| Notes |
- These notes were compiled by Pat Heremaia based on his conversations with William (Bill) Ward:
Frederick Ward came from Kirkstead, Lincolnshire, England.
We are uncertain as to when Frederick was born but it must have been between 1880 and 1890.
Frederick emigrated with his wife Lillian Scott and his children, Betsey, Bill [William], and Maud in 1914 on the ship "Ionic". Bill Ward told us that his father Frederick had left Kirkstead after an argument with his father William Ward.
The "Ionic" landed in Lyttleton. Frederick, Lillian and family were met at the wharf by Frederick's nephew, George Skipworth who had emigrated earlier to NZ. [George's mother was Bill Ward's aunty, Betsey Ward].
Go to the following web site to get details of Frederick & his family's trip to New Zealand. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~nzbound/ionic1913.htm
R.M.S. "IONIC", (Twin Screw) 12,232 Tons, from London on 4th December and Plymouth 6th December, 1913.
Commander - C. E. Starck, R.N.R.
Surgeon - C.H. Wilson, L.R.C.P. &S. (Ireland)
Purser - G.A. Holmes
Shaw Savill & Albion Company, Limited
Direct four-weekly service of Royal Mail Steamers between LONDON AND NEW ZEALAND calling at Plymouth, Teneriffe, Cape Town, and Hobart. 529 passengers travelled as Third Class. The vessel had a capacity for 688 passengers. There was passenger accommodation for 121-1st, 117-2nd and 450-3rd
class.
Mary Ward was born about 6 weeks after the "Ionic" landed at Lyttleton.
Frederick and his family went to live in Invercargill at Nightcaps on George Skipworth's farm for about a year.
Uncle Harold told Frederick about a sharemilking job at McKennah's farm in Kakaramea, Taranaki. In 1915 Frederick moved up to the North Island to Kakaramea. He began sharemilking with Kate Grey, Lillian Scott's sister on a farm down Whitehead's Lane.
Whitehead's Lane is situated just north of Patea, on a hill overlooking Pariroa Pa, which is where Pat Heremaia was born in 1942. Pat Heremaia married Frederick's grand daughter, Jocelyn Ward, Bill [William] Ward's daughter in 1967.
Frederick lived in Kakaramea for 2 to 3 years.
In the Kakaramea Primary School 125 Years Jubilee Book printed in 2001, Betsy & Bill Ward, appeared on the 1916 Kakaramea school roll.
Frederick and Lillian moved north around about 1918 with their family to work on a farm owned by Tom Struthers, between Hawera and Normanby. All the children walked 3 miles to the local Normanby Primary School.
Frederick died of double pneumonia on the 20 June, 1920 and was buried at the Hawera Cemetery. Ethyl was about 6 weeks old then. She was born in the Normanby Nursing home 6 years younger than Mary. Bill said that his mother Lillian had about $11,000 [pounds] when his father died.
Aunt Mary was living with his mother & the family in Normanby and she was the one who pursuaded his mother to return to Kakaramea to buy Lord's farm opposite the Kakaramea Dairy factory. Lillian and family moved back to Kakaramea buying the farm and purchasing stock for the farm. Betsey, William, Maud and Mary appear on the Kakaramea primary school roll in 1920 and Lillian's name appears on the list of "Kakaramea Residents in 1930" in the Kakaramea School & District 125 Years Jubilee Book written by Michael Condon; [p126-127. ]
Bill said that uncle Will and Aunt Mary were to manage the farm. Aunty Mary, Lillian's sister was a very domineering person compared to her docile husband, uncle Will and she dominated the household. Uncle Will was a qualified boilerman and he worked at the Kakaramea cheese factory opposite the farm. Mrs. Dowden was the wife of the 1st assistant of the Dairy factory and teacher at the Kakaramea school. There was dissention over the farm, so a court case was held and Lillian won. Lillian sold the farm and bought the cottage down Whitehouse lane. Mary began working at the Patea hospital when Lillian was there. The old house was taken over by the Jones family. Ethyl became very ill with meningitis and died.
About 2 months later Lillian died. Lillian died in 1930 and was buried in the Patea cemetery. Aunty Mary and Uncle Will shifted to Taihape to stay with Mary's other sister, Aunt Kate. Uncle Will worked on the railway there until he died. They are both buried in Taihape.
The Public Trust took over the cottage in Whitehouse Lane and sold it.
Betty married Fred Rogers and she went to Wellington to work at the hospital there. Fred got transferred to Whangarei and Mary went north with Betty and Fred, and she met Alan in Whangarei.
Bill Ward worked for few years on Jim Huston's farm in Kakaramea then went north to Kumeu, north west of Auckland where he settled working on farms in the district.
Pat Heremaia interview with Bill Ward, Orewa 1976
- Note William Ward was a young child when they arrived in New Zealand, so the detail he gave about their early life in the South Island would have been remembered from what his parents told him rather than first hand knowledge. I have tried to verify some of these details where possible.
George Skipworth was not a son of Betsy Ward (Frederick Ward's sister, Bill's uncle) - that Betsy Ward married a Keyworth. However Frederick's mother Betsy had a brother Frederick Skipworth who immigrated to Invercargill and had a son called George Skipworth. He would have been about 16 years old when the Ward family arrived in Lyttleton. They lived in Spar Bush, near Invercargill. This is fairly close to Nightcaps but not close enough to call it that. However the place Nightcaps seems to be quite firmly established in the family's oral history. Mary's birth certificate gives Avondale Station, Nightcaps as a place of birth, so it seems likely that Frederick was working as a farm hand on this station at that time.
Kate Gray was Lillian Scott's half sister. Her husband was Harold, he was indeed a sharemilker in the Patea/Kakaramea area.
Thomas Struthers owned a property at Hirstlands (an estate that had been subdivided and auctioned around 1908).
- 1891 Census:
Surname First name(s) Rel Status Sex Age Occupation Where Born Remarks
WARD William Head M M 33 General Labourer(Em'ee) Lincolnshire - Fiskerton
WARD Betsy Ann Wife M F 31 Lincolnshire - Fiskerton
WARD John William Son - M 9 Scholar Lincolnshire - Fiskerton
WARD Frederick Son - M 7 Scholar Lincolnshire - Fiskerton
WARD Betsy Dau - F 5 Lincolnshire - Fiskerton
WARD Robert Son - M 3 Lincolnshire - Fiskerton
|
1882 - 1920 (37 years)
