RootsChat.Com
Research in Other Countries => New Zealand => New Zealand Completed Requests => Topic started by: jibhauler14 on Saturday 03 March 18 17:33 GMT (UK)
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I am trying to find out when a William and Susan Howells arrived in New Zealand circa 1850 and how the got there, he was a miner from Sedgley in Staffordshire England, they would have been in there early 20s when they arrived, they were married with no children and did very well, settling in the Central Hawkes Bay area, they owned the Travellers Rest Hotel now the Commercial Hotel in Waipawa, plus other property and land in the area, on 25/11/1863 William Howells after a day at the races and having consumed a fair bit of alcohol got into a disagreement with his wife and friends, he swallowed Strychnine and died, his name is on a gravestone of the church in Waipawa, having died intestate his estate became the basis for certain judgments in law, his widow later married a James Bennett but I cannot find any trace of her from then on.
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https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KDTM-5MQ
- I think this may be the probate record of James Bennett who married Susan Howells.
He mentions wife Susan, and adopted son William Henry James Dowd otherwise Bennett.
Susan died in 1902 (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/152417733 ,
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KDTM-5TQ - will leaves everything to the same adopted son, https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/HBH19020815.2.16 )
Unfortunately her obituary doesn't give any info about when she arrived in NZ.
When did William and Susan marry, and where? When do you first have a concrete sighting of them in NZ? We might have more luck if we can narrow the time period down.
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thanks for the info, I know a lot about what happened to his estate etc--- in the following 50 odd years after his death and the problems with probate, executors, no will etc--- that resulted in several court cases, I even know which properties he owned in Waipaw and how much they sold for and Iknow of his beneficiaries who were cousins, but all I know or have found out about William and Susan is that they were born in Sedgley, were married in Sedgley he was a miner presumably coal and that they emigrated to New Zealand, they are supposed to have been in there mid 20s when they arrived as he was in his mid 30s when he died in 1863, so his birth date looks like 1830 ish... I will have to keep digging..
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Have you already contacted the Central Hawkes Bay Settlers Museum for information?
http://www.chbsettlersmuseum.co.nz/
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Just putting these snippets up, some show variation in spelling of the surname.......
Report of his death:
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/HBT18631204.2.9?end_date=31-12-1863&phrase=0&query=william+howell&start_date=01-01-1863&title=BA%2CDTN%2CHAST%2CHBH%2CHBT%2CHBWT
1863/2079 Howells William 33Y
1902/4830 Bennett Susan 82YA
Marriage:
1866/6130 Susan Howels James Bennett
Minniehaha.
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Do you have their marriage date and were they in the 1851 UK census?
Cheers Janette
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This is not part of the brief but may be useful..........
[Added].......
1889/329 Isabella Mary Carlyle William Henry James Doud Bennett
Report of the marriage:
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DTN18890225.2.15?end_date=31-12-1889&phrase=0&query=isabella+carlyle&start_date=01-01-1889
Cemetery details:
BENNETT, WILLIAM HENRY JAMES
Details M: Died 02-01-1926: Aged 50:
Place Hillsborough
Location Area 2 Block K Lot No 107
Remarks
Information
Officiating
NZSG map
Trans number
________________________________________
[2 of 6]
Name BENNETT, WILLIAM HENRY JAMES
Details M: Died 02-01-1926: Aged 59: Cause of death - cancer: Date of burial - 5 Jan 1926
Place Hillsborough
Location Area 2 Block K Lot No 107
Remarks
Corrections - BDM & Death Notice have age 59 not 50: Headstone: No
Information Occuptation - traveller: Residence - Symonds St: RC: Native place - NZ: Last from Hawkes Bay: Years in NZ - 50
Officiating Officiating Clergy - Rev Shore: Informant - C Little & sons
NZSG map
Trans number
Death registration:
1926/426 Bennett William Henry James 59Y
Death notice:
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZH19260104.2.2.3?end_date=31-12-1926&phrase=2&query=william+henry+james+bennett&start_date=01-01-1926
Minniehaha.
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There is a william Howel aged 10 in the 1841 census for Sedgley with parents William and Harriet and siblings, he is missing from the family in 1851?
Jennifer
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A little more about Mrs. Susan Bennett..........
Funeral of Mrs. Susan Bennett….
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/HBH19020818.2.28?end_date=31-08-1902&phrase=0&query=+bennett+waipawa&start_date=01-08-1902
Cause of death:
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WDT19020816.2.8?end_date=31-08-1902&page=2&phrase=0&query=+bennett+waipawa&start_date=01-08-1902
Minniehaha.
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Further to reply #1...........
St. Peter's Church Cemetery photograph which includes the name of Susan Bennett:
https://billiongraves.com/grave/Susan-Bennett/21211267
[click on arrow to the right]
Minniehaha.
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Birth registration of Susan's adopted son?
1867/19225 Dowd William Henry James Bennett Catherine James
Added:Death of his parents?
1867/5964 Dowd Catherine 33Y
1868/6179 Dowd James 36Y
The drowning of a James Dowd….
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/HBH18680718.2.9?end_date=31-12-1868&phrase=2&query=james+dowd&start_date=01-01-1868
[But maybe not the correct person, the children's ages don't fit.]
Minniehaha.
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The William Howells in the 1841 census looks like our man, I understand he and Susan married young and then headed of to New Zealand, how they got there I am still not certain, thanks for all your help many blanks filled in, for the record I have offered the paperwork regarding the sale of the estate etc... in Waipawa to the Central Hawkes Bay Museum thank you for that link..