Biography contributed by Bernadette Siebert.
Sarah WARD was born 1832 in Belper, Derbyshire, England, the youngest child of Richard Ward and Jane nee Broughton. On 17 December 1857, at the Baptist Chapel in Derby, Sarah married 25-year-old gardener, Thomas Brighouse. Thomas (sometimes known as Thomas Mills) was the eldest son of Samuel Brighouse, an asphalt road maker and Anne nee Mills.
Sarah and Thomas’ first child was born in 1858 in Derby.
- Harriet (1858 -1898)
With Harriet as a baby, Sarah and Thomas immigrated to Auckland on board Matoaka arriving in September 1859. They settled first in Freeman’s Bay, Auckland where four children were born. Son John died at 7 days and was buried in Symonds Street Cemetery;
- Thomas Mills (1861 –1891) twin
- Richard Ward (1861 – 1948) twin
- Elizabeth Jane (1865 –1930)
- John Edward (1867 – 1867)
The family moved to Thames, where the last two sons were born.
- Edwin Roby (1869 – 1918)
- Samuel John (1871 – 1959)
By 1877 Sarah and Thomas were living at Kaeo, where Thomas owned a partly improved farm of 79 acres. In 1891 they received news that their eldest son Thomas had died in California, America, aged 29. He had been attending Healdsburg College and had recently married a fellow student there. Healdsburg College was an early Adventist institution established in 1882 focusing on training young people for lives of service.
Thomas died in 1896 in Kaeo aged 64, of chronic nephritis. He was buried in the Kaeo Cemetery. In his will he left all real and personal estate to his dear wife Sarah with son Richard to be executor.
Sarah lived on in Kaeo until her death of heart failure on 20 Nov 1918 aged 85 in Kaeo where she was buried in the Kaeo Cemetery. Her probate left all real and personal property worth 350 pounds to daughter Elizabeth Jane and monies in the bank. Her sons Richard and Edwin were to be executors, but Edwin had died the same day as his mother. He had been ill with cancer but died of influenza.
Sarah is the daughter of #375 Lizzie BRIGHOUSE Kaeo, and sister-in-law of #375 Elizabeth HARE
Sources
- Findagrave
- Archway probate Sarah Thomas
- PAPERS PAST Thames Star, Volume XXIII, Issue 6928, 8 July 1891, Page 2
- PAPERS PAST New Zealander, Volume XV, Issue 1402, 24 September 1859, Page 3
- Death Certificates Thomas, Sarah, Edwin (sighted)
- The Story of the NZ Brighouse Family