Feet Up; Time to Think

Some time between 18 December 1863 and 9th January 1865, Charles Woolcock arrived in New Zealand, a place far, far away from Cornwall and his wife and child. The name of the ship or ships he sailed upon is proving rather elusive and I've always wondered if he either came via Australia or under an assumed name to hide his whereabouts. You may be wondering how I can be so accurate about the dates. Some years ago, the UK National Archives made available files from the Court for Divorce and Matrimonial Causes. I assumed it was a divorce document to dissolve the 1853 marriage of Charles Woolcock and Betsy Lawry that took place at Perranzabuloe, Cornwall. When it was finally transcribed, I was able to piece together the nature of a Victorian marriage and work out approximately when Charles arrived in New Zealand. The May 1865 document in the archives is not a divorce or even a deed of separation. Instead it is a petition from Betsy for the protection of her earnings. It clearly o...

Taxes and not paying tax on time are the main reasons my great great grandfather, Charles Woolcock, is remembered in the annals of New Zealand parliamentary history. (Charles is sure to appear again this year as he is my most interesting ancestor.) If you read my blog about Sister Lydia Woolcock last week, you may remember that I mentioned her father, Charles, had fled to New Zealand in 1864 and that he had “aspirations”. Those aspirations, I suspect, were social status and power. I'd like to think he too wanted social change. Within ten years of his arrival in New Zealand, Charles had moved away from farming and had set up a very successful store on the Greymouth goldfields. He had also sought political office, becoming a borough councillor, a member of the Provincial Council, then Provincial Secretary and Secretary for Public Works in the Province of Westland. His next step was to become a Member of the House of Representatives. He was duly elected in November 1875. ...

The term "maiden aunt" is negative, but my grandfather's maiden aunt, Lydia Woolcock, was destined to make a difference regardless of marital status. Sadly, until I started my family history research, I had never heard of her. Did any of her fifteen New Zealand half-nieces and nephews know about her either? Lydia, an only child, was born in 1854 into a middle class Cornwall farming family with incredibly strong Wesleyan roots. Her mother, Betsy Lawry, was the cousin of the Rev. Walter Lawry, who was the second Wesleyan minister to New South Wales, the first missionary to Tonga and later superintendent of the Wesleyan missions in New Zealand and Fiji. Betsy had married at 43 and must have been surprised to have Lydia, the honeymoon baby, the following year. Betsy's husband, Charles Woolcock, a mere lad of 25, was a successful farmer who had aspirations. Why he married a woman so much older than himself is anyone's guess. Was there pressure from his widowed mother...