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| David & Elizabeth
Trevethans house at Trevance Taken 1994 |
David and Elizabeth
Trevethan
From St. Issey, Cornwall
Little is known about exactly when our family came to New
Zealand, but it is known that some of them first emigrated to
Australia and then went on to New Zealand.
The family which we are interested in is that of David and
Elizabeth Trevethan who lived near Wadebridge in the north east
of Cornwall. They were married in the delightful small stone
parish Church, in the small town of St. Issey, on the 6th of
June 1846. David, who worked as a labourer, was a bachelor while
his future wife, Elizabeth Saundry, was a spinster. Elizabeth’s
father Peter Saundry was also a labourer in the area. Neither
bride or groom was of full age and the wedding ceremony was
witnessed by William Hugo and Thomas Stone.
By the following year David was working as a farm labourer
and miner and lived in Trevance, a small settlement of just a
few houses a little east and within walking distance of St.
Issey where he and Elizabeth had been married. There house I
photographed in 1995 and is
shown above. David and
Elizabeth were to become the parents of the family who were
finally to emigrate to New Zealand.
The year following their marriage Elizabeth had their first
child, a daughter whom they named Jane Saundry Trevethan. She
was baptised on the 16th of May 1847 and later at the age of
twenty four married a twenty three year old carpenter, William
Herd and settled in Cornwall.
A further three years went by until their second child, and
first son Thomas, was born on the 28th of May 1850. Elizabeth
registered his birth on the 10th of June 1850 signing the
register with her mark. This is the first child to be of
interest to us as he was later to be the first Trevathan of our
family to come to New Zealand and was my great grandfather.
When the 1851 census was taken, David and Elizabeth had moved
house and were
living at the small hamlet of New Barn which is within easy
walking distance of St. Issey. Their family of Jane who was
by now three years old and Thomas who was ten months of age.
David was working as an agricultural labourer. The following
year, 1852, a further daughter, Mary Ann Trevethan was born but
she is of little interest to us as she did not come to New
Zealand.
Their next child, William, was born on the 22nd of August
1855 and twenty years later in January of 1875, married Martha
Hewett, the nineteen year old daughter of a local labourer.
William was to have only a short life as he died on the 29th of
April 1887 at the young age of 32, and is buried in the St.
Breock grave yard along-side his parents.
Emma Trevethan who was later to come to New Zealand was
baptized on Christmas Day 1857 at St. Breock, Cornwall. She was
to marry at the age of eighteen, a twenty one year old miner,
John Docton Parsons at St. Breock before they came to New
Zealand.
Then came David junior who was born on the 9th of October
1859 who was also later to emigrate to New Zealand with his wife
Jane who he married in the St. Columb Major church in the winter
of 1876. They had two children before coming to New Zealand,
Alfred who was born a year before the marriage and Elizabeth
born in 1877.
By the time of the 1861 census David and Elizabeth had moved
their family again this time to Tregunna, which is in the St. Breock parish just
a short distance from St. Issey, and lived with their now larger
family of Thomas aged 10 a scholar, Mary Ann aged 9 a scholar,
William aged 5 a scholar, Emma aged 3 and David aged one. Their
daughter Jane, who by now was fourteen years old, was not
present, presumably having started work with a live in position.
David senior now owned an eighteen acre farm on the banks of the
river Camel.
Three years later Maria was born on the 12th of January 1864
at the family Tregunna farm followed the next year by her sister
Mary. David and Elizabeth’s last child Edith was born on the
25th of September 1868 and her mother registered her birth with
her mark. Maria and Mary were both later also to come to New
Zealand.
Another family which we are interested in is that of Charles
and Susan Betts who emigrated from England to Australia in 1863
along with their three children Charles William Betts aged four,
John aged three and William aged two. Charles senior’s brother
Albert was a sea captain and had advised them to emigrate to
Australia.
They raised a large family in Australia and their son John
later married Maria Trevathan in Australia and emigrated to New
Zealand. Click the links below to view the family trees in PDF
format. If you need a PDF reader then click the link to the
right to go
to the Adobe site for a free download.
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