L. Bennett

Signed family name

Bennett

Signed given name

Given address

Waiuku

Sheet number

Town/Suburb

Waiuku

City/Region

Auckland region

Notes

Biography contributed by Bernadette Siebert

Lydia Starte was born in 1843 in Cambridge, England, one of the nine children of James and Rebecca Starte. Lydia and George Bennett were married in August 1864 in London, England before they immigrated to NZ, arriving in Auckland in January 1865 on board the Matoaka.

George was son of William and Abigail Bennett, born 1840 in London, England. His parents were Lincolnshire farm labourers, who had moved to the city where George’s siblings were born. Eventually George’s parents immigrated to Auckland and farmed at Waiuku, near their son.

George and Lydia had 11 children, George was born in Onehunga and the others in Kariotahi, near Waiuku, where George was a painter by trade and carried on that business besides farming for a number of years.

George (1866–1910)
Charles James (1867–1952)
Charles John (1869–1951)
Fanny (1872–1922)
Annie (1874–1967)
Henry William (1876–1970)
Frederick (1877–1889)
Benjamin (1878–1902)
Arthur (1881–1921)
Ellen (1882–1971)
Edward Joseph (1883–1965)

In 1879 the school at Kariotahi was first opened on August 4, 1879, with 20 pupils. It was a two-roomed house, and was lent by the owner George Bennett, to enable a school to be opened. In July 1889, George and Lydia’s son Frederick died at the District Hospital, Auckland, aged 13 years.

Lydia died at Waiuku, in 1894, 'the dearly-beloved wife of George Bennett, and second daughter of the late James and Rebecca Starte, of Cambridge, England, aged 51 years. "Blessed are they that die in the Lord."—Cambridge papers please copy.' She was buried in the Waiuku Cemetery.

George remained at Kariotahi for a while after Lydia died. In 1902 his son Benjamin, aged 25, died. He had been a NZ trooper, returned by the Britannic, and had been ailing since his return. And then in 1910, his eldest son George drowned in a boating accident at Port Albert. He then retired from business and sold his Waiuku property, and resided in Auckland. He died in 1914 and left estate worth 2,600 pounds; his house in Union Street to his daughter Nellie, and other freehold properties to be divided equally between the remaining children. He was buried in Waikaraka Cemetery, Auckland.

Lydia is the daughter of 24 Mildred BENNETT