Amy Bell (1867)

Born 1 Mar 1867 in Selby, Yorkshire, England

Ancestors

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Biography

Birth

Christening:

Date: 01 MAR 1867

Place: Selby, Yorkshire, England

Census 1871

Selby, Yorkshire (West Riding), England ^[1]

Amy Bell Daughter 4 Selby, Yorkshire ^[1]

Annie Bell Daughter 2 Selby, Yorkshire ^[1]

Charlotte Bell Daughter 0 Selby, Yorkshire ^[1]

Mary Blythe Servant 14 Selby, Yorkshire ^[1]

Marriage

AMY BELLFemale

Spouse: WALTER HENRY PATTERSON

Marriage: 09 SEP 1886 Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand

WHAT PAUL GITTINS DIDN'T TELL YOU ON TELEVISION

http://library.christchurch.org.nz/Bookmark/2000/June/nzc.asp

On 28 April 1881 the favourite Union Steam Ship Company vesselTararua, wi th 111 passengers, a crew of 40 and a cargo including livegeese and pig s, left Port Chalmers for Melbourne. 'The night was darkbut clear overhea d; a haze hung over the land, the loom of whichcould be seen, but no dist inguishing features could be discerned'. Atfive next morning the ship str uck a reef at Waipapa Point at theentrance to Foveaux Strait A numb er of people drowned while trying toreach land and, with heavy seas break ing up the stricken craft, thoseon board climbed into the rigging. At 2.3 0am on 30 April there wereloud screams, a great crash and then silenc e. So numerous were thebodies which floated ashore that a special cemete ry � the TararuaAcre � was established behind the sandhills at Otara, alm ost oppositethe site of the wreck.

Although some passengers had reached shore and raised the alarm, thereli ef ship Hawea arrived too late and could do little but pick upand dry t he mailbags which had spilled into the sea. Some Tararuacorrespondence y et survives, for example, a letter from AMY BELL ofWellington to her swee theart, WALTER HENRY PATERSON, an officer onthe Coptic. The water-stain ed envelope is marked 'Salvaged from s.s.Tararua.

On his TV1 programme 'Shipwreck', Paul Gittins has described thecountry 's largest peace-time shipping tragedy in which 131 of thecomplement of 1 51 lost their lives. In presenting a stark outline,Gittins had no ti me to describe the Canterbury personalities whodied. These included Col in Campbell, a physician; Elterton Mitchell,who had retired in 1880, aft er giving 'long, continued andconscientious service' as headmast er of St Albans School; and JamesAshworth. An illiterate working man of ' Harleston', North Canterbury,Ashworth had, before the establishment of t he railway system, workedin harsh conditions cutting tracks to and provis ioning isolated runs.The Wesleyan church took a heavy blow, three ministe rs and two layrepresentatives to an Australian conference dying; two mini sters,John Armitage and J B Richardson, were from Canterbury.

The captain, Francis George Garrard, 29, was an outstanding officerand st ern abstainer; after a Canadian shipwreck, he had saved hisdrink-befuddl ed companions by walking through frozen wastes to gethelp. His fiancee li ved in Melbourne and it was planned that thecouple should marry when t he ship reached port. Francis' Christchurchfamily included a sister, Sar ah Ann Kinsey. Her husband, Joseph, hadbeen Francis' classmate at Greenwi ch's Royal Navy School, was solebeneficiary under the terms of his wil l, would become a shippingmagnate, be attorney for one of Shackleton's a nd both of Scott'sAntarctic expeditions, receive a knighthood and give h is name toKinsey's Terrace, Sumner. There was also a brother, William Gar rard,a gunsmith, who purchased a plot in the Anglican section of the Barbadoes Street Cemetery. The body of the 'dashing', 'gallant' captainwas in terred there on 21 May 1881. The funeral 'was of a privatenature, only re latives and friends of the deceased being present'.Garrard's graveston e, with its impressive anchor-shaped stone, stillstands.

A Court of Inquiry determined that fault lay with Captain Garrard. Heh ad not known whether he was at a safe distance out to sea but couldeasi ly have gauged this by dropping over the side a heavy lead ballon the e nd of a rope. Culpability also rested with a seaman, Weston,who fail ed to keep a proper lookout and note broken water, a suresign of the vess el's proximity to land.

When setting disaster assignments, teachers have studiously neglectedt he Tararua; perhaps there will now be change.

Richard L N Greenaway, Genealogy Librarian

Sources

Ashworth, J (Junior), Papers, Christchurch City Libraries

Barbadoes Street Cemetery, Christchurch: records, Canterbury PublicLibrar y

Callan, Louise, Shipwreck, 2000

Garrard, Francis: will, National Archives, Christchurch

Ingram, C. W. N., New Zealand shipwrecks, 1990

McIntosh, Joan, Wreck of the Tararua, 1970

Scholefield, G. H., 'Joseph Kinsey', Dictionary of New Zealandbiograph y, 1940

Starky, Suzanne, 'James Ashworth', Dictionary of New Zealandbiography, Vo l. 1, 1990

Star, 30 April, 2, 3 & 21 May 1881

Letter to her brother John in the Colonies

Selby

May 19th /80

I expect you will all the news twice over at least. You would be verymu ch surprised to hear of Dr Gray�s death. He died in London, he wason h is way home from Jersey. The same morning that he died, theservants g ot a letter to say that he was much better & was cominghome shortly. Ever yone felt sorry for him, he was so much liked. Hewas buried in Scotland l ast Saturday.

I have not much time to write a long letter now as I have to go to thea rt class at six & it is nearly that time now. I am getting on prettywe ll with music but I don�t care much about drawing. Willie begins tofe el he is a man now and strokes the whiskers he has got very often,of cour se they are not very long yet, indeed you can scarcely seethem.

I think there is no more to say at present so I must conclude withbest wi shes to you & Mr Waite and Rayson.

Your loving sister

Amy Bell

P.S. You must excuse all the ink blots because I spilt all the ink outt he bottle onto the writing paper & other things.

AB

Sources

• This person was created through the import of gt tree 2010-10-25.ged on 08 November 2010.

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4} "England and Wales Census, 1871", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KZL5-XKP : 11 December 2017), Annie Bell in entry for Amy Bell, 1871. Baxter-5479 7 November 2018