John and Caroline Merrick
and their four surviving children
and their four surviving children
John James Merrick was born in Sandridge Melbourne, Australia in 1858, the fourth son of Alicia and Richard Merrick.
John followed in the steps of his grandfather Richard and father Samuel to become a mariner in his early years, but later came ashore and worked as a labourer. Documents from later life when the family had to apply for charitable relief following John's final illness shows he arrived in New Zealand as a child in around 1862.
He married Caroline Agnes Jackson in April 1883 and they had five children; Eliza Catherine who died in infancy, Alicia, who married George Reddy and had three sons and three daughters, Richard, who married Annie Beatrice Wright and had one son, Henrietta who married Michael Barry O'Neill and had five daughters, and John James Joseph, who died unmarried.
John fell ill with epileptic fits for the last six months of his life as his death certificate shows and he finally died of exhaustion at the age of 36 in 1897, only six months after the birth of his youngest son John..
John's wife Caroline was managing an ill husband, a new baby and also nursing her invalid mother. With no earnings the family sought help from the Auckland Hospital And Charitable Aid Board. Their application shows the rent on their St Mary's Bay Road (St Mary's Bay) house was then six shillings a week, that their son Richard (then aged 5) was also ill and that baby John was four months old.
Following John James's death the family moved to Driving Creek, Coromandel. John James's brother Samuel Merrick - the children's oldest uncle - had moved there with his eight children as a carpenter and had business as an undertaker.
It is thought Caroline might have worked as a housekeeper for extended Mellsop relations in the area; there is a Charles Mellsop recorded in the Electoral Rolls and Wises Directory as also living at Driving Creek and a Charles William Mellsop at Kapanga.
Life was hard for a widow with four children and Caroline returned to Auckland a few years later where it is thought she took in washing to help support her family.
Their son John Joseph Merrick died in 1915 en-route to Egypt in WWI and was buried at sea. He is remembered with an inscription on his parents' grave at Grafton/Symonds Street cemetery.
John's dates: Born 13 April, 1861, Sandridge Melbourne Australia
Died 28 June 1897, Auckland.
John followed in the steps of his grandfather Richard and father Samuel to become a mariner in his early years, but later came ashore and worked as a labourer. Documents from later life when the family had to apply for charitable relief following John's final illness shows he arrived in New Zealand as a child in around 1862.
He married Caroline Agnes Jackson in April 1883 and they had five children; Eliza Catherine who died in infancy, Alicia, who married George Reddy and had three sons and three daughters, Richard, who married Annie Beatrice Wright and had one son, Henrietta who married Michael Barry O'Neill and had five daughters, and John James Joseph, who died unmarried.
John fell ill with epileptic fits for the last six months of his life as his death certificate shows and he finally died of exhaustion at the age of 36 in 1897, only six months after the birth of his youngest son John..
John's wife Caroline was managing an ill husband, a new baby and also nursing her invalid mother. With no earnings the family sought help from the Auckland Hospital And Charitable Aid Board. Their application shows the rent on their St Mary's Bay Road (St Mary's Bay) house was then six shillings a week, that their son Richard (then aged 5) was also ill and that baby John was four months old.
Following John James's death the family moved to Driving Creek, Coromandel. John James's brother Samuel Merrick - the children's oldest uncle - had moved there with his eight children as a carpenter and had business as an undertaker.
It is thought Caroline might have worked as a housekeeper for extended Mellsop relations in the area; there is a Charles Mellsop recorded in the Electoral Rolls and Wises Directory as also living at Driving Creek and a Charles William Mellsop at Kapanga.
Life was hard for a widow with four children and Caroline returned to Auckland a few years later where it is thought she took in washing to help support her family.
Their son John Joseph Merrick died in 1915 en-route to Egypt in WWI and was buried at sea. He is remembered with an inscription on his parents' grave at Grafton/Symonds Street cemetery.
John's dates: Born 13 April, 1861, Sandridge Melbourne Australia
Died 28 June 1897, Auckland.