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E. Swinnerton

Signed family name
Surnneston
Signed given name
E.
Given address
Devenport
Sheet number
374
Town/Suburb
Devonport
City/Region
Auckland
Notes

Surname originally mistranscribed as 'Surnneston'.

Biographical information supplied by Bernadette Siebert.

Emma Kerby was born in 1869 in Thames, NZ. Her parents were Charles Kerby from St Helier, Channel Islands and his second wife Rachel Nankivell originally from Devon, England who married in Victoria Australia before coming to Thames, NZ. 

On 25 July 1889 Emma Kerby was married to 21 year old William Swinnerton. As Emma was 20, she married with the permission of Rachel Kerby, her mother. 

William was born in Auckland in 1868, one of the nine children of John Jesse Swinnerton and Mary Hulbert. They were both from England, met and married in Victoria, Australia and they moved to NZ about 1865. 

William was a wood-turner by trade, and he had a business address of Wyndham Street, Auckland, but they lived in Devonport on Auckland’s North Shore, where they had five children:

  • Elsie May (1890-1946)
  • Hilda (1891 -1956)
  • Mabel (1893 -1975)
  • Jesse (1896 -1991)
  • William Edgar     (1899 -1987)    

1893 Devonport William
1900 Devonport William
1901 Wyndham St both wood turner
1905 Devonport both wood turner
1911 Devonport Mary wid Emma Wm
1928 St Edwards Pde Devonport, Emma Wm
1931 St Edwards Pde Dev Emma, Wm agent
1933 Norfolk Island 
1941 1949 Gladstone Rd Parnell Emma
1943 1946 Onetangi Wm retired
1954 1957 Emma Gladstone Rd

William was a keen participant and often winner at Regattas organized by the Auckland Rowing Association in the 1890s. At the North Shore Rowing Club dance in 1892 ‘was a most enjoyable one and was largely attended. Amongst the ladies present were the following: Mrs Swinnerton, handsome black silk [William’s mother]; Mrs W. Swinnerton, pretty black lace’. The family were doing well. William advertised in the newspapers for boys to join his woodturning business and Emma for ‘Girl to assist in housework and mind children. Mrs W. Swinnerton, Devonport.’ By 1900 William was elected president of the North Shore Rowing Club and by 1908 vice-commodore of the North Shore Yacht Club. In the1920s William became a land agent and sold houses on the North Shore and also sold yachts and launches. The paper reported in 1929 that, 

the honour of being the yachtsman to annex the greatest number of prizes is probably held by Mr W Swinnerton. Able to race a boat in the late fifties he still can show the youngsters how to get the most out of the air, when there is any. In one season, with a Bailey boat, he carried off nine races and 11 prizes, the extra awards being for aggregate points and another special prize.

Surprising, in the 1930s William moved to Norfolk Island, three days' sail from NZ. He took up a crown lease of 85 acres. Newspapers reported, 

Its plentiful supplies of oranges, bananas and other tropical fruits have been going to waste, and growers have been having a hard time. At the public meeting called on the island to deal with affairs generally, including the matter of the deportation of the military officer, the chairman was Mr. W. Swinnerton, who for many years was well known in business and sporting circles in this city. He has a fruit farm at Norfolk and is highly esteemed among the residents.

It is not clear whether Emma accompanied William to Norfolk Island. When the Second World War broke out, William and Emma were back in Auckland, where William appeared on electoral rolls as retired and living on Waiheke Island. Emma was at Gladstone Road, Parnell. William died in 1947 on Waiheke Island, suddenly, aged 78. He was buried at Waikumete. His probate left all his real and personal estate, worth 500 pounds, to his unmarried daughter Mabel.

Emma lived on at Gladstone Road until her death in 1962 aged 92. She was cremated at Purewa Cemetery & Crematorium.
 

Sources

 

Click on sheet number to see the 1893 petition sheet this signature appeared on. Digital copies of the sheets supplied by Archives New Zealand.