Last Friday Jaybelnz advised us of the Pre 1839 NZ Settlers website.
https://sites.google.com/site/pre1839settlersinnz/home/complaintsI looked at the name index but no Roderick. There was however a James Hawkins in the Bay of Islands from 1835 with two women, Margaret and Elizabeth. From the linked-to included note below it would seem that the sister was probably Elizabeth.
"Details: Sydney Herald 17th July 1837
Extract of letter received from the Bay of Islands dated May 15th 1837.
Two shipwrights were robbed by Maori during an uprising. The shipwrights were industrious hard-working men, one of them named Hawkins had an aged mother and sister to provide for."
"James, Margaret and Elizabeth Hawkins arrived on the Nimrod which left Sydney in September 1835. Thomas Scott and James Hawkins built the schooner 'Trent' at Russell with a certificate of registration of 23 January 1838."There was also on that site, and in the Bay of Islands in 1836, a Capt Thomas Neal. Given that the Ancestry marriage referred to by Lucy2 names Francis Roderick's bride as Elizabeth Neale nee Hawkins, one might dangerously jump to the conclusion that the bride might have been the sister of the shipwright James Hawkins referred to above, who had some sort of liaison with Capt Neal in the interim.
I accept that this does not constitute anything like evidence on which to base a linkage at this stage, but it is an intriguing similarity of names at a time when few Europeans were here.
Alan
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