Colvile's Story, Part 3: Massacre at Te Ranga

In the previous instalment Major Colvile had been instructed to fortify a redoubt at Maketu. After some indeterminate skirmishes, detachments of the 43rd and 68th Regiments and the militia, assisted by the shelling of gunboats off the coast, had managed to drive the East Coast invaders southwards.


Burial Ground at Te Papa, Tauranga,
after the Battle of Gate Pa, April 1864 [29]
Meanwhile, back in Tauranga, General Cameron had his hands full with plans for the assault on Maori fortifications at Pukehinahina on the following day. The resulting debacle of the Battle of Gate Pa on 29th April with its horrific casualties, particularly among the elite 43rd Regiment who formed a significant part of the storming party, is covered in great detail elsewhere [30] and need not be repeated here since Colvile took no part in it. Probably as a direct result of this massive defeat at the hands of vastly inferior numbers, Cameron "abandoned aggressive operations," returning to Auckland with a substantial portion of the troops [17].


The Redoubt at Gate Pa, Pukehinahina, Tauranga, c.1864 [31]
At the same time, the detachment of the 43rd which had garrisoned the fort at Maketu returned to Tauranga, being replaced by two companies of the 68th Regiment under the command of Major J.H. Kirby, on the 20th and 25th May, Colvile departing on the latter date [32,33]. All of the companies of the 43rd Regiment were now encamped at Te Papa, although their numbers had been substantially depleted at Gate Pa. Redoubts were built on the site of the Battle of Gate Pa at Pukehinahina and at Judea, both manned by detachments of the 68th Regiment, and large scouting patrols continued to be mounted periodically, probing areas to the south and west [34]. At the beginning of June the government were speaking of the "cessation of hostilities" in Tauranga [17].

By mid-June, however, rumours of large numbers of Maori warriors massing in the hinterland, under the command of Wiremu Tamihana (aka William Thompson), for an attack on the soldiers at Te Papa caused Colonel Greer to cancel further withdrawals of troops to Auckland [35,36]. Probing patrols of several hundred British and Colonial Defence Force troops sent out daily, under the command of Colonel Greer, Captain Turner and Captain Pye, encountered large groups of several hundred Maori apparently transporting supplies at various locations. According to a report written on 21st June, "no shots were exchanged, as strict orders are said to have been issued that no firing should take place until first initiated by the natives."


(after Cowan, 1922) [30]
Then, on 21st June, Colonel Greer with a large patrol of 600 from the 43rd, 68th and 1st Waikatos stumbled across a estimated 600 of Rawiri Puhirake's men, and probably some women, digging a single line of rifle pits on a narrow neck of ground about 150 metres wide at Te Ranga, five kilometres south of Gate Pa [37]. Since Captain Turner had most likely reconnoitred this ground the previous day without noticing anything untoward [38], the Maori fortifications were clearly in their initial stages of preparation, and the surprised excavators therefore almost completely exposed. Lieutenant Robley, then with the 68th Regiment, described the scene thus:

The work then consisted of a single line of rifle-pits four or five feet deep by about two hundred yards long, extending from east to west across the most forward narrow neck of the ground occupied. Taken by surprise the digging party, among whom were several women, retired into their trenches and on some of the rebel outposts opening fire on our column, Colonel Greer decided to dislodge them before they could carry out any intention they may have had of constructing a formidable pa [39].

Storming the Rifle Pits at Te Ranga, June 21, 1864 [40]
Nevertheless Greer was cautious, sending back to Te Papa for reinforcements and, while waiting for them to arrive, deployed his soldiers and pinned down the defenders with "a sharp fire for about two hours." After a further 200 soldiers were close enough to provide support Greer's forces, according to his brief report written later that evening and a more elaborate one compiled almost a week later, "charged and carried the rifle pits in the most dashing manner, under tremendous fire, but which was for the most part too high. For a few minutes the Maories fought desperately, and then were utterly routed," Major Colvile "gallantly [leading] the left of the line of skirmishers into the rifle pits, being himself one of the first in." [37,41,42]

The romanticised image shown above, prepared for readers of the Illustrated London News, is unlikely to be a realistic representation of the battle, but does give an impression of the tiny area in which, according to Greer, some six hundred of the enemy were supposed to have been massed.


Action at Te Ranga, 21 June 1864 [43]
This painting by Henry Atcherley, who fought with the 1st Waikato Militia Regiment at Te Ranga [44], shows:
• a line of Maori in the middle ground, on the far side of the light-coloured area, furthest from the artist
• a long line of blue-jacketed skirmishers along the rise on the near side of the light-coloured area, with smoke issuing forth from a 6-pounder Armstrong gun at the left hand end of the line,
• the mounted 43rd and 68th detachments on the left,
• two groups of reserves in the left and right foreground (the latter partly hidden from the artist by a low hill)
• a small group of four in the middle, possibly officers, two of them mounted, and
• a group of artillerymen manning another Armstrong gun on the right.


Te Ranga Battle Site, 10 February 2011 [45]
Unfortunately, the presence of high orchard shelterbelts in this area precludes the taking of any decent comparative "now and then" style photographs. This south-westerly view taken from Joyce Road, about 100 metres east of its northern junction with Pyes Pa Road, and 230 metres from the original line of rifle pits, now marked with a memorial erected by the Historical Places Trust (see below). It shows the open grassland across which Colvile and his detachment would have attacked, the enemy being concentrated on the 150 metre wide "isthmus" in the centre middle ground.


Location of the rifle pits & Te Ranga memorial [46]


Bronze plaque on the Te Ranga memorial [47]
Greer sent Major Colvile with a strong patrol out to Te Ranga on the following morning to "bury the dead and fill in the rifle pits." In addition to the 68 killed in the initial attack, a further 39 bodies of those who had been slain in the follow up of the Maori retreat were collected, bringing to 107 the total "buried in the rifle pits which they had themselves dug the morning before." [42]


Memorial to Rawiri Puhiraki and Henare Taratoa,
Mission Cemetery, Tauranga [48]
In the 1874 the body of Rawiri Puhiraki, the leader of the Maori forces, and one of those discovered in the rifle pits after the battle, was exhumed and reburied in the Mission Cemetry at Te Papa, and a substantial red granite monument to both him and Henare later erected in 1914 [49].


43rd Regiment Memorial, Mission Cemetery, Tauranga [50,51]
Close by is the monument to those of the 43rd Regiment who fell at Gate Pa and Te Ranga. The total casualties among the British forces at Te Ranga were low, eight soldiers killed and 44 officers, NCOs and men wounded, of whom 3 died later. Roughly half of these were from the 43rd, and the names of those who died are commemorated on of the three plaques which adorn the obelisk.


Maori Arms taken at Te Ranga, 21 June 1864 [52]
Colonel Morant of the 68th Regiment stated:

More loot fell into the hands of the troops than is usual in these affairs, as I understand some soldiers found a good deal of money upon certain of the chiefs who were slain, as well as “maris” and greenstone ear ornaments.

Other writers are more explicit:

After the battle the Maori dead were looted. Rawiri Puhirake’s greenstone pendant was taken by a 68th man, who sold it to Major Colville. Also found at this position were heirlooms, tupara, flint guns, single and double-barreled percussion; long and short handled tomahawks; whale bone and geenstone mere, old bayonets made into spears, green-stone ear ornaments; long and short-handled spades, provisions in the shape of cakes, compressed fern root, pipis, maize, cooking utensils, mats, old clothing, blankets, kits and a host of other miscellaneous stock. An old haversack full of bank notes is said to have been picked up by a soldier while another found ten sovereigns. A letter to Hakaraia from Opotiki was found. Even Colonel Greer "got many things after Te Ranga." [53]

Cemetery at Te Papa with 43rd Regiment Memorial [54]
The 43rd Regiment, in particular, were keen to extract revenge for the "stain on [their] honour," according to Von Tempsky. In addition, it appears that various aspects of the battle, such as the strength of the enemy and the number of the Maori casualties, may have been inflated in order to render the victory more decisive and significant, and thus ameliorating the shock of the Gate Pa defeat [17].


Officers of the 68th (Durham) Light Infantry, Tauranga [55]
The 43rd Regiment under Lieut.-Colonel Synge and the 68th under Major Shuttleworth, remained at Te Papa long enough to become bored with camp life [56], and to be present at the signing of the peace agreement between Ngaiterangi and the Crown in early August [57]. By the 7th September, however, Colvile and the 43rd had been shipped back to Auckland in preparation for a move to the Taranaki theatre of war in November [58].

Continued in Part 4: Wounded at Warea

References

[17] Belich, James (1988) The New Zealand Wars and the Victorian Interpretation of Racial Conflict, Auckland: Penguin Books, 396p.

[29] Burial Ground at Te Papa, Tauranga, after the Battle of Gate Pa, April 1864, Pencil and watercolour (242 x 372mm) by H.A. Scrivener, Alexander Turnbull Library ID: B-064-024, Courtesy of Timeframes.

[30] Cowan, James (1922, 1955) The New Zealand Wars: A History of the Maori Campaigns and the Pioneering Periods: Volume I (1845-1864), Wellington: R.E. Owen, Courtesy of the New Zealand Electronic Text Centre, Victoria University of Wellington.

[31] Soldiers and the Redoubt at Gate Pa, Pukehinahina, Tauranga, c.1864, Undated photographic print, possibly by John Kinder, Alexander Turnbull Library ID: PA1-f-046-13-3, Courtesy of Timeframes.

[32] Anon (1864) Maketu (From our own correspondent), Auckland: Daily Southern Cross, Vol XX, Issue 2153, 14 June 1864, Courtesy of Papers Past, National Library of New Zealand.

[33] Matheson, Alister (2005) Fort Colvile: Pukemaire Redoubt - from Emily Kirby's Letters, 1864-66, Historical Review, Vol. 53, Issue 2, p.68-71, Tauranga Historical Society.

[34] Anon (1864) Tauranga (from our own Correspondent), Auckland: Daily Southern Cross, Vol XX, Issue 2147, p.3, 7 June 1864, Courtesy of Papers Past, National Library of New Zealand.

[35] Anon (1864) Tauranga (from a Correspondent), Auckland: Daily Southern Cross, Vol XX, Issue 2152, 13 June 1864, Courtesy of Papers Past, National Library of New Zealand.

[36] Anon (1864) Tauranga (from our own Correspondent), June 15, Auckland: Daily Southern Cross, Vol XX, Issue 2156, p.4, 17 June 1864, Courtesy of Papers Past, National Library of New Zealand.

[37] Greer, H.H., Col. (1864) The New Zealand War. Letter to War Office. 21 June 1864, London: Daily News, 17 September 1864, 19th Century British Library Newspapers, Courtesy of Gale CENGAGE.

[38] Gudgeon, T.W. (1887) The Defenders of New Zealand, being a Short Biography of Colonists who Distinguished Themselves in Upholding Her Majesty's Supremacy in These Islands, Auckland: H. Brett, Early New Zealand Books, The University of Auckland.

[39] Fildes, H.E.M. (1985) Extracts from "Major General H. Gordon Robley: Soldier and Artist," Courtesy of the New Zealand Electronic Text Centre, Victoria University of Wellington.

[40] The war in New Zealand - storming the rifle pits at Te Ranga, June 21 1864, Wood engraving, tinted, 288 x 420 mm, by Nicholas Chevalier, Alexander Turnbull Library ID: PUBL-0060, Courtesy of Timeframes.

[41] Anon (1864) Four Officers Wounded (from our own Correspondent), Auckland: Daily Southern Cross, Vol XX, Issue 2161, 23 June 1864, Courtesy of Papers Past, National Library of New Zealand.

[42] Greer, H.H., Col. (1864) The New Zealand War. Letter to War Office. 27 June 1864, London: Daily News, 17 September 1864, 19th Century British Library Newspapers, Courtesy of Gale CENGAGE.

[43] Action at Te Ranga, 21 June 1864, Watercolour (156 x 426mm) by H.M.L. Atcherley, Australian War Memorial ID. ART19817.

[44] Platts, Una (1980) Nineteenth Century New Zealand Artists: A Guide & Handbook, Christchurch: Avon Fine Prints, New Zealand Electronic Text Centre, Victoria University of Wellington.

[45] Digital photograph of Te Ranga Battle Site, Joyce/Pyes Pa Roads, Tauranga, taken by Camilla Payne with Panasonic DMC-FZ40, 10 February 2011.

[46] Digital photograph of the location of rifle pits & Te Ranga Memorial, Pyes Pa Road, Tauranga, taken by Brett Payne with Kodak DX7590, 2 December 2010.

[47] Digital photograph of the bronze plaque on the Te Ranga Memorial, Pyes Pa Road, Tauranga, taken by Brett Payne with Kodak DX7590, 2 December 2010.

[48] Digital photograph of the memorial to Rawiri Puhiraki and Henare Taratoa, Mission Cemetery, Tauranga, taken by Brett Payne with Kodak DX7590, 30 November 2010.

[49] Rorke, Jinty (2010) Rawiri Puhirake, Te Ara/Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, Ministry of Culture and Heritage.

[50] Digital photograph of the memorial to soldiers of the 43rd Regiment who were killed or died of wounds received at the Battles of Gate Pa and Te Ranga, Mission Cemetery, Tauranga, taken by Brett Payne with Kodak DX7590, 30 November 2010.

[51] Digital photograph of detail of the plaque on the 43rd Regiment Memorial, Mission Cemetery, Tauranga, taken by Brett Payne with Kodak DX7590, 30 November 2010.

[52] Maori Arms taken at Te Ranga, 21 June 1864, Watercolour (174 x 123mm) by H.G. Robley, Museum of New Zealand/Te Papa Tongarewa Regn. No. 1992-0035-2354.

[53] Battle of Te Ranga, on New Zealand Land Wars, by Bryce Brown Art.

[54] Photograph of the cemetery, Te Papa, Tauranga, c.1864, Albumen print (154 x 225mm) mounted on detached album leaf, by John Kinder, Alexander Turnbull Library ID: PAColl-7806-3, Courtesy of Timeframes.

[55] Photograph of Officers of the 68th (Durham) Light Infantry outside their Mess Hut, Tauranga, c.1864, Albumen print (152 x 215mm) mounted on detached album leaf, by unidentified photographer, Alexander Turnbull Library ID: PAColl-7806-2-2, Courtesy of Timeframes.

[56] Anon (1864) Tauranga District Confiscated. August 9, Auckland: Daily Southern Cross, Vol XX, Issue 2219, p.5, 31 August 1864, Courtesy of Papers Past, National Library of New Zealand.

[57] Anon (1864) Tauranga. The Peace Conference - Reply of His Excellency the Governor. August 6, Auckland: Daily Southern Cross, Vol XX, Issue 2201, p.5, 10 August 1864, Courtesy of Papers Past, National Library of New Zealand.

[58] Anon (1864) Port of Auckland. Miscellaneous, Auckland: Daily Southern Cross, Vol XX, Issue 2225, p.4, 7 September 1864, Courtesy of Papers Past, National Library of New Zealand.

Jabez Brown (1843-1921) Railway clerk of Litchurch, Derby

Each Saturday night the indefatigable Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings posts an article inviting fellow Geneabloggers to join him in some fun, usually a little exercise on the lighter side of family history. This informal but regular event is a popular one in the geneablogging community but, for one reason or another, I haven't yet got around to participating. This weekend's challenge is what Randy calls "Ahntenafel Roulette," and I thought I'd get in on the act for the first time, albeit a few days late. So here goes.

The assignment is as follows:
(1) Divide the age of your father (or the age that your father would be if he were alive today) by four, and round the result off to the nearest year,
(2) consult your Ahtenafel using your favourite genealogy software to find the ancestor whose number corresponds to the answer arrived at in (1), and
(3) write three things about this ancestor in a blog article.


Five-generation Ancestor Chart for C.D.B. Payne
with Ancestor number 20 (Jabez Brown) highlighted
My dad would have been eighty-one this year, which produces a rounded integer of 20. Because of the regular and reproducible manner in which the Ahtenafel system works, number 20 is the paternal grandfather of one's paternal grandmother, one of eight possible great-great-grandfathers. In my case his name was Jabez Brown and he has been one of the more elusive of my Victorian ancestors.


Jabez Brown (1843-1921) of Rosehill, Derby
Undated paper print (109 x 159 mm) by unidentified photographer
Image © and collection of Charles Bernard Payne
My aunt Bunnie believes that the subject of this photograph is our ancestor Jabez Brown. The reverse of the undated print is annotated:

Mother died Aug/14
Father died 14 Feby/21

I have recently established from the acquisition of their death certificates that Jabez Brown died on 14 February 1921 and his wife Annie died on 18 August 1914. The implication is that Jabez and Annie's son Frederick Montague Brown (1870-1960) - my great-grandfather - wrote the inscription referring to his parents, and it therefore seems very likely that the subject of the photograph was Fred's father. This rather battered paper print is the only known surviving portrait that we have of Jabez and, sadly, we have none of his wife at all.


What I knew about Jabez, c.1999
Ten years ago I would have struggled to find three solid facts concerning Jabez Brown about which I could write authoritatively. My original information came from my father, who as a "steam age," pre-computer/internet family historian had created a card index system to document and rationalize the family history. Some of his material about the Brown family had originated with his cousin Gillian through correspondence in the 1990s. All we knew about Jabez was his name, that he worked for the railways, and a possible death date. As he died some years before my father was born, my dad had no first hand knowledge of him, and didn't recall his mother speaking much about her grandfather either.


Jabez Brown and family, 14 Rose Hill St, Litchurch, Derbyshire
1881 Census-As Enumerated Microfiche: NA Ref. RG11-3402-14-21
Image © and courtesy of the LDS Church
Those of you who have been researching for over a decade or so may recall the microfiche version of the 1881 Census (produced by the Federation of Family History Societies in conjunction with the Genealogical Society of Utah). A kind fellow genealogist found Jabez and family and extracted the information for me that he was born in Dent (Yorkshire) around 1843, that he was married to Annie, with whom he had four children, that they were living at 14 Rose Hill Street, Litchurch (near Derby) and he was working as a railway clerk. And that was about it. From the birth places of their children I deduced that they had previously lived in Nottingham and Lincoln. I wondered if he had moved around while working for the railways, as Lincoln and Nottingham were both main line stations of the company Midland Railway, which had its headquarters in Derby. However, I had no real evidence to work with.


Jabez & Annie Brown, 50 Sale St, Derby, Derbyshire
1901 Census NA Ref. RG13-3219-134-19-125
Image © The National Archives and courtesy of Ancestry.co.uk
Ten years later and things have changed considerably, mostly courtesy of the internet and the improved means of genealogical research that it has enabled. I now have images of the original census sheets for the census every decade from 1851, when Jabez was still living with his parents, until 1901 - see image above - by which time his own children had all left home.


Certified copy of marriage certificate for
Jabez Brown & Annie Hazard, 8 October 1865,
St Peter-at-Arches, Lincoln
Image © and courtesy of the General Register Office
I also have Jabez Brown's birth, marriage and death certificates, all obtained from the General Register Office using their certificate ordering service and reference numbers from FreeBMD. The census and BMD information alone has provided an excellent framework of dates and locations on which to hang the story of his life. I would find it very difficult to restrict myself to only three things that I now know about him, so I won't bother to hold back in sharing the picture that I've built up about Jabez and his family.


Dent village & St Andrew's church, Cumbria
Image © Steven Watson and courtesy of his Flickr photostream
Jabez Brown was born in the small and picturesque village of Dent, situated in the West Yorkshire dales, on Tuesday 18 April 1843. He was the youngest of ten children of a sawyer William Brown (1795-1867) and his wife Dorothy née Parrington (1797-1858). By the time of his birth his two oldest brothers had already married and left home, although they were still living nearby in the village. Then, in the late 1840s, the entire Brown family moved, lock, stock and barrel to the town of Lancaster. I don't know why they moved, but I can surmise that it was for economic reasons - most internal migrations in mid-Victorian England were towards better employment prospects. Presumably the town of Lancaster was booming and needed plenty of sawn timber, and a skilled sawyer was no doubt in more demand than in a small Yorkshire village.


View Brown family migration in a larger map
Click on the yellow buildings for details of their movements
By 1861 Jabez (aged 17) and his older sister Margaret were living with their widowed father at 3 Upper Robert Street in Lancaster. Jabez is shown in the census working as a railway clerk, and it is presumed that he was employed by Midland Railways which, according to contemporary trade directories, served this Lancashire town.


Silk map of Midland Railway Network, undated
Lancaster, Lincoln, Nottingham & Derby highlighted
Image © and courtesy of The Roy F Burrows Midlands Collection Trust
Some time during the next four years Jabez moved to Lincoln (Lincolnshire), which was also on the Midland Railways network. He married Annie Hazard (1835-1914) at St Peter-at-Arches, Lincoln in October 1865; the marriage certificate shows his occupation mnerely as "clerk" and states that he was living at 15 Park Street. Their first son George was born at Lincoln in January 1867, but between then and 1870 they moved to Nottingham.


Ryehill Cottages, Kirke White Street East, Exchange, Nottingham, June 1973
Image © Reg Baker and courtesy of Picture the Past
Image Ref. NTGM009920
They lived at number 18 Rye Hill Cottages, in a close on the south side of Kirke White Street, Exchange Ward, and that is where Annie gave birth to twin boys named Christopher Dickenson and Frederick Montague Brown (my great-grandfather) on 17 April 1870. The actual building where they lived was probably one of the Victorian terraced houses shown in the photograph above, taken a century later, just before they were demolished under a 1970s clearance scheme. It was located in the former King's Meadow area, not far from Nottingham's Midland Railway station. The census of a year later shows Jabez again working as a railway clerk. A daughter Maggie and another son John Henry were born in 1872 and 1875, but sadly the elder of the twins Christopher died in late 1872, aged two-and-a-half.


Junction of Rose Hill & Madeley Streets, Litchurch, Derby, c. 1980
Image © John S. Grant and courtesy of Picture the Past
Image Ref. DRBY002084
Some time in the twelve months prior to November 1880, the Brown family moved to Derby and into a house at 14 Rose Hill Street, Litchurch. Jabez again described himself to the 1881 Census enumerator as a railway clerk.


The former Brown residence, 50 Sale Street, Litchurch, Derby
Image © and courtesy of GoogleMaps
Click on image for interactive Streetview version
In June 1887 Jabez Brown stood unsuccessfully for election for the post of Relieving Officer with the Derby Board of Guardians (The Derby Mercury, 22 Jun 1887). The Derby Borough Electoral Registers show them living at the Rose Hill Street address until October 1887, after which they moved to 50 Sale Street, also in the suburb of Litchurch and only a few blocks away. By census night of 5 April 1891 all three sons - George (23), Fred (20) and John (15) - had become railway clerks too! This was the last census that would find all of the family together in one house. George married a year later and moved to Station Road, Borrowash (just east of Derby). Fred married my great grandmother Edith Newman Miller at Mugginton in 1894; they settled first at 18 St Giles Road, Pear Tree, Derby, and in the early 1900s at 121 Crewe Street, Normanton. John became a commercial traveller and moved to Nottingham, where he married prior to 1901. It is not known what happened to daughter Maggie Brown.


Derby Union Workhouse, Uttoxeter New Road, Derby, c.1908
Postcard by Frank W. Scarratt
Image © and courtesy of Picture the Past
Image Ref. DRBY001173
Annie Brown died at 60 Holcombe Street, Litchurch on 18 August 1914. Jabez's death certificate shows that he died on 14 February 1921 at Boundary House, Derby. Boundary House was the former Derby Workhouse in Uttoxeter Road. After 1948 it was known as the Manor Hospital, and it was where my grandfather died in 1975 too. I can remember my father telling me that it still had all the old connotations of being the former workhouse, and my grandfather had a dread of going in there when he got sick.

Instead of restricting myself to three things that I know concerning my great-great-grandfather Jabez, I'm going to list three things that I still want to find out about him. The first of these concerns some Crimean War medals that my father recalled seeing in the Brown family household when he was a boy - that is, the family of his maternal grandparents Fred & Edith Brown - together with clasps for several of the battles. He didn't know who had earned them, but presumed it was a member of the Brown family. Sadly, nobody seems to know what has happened to them. The Crimean War took place between 1853 and 1856, when Jabez was aged 10 to 13, and it seems rather unlikely that he was the one, unless he was perhaps a drummer boy, but who else in that branch of the family could it have been? What happened to the medals, and who earned them? I hope to answer that question one day.


Nottingham Road Cemetery, Derby
Image © Daniel Richardson and courtesy of Geograph.co.uk
Licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence
The next thing I'd like to know is where Jabez and Annie Brown are buried. The location seems likely to have been the Nottingham Road Cemetery in Derby, about which I have written previously, since several other of my Derby family were buried there during that time frame. Created in 1855, it was the first municipal cemetery in Derby and is still used to this day. The cemetery registers are kept on site, but sadly they don't appear to have either an online presence or an email address. Perhaps they are wary of the flood of enquiries such a move might precipitate.

Lastly, I'd like to able to confirm that Jabez Brown's employer from the early days in Lancaster until his retirement was indeed, as I have always assumed, Midland Railways. An article in The Derby Mercury in June 1887 stated that he had "been a collector on the Midland Railway for 25 years," giving a start date of around 1865, when he would have been about 22 years old. However the 1861 Census, taken four years earlier, also showed him working as a railway clerk. In January this year, my cousin Lynne Tedder from Alberta sent me some photocopied Midland Railway staff records dating from 1881 to 1906 for George William Brown which she had very kindly obtained on a visit to the National Archives at Kew, London. However, she could find nothing for William's father Jabez or William's brothers.

References

Midland Railway Staff Records for George William Brown, 12 Feb 1881 to 14 Mar 1906, National Archives, Kew, London, NA Ref. RAIL 491/1068, Courtesy of Lynne Tedder

Derby Borough Electoral Registers 1877-1900. Derbyshire County Record Office, Matlock, Derbyshire, England. Accessed on microfilms from the LDS Church Tauranga Family History Centre

1881 Census-As Enumerated Microfiche from the LDS Church Courtesy of Alan S. Flint

General Register Office (GRO) Index to Births, Marriages & Deaths from FreeBMD

UK Census 1841-1901 Indexed images from Ancestry.co.uk

19th Century British Library Newspapers from Gale CENGAGE Learning
- The Derby Mercury

Slater (1869) Royal National Commercial Directory of Cumberland, Lancashire and Westmoreland from Ancestry.co.uk

The Workhouse web site, & the Osmaston Road Workhouse, Derby, Derbyshire

Seddon, Peter (2007) Nottingham Road Cemetery - Derbeians at Rest. Bygone Derbyshire.