Class: steerage
for details on family history see: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~sooty/HOPTONFrame1Source1.htm
The HOPTON family came to New Zealand under the Colonial Emigration Scheme of the New Zealand Company. Free passage and land was offered to all manner of trades including cabinet maker, which was Robert?s trade. It is not known why the HOPTON?s left Cheltenham for New Zealand but possibly a depression in the trade was affecting their work prospects. Robert?s father Shadrach HOPTON, committed suicide in 1843 and it was discovered that he was very depressed about his cabinet making company.
On the 8th January 1841, the HOPTON family, comprising Robert (aged 31), Charlotte (aged 29) and their five children Mary Emma (9), Eliza Lavinia (7), Sarah Augusta (5), Robert William (2) and baby Susan Mary Jane left Gravesend, near London, for Port Nicholson (Wellington).
They came on the LORD WILLIAM BENTINCK, which arrived at Port Nicholson on the 24th May 1841. There were 39 married couples, 24 single men, 15 single women, 51 children under 14 and 52 under 7 on board. Five births and nine deaths had occurred during the voyage.
The HOPTON family stayed in Wellington, and Jury Lists show Robert living at Ghuznee St, Willis St, Te Aro and later in Molesworth Street. Around 1853 the family moved to the Hutt Valley.
The HOPTONs had a sad beginning to their life in New Zealand ? shortly after arrival, their son Robert died, and then in 1843 the baby Susan died, both of decline. The eldest daughter Mary Emma married Mr Francis EYARE, a stonemason, at the home of Mr John CLEMENT, Thorndon in 1854. However, this was to be short lived as she died in her residence on The Terrace, Wellington 3 months later. The next month, Robert was killed by a fracture to the skull, at his residence at the River Hutt.
Charlotte HOPTON remarried shortly after. She married a widower, William THOMAS, on the 8th April 1855 at the residence of Mr James TAVNER, Lower Hutt. They lived in Taita, where William was a carpenter. Charlotte had a stepson, Michael THOMAS, who called one of his sons Robert Hopton THOMAS. Both Michael and Robert are buried in the Greytown Cemetery. Charlotte died on the 5th November 1875 at Taita. Charlotte?s brother Stephen FAGAN, and their mother, also came to New Zealand.
Robert and Charlotte?s second daughter, Eliza Lavinia married Almon BOULCOTT, son of John Ellerker BOULCOTT, a director of the New Zealand Company. Almon and his brother Joseph arrived in Wellington in 1841 and took up farming on land owned by their father in the Hutt. The area is still known as Boulcott, and was the site of the ?Battle of Boulcott?s Farm? in 1846.
The third daughter, Sarah Augusta HOPTON, later became Mrs John CLEMENT .
For more on the Hopton family see - HOPTON FAMILY HISTORY. Thanks to Patrick Hopton for this. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~sooty/patrickhopton.htm site not functioning 12/7/2013. Robert Hopton had person sources.
3 He was a Cabinet Maker, carpenter in 1841.
4 He immigrated to ENG to NZ on the Lord William Bentinck arriving NZ 19/5/1841 on 5 January 1841.
4