Jemima OXENHAM - Hampshire to Wairarapa 1840
ngairedith
Jemima Oxenham was born in Portsea England in October 1826
- the 3rd youngest of 12 children
After the death of their parents the girls were put in an orphanage until their brother John took them to New Zealand - it was his plan to marry them off as quickly as possible
They sailed on the AURORA
This was one of first ships to New Zealand
The TORY had arrived in September 1839 with 6 passengers and filled with supplies to barter with the Maori
The second ship was the CUBA which arrived in January 1840 with 34 passengers, all of them men. A couple of them were married men whose wives followed at a later date
The AURORA carried 148 passengers
- it left Gravesend 22 Sep 1839, arriving in New Zealand 7 Jan 1840
With Jemima was her brother
* John Oxenham, aged 29, a shipwright
and her sister
* Sarah Oxenham, aged 19, a seamstress.
JEMIMA, aged about 14?, married George Hamilton COGLAN (?-1841) 4 June 1840 in Wellington
- Jemima married George 5 months after arriving in New Zealand.
Brother John wanted to 'marry her and her sister off quickly' and he did, however George turned out to be a drunkard and a mean brute.
Jemima came to despise him
The following year George was found drowned at Petone, some say it was from a boat accident, others say there was a brawl. . .
Chief Constable Richard Sayer went to tell Jemima the news of her husbands death.
She excused herself to go upstairs and be alone for awhile.
Richard then heard strange noises upstairs and the chandalier overhead was swaying. He went upstairs to see what was happening - he found Jemima, shoes off, dancing for joy at the news.
He is said to have joined in and within weeks they were married
JEMIMA, aged 16, next married Richard Burgess SAYER (1820-1854) 8 May 1842 in Wellington
JEMIMA, aged 29, next married John ASHMORE (1808-1864) 30 April 1855 in Wellington
JEMIMA, aged 40, next married Benjamin STINSON (1833-1867)
EVENING POST 20 August 1869:
DEATH - On the 13th instant, at Carterton, Mrs Jemima Stinson, formerly Mrs Ashmore. Aged 43 years.
I have had people in Carterton looking for her grave but they believe the headstone is probably no longer there ... can you help with more deatils of her husbands?
I would like to know who Jemimas parents and siblings were and also her children
by ngairedith
Profile | 
Research |
Contact | Subscribe | Block this user on 2008-10-20 15:19:34
ngairedith has been a Family Tree Circles member since Feb 2008.
Comments
rahi on 2010-10-15 19:05:30dear ngairedith how are you I think I ent yopu anm e mail before not to sure, Jemima Oxenham is my gt gt grandmother I am related to Sayer Oxenham white peck Taucher meyrick burling watterson hopwood regardso or regatso colle or cole netherron Bisoy or benoy. I live at 78 valley road whakatane.
whakahora on 2010-11-24 05:10:04One of her brothers and a sister-anor brother (John) was in NZ. Jemima and Benjamin Stinson only had one child (Athur Burgess). Her parents were John Oxenham & Elizabeth Norman
Kevinc on 2012-11-08 00:00:11Hi ngairedith. Part of Jemima and Sarah's story is told in the New Zealand Gazette and Wellington Spectator Newspaper. It's a tragic story, but it seems perhaps there was a happy ending.
The newspaper is online and searchable. Here's a quick rundown of the story, with the relevant issues of the newspaper (these are not the dates of the events):
18 April 1840: Henry Meech and John Oxenham advertise their boatbuilding business, based near the Hutt River.
20 June 1840: Marriages: George Batten & Sarah Oxenham (Daughter of John Oxenham of Plymouth)
George Coglan & Jemima Oxenham (Daughter of John Oxenham of Plymouth)
28 August 1841: The Wellington Spectator reported that Meech & Oxenham had launched a very nice boat for George Coglan, some weeks previously.
28 August 1841: Henry Meech advertised he had moved his boatbuilding business to Wellington. Obviously the partnership with John Oxenham was dissolved, but I have no idea what happened to John O after that.
15 December 1841: George Coglan's boat "foundered". Coglan was lost.
25 December 1841: A fire in Petone destroyed several houses including that of the recently widowed Jemima Coglan
29 December 1841: Boat builder William Whitley drowned while trying to cross Wellington Harbour in George Coglin's boat, loaded with what little furniture and money Jemima Coglan had left.
29 December 1841: A subscription was to be taken up for the Widows of Coglan and Whitley
OK - well perhaps you already know all this. If not, I hope you find this useful
Perhaps you may be able to help me. I am looking for information about a ship called the "Balley", which ran aground in Wellington in 1841. It would have been repaired in Wellington. Perhaps by John Oxenham. If anyone knows of a diary that might shed light on what happened to the Balley I'd be very keen to get in touch with them
ngairedith on 2012-11-08 04:26:01hi Kevinc,
the 'Balley' was a small Schooner of 163 tons, Captain James Sinclair.
She did not carry any passengers, and was loaded entirely with American flour, in barrels, which was shipped in London.
As far as I can see she left Thames 23 Dec 1840 and arrived in Wellington 10th April 1841 with cargo like,: black oil, whale bone, pigs, maize, potatoes etc. By late Nov 1841 the 'Balley' was about to return to London from Wellington
NZETC has this to say (written in 1928)
... An excellent passage was made out to the infant settlement by the Company's fast-sailing schooner named the Balley, Captain James Sinclair. She was only a little bit of a thing, 163 tons register, and to-day one rather wonders why the authorities would go to the risk of sending out such a small craft. She did not carry any passengers, and was loaded entirely with American flour, in barrels, which was shipped in London. She left the Thames on December 23rd, 1840, and arrived at Wellington on April 10th, 1841. Unofficial news by the schooner was the first announcement in the settlement that the British Government had decided to sever the colony from New South Wales and give it a separate administration of its own, with Captain Hobson as Governor. As nothing could be done until the news came through official channels, the announcement was not proclaimed until May 3rd. The name of this little schooner may still be found on the map, as it was given to a rock off *Point Jerningham, in Wellington Harbour.
*Named for Edward Jerningham Wakefield, son of Edward Gibbon Wakefield, who founded the New Zealand Company
nothing could be found about the 'Balley' running aground in 1841 which I thought was strange not to have been recorded
donnell on 2015-01-01 23:17:44I know the story online in several places is that the girls were orphaned but if their parents were John Oxenham(b1786, Portsea) and Elizabeth Norman(b1789,Swanage,Dorset) living in Portsea, Hampshire, then they are very easy to search in Ancestry and you will find that John and Elizabeth Oxenham are very much alive and kicking up to the 1861 census. Elizabeth dies 1863 but John lives on there and even remarries, he dies age 88 in 1874. I think There is a story in The Alexander Turnbull Library that says the girls were orphans but they were not if indeed these are the correct parents - there are baptism indexes for the girls and john their brother on Ancestry, born Portsea to John and Eliz Oxenham and the correct YOB's.