.

Darby John 1844 letter

Auckland Chronicle and New Zealand Colonist, Volume 2, Issue 37, 18 April 1844, Page 2

In December 1844 John Narroway Darby was in court over a forged promissory note, and in March 1845 he was indicted for issuing a shilling forged debenture. He was acquitted by the jury.

On 12 April 1845 Darby, with his wife and two children, left Auckland on the Sir John Franklin for Hobart Town, Van Diemen’s Land [Tasmania]. The Hobart Courier described the voyage as “a tedious passage of twenty five days.” The schooner carried 33 passengers, including 26 children, with a cargo of 12,000 feet of New Zealand timber and 12 parcels of printing apparatus. The ship brought news of the Maori Wars. The Tasmanian and Austral-Asiatic Review stated that the schooner was “laden with families flying from the Maories”

Matilda Frances Darby, the younger child of John Narroway Darby and Matilda Darby, was baptised in Hobart on 30 November 1845. She had been born on 14 March 1845.

Darby baptism 1845 RGD32-1-3-P588

from Tasmanian Lincs database https://stors.tas.gov.au/NI/1089444 Name: Darby, Matilda Frances Record Type: Births Gender: Female Father: Darby, John Harroway Mother: Matilda, Elizabeth Date of birth: 14 Mar 1845 Registered: Hobart Registration year: 1845 Record ID: NAME_INDEXES:1089444 Resource: RGD32/1/3/ no 2603

Apart from a mention on the shipping record, I have found very little about the other child of John and Matilda Darby. He, or she, appears to have been born in New Zealand about 1844 and seems to have died in Australia before 1855.

Sometime before 1850 John and Matilda Darby separated. In 1850 Matilda had a child, Margaret Hughes, born at Ashby near Geelong, Victoria. The father’s name was David Hughes. Margaret died in 1858. Ten years later, on 4 May 1868, Matilda Darby, claiming to be a spinster, married David Hughes. She died one month later, on 5 June.

It seems to me likely that Matilda Darby, knowing a formal union with David Hughes would be bigamous, refused to marry him until she had news that her first husband John Darby was dead. It is also possible that Matilda Darby, very ill, with not long to live, sought to regularise her relationship with Hughes as best she could. They had lived together for nineteen years; a form of marriage was possibly a kind of consolation
for them both.

John Darby appears to have been less concerned than his wife Matilda about committing the crime of bigamy. When on 21 July 1855 in Portland, Victoria, he went through the form of marriage with a woman called Catherine Murphy he claimed he was a widower, the father of two children, one living and one dead.

Darby Murphy Portland marriage

Name John Darby Spouse Name Catherine Murphy Registration Place Victoria Registration Year 1855 Registration Number 2765

In August 1855 John Darby of the Portland Guardian advertised for a printer’s apprentice.

In 1856 John Darby was listed on the electoral roll in Portland, living at Gawler Street, printer, entitled to vote as receiving a salary of £100 from T.E. Richardson.

I have found no further mentions of John Darby or  Catherine in Australian birth, death or marriage indexes, nor in other records.

In the Tumut and Adelong Times of 22 October 1866 a John Darby is recorded as having successfully sued the printer of the Braidwood News for £6 3s. wages. It is possible that this is our John Darby but I have found no further records of John or Catherine Darby in New South Wales.

DNA evidence links Greg and his cousins to Matilda Frances Sullivan née Darby but as yet no further back on the Darby line.

Related posts

Sources

  • FindMyPast  
    • Record set Devon Baptisms  First name(s) John Narroway  Last name Derby Birth year 1823  Baptism year 1823 Denomination Anglican  County Devon Baptism place Exeter, St Mary Major  Mother’s first name(s) Sarah Father’s first name(s) Joseph
    • Matilda  Last name Mogridge  Banns year 1842 Banns date 03 Jul 1842  Parish Exeter, St Mary Arches Spouse’s first name John  Spouse’s last name Darby Residence Exeter St Mary Steps Spouse’s residence Exeter St Mary Steps  Denomination Anglican County Devon Country England Archive reference 332A/PR/1/13 Archive South West Heritage Trust  Record set Devon Banns Category Life Events (BDMs)
  • Ancestry.com
    • English 1841 census Class: HO107; Piece: 267; Book: 4; Civil Parish: St Mary Major; County: Devon; Enumeration District: 14; Folio: 25; Page: 45; Line: 23; GSU roll: 241331
    • Jury Lists: Auckland 1842-1853
    • Tasmania, Australia, Passenger Arrivals, 1829-1957 Reports of ships arrivals with lists of passengers; Film Number: SLTX/AO/MB/3; Series Number: MB2/39/1/8
    • 1856 electoral roll for Portland, Victoria, Australia
  • Whyte, Carol. “Passenger List of Westminster, Cork, 4 December 1842 to Auckland.” New ZealandGenWeb Project, Carol Whyte, 2014, www.newzealandgenweb.org/index.php/regions/auckland/44-source-records-auckland/60-passenger-list-of-westminster-cork-4-december-1842-to-auckland.
  • PapersPast – an online collection of digitised New Zealand newspapers and periodicals
  • Trove – online Australian digital reproductions of newspapers, journals, books, maps, personal papers, as well as archived websites and other born-digital content compiled by the National Library of Australia
  • from Tasmanian Lincs database https://stors.tas.gov.au/NI/1089444   Name:  Darby, Matilda Frances  Record Type: Births Gender:  Female Father: Darby, John Harroway  Mother: Matilda, Elizabeth Date of birth:  14 Mar 1845 Registered: Hobart Registration year:  1845 Record ID: NAME_INDEXES:1089444 Resource: RGD32/1/3/ no 2603
  • Victorian births, deaths and marriages
      • Name Margaret Hughes Birth Date Abt 1850 Birth Place Ashby, Victoria Registration Year 1850 Registration Place Victoria, Australia Father David Hughes Mother Matilda Registration Number 22395
      • Name Matilda Priscilla Craddock Spouse Name David Hughes Marriage Place Victoria Registration Place Victoria Registration Year 1868 Registration Number 1485
      • Name Matilda Hughes Birth Year abt 1825 Age 43 Death Place Victoria Father’s Name Mogridge John Registration Year 1868 Registration Place Victoria Registration Number 3957
      • Name John Darby Spouse Name Catherine Murphy Marriage Place Victoria Registration Place Victoria Registration Year 1855 Registration Number 2765

Z is for zealous in New Zealand

29 Friday Apr 2016

Posted by in A to Z 2016, Mainwaring, New Zealand

≈ 2 Comments

Frederic Mainwaring (1844-1922), 13th of the 16 children of Rowland Mainwaring (1783-1862), was my fourth great uncle. His mother, Laura Maria Julia Walburga Mainwaring née Chevillard (1811-1891), was  Rowland Mainwaring’s third wife.

Frederick was born on 5 October 1844 in Frankfurt, Germany. He was educated at Rugby school, Warwickshire entering the school in 1859. The headmaster at the time was Frederick Temple.

Frederic Mainwaring’s father died in 1862. Frederic emigrated to New Zealand in 1864 with his brothers Eugene (1841-1911) and Randolph (1839-1902). For the first few years the three brothers were pastoralists on the Manipouri Station, south-west Otago, in the south of New Zealand. This was unprofitable. Randolph became a journalist. Eugene, who had trained as an engineer, joined the New Zealand Public Works Department. When Ashburton County Council was formed in 1878, Frederic joined as a clerk. (Ashburton is 50 miles south-west of Christchurch.)

Frederic was an excellent employee. He served the council for 44 years without a day’s leave until early May 1922 when he was granted twelve months sick leave. He died only a fortnight later.

Ashburton County Clerk, New Zealand Press, 6 May 1922 page 9 retrieved from PapersPast
Obituary New Zealand Press 19 May 1922 page 10 retrieved from PapersPast

Ashburton Council was authorised by legislation (section 56 of Reserves and other Lands Disposal and Public Bodies Empowering Act 1922Public Act 1922 No 50 Date of assent 31 October 1922) to

pay to Adelaide Mainwaring, widow of the late Frederic Mainwaring, formerly Clerk of the said County Council, a sum not exceeding one hundred and fifty pounds by way of compassionate allowance.

Frederic had married Adelaide Sarah Blundell (1856-1945) in 1874. They had two daughters, one of whom died in infancy.

Deaths at sea

25 Saturday Jul 2015

Posted by in army, Branthwayt, cholera, Cudmore, Dana, Hickey, navy, New Zealand, Phipps, Plaisted, Sepia Saturday, shipwreck, Skelly, Smyth, Toker, tuberculosis, typhoid, Wade

≈ 5 Comments

This week’s Sepia Saturday prompt is the sea. In fact, the prompt picture of Bondi Beach inspires thoughts of holidays by the beach, but I have recently been researching several members of my family who died at sea and I was reminded that the sea is not always benign.

JEAN_LOUIS_THÉODORE_GÉRICAULT_-_La_Balsa_de_la_Medusa_(Museo_del_Louvre,_1818-19)

The Raft of the Medusa by Théodore Géricault painted 1818-1819 and now hanging in the Louvre. The Méduse was wrecked off the coast of Africa in 1816. Of the 400 on board only 15 survived.

Arthur Branthwayt (1776-1808) was the second husband of my 5th great grandmother Elizabeth née Phipps (1774-1836). He died at sea in a shipwreck. He was travelling to Gothenburg and the Crescent, a frigate with 36 guns, which was lost off the coast of Jutland. 220 of the 280 aboard her died. A raft was constructed, similar to the Méduse‘s. Arthur Branthwayt’s wife, eight-month-old daughter and four step-children were not travelling with him.
Hampshire Chronicle 6 February 1809
Kentish Gazette 30 December 1808
Morning Post (London) 17 January 1809
Arthur Branthwayt’s grandson, Arthur Branthwayt Toker (1834 – 1866), my first cousin five times removed, is doubly related to me as his mother married her half-sister’s nephew by marriage, the son of Clarissa Champion de Crespigny (1776 – 1836). Young Arthur died at sea of typhoid fever while returning to England from New Zealand. He had been an officer in the 65th Regiment (later the York and Lancaster Regiment) and fought in the Maori Wars. He was unmarried.
 
from William Francis Robert Gordon’s album “Some “Soldiers of the Queen” who served in the Maori Wars and Other Notable Persons Connected Herewith”. Retrieved from the collection of Puke Ariki, New Plymouth, New Zealand
 
Wellington Independent 27 March 1866

In 1814 another shipwreck took the lives of Henry Gore Wade, his wife and children. Wade was the brother-in law of my fourth great uncle Philip Champion de Crespigny (1765 – 1851).  The Wade family were returning to England from India and died when the John Palmer was wrecked.

Morning Post (London) 31 March 1814
Morning Post (London) 1 April 1814

Gordon Skelly, who died in 1771, was my 6th great grandfather. His granddaughter Sophia née Duff (1790 – 1824) married Rowland Mainwaring (1783 – 1862). Skelly was the captain of the Royal Navy sloop Lynx stationed at Shields Yorkshire. He was drowned when his ship’s long boat, ,crossing the bar of the harbour, was overturned by breakers. At the time of his death his two children were aged four and three.

Leeds Intelligencer 2 July 1771
Entrance to Shields Harbour from The Ports, Harbours, Watering-places and Picturesque Scenery of Great Britain Vol. 1 by William Findon retrieved from Project Gutenberg

When I checked my family tree I found a number of others who died at sea:

  • Charles Patrick Dana (1784 – 1816), my 4th great grand uncle, who died while travelling from the East Indies to England on the Sir Stephen Lushington.
  • Michael Hickey (1812 – 1840), the brother of my 3rd great grandmother died on the voyage to South Australia from Cork, Ireland,  on the Birman.
  • Kenneth Budge (1813 – 1852), my 3rd great grandfather, died of cholera while sailing near Elsinore, Denmark.
  • Walter Wilkes Plaisted (1836 – 1871), my 3rd great grand uncle, who died of phthsis (tuberculosis) on board the SS Geelong during the passage from Singapore to Melbourne. His probate file, held by the Public Records Office of Victoria, includes an inventory of his effects, a fascinating insight into his possessions.
My great great grandfather, James Francis Cudmore (1837 – 1912) was born at sea aboard the Siren off the coast of Kangaroo Island. His mother, Mary née Nihill (1811 -1893) was travelling from Launceston to the very new colony of Adelaide to join her husband Daniel Michael Paul Cudmore (1811 – 1891).
My husband’s great great grandmother Margaret née Smyth (1834 – 1897) gave birth to a baby boy as she travelled to Australia from Ireland on the Persian. The baby is recorded on the passenger list but it is not known what happened to him after arrival. He probably died as an infant. His death was before compulsory civil registration.