Biography contributed by Bernadette Siebert
Caroline Bridget Shepherd was born in Kaeo in 1865, one of the children of James Nelson Shepherd and wife Selina nee Perry. James was an early settler born in Northland years before the Treaty of Waitangi was signed and the son of a missionary. Selina also arrived in NZ before 1840.
On 31 July 1888 at the residence of the father of the bride, James Shepherd at Kaeo, 23-year-old Caroline married 23-year-old bushman, George Patrick Crossley.
George was born in Cambridgeshire, England, in 1866, the son of William George Crossley and Mary Ann nee Eyres. William was a dentist, and after the death of Mary Ann in 1871, immigrated to NZ and set up his business in Opua, Northland.
Caroline and George lived in Kaeo after they married and had six children:
- Jessie Caroline (1888 -1890) accidentally drowned at Kaeo aged 15 months
- Evelyn Beatrice (1891 -1966)
- Frances Jessie (1892 -1969)
- Allan Bernard (1895 -1927)
- Oliver Cecil (1900 -1988)
- Winifred Mabel (1907 -1992)
George spent many years as a coach proprietor in Kaeo. Newspapers in 1906 reported he made a fast trip when he left Kaeo at 8.30 am and after stopping to lunch in Mangonui arrived at his destination in Waipapakauri at 8 p.m. ‘This speaks well for the superior class of horseflesh he keeps’.
By August 1907, the family had left Kaeo for Auckland, and George was looking for work;
Wanted —Position in town as Storeman, by steady Sober Man not afraid of work. Give particulars and salary to G. P Crossley, Oliphant-st Ponsonby.
They moved to Bayswater, on Auckland’s North Shore where George was a newsagent, then carpenter and builder. George’s nickname was ‘skipper’ and he was into yachting, in 1909 he advertised, ‘WANTED to Buy, Boat, 14 to 16ft, keel. —Apply G. P. Crossley.’
George died in 1944 at Auckland Hospital, aged 74.
George Patrick (Skipper), dearly-beloved husband of Caroline Crossley, of Bayswater. ..The funeral will leave C. Little and Sons Limited .. (12.15 pm vehicular boat), for O'Neill's Point Cemetery.
Caroline lived on at Bayswater until her death in August 1952 and was buried with her husband at O'Neill's Point Cemetery. Her will stated all estate, worth 3 000 pounds to be sold and shared between her four children and granddaughter Peggy Crossley, daughter of her son Allan who died in Sydney, Australia in 1927.
Sources
Intentions To Marry Mangaroa 1888
Archway probate Caroline
PAPERS PAST New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 24911, 5 June 1944, Page 1
PAPERS PAST Northland Age, Volume 2, Issue 37, 24 April 1906, Page 3
PAPERS PAST New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13515, 13 August 1907, Page 1
Historical BDMs
Electoral Rolls (ancestry.com)