Mrs Gledhill

Biography contributed by Mrs Colyn Storer (nee Morley) Sydney, Australia

IT SEEMS THAT MRS GLEDHILL SIGNED THE PETITION TWICE, there are no other Gledhill families in the Sydenham area from the 1870s-1920s.

Mrs Gledhill was born Catherine Johnson daughter of William Graves Johnson and Catharine nee Wright, about September 1847 and was baptised on 12 September at St Thomas of Canterbury Mumby Lincolnshire. In the 1851 census, her father was a farmer born at Mumby while Catherine was born at the nearby village of Hogsthorpe. She had five older siblings and four younger ones.  In the 1871 and 1881 censuses her mother was recorded as being deaf and dumb.

She married Thomas Jennings Gledhill in the September Quarter of 1870, possibly at Mumby.

Thomas was born at Rishworth YKS on 25 Aug 1848, son of Richard and Margaret Gledhill. In the 1871 Census they were living at Langfield YKS, where Thomas was a stone mason and she stone mason’s wife. They had no children.

All of the family except her eldest sister Betsy emigrated to New Zealand from the 1860s to mid 1880s. Thomas & Catherine arrived as assisted emigrants, in Canterbury on 2 Feb 1872 on the Charlotte Gladstone with her brother Robert and sister Jane. 

They settled in Sydenham area of Christchurch where Thomas continued in his trade of a Stone mason.  He also owned land at Gas Works Road, later called Wordsworth Road, rural section 79 Sydenham from the 1870s. The records shown various house numbers, but they are probably the same property.

He was also the Mayor of Sydenham in 1892 and senior trustee of the Pioneer Lodge of Druids, and was connected with the Sydenham Suburban and Co-operative Money Club, United Friendly Societies, and other local bodies. He died on 12 July 1929 and was buried at Addington Cemetery.

When her parents celebrated their Golden Wedding in 1888 at her brother Robert’s home, it was stated ‘the whole of the Johnson family are exceedingly musical, and it was a treat to listen to Mr Johnson and his three sons and two daughters Mrs Croskell and Mrs Gledhill , singing solos, duets and quartetts.’

Catherine later lived at Ranfurly Street and with her niece Mrs W Calder (daughter of Robert and Jane) at Riccarton where she died on 16 May 1937 and was buried beside her husband at Addington Cemetery.

Her sister Jane Croskell and Jane’s sister in law Betsy Croskell also signed the Petition.

Sources

BIRTH, BAPTISM:              

UK GRO Indexes: https://www.gro.gov.uk/ (NOT the indexes on free.bmd or Ancestry or findmypast). These GRO indexes give mother’s maiden names and age at death.

Findmypast.com.au

Including Lincolnshire Parish registers, digitised copies

CENSUSES, FAMILY RECORDS UK

Findmypast.com.au

Including Lincolnshire Parish registers, digitised copies

Emigration Records:

Family Search Citing this Record  "New Zealand, Archives New Zealand, Passenger Lists, 1839-1973," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FSYL-1PK : 8 August 2017), Thomas J Gledhill, 02 Feb 1872; citing ship Charlotte Gladstone, Archives New Zealand, Wellington; FHL microfilm

NZ BIRTHS, DEATHS, MARRIAGES:

https://www.bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/

And Ancestry.com.au

Electoral Rolls:        

findmypast AND Ancestry.com.au

New Zealand, Electoral Rolls, 1853-1981

Directories:

Ancestry.com.au = various New Zealand Directories and Gazettes

Parent’s Golden Wedding:

Papers Past AND a copy sent to Lincolnshire was reported in Stamford Mercury 1 June 1888, page 5 of 8 reporting that the Celebration had taken place on 10 April 1888.

NEWS OF THE DAY.  Press, Volume XLV, Issue 7038, 16 April 1888 page 4
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP18880416.2.14?query=johnson

TOWN & COUNTRY.  Lyttelton Times, Volume LXIX, Issue 8457, 16 April 1888 page 4
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/LT18880416.2.23?query=johnson

Death & Burial:

NZ BDM online and PapersPast
Ancestry.com. New Zealand, Cemetery Records, 1800-2007
Original data: New Zealand Cemetery Records. New Zealand Society of Genealogists Incorporated. 

Newspaper Reports:

Papers Past for many of the family, especially Death/Funeral notices

Obituary:

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19674, 18 July 1929  page 2 

MR. T. J. GLEDHILL.

The late Mr Thomas Jennings Gledhill, whose funeral took place on Sunday, was a very old and well-known resident, of Sydenham. He was born at Rishworth, Yorkshire, in 1849, and came to New Zealand as a young married man in 1872 by the Charlotte Gladstone. Settling in where he had lived ever since, he became Mayor of that borough in 1892 the last but one before Sydenham joined the City.