Biography contributed by Bernadette Siebert.
Clara Jaques Wickham was born on 28 February 1870 in Mahurangi, one of nine children born to farmer and settler John Rushley Wickham and Alice Grimmer.
When Clara signed the petition it is likely she was living with her parents.
In 1901 Clara married John Neale Bethell, a 46 year old Wiltshire-born widower and part of the Bethell family that Te Henga (Bethell’s Beach) is named after.
John had previously been married for 16 years to Catherine Buckley, who he had seven children with: Mary Adelaide in 1886, Jessie Kate Eleanor in 1888, Frank in 1890, Albert in 1892, John Neale in 1894, Elsie Laura in 1896, and Alice Dorothy in 1899. Catherine died in 1900 aged 32 years.
The family lived in Avondale where John was variously described as a bushman and farmer. Clara and John didn’t have any children of their own.
Clara died on 16 November 1918 of pneumonia. The death notice in the newspaper stated, “the beloved wife of John Bethell... a kind and loving wife and mother to my motherless children... inserted by her sorrowing husband and daughters”. She was buried in St Ninian’s Churchyard, Avondale.
John lived on their small acreage on the Great North Road, Avondale until he died on 8 January 1943. He was buried with both wives in St Ninian’s, Avondale.
In his will he split the land between his children Elsie and Albert, left a bequest to his housekeeper, and then the rest between his two youngest daughters Elsie and Alice. The whole estate was valued at about £3,000.
Sources
Papers Past
- "Deaths", New Zealand Herald, 27 November 1918
Click on sheet number to see the 1893 petition sheet this signature appeared on. Digital copies of the sheets supplied by Archives New Zealand.
Community contributions