James Gee was born about 1822 in Kilkenny, IRL, died aged 63.
1 He and
Peggy (Margaret) McKENZIE were married on 8 January 1844 in Wellington, NZ.
1 He died on 15 September 1885, at age ~63, in Renwick, Marlborough, NZ.
1 Margaret McKenzie married James Gee on 8 January 1844. In the marriage registration James Gee described himself as ?formerly boot and shoemaker?, but was at the time a member of the Grenadier Company of the 96th Regiment of Foot. He was born in Kilkenny, Ireland, and joined the regiment in 1839, being posted to Australia then, by 1845, to Port Nicholson. The Regiment was sent to Tasmania, where James Gee was discharged in 1847, returned to Wellington, and settled in Kaiwarra as a shoemaker. By 1855 the family had moved to the Wairau district of Marlborough, but in 1863 James enlisted in the 3rd Waikato Regiment which engaged in action against Maori forces. In 1865 he was discharged and the family settled in Renwick in Marlborough, where Margaret practised as a midwife.
James Gee died on 15 September 1885, aged 63. The Marlborough Express of 17 September 1885 published the following obituary:
An Old Colonist.? In the late Mr James Gee, who died at Renwick on Tuesday, aged 63, the colony loses one of its early settlers. He was the second son of the late Sergeant Major George Gee, of the Kilkenny Staff, Ireland. He arrived in the Colony in 1841 with the Grenadier Company of the 96th Regiment of Foot (chief officers, Major Richmond and Captain Eyton), to assist in preventing the Maori outrages taking place at that time at the Hutt. He served through the first and second Maori campaigns. Mr Gee leaves a wife and three children ? two sons and a daughter ? to mourn their loss. He had been a resident in Renwick for a number of years, and was greatly respected by all that knew him.
Following James? death the family moved to Wellington, and Margaret (McKenzie) Gee died at Kaiwarra on 14 May 1896. The Evening Post of 15 May 1896 Death Notice said: ?Gee ? On the 14th instant, at the residence of her son-in-law, Mr E. Coleman, Kaiwarra, Margaret Gee, aged 76 years.?
Margaret and James had five children:
George Gee, born in 1845, died in 1914, married Emma Louise Harford in 1867.
Hugh Gee, born in 1849, died in 1920, married Emma Henrietta Grace Ricketts, formerly Sedgwick, in 1877.
Catherine Gee, born in 1851, died in 1879, married Donald Munro in 1870.
Jessie Gee, born in 1854, died in 1856.
Margaret L?Estrange Gee, born in 1857, died in 1923, married Ewen Colman (cousin) in 1888. James Gee was a soldier 96th Regt in 1844.
1 He was a shoemaker, Wellington in 1855.
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