Biography contributed by Bernadette Siebert.
Sophia Ann Skinner was born in 1861 in Kawhia, Waikato, where her father Thomas Skinner was a Wesleyan minister. Then he was based at the Waima Mission, Northland where he died when Sophia was six. Her mother Hannah Chiffinch nee Taylor, remarried to Joseph Hare in 1868 in Totara North. Sophia became part of a large family; Hannah’s nine children, Joseph’s eleven, and they went on to have five more.
In 1883, when Sophia was 21, she married in Kaeo, at Joseph Hare’s residence (her stepfather) to Francis Walter William James Letts. He was known as Frank, a carpenter, living in Kaeo, born about 1862 in London, England, the son of Francis Walter and Sarah Griffiths.
Sophia and Francis lived in Kaeo, where Francis worked variously as a labourer and bushman. The family became Seventh Day Adventists, as did many of the Hare family. They had five daughters and one son:
- Francis Harold (1884–1947)
- Winifred (1886–1935)
- Sophia Mable (1887–1961)
- Margaret Ethel (1891–1964)
- Laura Lucy (1895–1981)
- Ruth (1900–1988)
Sophia died 24 June 1912 in Kaeo, aged 50. She was buried in Kaeo Cemetery. Her probate left her estate worth 250 pounds to her husband. Francis moved away from Northland, firstly, in 1917 to Hamilton where he worked as an artesian well-borer. He re-married in 1919 at Hamilton Registrar’s Office to Hilda Malvina Weber.
By 1922 Francis and Hilda were living in Taupaki, north-west Auckland and had a poultry farm. Francis died January 1933, aged 70 and was buried in the Waikumete Cemetery. When Hilda died in 1957, she left one-third of her estate to her step-daughter Laura.
Sources
- Archway probate Sophia
- Intentions to Marry Wangarei 1883
- Ministers of the Methodist Church NZ 1822–1840
- Historical BDMs
- Electoral Rolls (ancestry.com)