The above-named, my great great grandmother Mary Button Coles, was the wife of one Charles Jeffs, from Hillesden in Buckinghamshire. I have a copy of their wedding certificate from 24 March 1846 from their marriage at nearby Beachampton but in spite of inquiries, I have been unable to locate any other details of their marriage (e.g. the name of the Church). Or for that matter, why they chose to marry in that location instead of Hillesden, Charles' hometown. I presume he simply deferred to his wife out of courtesy. Or possibly, she had family in Beachampton, which is a nine hour walk away, not unheard of in those days when most people walked everywhere.
So Charles and Mary made that long, fateful journey all the way from England to Canterbury in 1850 aboard the Charlotte Jane. Which must have been tough for a young mother with two children, and giving birth on arrival in December 1850 to my g-g grandmother, Elizabeth Jeffs, according to family history 'the first pakeha born of the First Four Ships on the Canterbury Province'
So they would have stepped ashore (or been rowed around to the comparative safety of the Heathcote landing). That's Charles, (24) their son John (4), their daughter Sarah ( ) and of course Elizabeth, born in the new land in which they they would be raised.
Something of an enigma, in spite of having a copy of her death certificate, I have absolutely no idea of what caused Mary's demise. Births death and marriages was in its infancy when Mary died in 1860 so that line of inquiry was unproductive.
A snippet I do have is that Mary, when the young couple first settled in Templeton on their farm, had to walk a long way to get water from a place called "The Waterholes" and carry it all the way back to the farm.Obviously, at times, the Canterbury Plains would be quite dry.
Has anyone else investigated this family or does anyone know anything about their early life in Templeton? Hard to know who to ask, where to start.
