Richard Lane

Richard and Selina married in Sandhurst (now Bendigo) Victoria, Australia.
It is not known how long they lived in Victoria but around 1864-5 their eldest daughter Fanny Maria Louisa was born in Parnell Auckland.

One of Richard's voyages, probably from Australia to Auckland, was aboard the 'Sea Nymph'. They travelled to Hamilton and on 8 December 1865 he enrolled in the 4th Waikato Militia regiment as replacement for deserter S Riddell. Regimental records (Long Roll Book) describe him as being 5'5", brown hair, grey eyes, fair complexioned. Protestant. He gave his occupation as dairy man but this was no doubt to help him get a land grant. He was given an Enfield rifle and two Crown Land grants: Town Land lot 249 in Hamilton, (now London Street where Seddon and Boyes Parks are) and Country Land lot 37, (Goodalls Survey) of 50 acres at Rukuhia, which he intended to develop as a farm. His younger brother Henry also enrolled on 18 December 1865, then Loftus joined them on 24 September 1866. Their 50 acre blocks were contiguous and with further purchases they built up approximately 400 acres which they named 'Brookfield'.

They built a house and set out an English garden with cyprus and laurel trees and variegated box hedge. The orchard was planted with plum, quince apple and walnut trees. They were not farmers however and although they never had any skirmishes with Māori, times were fairly hard. Most of the militia men soon moved on and little land was developed.

Richard and Selina had three more children while at 'Brookfield' and he was involved in setting up a school in Hamilton in about 1870. He was a committee member in 1872 when the roll was approximately 45 pupils. In 1871 Richard was nominated trustee for the Hamilton Highway District Board, to be replaced by Henry in 1872.

At different times the brothers worked for wages on road maintenance etc.

In 1873 they sold 'Brookfield' to James Gribble and moved to their town section in Hamilton. Several mortgages had been taken out on the land and when sold, most of the funds appeared to have been invested in Henry's name. The reason for selling is not clear. One family story said that Richard loved horses but had a bad fall after which he was "never well."
Another said that with his London solicitor's background he simply could not cope with the pioneering way of life and went mad. It seems that he was cut off from any support or money from his father once he left England to seek Selina in Australia. In the mid 1870's Richard and Selina moved to Onehunga where their younest daughter was born in 1875.

Richard's decline has been hard to track as he became a well hidden skeleton in the family cupboard. He may have worked as a billiard marker and at some stage he was committed to Avondale Mental Hospital where he died of a stroke on 9 December 1909. He was buried on 10 December in an unmarked grave at Waikumete Cemetery (Block E Section 6 Plot 19) There seem to be no family snippets to indicate what type of person he was; no descendants were named after him.

• For the story of the Rukuhia militia men see 'South of West Hamilton: A History of the Early European Settlement of the Rukuhia District', 1864-1914

- Notes from H H Grant, 1985