Thomas Bell (1839 - 1929)

Born 12 Nov 1839 in Leeds, Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom

Husband of Frederica Harriet (Patch) Bell — married about 1866 in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand [uncertain]

Died 27 Oct 1929 at age 89 in Pahiatua, Manawatu-Wanganui, New Zealand

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Nicola Sherrock [send private message]

Biography

Thomas Bell was baptised 9 Jun 1840 in Pontefract, York, England to Henry John Bell (a chemist) and Naomi Bell.^[1]

Thomas left Yorkshire at the age of 16 in 1854 and emigrated to New Zealand. He found his first job on an Otago sheep farm before working his way up the country to Napier. Within a few years he had persuaded his mother to join him, and in 1863 Bell bought his first piece of land in Nuhaka, planning to grow flax.^[2]

Thomas Bell met his wife Frederica while in New Zealand and married her in Hawke's Bay in 1866. They had six NZ-born children, Henrietta (Hettie), Bessie, Mary, Tom, Henry (Harry) and John White Te Waru (Jack). He moved his family around the North Island trying one not-quite-successful pursuit after another. He tried his hand at starting a flax mill, running hotels and a county store in Poverty Bay during the Maori Wars, and also farming near Whakatane. The family ended up in Samoa in 1877 where they bought a hotel.^[3]

While here, Thomas met a former settler on Sunday Island who told of a deserted island full of bounties, of which he jokes Bell could become King.

1878, 9 Dec: Thomas Bell, wife Frederica and his family of 6 children settled on Sunday Island. Hettie, the eldest, was 11; Bessie was 9. From Bessie's memoirs the book Crusoes of Sunday Island was written. Mary was 7; Tom, 5; Harry, 3; and Jack, just a baby. In the following years Thomas had four more children - Raoul Sunday (known as Roy) in 1882, Frederica in 1884, Ada May Sunday in 1886 and William Herbert Sunday (known as ‘King’) in 1889.^[4] They were dropped off by Capt McKenzie on the schooner Norval. McKenzie had sold them provisions, but they soon discovered they were rotten, and saw neither Captain nor ship again. They first settled in Denham Bay, in raupo huts, but later moved to the more hospitable northern side (Bell's Beach), first on the low flats and later the high flats where they planted twelve Norfolk pines, which still stand today. Survival was for many years touch and go. Yankee whalers like the Canton (Capt Sherman) and California (George Brightman), visited and traded supplies for food. Parkins Christian, descendant from Fletcher Christian the mutineer of the Bounty, was a famous visiting whaler.

1883: Thomas Bell brought from Auckland several hundred sheep, and some cattle. In 1885 700 more. The sheep were of the long-woolled variety and not very successful in the warmth of the subtropics while feeding on the rough grass which was planted here to survive salt spray.

1887 Aug 16: The NZ Government steamer Stella (Captain Fairchild) landed a party of Government officials, officers and crew on North Beach with the purpose of annexing the island to NZ. A flagpole was erected on Fleetwood Bluff and the British flag hoisted. They also landed at Denham Bay, Curtis Island and Macauley. Bell is notified by the NZ Government representative that he is now a tenant at will on Government land.^[5]

1889: The NZ Government threw Sunday Island open for settlement and divided it into three blocks of about 1000 acres (250Ha) each. Bell got freehold of lot 9, the one facing north and 275 acres of land that is scrub. The other lots were leased by new settlers, 20 men, women and children. All had left bar one a year later. They tore down Bell's woolshed and wool bales to make huts, and were not good at cultivating the land. By this time, the Bell family had cows, pigs, sheep, poultry and turkeys; oranges, lemons, cooking bananas, taro root, yams, kumara, tea, coffee, tobacco, pawpaw, custard apples, figs, grapes, passion fruit, guavas, candle nuts, peaches and more. A watercolour of Bell's garden can be found at the Te Ara website. They had the benefit of education from an old schoolmaster, John Avent, since 1885. Bell claimed ownership of the whole island and lobbied unsuccessfully to that end until his death. One by one the grown-up children drifted back to civilisation. Hettie and Mary left with the first of the failed settlers. When the last families departed two years later, Bess Bell and her young brother Thomas also left the island, hoping to find a better life in New Zealand.^[6] Some eventually emigrated to Australia and Canada.

1910 March 30: a violent tropical cyclone with heavy rains destroys much of Bell's property and produce.

1911 April 6: the Government steamer Tutanekai takes the Bell family off the island. Thomas and Frederica return with the four youngest, but finally leave for good in the beginning of 1914.

1929, Oct 29: Thomas Bell died in Pahiatua at the age of 90. Frederica Bell died in Auckland in 1933.

Sources

1. ↑ Ancestry.com. England, Select Births and Christenings, 1538-1975 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014. Orig data: England, Births and Christenings, 1538-1975. Salt Lake City, Utah: FamilySearch, 2013. FHL Film Number: 1542096 - https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?viewrecord=1&r=an&db=FS1EnglandBirthsandChristenings&indiv=try&h=138152834
2. ↑ A real Swiss Family Robinson? History Extra [website] 10 Aug 2018 - https://www.historyextra.com/period/victorian/a-real-swiss-family-robinson-crusoe-castaways-thomas-bell-family-raoul/ - accessed 11 Feb 2019
3. ↑ Incredible photos the Bell family of Raoul island, the Kiwi Robinson Crusoe [NZ Herald Online] 2 Aug 2018 - https://www.nzherald.co.nz/travel/news/article.cfm?c_id=7&objectid=12099687 - accessed 11 Feb 2019
4. ↑ The incredible story of the Yorkshireman who moved his family to an uninhabited volcanic island in the Pacific in the 19th century - and lived there for over 30 YEARS in isolation [Daily Mail Online] 3 Aug 2018 - https://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-6011397/Thomas-Bell-Yorkshireman-moved-family-volcanic-island-Pacific.html?ito=email_share_article-bottom - accessed 11 Feb 2019
5. ↑ THE BELL ROMANCE. STORY OF SUNDAY ISLAND. SOJOURN OF 35 YEARS. A PIONEER OF THE PACIFIC. Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 13426, 7 July 1914 [PapersPast] - https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/PBH19140707.2.86
6. ↑ Gabites, Bruce. ISLAND OF DREAMS. New Zealand Geographic [website] - https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/island-of-dreams/ accessed 12 Feb 2019

• NZ BDM Death Registration: 1929/10904 Bell, Thomas 90Y

• Timeline abridged from Kermadec Islands - history [website], by Dr J Floor Anthoni, 2002 (accessed 11 Feb 2019) - www.seafriends.org.nz/issues/res/kermadec/kermhist.htm

• New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13379, 7 January 1907 [PapersPast] - https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZH19070107.2.76

• LIFE ON SUNDAY ISLAND. Otago Daily Times, Issue 19924, 19 October 1926 [PapersPast] - https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ODT19261019.2.69

• SUNDAY ISLAND SOIL. New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20427, 2 December 1929 [PapersPast] - https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZH19291202.2.15

• Ancestry.com. New Zealand, Cemetery Records, 1800-2007 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014. Orig data: New Zealand Cemetery Records. New Zealand Society of Genealogists Incorporated - https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=60547&h=937526&tid=&pid=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=ubV216&_phstart=successSource