Charles William and Mary (Baylis) and their 5 surviving children
Charles William was the sixth surviving child of John and Maria, as with the rest of the family born in Dublin and arriving with Maria on the Carnatic on December 29, `1855 aged 13.
HIs mother Maria was keen to get him into employment as early as she could, possibly to help the family finances, and was looking for somewhere to place him by early 1857, when he would have been 14. With his brother John Thomas he was a Forest Ranger under Lieutenant William Jackson, in an Auckland company formed in 1863.
He helped his brothers on the family farm before moving to work on Mr Thomas Jolly's farm in the Waikato, between Cambridge and Hamilton.
In 1871 he married his cousin Mary Baylis at Mr Jolly's home. The couple had six children, five of whom survived into adulthood. The first born was a set of boy twins, Charles William (known as Billy) and James, but James died when he was just three days old. Charles Snr worked as a farmer, gold miner and kauri gum digger in the Coromandel, Matakana and Kaipara. In Coromandel, where the family spent many years, Mary served as the local postmistress, with a room set aside in their house for the mail.
It seems that when Charles moved to Matakana to go gum digging, and then further north to the settlement of Whakapirau, his family did not accompany him. When Charles died at Whakapirau his will stated that the proceeds from the sale of his house and section of land should be left to the Auckland Patriotic Fund and his personal effects left to an old friend. It seems his estrangement from his family was complete.
Charles William's dates: Born 1843, Dublin
Died 10 Feb, 1916, Kaipara Harbour
Charles William sixth child of John and Maria
Married his cousing Mary Baylis
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