Kete Horowhenua

Ancestors of John Robert Ransom

In 1761 William Ransom (1740-1818) married Isabella Copsey (1727-1802). He is thought to be a direct ancestor of John Robert Ransom who emigrated to New Zealand. Possible forebears can be traced back to the mid seventeenth century, and his father, grandfather, and great grandfather all appear to have been given the first name ‘William’.  In his will, which was probated in 1818 he was referred to as a victualler of Lawshall, a village about six miles south of Bury St. Edmunds.  His son, William Ransom Junior, (born in 1762) appears to have inherited his father’s business. In 1784 he married Susan Bacon (1766-1810), and all of their seven children were born at Lawshall.

Only three children married: John, Drusilla and Eunice. The two girls married agricultural labours from neighbouring villages. In 1818 John married Harriet Skipper from Kenninghall, a hamlet north of Bury St Edmunds in the county of Norfolk. Their wedding was at the nearby village of Rickinghall Superior, which has a church. The couple settled in Lawshall where John was referred to in the parish register as a publican and wheelwright.

There was another Ransom family living at Lawshall that was not related to the family that immigrated to New Zealand. (Ransom is a common family name in East Anglia). They were descended from a wheelwright and master carpenter called Samuel Ransom born in 1776. Samuel’s son, Luke Ransom was a carpenter, turned property developer who built Lawshall School. His descendants remained living in the village right up until the twentieth century and it is their headstones that are to be found in the church yard today. There are probably ancestors of the New Zealand Ransoms buried in the church yard, but many of the headstones are so old and decayed the inscriptions have become illegible.

John Ransom and his family would have lived at one of the three inns that were operating in Lawshall at the time: ‘The Harrow’, ‘The Carpenter’s Arms’, or ‘The Swan’. The latter is the only establishment that is still in business today. It is located in ‘The Street’, not far All Saints church. It was the oldest out of the three inns and may well have been the one the Ransoms lived at.

John and Harriet Ransom left Suffolk and migrated to London sometime between 1828 and 1830. They were only in their thirties and their children were still quite young. The family had kept an inn at Lawshall for at least three generations, so it must have been a momentous decision to leave the village. One can be reasonably sure they were forced to go for economic reasons. There was not much of a future left in the countryside, and the migration to cities and towns became a flood. Unlike agricultural labourers who faced a dubious future slaving in factories, John Ransom had enough capital to set himself up in business in London. He established himself at Wapping, which to be correct, was outside the boundary of London in Middlesex.

The records of the ‘Sun Fire Office’, an insurance company, show that on the 23^rd of February 1830 John Ransom, victualler, insured the ‘Three Swedish Crowns’, 25 and 26 Old Gravel Lane. The Post Office directory also shows that between 1841 and 1856 he was the publican of ‘The Three Swedish Crowns’, 83 Old Gravel Lane. By this time the street numbering system had been changed. He was still listed as a resident there in the 1861 census. His age was recorded as seventy and his occupation that of a licensed victualler. The family had two servants, so they must have been reasonably well off. The Lane itself was later renamed Wapping Lane and was right next to the London Docks.

John Robert Ransom

In 1849 the publican’s eldest son, John Robert, married Harriet Sowerby. She was the daughter of William Sowerby, a pawn broker in Whitechapel. An individual identifying themselves as William Sowerby, a pawnbroker in Cable Street, gave evidence in a trial at the Old Bailey criminal court in 1819 where the defendant was accused of stealing a harness from a livery stable then pledging at the pawnbrokers. It appears the same William Sowerby drew up a will in 1841. Cable Street in Whitechapel was only about a block north of Wapping Lane. There were numerous pawnbrokers’ shops in the district.

John Robert Ransom was employed by a London firm, Matthews, Sons & Co. that built a variety of wheeled vehicles. He and Harriet Sowerby were married at St Giles Church, Cripplegate, which was in the neighbouring parish to Whitechapel. John Robert and Harriet made their home in Camden Town and their first child, Vincent Christopherson, was born there in 1851. As Vincent Ransom was born in the last month of 1851 he was not christened until the New Year. His christening took place St. Pancras Old Church, which was probably within walking distance of the family dwelling.

In 1853 John Robert and Harriet Ransom decided to immigrate to New Zealand. It is not known if the family sailed on assisted passages or paid their own way. By 1853 the New Zealand Company, which had fostered the first organised immigration from Britain, had ceased to operate, and provincial governments did not take over the responsibility for attracting immigrants until 1854. Therefore, those who arrived in New Zealand between the demise of the New Zealand Company and the revival of assisted immigration would probably have come under their own auspices. John Robert’s trade skills fitted into the categories required in New Zealand. It is quite likely that he suggested to Matthews, Sons & Co. that he be given the chance of setting up a branch of the coach building firm in Wellington. In return for defraying the costs of the voyage and setting up the branch, his employer would participate in the profits.

 John secured a berth on ‘The Cornwall’, a barque of 580 tons that was involved in the immigrant trade. She had formerly been chartered by the New Zealand Company and made her first voyage to New Zealand in 1849. The ship was one of the few that had second class berths. On a voyage to Lyttelton in 1851 the ‘The Cornwall’ carried a total of one hundred and fourteen passengers, sixty-three first and second class and fifty-one in steerage class. One hundred and twelve passengers were on the voyage that the Ransom’s took in 1853, so the ratios between the different classes must have been about the same. The fare for a second class berth may have been within the family’s reach, and even if they sailed in steerage the overcrowding on this ship would have been less acute than others.

John Robert Ransom, Wellington and Lower Hutt

 ‘The Cornwall’ arrived at Wellington on August 13, 1853. The ship went on to Nelson to drop off more passengers then returned to Wellington. The Shipping intelligence reported that the vessel was back in port on August 20th, and John Robert and Harriet Ransom's names were listed among passengers. John Robert placed the an advertisement in The N.Z. Spectator and Cook’s Straight Guardian on Oct. 29, 1853. The same advertisement continued to be placed in the newspaper at regular intervals until January 1854. Judging from the advertisement John Ransom’s premises were next to the Commercial Hotel near the corner of Willis Street and Lambton Quay. There is a photo of the Hotel dating from 1864 showing a shed attached to one side, which could possibly have been his premises. According to the 1854 – 1855 electoral roll the place of residence of John Ransom, Wheelwright, was Wellington Terrace. His address was still listed as Wellington Terrace on the 1858 electoral roll.

 Judging from the electoral rolls John Ransom settled in Lower Hutt sometime after 1858. He purchased thirty-six perches of fertile land on lot six, section thirty-five, on the western side of the main Wellington to Wairarapa Road. The original sections had been subdivided, and section thirty-five had several title holders. He also leased four acres of grazing land nearby, on section thirty-two. It was about one and a quarter miles north of the Hutt Bridge, and just to the south of Boulcott. The locality was known as ‘Black Bridge’, and took its name after a bridge over the Black Creek, a tributary of The Second River that cut across the main road. The Ransom's house and workshop stood near a bend in the Hutt River, on the opposite bank to Melling. Originally a humble cottage with an attic, it was enlarged to become a two story house with a verandah round two sides, and a very large glass house attached. It remained standing until the early years of the twentieth century. This is where John and Harriet raised their nine children. The children were educated at Lower Hutt Public School across the river in Alice Town

To the left of Ransoms’ dwelling was butcher’s shop owned by W. Devereaux. It had a slaughter house at the rear and was built in the late 1850s. The Ransom’s house was probably put up around the same time. To the right was a carrier’s named G. Fichett. The land that J. Ransom leased was owned Mr. John Bridges, who lived across the road. The four acres were put up for auction in 1885 after he died, and John Ransom eventually bought them.  The grazing land was sold on John Ransom’s death in 1894, but the family remained in possession of the house and workshop on section thirty five until 1899, two years after Harriet Ransom’s death.

The next mention of John Ransom that surfaces in the news paper, after the advertisements of 1853-1854, was in The ‘Wellington Independent’ in August 1864. He and two other residents separately brought action against James Brady in breach of the dog nuisance act. The plaintiff was fined five shillings in each instance. In July 1866 John Ransom was listed among of donors to ‘The New Zealand Patriotic Fund’. He donated five shillings. The patron was Sir George Grey, and presumably the fund was set up to assist settlers affected by the land wars. In the same year the Hutt Harmonic Society was inaugurated, and John Ransom was listed as one of the committee members.

The Ransom family were members of the congregation of St James, the Anglican Church at Lower Hutt. Reverend J.E. Herring was the incumbent between 1864 and 1870. The parsonage was at Black Bridge, so the vicar and his large family would have been near neighbours of the Ransoms. His children were around the same age as some of the Ransom children. John Robert Ransom became a church warden, and when the decision was made to build a new Anglican Church in 1877 the designs had to be submitted to him. In the 1880s John Robert, a respected settler, entered into public life. There were no references in the news paper to his trade at this period, which would indicate that he had retired from business. He was elected chairman of the Epuni Licensing District in 1887. He must have been a popular figure, because in 1888 when he stood for the Hutt Town Board, the forerunner of the borough council, he came in first out of six candidates. Then in 1891 when he was nominated for the first Lower Hutt Borough Council, he garnered more votes than any other candidate. Harriet Ransom was involved in church bazaars and other charity work.  She also organised the collection of old clothing to give to the poor.

John Robert was the parishioners’ warden, an elected position, which he held for around twenty years. The last parishioner’s meeting that John Robert attended before his death was in July 1894. He was accorded the honour of being made Clergyman’s Church Warden, an appointed position decided by the vicar. The position had formerly been held by the Mayor of Lower Hutt, W.A. Fitzherbert. The wet weather in the spring of 1894 may have affected John Robert’s health. He was nominated for the local body elections in September 1894, but had a fatal attack of bronchitis on October 16th, 1894. Harriet survived her husband by three years. She complained to the borough council in 1895 about the insanitary conditions at the slaughter house  next door to her property. Perhaps it was this that led her to forsake her dwelling and go to live with her eldest daughter, Florence, at Thorndon; or it could have been that in failing health she was no longer able to care for herself. She died at Thorndon on the 18th of September, 1897.