Stephen and John Wrathall of New Zealand

..... my sister Heather and I are working on the Wrathall book and when you are doing research you know how wonderful it is when tiny fragments turn to gold! I had a phone call a few days ago from a relative of Stephen Wrathall's brother John Wrathall (both these boys came to New Zealand and settled here, both marrying Maori women who were documented as being Chief's daughters).

Over many years we have built up huge numbers of Stephen Wrathall's descendants plus their stories, but have ALWAYS come up against blank walls where John's descendants were concerned. This was clarified when I received an email from one of his descendants! (Both Heather and I have waited 60 years to find the link to John's descendants!! GOLD!!)

It was thought that the Aust. and N. Z. line came via Lupton Wrathall and Mary Colton but I have reasons to doubt this. Although these names were never mentioned within our family here, I thought I had better go back and see if there was evidence that we had been wrong in our assumption that the parents of STEPHEN WRATHALL (d. 24 Oct 1872), m. MARY ANN WALKER (d. 26 Feb 1852), who brought their children to Tasmania in the "Rifleman", were not the William Wrathall and Suzanna we had always thought.

Although I have been through all the information on your site, I still feel uneasy about the Lupton/Mary Colton line being ours!!

In your note as below [see Wrathalls of London]:

Roy Wrathall has been researching a wine merchant named William Wrathall, who lived in the London area. Roy relates the following from the International Genealogical Index (IGI) for London : Wrathal, Charles Bryant, son of William Wrathal and Susanna. Christened 26 May 1789, London St. Sepulchre. He had a brother, Joseph Lucas, Christened 12 Apr 1786, and there may be more brothers, but I was only looking for Charles ! I wonder if there's any link to either the Wine merchant and/or Stephen Wrathall of Tasmania? There are no Charles Wrathalls in the Yorkshire IGI.

There appears the WILLIAM AND SUSANNA!! The dates are in the right timing, e.g. 1786 and 1789. We believe our Stephen who m. Mary Ann was born Abt. 1779 in London.

Because of the fact that there have been stories of manufacturers, traders, bakers, etc. it always seemed more likely that our relatives came from London's trading area and christenings of some of Stephen and Mary Ann's children are documented in St. Dunstan's Parish, which is not all that far from St Sepulchres.

........ I feel much more comfortable with the possibility that your London William is linked with our Stephen and MaryAnn as I had never heard that they came directly from Yorkshire, although they were believed to originally be from that area.

When I was about 10 or12 years old, I first visited my Uncle Dick (the author of the above-mentioned book. I was to visit Mangonui many many times as a teenager and have gone up there at least once a year since!).
He lived in the very beautiful little town of Mangonui in Northland (where the first Stephen and John made their homes and businesses) and we sat our on the verandah of his home and talked about the Wrathalls. Mangonui is full of early history and the Wrathalls are a huge part of its early building and trading. Uncle Dick went inside and brought out the original manuscript of the story. I read it through and asked questions as I went as I had been brought up with certain stories and sometimes these didn't relate to the story Uncle Dick had written.

With a wry smile and a twinkle in his eyes he told me the following:

Joyce, I wrote the book as a fictional story to be entered in the Daily Mail Writing Contest in London. By the time the manuscript arrived in London it was too late for the competition and was returned to me. I have given a copy to the Auckland Library.

The last sentence has caused more confusion amongst researchers than even the book has for the fact that the book was believed to be true and was accessioned into the Reference Section!! Copies were made from the book (being 'sneaked out' of the Library!) and my first cousin's son Stephen Wrathall put a copy on the internet (your N. Z. Steve).

Although N. Z. Steve has offered his own thoughts about the book, it is MOSTLY taken as gospel. It really does make a good adventure story and there are family references there which are true, but mostly it has been embellished (Uncle Dick style)! That's why we here call it "The Fairy Story"!

I would really appreciate any info you can trace as to any of the London Wrathalls who may fit into the picture and likewise if anything turns up in my own research I will gladly share it with you.

...... those were the two brothers who came with their parents (Stephen m. Mary Ann Walker) to Hobart and then came to live here. From documents and timeframes here in N. Z. it appears that - Stephen was born Abt. 1812 and John not until Abt. 1822. We have worked out these dates from their death certs which state how long they had been in N. Z. and also from dates of land purchases made by them from the Maoris when they first arrived here. They bought land which contained kauri timber so that they had plenty of kauri rickars (young kauri trees) to cut for spars for the Admiralty who had given a colleague a contract.

On Stephen's death cert in 1896 he is said to be 84 years old so that makes his birth date 1812.

Regarding John Wrathall: on his Death Certificate he is stated as being 88 years old when he died in 1906 and having lived in N. Z. for 78 years. As he is supposed to have been born around 1822, this would mean that he would have died at age 84, not 88. Now if he lived in N. Z. for 78 years, then he would have been only 6 years old when he came here!

As the area where John died was not populated by many people at that time, it is possible that someone other than a family member was the informant and would have had to make a guess as to how long John had been in N. Z..

A better clue is his marriage............ Bachelor and Farmer. On 20 April 1894 John signed an 'Intention to Marry' at Mangonui Mary Ngamoku (Spinster). He was then aged 72 and Mary was 22. This would have made him born in 1822 as we have recorded.

Note that although he was 72 years old, he fathered 2 boys (their mother died when they were 2 and 8 or 9 I think). These are the descendants we have hunted for 60 odd years and at the moment they have a place in our history but also a little mystery! Of course the fact that their father would have been 80 years old when his wife died possibly means that the boys were adopted and given a name other than Wrathall.

You know how we are always told to go back and carefully read the small print in old records?? Last evening I found a document Heather had got years ago when in Tasmania. It is the record of Stephen's death there at the age of 92 years. Heather had written on the page "New Town southwest of Geelong" . I had believed that Stephen had died at the home of his son in Geelong. However, the page is clearly a photocopy from the Register of Deaths (hand-written) for the year 1872 in Hobart, Tasmania.

# 1141 24th October 1872 states Stephen Wrathall (Died New Town) Male 93 years, Profession Butcher, Cause of Death: Old Age, Informant: P.M. Armstrong, Coroner's Constable, Argyle Street, Registered on 25th October 1872 - and the little piece of GOLD! in brackets [Born in Yorkshire]. At least we now know definitely to look further in your area! Our records have always shown "Born about 1779" and we believed Yorkshire. Also, the New Town is a suburb of Hobart, so he didn't die at the home of his son in Geelong!

He arrived with his wife Mary Ann and their kids in Hobart in 1830 which would have made him aged 51. He must have been a very active man because there are listings of a ship (skippered by Stephen Wrathall) calling at many ports around N. Z. transporting goods and picking up spars for export from here. At that time his sons Stephen and John would have been right into felling the trees, so we can only presume that the owner of the ship was old Stephen. At one time I thought that the old fellow was doing so much in Tasmania and Victoria in Australia getting his other sons set up there, and carrying on what was supposed to be his trade of butcher, that he wouldn't have had time to be over here. However, we have copies of all the land deals done with the Maoris and old Stephen bought land here as well. What a busy man.