Today marks 125 years since my great-great-grandparents John Chesswas (1861 – 1916) and Emily Bignell (1856 – 1950) arrived in New Zealand. On Wednesday December 24, 1884, at 8:45am, the SS Arawa arrived at Port Chalmers, Otago, carrying nearly 500 passengers and 3000 tons of cargo. The Star and the Timaru Herald reported that on board were 58 saloon, 50 second, & 145 third-class passengers, besides 235 immigrants for all ports. The immigrant list can be viewed online: S.S. Arawa. The absence of John and Emily and their family on this list indicates they were either saloon, second of third-class travellers
The Chesswas Family History (2003) holds that John came out to New Zealand with his brother Thomas, despite the fact that Thomas had a wife and 7 children at home. The history records that Thomas "was a gambling man, squandered his inheritance and eventually returned to England."
And Thomas wasn’t the only Chesswas immigrant to have financial problems - Thomas and John were not the first of the family to emigrate to New Zealand. On April 29, 1855, John’s uncle James arrived at Port Nelson aboard The Spray. James was joined in New Zealand by his older brother John. James and his wife Hannah had two children in New Zealand; Mary Burgess Chesswas (1860) and James George Chesswas (Auckland, 1866). A search on PapersPast shows they owned land in Nelson, spent time in central Otago during the Gold Rush (James was appointed to the provisional committee for the prospecting of Shotover George in 1864), and on the West Coast, until the Daily Southern Cross has the family departing the Port of Auckland aboard the SS Hero on October 25, 1870. A PapersPast search also reveals that James regularly featured on the rates notices as owing the Nelson Board of Works rent in arrears!
It would seem fair to assume that stories of his uncles’ adventures served as inspiration to the young John Chesswas, and that he was well familiar with them. Indeed, the fact he was known as “Jack” rather than John may have been to save confusion with his uncle. The 1851 census reveals that the London home John grew up in was also home to aunts and uncles as well as his parents William and Anne and his many (10) siblings.
John completed a carpentry apprenticeship to William Woollett on July 2, 1882. But times were tough, and as Laraine Sole observes in The European settlement of the Waitotara Valley, John faced the unappealing prospect of a 4d – 4 1/2d per hour wage as a journeyman if he remained in England. More appealing to the 21-year old was emigration to a land of adventure and opportunity: New Zealand.
And so on November 8, 1884, John departed the shores of England with his brother Thomas, aboard The Arawa. The brand new Shaw, Savill & Albion steamer raced to New Zealand in just 45 days, in time for the passengers to celebrate their first Kiwi Christmas. It was long enough, though, for John to make enough of an impression on a young Emily Bignell and her family to see him employed by the Bignell firm and married to Emily within three years. One can imagine the exciting journey for Thomas and John aboard the Arawa - Thomas busy gambling and smoking cigars in the pool room, while our own Jack is busy impressing Emily and her family.
The Bignell family had already established a reputation as builders in the colony. Emily’s brother Henry Bignell (b1859), also a builder, arrived in Dunedin in 1874 aboard The Tweed. He settled in Oamaru and built the original Oamaru Railway Station. Two more brothers, Arthur Bignell (1861 – 1945) and Fred, emigrated to Dunedin in 1876 and there trained as builders. In 1884 Arthur and Fred returned to England to bring out their parents George and Emily as well as their sister Emily.
Upon arrival in New Zealand, John and Emily, with the rest of the Bignell family, joined Henry in Oamaru. Henry had secured a contract constructing bridges and buildings on the Midland Line from Christchurch to Greymouth. John must have impressed in his new job for the Bignells, for after the Midland Line job was finished John and Emily were married at St Lukes Church, Oamaru on November 11, 1887.
Henry Bignell then secured a contract for more bridge-building on the West Coast, and in late 1887 John and Emily moved with the Bignell firm to Greymouth. There they began to raise a family: Edgar was born in 1888, Walter in 1890 and Arthur in 1891. In 1891 the Bignell family enterprise split, and Arthur went into business with Robert Russell (b1863). John went with him, and in 1892 he and Emily moved with Russell & Bignell to Wanganui. There John worked with the firm on the old Wanganui Hospital, and Frank (1893), Herbert (1895) & Henry (1897) were born.
In 1898 John purchased 500 acres of land in the Waitotara Valley, Mahoe, a remote block 47 km inland from Waitotara and 80 km from Wanganui. The settlement, known as Ngamatapouri, was sufficiently established to afford a post office, 2 stores, a dray road to its upper reaches, and pastoral visits from an Anglican vicar. It was certainly a far cry from the booming urban centres of Greymouth and Wanganui. And while John’s brothers-in-law went on to become wealthy and popular leaders in their communities (Henry elected to Greymouth Borough Council in 1899; Arthur elected Mayor of Wanganu, 1904 – 1906), John was putting in the hard yards felling timber and raising 6 boys and a girl (Ellen, 1900) in a shanty of a house in the depths of the Eastern Taranaki hill country.
Part II to come: Taranaki hill country pioneers
