Author Topic: Jonathan Bell - Rangiora, Canterbury  (Read 12998 times)

Offline Mensor38

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Jonathan Bell - Rangiora, Canterbury
« on: Friday 13 October 06 20:16 BST (UK) »
Hello all,
I'm a new lister from England. Have come across a Jonathan Bell, christened 12 Aug 1832 in East Allington, Lincolnshire. I have an address for him, sometime in the 1850/60's, at Foston Farm, Rangiora, Canterbury NZ.
There is a family story that he became, or was, a watchmaker in New Zealand, probably about the 1850's, although I do not have an emigration year or any further information on him.
Does this 'ring a bell' with anyone?

(This a double hit, also on the KIWIGEN page, hope you don't mind)
 
Mike
Lincolnshire,  Christian, Dent, Green, Harrison, Priest, Shepherd, Williams,

Offline jericho

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Re: Jonathan Bell - Rangiora, Canterbury
« Reply #1 on: Friday 13 October 06 21:12 BST (UK) »
Hi Mike



I think he maybe the son of your Jonathan Bell

Mayors of Rangiora Borough
C.W. Bell  1908-1910

In the early days the Mayors retired annually and either put themselves up for re-election or stood down.

Charles William Bell was born in Rangiora in 1871. He was the son of early settler Jonathan Bell who had settled in the west of Rangiora (Bells Station). After having served an apprenticeship as a tailor and gained experience in the trade in Wellington he returned to Rangiora where he entered into business on his own account in 1894. His premise were in High Street to the east of Durham Street.

Mr Bell was a member of the school committee, and was a District Grand Master of the Rangoria Oddfellows Lodge. He also served in the Rangiora Rifles and reached the rank of Sergeant.

Mr Bell was a leading member of the Beautifying Society and the Poultry Club. He put much time and engery into making the arrangements for the annual poultry shows, riding his bicycle into Christchurch and back to organise the equipment needed to stage the show. This club still has its annual shows.


hope this helps
jericho
Census information is Crown Copyright from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

Offline jericho

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Re: Jonathan Bell - Rangiora, Canterbury
« Reply #2 on: Friday 13 October 06 21:29 BST (UK) »
Mike

Archives NZ also has the following for Jonathan Bell Rangoria  1922-1922
retired Farmer

agency   series     accession              record 

CAHX      2989        CHI7I                      CH
                                                        11809/1922

These records are held in Christchurch and can be ordered from

Archives New Zealand, Chrishchurch Regional Office
PO Box 642
90 Peterborough Street
Christchurch.



jericho
Census information is Crown Copyright from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

Offline Mensor38

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Re: Jonathan Bell - Rangiora, Canterbury
« Reply #3 on: Friday 13 October 06 22:31 BST (UK) »
Jericho,
Thanks very much - I wasn't expecting a reply so rapidly,  (thanks, rootsweb!).

I think my next step is to work backwards - who was the mayor's father, etc.

Would be nice to find direct family, as I have some very good information on the English end.

I'll follow-up on your second e-mail tomorrow.

You're a star!

Mike
Lincolnshire,  Christian, Dent, Green, Harrison, Priest, Shepherd, Williams,


Offline DelBoy

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Re: Jonathan Bell - Rangiora, Canterbury
« Reply #4 on: Sunday 15 October 06 22:35 BST (UK) »
Hi there,

1881 NZ Elec Roll

Electorate   Kaiapoi
Number   62
Surname   BELL
Given Names   Jonathan
Nature Of Qualification   Freehold
Place Of Residence   Rangiora
Occupation   Farmer
For Property Qualification   Sections 969, Oxford Road; 6321 Rangiora
   swamp

Electorate   Kaiapoi
Number   63
Surname   BELL
Given Names   Alexander Maxwell
Nature Of Qualification   Residential
Place Of Residence   Rangiora
Occupation   None
   
   
Electorate   St Albans
Number   537
Surname   BELL
Given Names   Jonathan
Nature Of Qualification   Residential
Place Of Residence   West Town Belt
Occupation   Farmer
   
   

1893 NZ Elec Roll

Surname   BELL
Given Name   Jonathan
Number   184
Electorate   Kaiapoi
Voting Qualification   Freehold
Residential Address   Rangiora
Occupation   Farmer
Property Detail   3 acres, Glen St
   
Surname   BELL
Given Name   Eliza
Number   181
Electorate   Kaiapoi
Voting Qualification   Residential
Residential Address   Rangiora
Occupation   Domestic duties
   
Surname   BELL
Given Name   Charles William
Number   844
Electorate   Wellington
Voting Qualification   Residential
Residential Address   Thompson St
Occupation   Tailor
   
Surname   BELL
Given Name   Agnes
Number   838
Electorate   Wellington
Voting Qualification   Residential
Residential Address   Thompson St
Occupation   Married woman

Strays that may fit in somewhere

Surname   BELL
Given Name   Eleanora Lavinia
Number   3513
Electorate   Kaiapoi
Voting Qualification   Residential
Residential Address   Southbrook
Occupation   Domestic duties
   
Surname   BELL
Given Name   John
Number   182
Electorate   Kaiapoi
Voting Qualification   Freehold
Residential Address   Christchurch
Occupation   Tradesman
Property Detail   Sec 33043

Surname   BELL
Given Name   John George
Number   183
Electorate   Kaiapoi
Voting Qualification   Residential
Residential Address   Coldstream
Occupation   Blacksmith
   
   
Likely Marriage for the two

Year   1867
Folio   1336
Surname   BELL
Given Names   Jonathon
Sex   M
Spouse   DEAL, Eliza
   
Year   1893
Folio   1767
Surname   BELL
Given Names   Charles William
Sex   M
Spouse   PATTERSON, Agnes


Other possible marriages

Year   1900
Folio   5185
Surname   BELL
Given Names   Jonathan Alfred
Sex   M
Spouse   ALLEN, Jessie
   
Year   1905
Folio   3089
Surname   BELL
Given Names   Jonathan Alfred
Sex   M
Spouse   DUFFELL, Emily Annie

Year   1921
Folio   06966
Surname   BELL
Given Names   Charles William
Sex   M
Spouse   SALMON, Myrtle Ida

Year   1940
Folio   04432
Surname   BELL
Given Names   Charles William
Sex   M
Spouse   AYTON, Jean MacKenzie

Year   1906
Folio   0010
Surname   BELL
Given Names   Charles William Patterson
Sex   M
Spouse   SCOTT, Mabel Clare

Year   1874
Folio   1716
Surname   BELL
Given Names   Charles Wm
Sex   M
Spouse   LAWES, Harriet
   
   
Probates
   
   
Christchurch probate files   
BELL Eliza - Rangiora - Married Woman   1907 1907 Christchurch High Court O Chch


Bells Siding ( From the history of Rangiora)

Location : Corner of West Belt and Oxford Road

In 1887, a passenger stop and platform for the Rangiora –Oxford Railway, was built on the northwest corner of West Belt and Oxford Road at therequest of the Borough Council. Jonathan Bell was farming in that area. The small station was at the side of his property.
 
Dont know if this one is connected ?! :

BELL.
Funeral Notice. Wellington.
Charles William Bell, died on the 25th March 1882. No other details
   
   
Hope this is of some help

Cheers
Del   
Saunders/Sanders,Owen,Owens,Darrach,Wilson, Cardon,Gurney,Edwards, Holmes,Smith, Ohlson,Homewood,Shaw,Semple,Merrill,Smithyman,McCallum,Winslade,Morton,Hill,Donahoe,Inglis, Moore, Morgan, Lawrence/Laurence, Owen, Owens, Skelton,Steele, Caldwell, Wood, Parish,Read,Donaldson, Hill,Farren,Carnley, Bradford, Dugard, Lindsell, Restall, Plus many many more surnames, varied countries

Offline Mensor38

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Re: Jonathan Bell - Rangiora, Canterbury
« Reply #5 on: Sunday 15 October 06 23:40 BST (UK) »
Delboy,
Thanks a lot.

It started out as an enquiry to solve an unsent letter.....................

Now, I can see myself having fun for months following up the details you've sent me.

I'm very grateful, and I will try to keep you updated on progress.

Thanks again,

Michael
Lincolnshire,  Christian, Dent, Green, Harrison, Priest, Shepherd, Williams,

Offline Jean Price

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Re: Jonathan Bell - Rangiora, Canterbury
« Reply #6 on: Sunday 22 October 06 01:11 BST (UK) »
Hello Michael,
Here is some more for you.
From "Rangiora" by D N Hawkins, published by the Rangiora Borough Council, 1983.

Page 117:
Jonathon Bell --- had walked noth from Ferrymead carrying a spade and testing the soil as he went. He finally selected his land on the west side of Rangiora and bought an acre of bush to provide timber for the framework of his house and to fence his farm. He broke his cross-cut saw but finished his sawing with what he had left. The walls of the house were made of planks and the roof thatched with wheat straw and he dug a twenty-two foot well and lined it with curved bricks. The farm was called Foston after Bell's native village in Lincolnshire and the paper road which ran along its boundary to the Ashley (River became known as Bell's Road.

Mrs Bell was an experienced maternity nurse and her work in the Rangiora settlement helped to raise the money for further land purchases. Jonathon Bell was a good farmer and he was among the first to buy a threshing plant driven by a horse-drawn engine, a chaff cutter and dressing machine. He eventually built a second sod house on adjacent land and left Foston to a son, also Jonathon.

The younger Jonathon Bell was a clever man, very skilled with his hands. He had a blacksmith's shop and carpenter's shop on Foston, built his own telescope to further his interest in astronomy and played in an orchestra whenever one played in Rangiora. He had fourteen children of whom eleven survived and his third son, Charles William Bell, became mayor of Rangiora.

Jonathon Bell senior's daughter Lucy married Edmund Land who bought a rural section on the south side of the Oxford Road opposite Foston. Lucy Land died in 1865 and Edmund Landf went to America for a number of years ----.

Page 289:
Relph gave up the mayoralty in May 1908 and his successor was C W Bell, a son of Jonathon Bell of Foston, and a leading member of the Beautifying Society and the Poultry Club. A business man, Bell had a tailor's shop on High Street, a few yards east of Durham Street ----.


More to follow,
Regards,
Jean
Fawcett, Down; Gibson, Ayrshire and Tasmania; James, Cornwall and Victoria Aus; Cox, Northamptonshire, Thomas, Gloucestershire; Albury, Berkshire,

Offline Jean Price

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Re: Jonathan Bell - Rangiora, Canterbury
« Reply #7 on: Sunday 22 October 06 03:58 BST (UK) »
Hello Michael again,

This time from:
"Beyond the Waimakariri, A Regional History", by D N Hawkins, published 1957, published and printed by Whitcombe and Tombs Ltd, Christchurch.

Page 39 - 40:
By the end of 1857 quite a number of rural sections had been taken up on all sides of the bush, and the population of the settlement Rangiora had been increased by the arrival of Samuel Andrews, Samuel Golding, Edward Good, Edmund Robinson, William Vincent, Edward Pentecost, Stephen Mounsey, George Lock, Smith Howard, and Jonathon Bell. Some time before they left England Ivory and Stapleforth saw a brightly-painted dray at Charing Cross station, and were told that it belonged to a man named Bell who was migrating to New Zealand.  Months later, while tramping into Christchurch, they saw the same dray standing beside a cottage at Heathcote. Two years later its owners, Jonathon Bell and his father, left Heathcote to look for a section of good land, taking with them a spade to test the soil. They literally dug their way north, and finally found soil of the quality they required near Rangiora Bush, about a mile away from Mr Ivory.

Page 297:
At Rangiora a ploughing match was first held in August 1865, on a paddock now occupied by the railway station. Jonathon Bell won a prize for the best ploughing with a horse and bullock harnessed together, but was disqualified from winning the main trophy for exceeding the time limit.

Page 298:
The first threshing machine to be used in the north was imported by the Rev. John Raven, about 1856. This machine was simply a revolving drum turned by horses harnessed to a capstan. Raven attached two spirited horses to his thresher when he first tried it out, but the clattering of the gears frightened them and they bolted around the paddock dragging the noisy machine behind them.  Jonathon Bell of Rangiora also had a similar machine. While the horses worked a man fed in the sheaves. The grain was then dressed in another machine, and a day in which two hundred bushells was thus treated was considered a good one.

Regards,
Jean
Fawcett, Down; Gibson, Ayrshire and Tasmania; James, Cornwall and Victoria Aus; Cox, Northamptonshire, Thomas, Gloucestershire; Albury, Berkshire,

Offline Jean Price

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Re: Jonathan Bell - Rangiora, Canterbury
« Reply #8 on: Sunday 22 October 06 04:18 BST (UK) »
And I think this is the last I can add:

Edmund Land married Lucy Bell 1856, Folio # 0335

from NZ BDM's

Regards,
Jean
Fawcett, Down; Gibson, Ayrshire and Tasmania; James, Cornwall and Victoria Aus; Cox, Northamptonshire, Thomas, Gloucestershire; Albury, Berkshire,