Charlotte Haymes

Charlotte was born in New Zealand to Mary Ann Broughton and James Anderson. Her parents had left their respective homes in Kinross, Scotland and Leeds, England and headed to Freemantle, Australia, in 1829. However, the Peel Land Settlement Scheme failed following widespread droughts and a lack of infrastructure to support the settlers. The couple then took up residence in Hobart, Tasmania. After a short time in Sydney as well, they arrived in the Hokianga, Northland on board the Nimrod, in 1837. Tensions with local Māori and various other trials in the north had the family shift several times. Charlotte was reputed to have been the first white child born in the Whangarei district, it being 7 July 1841. 

In 1842 James and Mary Ann Anderson moved to Auckland with their four children. Here James set himself up as a painter. The family eventually secured a dwelling in Parnell, but also had interests in Coromandel. The 1859 Auckland Suburbs Electoral Roll lists brother Thomas Anderson as a carpenter at Coromandel and father James in Parnell. However, it is understood that several of the children did live in Coromandel until various skirmishes between the settlers and the Maori, prompted their return back to Auckland around 1861. This provided the girls, now adults, with more opportunities to join the social activities of the expanding city of Auckland.

When Charlotte Anderson married Arthur Haymes, a jeweller, in 1863 she had the use of her brother-in-law Edmund Cox's beautiful house in Auckland for the occasion. Arthur had arrived from Coventry with his mother and brother in 1858. (His mother Ann Haymes also signed the suffrage petition). It seems that Arthur took his young family first to Napier (Electoral Roll for Napier in 1865/1866) and then to Abraham St, Grahamstown (Thames) in 1870. By 1872 the family were living in Coromandel where Arthur was involved in the gold industry testing samples. They later moved back to Thames as their daughters attended Kauranga Girls High during the 1880s,although they may have been boarding with their grandmother Anne Haymes.

Thomas Arthur Haymes was born in 1864 but was listed in the BDM as Haynes. He died in 1881 while working as a ship steward's assistant and one of the boats capsized. Emily Elizabeth was born in 1865 but died two years later on 1 June in Napier. Two boys followed, Samuel (1866) and William (1868). Daughters, Sarah (?) and Alice (1872) were named in their mother's obituary but were not listed as births under Haymes. The family was resident in Mackay and Grey Streets, Thames before moving to Gisborne in 1886. By 1893 members of the family were living back in Hawkes Bay.  

Sarah Ann Haymes married William Stephen Scott and Alice Mary Haymes married Richard Stanley, both in 1893. In 1896 Charlotte registered to vote but her husband was not listed. It was not until 1905 that Charlotte described herself as a widow in the Hawkes Bay Electoral Roll but there is no record identifying the death of her husband in either New Zealand or Australia. However, in 1881 when her son Thomas died she was described as a widow. It seems most likely that the surname was again transcribed incorrectly and therefore missed. 

Charlotte was eighty when she died on 20 August 1920. The funeral was conducted at the Hastings Baptist Church before proceeding to the Hastings Cemetery. Her two daughters and son Samuel were still resident in Hastings but her son William had been living in Melbourne for some time.         

Biography contributed by Margaret Jenkin                                                                  

Sources

• NZ BDM Index
• PapersPast newspapers
• NZ Electoral Rolls