Re: CUTHBERT, Kent>Auckland, N.Z.1865

Hi Lorna,
My names Rebecca Carruthers and William Thomas Cuthbert is my great-great-great grandfather.I have quite a bit of information about him that I would gladly give to you. I live in New Zealand.What would you like to know?
In the parish of Horton, Kirby, Kent on 25 December 1859, both aged 23, in the presence of Robert Hoare and Elizabeth Whittle, (brother and sister of the bride) Jane Mazella Hoare and William Thomas Cuthbert were married.
William was a bricklayer by trade and was foreman on the building of the London Bridge.While he was away working in the country his four children died of smallpox, so he and his wife immigrated to New Zealand aboard the sailing ship ‘Bombay’.They arrived on 18 March 1865 along with their 4-month-old daughter, Beatrice.She died soon after their arrival and is interred in the Drury Cemetery.They were given a grant of 10 acres of land at Bombay, which was named after the founders of that settlement in 1865.They carried on their backs, all their supplies from Auckland, including their 200lb sacks of flour.Most settlers split their loads and made two trips – but not great- great grandfather.They had five more children out here – George, Francis James, Alice Jane, Mildred Eliza and William.George was drowned, Frank, a general labourer died in 1962 aged 92.Mildred who lived in Waiuku was 91 in 1963 and William, a blacksmith and farmer was 88 and living in Dargeville in 1963.
William Thomas was a foundation member of the choir and a Sunday school teacher.He served on the school committee and Road board.William also served on the vestry of the Church of England “St Peters in the Forest” Bombay and was interred in the Church Cemetery July 1899 aged 63 years.
Jane Mazella, his wife in the care of her son, William Cuthbert, in her later years, and died at his home on 16 August 1923.She was interred in the Wesley Cemetery, Dargaville, aged 87 years.

I hope this information will be handy for you. Maybe you could email me back and see how it gos.Also if you have any information on these two or any of their other relations (possibly back farther), it would be greatly appreciated.
Becca