Jane Sturmey

Biographical information provided by Lynette Buchanan for the He Tohu exhibition:

Jane Yeatman was born about 1846 in Belchalwell, Dorset England to Peter and Martha Yeatman who married in 1835. Martha died in 1848 and the 1851 Census reveals Jane as a five year old living with her siblings Christian nine, Martha 11, William 14 and their father Peter 47, a widower and former agricultural labourer, as paupers in the Shoreminster Union House Court, Sturminster, Newton, Dorset. Her father died in 1857.  Jane was employed as a servant in 1861 and a domestic servant aged 25 in 1871.

Later in 1874 her brother William 35, an agricultural labourer and sister-in-law Mary Ann Yeatman immigrated to Canterbury NZ, as did Jane’s future husband Henry Sturmey aged 22, on the Rakaia. Nine years later on 16 May 1883 Jane Yeatman, a housemaid from Dorset, arrived in Canterbury as an assisted emigrant on the ship Waipa. She was nominated by Mrs M.A. Yeatman.

In 1884 Jane, aged about 38, married Harry Sturmey. (No birth records of any children found.) Jane  Sturmey signed the petition in Bulls. In 1904 a Hy (Henry/Harry?) Sturmey, a carrier is living in Bulls. In 1905 Jane and Harry Sturmey, a farmer, are living in Salisbury.

Harry age 62, a farmer of Salisbury near Timaru, dies on 21 June 1910. In 1911 Jane is living in Wellington Street, Timaru with a Mabel Sturmey, a spinster.  Jane Sturmey 66 years old dies on 23 February 1912. She and Harry are buried together at the Timaru Cemetery.