Sophia ROBERTS and Joseph THOMPSON
Sophia is possibly christening in Ideford, Devon for 12 September 1824, Devon.
On 24 Dec 1840 she married James THOMPSON - thereafter known as Joseph, in Petone near Wellington, New Zealand. Joseph THOMPSON/James THOMSON is a family enigma.
A family story is told through his eldest son's family and through his daughter Mary Ann's family is that he was the captain of the ship that Sophia was aboard, and that he feigned death.
Joseph was from Carlisle in Cumberland. He was probably the son of Arthur and Jane (nee PARK) THOMPSON. Arthur THOMPSON is in the 1851 census as a Gentleman and has two servants. From an 1811 directory he may have owned a china warehouse.
Sophia and Joseph were in Wellington from 1840 to 1849. Joseph was a sawyer from 1840 to 1847 and then a master mariner in 1848.
16 Aug 1849 the Gypsey was wrecked at Cape Turnagain, brought ashore to save lives from a certain wreckage at sea. Capt Thompson was captain at this time (Shipwrecks - New Zealand Disasters 1795-1936. Ingram, Chas W N & Wheatley, P Owen. Dunedin Book Publishing Association 1936)
The following report was in the Evening Standard;
We exceedingly regret to report the total loss of the Schooner Gipsy on the 16th inst., at Cape Turnagain, on the East Coast. The Gipsy had reached Castle Point, where she lay at anchor, but indications appearing of an approaching gale she put to sea, and a very heavy South Easter coming on the master was obliged to run the vessel on shore a Cape Turnagain in order to save the lives of those on board. All the cargo and property on board, together with the sails and rigging have been saved, but the vessel is a complete wreck.
After the Gypsey was wrecked Joseph seems to become a mariner and they move to Auckland. It is in Parnell where Elizabeth, Isabella, Sarah and Thomas are born. In an 1850 diary Richard MONK states Auckland 'was only a small place. On the right hand side going up Queen Street there was a large ditch and you had to walk across a plank to get into the stores.'
Joseph died on board the schooner 'Henry'. on the 21 April 1862. In the Coroners report the verdict of jury on the death was 'Visitation of God'. On his inquest and death certificate he is named a James THOMPSON. This happened in Lyttleton so Arthur was on hand to identify the body. Although on his daughter Emily's baptism of 13 June 1862 he is Joseph THOMPSON, decd, master mariner.
At age 38 Sophia shifts to Lyttelton to where her eldest son Arthur is living. Family story has it that Arthur went to Auckland to 'get her'. Emily is born in Lyttleton in June 1862.
Arthur marries later that year in Lyttelton.
Her second marriage was to Thomas KELLAWAY, Tailor, aged 40, widower in Lyttleton. 5th Oct 1869. Thomas KELLAWAY died on the 15 Oct 1869 aged 50. A KELLAWAY family historian maintains Sophia was nursing him as a job.
Her third marriage was to Azariah ASHLEY, 9th March, 1872 at The Manse in Christchurch. It is stated she is a nurse, age 46. He is a Grocer age 46. He died in 1892, and not longer afterwards Sophia is in Wellington.
Gravestone on original plot said:-
In Loving Memory
A precious one from us is gone
A voice we loved is stilled
A place is vacant in our home
Which never can be filled
God in his wisdom has called
The boon his love had given
And the body lingers here
The soul is safe in heaven.
Sophia's death notice and obituary was in the Wellington's Evening Post on 29 April 1897.
The obituary said she left two sons (My guess is Arthur and maybe Thomas) and six daughters (my guess is Sarah HARRIS, Jane HARRIS, Isabella MORGAN, Mary Ann SWINDELL, Emily BATKIN and probably Elizabeth who we do not know who she married). It said she left 50 grandchildren and 20 gt grandchildren. When she died she was at residence in Cuba St.
Arthur (born 1941 Petone) married twice. First to Mary Ann CHAPPLE, a daughter of a minister. They had Arthur Frederick THOMPSON born Lyttleton 1862, Elizabeth Jane THOMPSON born Lyttleton 1864, Frances Emily THOMPSON born Lyttleton 1866 who married James PAGE in 1885, Annie Sophia born 1867 and died 1869, Sophia Eliza born Wellington 1868 died Christchurch 1875, Thomas Joseph THOMPSON born 1871 in Christchurch and Samuel John THOMPSON born 1872. Mary Ann CHAPPLE died in 1877. in 1879 Arthur remarried Martha BULLING. They had Frederick William THOMPSON (1879-1956 Wellington) who married Evangaline BALLANTYNE, Arthur Wallace THOMPSON (1881 Pidgeon Bay- 1951 Takapau) who married Ethel CHRISTIE, Henry Edward THOMPSON (1883 - ) who married Elizabeth MARSHALL, George Albert THOMPSON (1884 -1957 Hastings) who married Lavina MARSHALL, Charles Harold THOMPSON (1886 Pidgeon Bay - 1946 Hastings) who married Gertrude RUST, , Ernest Alfred THOMPSON (1888 - 1960) who married Carrie Camner, Francis Horace THOMPSON (1890 Pidgeon Bay - 1962 Wellington) married Gertrude SVENDSON and Lillian Mary THOMPSON (1896 Wellington - 1970 Levin) married Hans WAHREN.
Arthur was a builder and spent his last year until 1919 in Epuni St, Wellington.
Sophia and Joseph had two boys. Thomas and William 1843 and 1845 who both died in 1845
Mary Ann THOMPSON was born 1846. She married Arthur BUCKLAND in Christchurch in 1863. He died suddenly in 1868. Mary remarried James SWINDELL, a watchmaker, in Christchurch in 1869. They changed their name to SWINDALE. Then had Joseph SWINDALE (b1870 Christchurch - dies in the 1940s in Wellington) who married Isabella DONALDSON, Clara SWINDELL/SWINDALE (b 1874 Christchurch - ) married Thomas SULLIVAN, Alice SWINDELL/SWINDALE (1875 - ) married William DIXON, Ada SWINDELL/SWINDALE (1876 - 1937) married Henry PYCROFT, Albert SWINDALE/SWINDELL (1877 Christchurch -) married Mary Rioux, Midred SWINDELL/SWINDALE ( b1881) married Charles TAYLOR, Violet SWINDELL/SWINDALE (1883 - 1953) married Harry BLANDFORD, Ruby SWINDELL/SWINDALE (1886 Wellington - 1983) married Sam DONKIN,Ernest SWINDALE (1889 - 1953) married Ann WALDER. Joseph and Albert SWINDALE ran the Grand Hotel in Willis St and donated the Wellington SWINDALE Shield for rugby.
Mary Ann died in 1921 in Wellington
Jane or Jinny THOMPSON is born 1848 in Wellington. She marries Henry or Harry HARRIS in 1865. They have Emily HARRIS (1866 Wellington - 1936 Pauatahanui) who married John GASKIN in 1885 then Archie MONK in 1902, Henry or Guv HARRIS (b1868 - ) married Eva GARDNER, Arthur Buckland HARRIS (b.abt1869 - 1957) married Annie BOON, Thomas HARRIS ( 1872 - 1963 Hamilton) married Elizabeth HARRIS of Okains Bay (and possibly related), Joseph HARRIS (1873 Pauatahanui - 1943 ) married Minnie GRAHAM, Sarah or Sis HARRIS (1875 - 1899) married Jim COOK, Harry or Dal HARRIS (1877 Pauatahanui - 1967) m Ellen HAWKINS, Horace HARRIS (b 1979 Pauatahanui - 1960) married first Alice TAYLOR in 1901 who died in childbirth and then Marion GALLOWAY in 1904, William Ernest HARRIS (b 1883 ) married Claudia De BRUM, Annie (b 1886 ) married Arthur HARDGRAVES.
Elizabeth THOMPSON is born 1850 in Auckland. It is unknown what happens to Elizabeth
Isabella THOMPSON is born 1853 in Parnell Hotel, Parnell, Auckland. In 1875 she married William Charles MORGAN. He was a publican. They had William Charles Thompson MORGAN (1876 - 1952 Wellington) married Lily HOPKINS, Lily MORGAN (1877 1943), Elizabeth MORGAN married Charles ROBINSON and George Thomas MORGAN married Janet Carswell CAMPBELL. Isabella died in 1920 in Christchurch.
Sarah THOMPSON is born 1856 in Auckland. She marries George HARRIS in 1885. They had Gertrude Sophia Jessie HARRIS ( - ) married Frank HANDLEY, George David Saunders HARRIS 'Dave' (1887-1972) married Ivy Martin GALLOWAY and Eric Cecil William HARRIS (1898-1988) married Thelma SPEIRS. Sarah died 1907 in Pauatahanui.
Thomas THOMPSON is born 1859 in Parnell Auckland. Not much is known about Thomas apart from that he is a carpenter in 1885 in Wellington. There is a note in the MORGAN family bible that he died in Manganui - but which Manganui and when is a mystery.
Emily THOMPSON is born in 1862. She married Louis Richmond BATKIN son of the auditor general in 1885. They had Edna Sophia BATKIN (1885-1971) married William Louis FOSS, Priscilla Gertrude BATKIN (1887 - 1930) married William John COMMON, Chandos Richmond BATKIN (1889-1930) married Edith, Dorothea Keet BATKIN (1893 - )married Frank NELSON.
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