My mother
was Margaret Joan Salisbury. Joan as she was known was born on 12 July 1923 the
second youngest child of George and Sarah Salisbury. Joan grew up living in the
family home at Akepiro Street, Mt Eden. Her father George worked as a linesman
with the Post Office.
After the death of his mother Sarah in 1887, George, his
brothers and sister went to live with their aunt, Catherine Lyons at Rewiti,
near Waimauku. Catherine was the sister of their mother,
Sarah
Holland.
Their father James Salisbury left the children and went to live in Christchurch.
In June 1889 James had been directed by the Courts to pay to
the Charitable Aid Board in Auckland the sum of £4 every four weeks for the
support of his children but this order was not complied with.
In October 1889 Catherine Lyons was
granted administration of her sister's effects which were valued at under
£100. She describes in her affidavit that James was a man of very intemperate
habits and not a fit person to be instructed with the
administration of the estate of Sarah Salisbury. He had failed to provide for
the support of his six children all of whom were under the age of 10 years. No
mention was made by Catherine of
Mary Jane, Jame's daughter by his first wife. She would have been about 15 when
Sarah died in 1887. Catherine's granddaughter Philippa Brown believes
that Mary Jane or Polly as she was known did indeed live with Catherine until
her marriage in 1893 to Henry Cane.
James was
baptised at Bradford Peverell, Dorset on the 14 July 1850. His parents were
George and Elizabeth (nee Barrett) Salisbury. The 1861
Census records James as living with his parents George and Elizabeth, and
siblings, Elizabeth, Mary and Walter.
In February 1871, James married his first wife Sarah
Jane Cox and the census for that year shows James and Sarah, living at Glyde
Path Hill, Dorchester. The following year 1872, James with his wife Sarah and
baby daughter Mary emigrated to New Zealand arriving in Auckland aboard ship,
the Celestial Queen. The total cost of the passage for James and his
family was 26pds. The family paid 4pd in cash, 12pd in promissory notes, with
the ultimate cost to the government being 10pd. They arrived in New Zealand on
30 July 1872 and were initially accommodated in barracks in Auckland before
James went to work on the railway at Parnell.
The
family moved to Helensville where James worked as an engine driver. A son
Thomas was born in 1878 but sadly he died as an infant of Consumption in 1880.
His mother Sarah had died the previous year on 6 May 1879 and is buried in
Helensville.
James
remarried later that same year to Sarah Holland, a young Irish
girl who in 1875 had emigrated to New Zealand with her sister Mary. James and
Sarah were married at St Patricks Cathedral in Auckland on 23 December 1879.
They had six children:
Elizabeth Jane b. November 1880
James b. 1881
George b. 26 December 1882
William John b. 1884
Charles b. 1885
Sarah b. 7 May 1887
Less than
a month after the birth of her youngest child also named Sarah, on the 2 June
1887, Sarah died of Puerperal Fever, a serious form of septicemia contracted by
a woman during childbirth.
