Biography contributed by Bernadette Siebert
Hannah Jones was born in 1844 in Staffordshire, England, the eldest daughter of James and Sarah Jones nee Stephens. The couple sailed from London with seven children, on the Armstrong arriving in Auckland February 16, 1865. They settled in Thames.
In 1902, Hannah married Henry John Pilcher, in Auckland, but they appeared to have been living together before that, and Hannah was going by the surname Pilcher.
Henry John Pilcher was a Londoner, born about 1834 and previously married to Jane Stewart Hawkins in 1859. They had three children with one dying in infancy. By 1871 Henry had moved alone to New Zealand and his wife stated on the 1871 census ‘husband in New Zealand’. In 1875 Jane must have realised he wasn’t returning to England, and remarried.
Electoral Rolls have the Pilchers living in various addresses in Auckland until they settled about 1893 at Edwin Street, Rocky Nook. Henry was an accountant at the well-known legal firm of Jackson and Russell. Hannah’s daughter Georgina came to live with them after her marriage failed and used her stepfather’s Pilcher surname. Hannah died in 1911. 'The death occurred on Wednesday last of Mrs Henry Pilcher, at her residence, Rocky Nook, Auckland. .. The deceased lady was exceptionally well-known throughout the city and suburbs.' She was buried in Purewa Cemetery.
Henry lived on with Georgina at Rocky Nook until he died in 1913 after a fall. The newspaper recorded, 'Deceased was very feeble, and practically blind. At about 3 a.m., Miss Pilcher heard her father get out of bed for a drink of water. She then heard a noise, and on going outside the room, found that her father had fallen down the stairs.' He died from a fractured skull aged 77. He was buried with his wife in Purewa. His probate, worth 2500 pounds, left everything to his step-daughter Georgina Sarah Jones Meyrat.
Sources
Probate: Henry
PAPERS PAST New Zealand Herald, Volume L, Issue 15370, 4 August 1913, Page 7
PAPERS PAST Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 84, 8 April 1911, Page 12
1871 census: RG10; Piece: 727; Folio: 29; Page: 6; GSU roll: 823351
Electoral Rolls (ancestry.com)