My earliest research endeavours on the Fuller Family were encouraged by my sister Lavinia Chrystal, who was keen for me to trace back the traditions of naming daughters Lavinia on the maternal side of our family, and to find out how far back this tradition had occurred. We were always told it went right back to Cornwall in England, where there were loads of daughters named Lavinia. It is a fact that my niece, sister, cousin, mother, grandmother and great grandmother were all named Lavinia. For those who don’t know, that is Lavinia Chrystal, Lavinia Robson, Wendy Lavinia Fuller, Lavinia Fuller, Lavinia Moar and Lavinia Northey.
In the beginning nothing would come for my mother and her previously fabulous memory was starting to fail, especially if she was put under stress and my research stalled for a time. I would visit her for afternoon tea – very much a Fuller family tradition, and gently ask her again about the family, only for her memory to refuse to co-operate. She was trying so hard, and it was so frustrating for her. Mum, known to all as Ma had the stories though, even if she had no names. She told me about the time she visited New Zealand with her mum and dad, Grandpa John and Gran Fuller, and brothers, John and Malcolm, when she was a young girl. My sister Lavinia and I found the Fuller family albums, and as photos started to fall out, memories started to come back for Ma. This was where we found photos of John and Malcolm aboard ship, standing near a life buoy, which clearly spelt Awatea. This struck a note, as I had earlier found a newspaper photo of my grandfather aboard the Awatea, reported as “returning to Sydney”, and it was possible that this was the ship that the family sailed on from New Zealand to Australia in the early 1930’s. Ma couldn’t remember the name of the ship, however the holiday to visit her New Zealand family was intact, as Ma happily explained that there were many cousins to greet them in New Zealand, and on both sides of the family. All of Gran’s family gathered for a reunion, and there were so many cousins that Ma remembers her father Johnny was quite overwhelmed by the occasion, and for years after he would talk about Gran’s family appearing like rabbits, from every door in the house, warmly greeting him, and he had absolutely no idea who they were, but he had a lovely time. Ma had no trouble remembering the Grubbs, cousins on her dad’s side of the family, it was just Gran’s family name that stubbornly wouldn’t come to her.
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Name:
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Lavinia Moar
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Death Date:
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1928
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Death Place:
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New South Wales
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Father’s Name:
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William
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Mother’s name:
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Elizabeth
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Registration Year:
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1928
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Registration Place:
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Sydney, New South Wales
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Registration Number:
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5438
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Lavinia Moar nee Northey is buried out at South Head Cemetery in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs in the family plot, and her name was so familiar to us, as every visit we paid to the cemetery, we always spoke about Gran Fuller’s mum and remembered her. The family tradition of visiting South Head Cemetery was something I remember from my childhood. Afternoon tea was followed by a drive to the cemetery, where we took flowers to the graveside. The grave was on the main walkway, and the large grave was elaborately engraved in gold lettering, and an ornamental rectangular granite vase with a metal liner, was its centrepiece. It was a ritual whereby we lifted, emptied and cleaned the steel liner at the nearby tap, filled it with fresh water and returned it to the graveside. Flowers were then cut and arranged by Gran and Ma, the grave was tidied up, weeds were removed, and then we spoke about who was buried there, and who they were. Ma would tell the story of her twin sister Winnie, who died an hour after being born. Winnie and her grandmother were the only ones buried in coffins, as they had previously been buried at Rookwood Cemetery, and then resumed after Johnny bought the grave plot at South Head Cemetery, where they were then re-interred. It was so much closer for Gran to visit than the long drive to Rookwood Cemetery. We visited for birthdays, Easter and Christmas. Johnny’s ashes were there, later Gran’s sister Ethel Moar and Ma’s half-sister Aunty Phyllis and her husband Uncle Bill Lewis were also interred. After Gran’s death in 1983 Ma, Lavinia and I have continued this tradition, often accompanied by our children, and our first cousin Scott Fuller and his two young children.
Lavinia Moar’s headstone, together with her granddaughter Winnie Fuller, South Head Cemetery, Vaucluse.One of the gifts that you can receive as a genealogist is an unusual name, and this name was Lavinia! I knew immediately that I needed to look for census’ including a William, Elizabeth and a Lavinia Northey. At first I was frustrated in my ancestry.com research which returned no results, however I turned off the ‘exact’ spelling key in the search engine, estimated Lavinia and her parent’s birth dates, and came up with a record match. The incredible thing about the census is that the original hand written record is available behind the transcription record. It was exciting when I found this English census transcription from 1861:
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Name:
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Josiah Northey
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Gender:
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Male
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Baptism Date:
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9 Sep 1842
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Baptism Place:
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Chasewater, Cornwall, England
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Father:
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Mother:
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FHL Film Number:
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1472033
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Reference ID:
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item 3 p 77
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William and Elizabeth Northey did have rather a lot of daughters to marry off. I can remember photocopying this document and taking it over to show my mother and sister, and my comment was that the Northey girls were packaged off to New Zealand, and possibly told by their parent never to return! At the same time I found another record for the Mary Shepherd’s log listing the girls, only this time I found another of Lavinia’s sisters Martha (who had appeared on the 1851, 1861 and 1871 census’), had been crossed off the ship’s log. They were clearly listed as a group of four, crossed out and amended to three. It was so curious. I didn’t have any idea that I was on the verge of uncovering a significant episode in the Northey family history, and in particular, regarding their daughter Martha, and the reason why she didn’t migrate with her sisters.
THE STORY OF MARTHA’S SECRET
“William Mitten was a son of David Mitten and his wife, Cornwall-born Martha Northey. David – and his son – may not have known Martha’s secret, that, in England, in 1873, she gave birth to an ex-nuptial daughter, usually known as Patty. Martha’s parents and siblings emigrated to Canterbury, leaving Patty in England with her mother and foster-mother, Mrs. Wearne. After much pleading with the immigration authorities, the Northeys managed to bring Martha to Canterbury. For a time the Northeys wrote to Mrs. Wearne, promising her money and the opportunity to bring out the baby. Eventually Mrs. Wearne received her last letter from New Zealand. Soon after Martha married David Mitten and they had five children.
Mrs. Wearne and her foster-child enjoyed a close relationship. When the old lady died, Patty emigrated – not to relatives in New Zealand but to Canada where she married and had a daughter of her own. In 1981 the daughter, now herself elderly, contacted Christchurch City Libraries and found basic information about her grandmother’s career in the Antipodes. She also provided the library with copies of the letters which the Northeys had written to England in the years immediately after they had emigrated. These provide a colourful picture of life in Canterbury from a much neglected point-of-view that of the working class immigrant.”
Excerpt from The Sydenham Cemetery Tour, Christchurch, New Zealand, 2007.
Northey letters lodged with Christchurch Library, New Zealand.
Whilst William Mitten and his family are buried at Sydenham Cemetery in Christchurch, his parents David and Martha Mitten are buried in Bromley Cemetery in Christchurch. My sister visited the cemetery and took this photo below, in September 2011. However, by October 2012, when Geoff and I visited the cemetery we found the headstone had fallen backwards, possibly due to a subsequent earthquake; it was undamaged.
David and Martha Mitten’s Grave, Bromley Cemetery, Christchurch, New Zealand.
I was beginning to understand why Martha’s name may have been crossed off the Mary Shepherd manifest. It was possible that Martha decided at the last minute that she could not leave her newborn daughter and migrate with the rest of family as planned. I am sure William and Elizabeth Northey tried to get passage for baby Patty but under the terms of the migration it would have been apparent to authorities that Martha, with a new baby, was probably unable to fulfill her obligations upon arrival in New Zealand, and to repay her fare. I imagine it was a last minute decision and that is why her name was crossed out on the ship’s log. I can also understand why Martha’s story has never been handed down to our family, as it would have reflected disgrace upon the family at this time in English society – no matter what class you came from.
A researcher Mr. L.N. Greenaway from Christchurch Library also wrote up the Northey Letters in 2007, for the Bromley Cemetery Tour, which included these excerpts from the letters:
Block 2 Row K No. 646 Mitten Family
In June 1873, a Cornish family, the Northeys, arrived at Plymouth. As they prepared to board the Mary Shepherd en route to Lyttelton, they had “plenty of the best meat and plenty of fun”. They left their daughter, Martha, and her ex-nuptial daughter, Patty, in the care of Mrs. Salome Wearne.
From New Zealand Mrs. Northey wrote: “It is a beautiful country. There is no want … for money or meat. We can get the best mutton and beef for three pence per pound’. Celia Ann or Annie lived in service, ‘getting 30 pounds per year …. It is hard work but good money’. Their father earned ’14 pounds per month’. And there were additions to the family. Mary Ann was confined with a very pretty boy.”
Mrs. Northey offered sanctuary to all those left behind:
“… We was informed by the head one of the immigration office he had sent for you to come ….We should be glad to see Mrs. Wearne come with you …. If Martha brings her dear baby, it shall be welcomed as herself ….”
Annie wrote unctuously to her erring sister:
“My dear sister: Me and my young man …. have been to one of the head men about you and he told us that he would do his best to get you out here … I am in service at present but hope to be able to receive you in a little comfortable home of our own ….”
Eventually the family heard that Martha was ‘on the water’. She arrived on 27 September 1874. Mrs. Wearne was left holding the baby.
Mrs. Northey wrote a meandering but dramatic letter to Mrs. Wearne:
“Billy was taken with two fevers …. Sometimes there were two doctors at our house at one time …. The doctors gave him up for he was dangerously ill for two months and … never worked for six …. Just as he was recovering, little Jamie was taken ill with the same fever and Annie was taken ill, both in one day. Jamie was in bed 13 weeks and we thought he would never recover. Annie was married the 9th of April and that was the day Billy was taken ill … I asked her to stay here and help me through the sickness and that was the reason she got the fever …. Thank God they are … well now for they recovered nicely ….”
Naysayers were whispering in Mrs. Wearne’s ear. Mrs. Northey wrote to her:
“Dear friend, you said in your letter that people said we shall not send you anything now that Martha is out here. But we shall not forget you or the dear baby …. I will enclose an order with one pound and we will write you every mail.”
On 2 July 1875 Martha wrote to Mrs. Wearne:
“If you see Patty’s father, tell him I have been very ill with fever. Tell him I think they should do something for the child. I have done as much as I have been able to do and more than I can well do. I have done my duty to the dear child and I think he ought to do his.”
On 14 December 1875 Martha wrote of her child:
“Do not fear I am going to I will try to get her with me as soon as possible …. I will never forget my dear child. I have enclosed an order of two pounds ….”
The naysayers were right. Mrs. Wearne added a note to Martha’s December letter:
P.S. “This is the last letter I received”, Mrs. Wearne.
Martha forgot about her far distant child and, on 5 February 1876, at her parent’s address, London Street, Lyttelton, married David Mitten, a railway labourer. David Mitten, 35, died in 1885 and is buried at Addington Cemetery. A son, William David, 24, a blacksmith of 116 Harper Street, died in 1905. His wife, Kate Elizabeth, 20 at the time of her husband’s demise, never remarried, dwelt at 590 Avonside Drive, and died, at 67, in 1951. William and Kate were buried Sydenham Cemetery, Christchurch. Martha Mitten, 82, died on 27 July 1934 at 241 Bealey Avenue. She was unaware that Patty had remained with her foster-mother until Mrs. Wearne’s death in 1909, and had then taken the family letters, sailed to Canada, married Thomas Butterworth and had a daughter and settled in Cornwall, Stormont, Ontario. In 1981 the daughter, now an old lady herself, sent copies of the 1870s letters of a working class local family to Christchurch City Library which has the original letters available to view upon request, at their off-site Library near Christchurch airport.
(PATTY AND THOMAS BUTTERWORTH HAD A SON ROBERT AND A DAUGHTER ANNIE. ROBERT BUTTERWORTH DIED IN 1981 AND HIS WIDOW ANNIE CLINE DIED IN 1992. IT IS NOT CLEAR IF IT WAS HIS ELDERLY SISTER ANNIE, OR HIS WIFE ANNIE, WHO ACTUALLY SENT COPIES OF THE NORTHEY LETTERS, AND A TYPED TRANSCRIPTION TO NEW ZEALAND)
Martha Northey, listed aboard the Merope 28 June 1874
It was incredible that I found this information about Martha’s secret on the internet, with a just the words “Martha Northey” typed into Google, I was taken to the Sydenham Cemetery Tour. I was now beginning to piece together a huge jigsaw puzzle, with the realisation that there was a huge amount of information here for me to research, both in Cornwall, England, Lyttelton, New Zealand and now in Cornwall, Stormont, Ontario, Canada. It became apparent that Salome Wearne was a person who the Northey’s had enormous trust in. Indeed to leave your daughter and new granddaughter in the hands of Mrs Wearne indicated someone of trust and responsibility. The obvious love that Patty had for Mrs Wearne was also evident in the documents lodged in New Zealand. It also came with a sadness that Martha, was abandoned by Patty’s father, and had the humiliation of knowing that this man was unprepared or unable to marry her, once her condition was known. It would also seem that he was financially unable to support Patty. I would imagine that there would have been pressure put on the father to marry Martha, if he was able to face up to his responsibilities and if he was free to marry. Now, with the knowledge from the letters that he was indeed known to the Northeys I wondered whether the father’s name would appear on her birth certificate and I decided to order this certificate from the English Register.
Martha Jane Sarah (Patty) Northey’s birth record as 2 April 1873
Whilst disappointing that there was no father listed for Patty on her birth certificate it confirmed that this was her birth record. It was also interesting that Martha could not read nor write, something she achieved few years later when writing to her daughter Patty from Lyttelton, New Zealand.
The other important information that I found out was that Lavinia Northey’s parents had also migrated to New Zealand and began a search for their migration records. I searched again the manifest of the Mary Shepherd and to my surprise I came up with another family group, this being Elizabeth and William Northey and two more of their children, William Henry and Elizabeth, their namesakes. It was also obvious that there was a fair bit of age fudging going in this group as well, in order to board the Mary Shepherd. Elizabeth Northey was listed as 41 years old, when in fact she was 57, and her husband William was listed as 50 when he was in fact 58. I was now starting to get an idea about the organisation that had taken place to get the entire family aboard the Mary Shepherd, with the discovery of yet another Northey family group, Josiah Northey, William and Elizabeth’s elder son together with his wife Emma and their two children William Henry and Emily Jane, also found on a separate page aboard the ship’s log.
Assisted migration of Josiah Northey and his family aboard the Mary Shepherd May 1873
It didn’t take long to find Josiah’s marriage record to Emily in Gwennap, Cornwall, from online records. Note it is incorrectly transcribed as Sherman and should be Sleeman. This is evident when you look at the original record.
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Name:
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Josiah Northey
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Gender:
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Male
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Age:
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21
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Birth Date:
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1843
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Marriage Date:
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28 Apr 1864
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Marriage Place:
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Gwennap, Cornwall, England
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Father:
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Spouse:
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FHL Film Number:
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1595599
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Reference ID:
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109
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Name:
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Josiah Northey
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Gender:
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Male
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Baptism Date:
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9 Sep 1842
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Baptism Place:
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Chasewater, Cornwall, England
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Father:
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Mother:
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FHL Film Number:
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1472033
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WILLIAM DAVID MITTEN and KATE ELIZABETH STEPHENS, Registration Number 1902/3481
I then discovered that New Zealand newspapers, from their archives, had been placed online. This website, Papers Past NZ, offers a clipping service and has proved to be an amazing tool for my research. The funeral notice for Elizabeth Northey was one of my first successes.
Funeral Notice for Elizabeth Northey 22 August 1891, The Star Newspaper
Death Notice for Elizabeth Northey 22 August 1891 The Star Newspaper
Death Notice for William Northey 26 December 1887 The Star Newspaper
Lyttelton Church of England Cemetery, New Zealand, photo courtesy of Lavinia Chrystal
View of Lyttelton Harbour, New Zealand, taken by Geoff Rundle in October 2012
From the NZBDM marriage records it can be seen that our great grandmother, Lavinia Northey married George Moar in Lyttelton, New Zealand. George, was from The Shetland Islands in Scotland, and this will need to be another chapter, to reveal the family story of George Moar of the Shetland Islands.
I was so pleased to find George and Lavinia Moar’s New Zealand marriage extract, as well as the birth extracts for Lavinia and Ethel Moar, their two daughters, and surprisingly these dates were different from the ones that the family had traditionally relied upon. I could see that I would have to purchase both Gran Fuller’s birth record and Aunty Ethels too. Our Gran Fuller’s birthdate had always been thought to be 1888. Also found was a newspaper clipping about the Moar’s marriage, and an amazing newspaper photograph of Johnny and Lavinia Fuller marriage’s in 1916, which included a headline, revealing a very happy Mrs Moar (Lavinia Northey), obviously thrilled at the marriage her daughter.
Finding the marriage record for Lavinia Moar and Johnny Fuller was a most difficult task, and one which is only revealed by typing Junior, rather than Fuller into the search engines. This was a second marriage for Johnny and took place in the Wellington Registry Office. Gran was unable to be a bride and marry in church, due to the fact that her husband was a divorcee. Although always a sadness to Gran, I can’t see that it made any difference to her mother, Lavinia Moar, whose satisfied demeanour was probably tinged with relief that finally one of her daughters was married, and most advantageously, to a prominent Wellington Councillor, and wealthy theatre owner and producer. It will take another few chapters to write up The Fullers of Shoreditch, London and another on John Snr, Sir Benjamin and Johnny Fuller, which will be called Fuller’s Earth .
MARRIAGE OF MR JOHN FULLER JNR, WELLINGTON’S SENIOR CITY COUNCILLOR
I now turned my efforts to researching Martha Jane ‘Patty” Northey, the ‘ex-nuptial’ child of Martha Northey, and am satisfied that this research is amongst my most interesting, challenging and most poignant results for our Northey family.
The following records are a factual account of the life of Salome Wearne, from her marriage to Edward Vine Wearne, and her two widowhoods, reflected through each decade of English census collecting. Salome cared for both Martha and Patty when the Northeys left Cornwall for New Zealand.
My story through the English census’ shows Patty’s childhood as a foster daughter to Salome, through to her status as an adopted daughter, at the same time showing Salome’s re-marriage to James Highley, and position as step mother to James’ children from his first marriage, after his wife Ellen Highley nee Harrison died. It also shows the occupations of the Highleys and also of Patty working in Todmorden, Lancashire, where the family were part of the industrial revolution; all working in factories as cotton scutcheons, pickers and spinners.
I wondered also if Salome Wearne was a relation of the Northeys. Salome was possibly the most unusual name that I had come across in my research to date, and these rare names are a boon to the researcher, and to my great interest I was able to come up with two census in this regard in a fairly short time.
This information regarding William Northey and his family, as I mentioned earlier, I will elaborate on, in a further chapter, The Northey Family of Cornwall, documenting original hand written baptisms and marriages, illustrating how these large families were living in the same townships and hamlets, their occupations as miners and servants, eeking out an existence as working class families. The Northeys can be traced back many generations, simply because they stayed in these same towns for centuries, and lived a relatively quiet existence, protected from the many wars and skirmishes that plagued other parts of England, thereby preserving the parish records, that in so many other areas of England were burnt when the churches and towns were plundered.
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Name:
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Salome Aster Northy
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Registration Year:
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1858
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Registration Quarter:
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Oct-Nov-Dec
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Registration district:
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Redruth
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Parishes for this Registration District:
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Inferred County:
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Cornwall
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Volume:
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5c
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Page:
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461
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Records on Page:
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Name:
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Edwin Vine Wearne
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Registration Year:
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1859
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Registration Quarter:
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Apr-May-Jun
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Registration district:
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Penzance
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Parishes for this Registration District:
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Inferred County:
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Cornwall
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Volume:
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5c
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Page:
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217
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Name:
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Salome Wearne
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Registration Year:
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1876
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Registration Quarter:
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Oct-Nov-Dec
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Registration district:
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Todmorden
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Parishes for this Registration District:
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Inferred County:
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Yorkshire West Riding
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Volume:
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9a
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Page:
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390
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Records on Page:
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Note that Salome’s mother Elizabeth Northey, aged 77 years is now living with the family, as well as Salome’s daughter Minnie from her previous marriage, and that Patty Northey is listed as a boarder. This census together with the 1841 census allowed me to confirm that Salome was indeed related to Martha, as a second cousin – the children of first cousins, Henry and William Northey, whose parents Henry and Josiah, were brothers. It’s all relative!
 English Census 1891
The census for 1891 shows Patty now accepted as an adopted daughter into the Highley family.
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 English Census 1901
Salome is again widowed by 1901, living with her step children and a step daughter-in-law, and again Patty’s occupation is listed as a cotton winder. We now know that Salome died in 1910, from the Northey letters, and that Patty migrated to Canada and married Thomas Butterworth. It was about this time that my ancestry.com subscription came up for renewal, as I had only taken out a six month trial, and the first month was meant to be free. However there was a mix up with the “free” time and to compensate, ancestry.com kindly renewed my subscription for the year, throwing in “the world” subscription for no extra. I was most grateful because this meant I had access to the USA and Canadian records, and I soon found myself searching for the Butterworths in Canada, quickly coming up with some fascinating records. It also allowed me to collect many records for the Fullers and my father’s Wise as they travelled the globe. In some cases their names were on the manifests, showing how they were travelling first class on some of the finest and most luxurious passenger ships in the world.
West Yorkshire, England, Deaths and Burials, 1813-1985:
The original record gives her actual address as 640 Rochdale Road, Walsden. Salome is buried in St Peter’s churchyard next to her daughter Salome Wearne who died in 1876, this date also coincides with the last letters written to and received from New Zealand.
West Yorkshire, England, Deaths and Burials, 1813-1985:
I can imagine the heartbreak for Salome Wearne at this time and together with her remarriage later that same year, it must have made communications with the Northeys most difficult, and one wonders if letters were ever re-directed to Yorkshire from Cornwall, and if the Northeys actually knew Patty’s new address up north.
In October 2012 Geoff and I visited New Zealand for a trip around the South Island. We visited many Fuller and Northey family sites and including visiting the Dunedin and Invercargill. Just south east of Invercargill is Waipapa Point where my husband’s Great Grandfather Captain David Lindsay drowned after his ship was wrecked in the shoals beyond the point. He was buried at nearby Fortrose Cemetery with a beautiful sandstone monument from his wife. We visited Peterborough Library and found that the Northey Letters were archived at a facility near the Christchurch Airport. We were welcomed and taken to a room and the Letters were produced for our perusal. We were not allowed to photocopy the letters, but they had no objection to our photographing them with our IPhone. Here are a few of the letters, there are just too many to produce. The copies of the originals are hard to read and it is wonderful that there are transcriptions done of the letters. There is also mention of Uncle Samuel, who is William Northey’s younger brother. It is also apparent that Elizabeth Northey is doing all the writing on behalf of her husband William, who cannot read and write. 
      The last letter received by Salome Wearne from Martha was a three page letter dated 19 December 1875. It is interesting that 1876 was the year that both Martha Northey married David Mitten and Salome Wearne married James Highley. I can’t speculate about why Martha didn’t pursue her promises to bring Patty to New Zealand, and it would seem too simple to accept that a marriage for Martha bought her happiness and a new start, and that Salome and Patty probably had a very strong mother/daughter bond an were happy to remain together. There can always be speculation that letters either dried up or were not redirected to Salome after her new marriage.  Death of Minnie Crossley 18 December 1895 at Walsdon, Lancashire |
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 Marriage of Patty Northey and Thomas Butterworth 26 October 1911, Cornwall, Ontario, Canada.
Of note in the record above is that Patty listed Wm Henry Northey as her father, I suspect this was done as much for the need to list a father on the document, and also to save any bureaucratic difficulty because if she told the truth she could have caused herself needless problems. I was interested to see that the two witnesses to the marriage were Harry and Edith Crossley, it is possible that they were cousins, related in some way to Minnie Wearne’s husband, Charles Albert Crossley.
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Canadian Birth Certificate for Robert Butterworth November 10, 1912, only son of Patty and Thomas.
 The enlistment of Thomas Butterworth for duty in World War I, 1 June 1916.
As I finish writing up this chapter of the family history, my sister Lavinia and niece Lavinia Chrystal Jnr are about to board a plane bound for Canada. Last Sunday morning I was chatting about my niece’s university exchange program, and her placement at London University, Ontario and I commented to my sister that I wondered if it was anywhere near Cornwall, Stormont, Ontario where the Butterworths lived. I will now await anxiously as Lavinia has promised to call ‘cold case’ to see if she can trace one of Robert Butterworth’s children, Kenneth, Thomas or Patricia. It is wonderful to see that two of Robert Butterworth’s children are named in honour of their paternal grandparent, Thomas and Patty! It is exciting to hope that we can reunite with Patty’s ancestors and find our third cousins in Canada!
Virginia Rundle 19 August 2014
Postscript:
The next two images are the Butterworths graves from Woodlawn Cemetery, Cornwall, Ontario, Canada. Recently I was doing some work on the family tree and I found that the cemetery now had an online “look up” and incredibly there were photos of the Butterworth family gravestones. 4 March 2016
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2 comments On The Northey Family of Lyttelton, New Zealand and Martha’s Secret
How interesting. I have been researching Samuel Northey who you mention as William's younger brother. He arrived with his wife Ann Jane nee Nicholls in Jan 1875 on the ship 'Waimate' to Lyttelton with young son Samuel who was born before they married in 1874. Samuel Jr was sent to the Burnham Industrial School where he stayed (when he wasn't absconding) for several years with his father in court every year for failure to pay towards his keep. Samuel Jr went on to a life of petty crime and became addicted to opium. Samuel Sr mostly lived on the poverty line and occasionally got into trouble with the law. He lived in Lyttelton and had 4 other children (at least) On his immigration record it states he is a miner and other family records say he was from Kea Cornwall. I'm not a relative but doing research on the children who were sent into the Industrial School system. I have no death for Samuel Jr – there are 4 Samuels but death dates don't fit for him but Samuel Sr died in 1910 in Wellington aged 60yrs. There are also Northeys in the Napier area and I see a Lavinia Northey died in Thames in 1904 aged 27yrs. Her death is registered under Northy. There is no death for Ann Jane but she is possibly the Jane who died in 1891.
Thanks for this interesting information. The Samuel Northey you mention I believe was my GG grandfather William Northey's nephew who was married to Ann Jane Nicholls.Yes he died in 1910 = NZ Deaths 1910/8297. The Northeys were a mining family and life was tough for them. The family were from Kea in Cornwall. Migration must have seemed like a good way to have a new start in a new country, especially when so many miners were out of work. All pretty depressing, Burnham was for wayward children, some just poor, through no fault of their own either. The NZ BDM records don't give much information online and I agree it is difficult to know who is who. Thanks for your interest.