Mary Anne CASTLE formerly PAWSON nee LAWSON

Mary Anne CASTLE formerly PAWSON

nee LAWSON 1811 - 1880

My G G G G Grandmother Mary Ann LAWSON was born 13 April 1811 in Otley, Yorkshire, England. She married firstly on 7 January 1828 in Otley to John PAWSON.

They arrived in Port Nicholson [Wellington] onboard the 'Coromandel' 29 August 1840 with their 5 children
William [b1828],
Sarah Ann [my GGG grandmother born 1831];
John [b1834];
Jonas [b1835] and
Joseph [b1838].
Their 6th child Edwin was born and died on the journey to NZ.
They went on to have a further 5 children.
Edwin [b1842];
Hannah [b1844];
Thomas [b1846];
Mary Anne [b1848] and
Ellen [b1852].

John was during his lifetime a constable on early arrival in NZ in Thorndon Flat, Wellington. In 1848 he took up carpentering again and in 1850 he was living at Tinakori Road. Thereafter the family left for Lyttelton on the 'Queen', then on to Little Akaloa and lived in Banks Peninsula as one of the early established families. In 1857 they moved to Duvauchelles and he was the second owner of the public house there. The Pawsons were also involved in Sawmills in the area. Pawsons Valley memorialising them. Their children married into the BREITMEYER; STEVENSON [my line]; BARKER; BORRETT/BARRETT; BROWN and MAY familes. There are many descendants researching various lines and much is known about the families.

John PAWSON 1808 - c 1865

John PAWSON died supposedly on the Otago goldfields c1865 and Mary Anne remarried on 11 December 1865 at the Parish Church, Akaroa to Samuel Sharp[e] CASTLE.

Samuel died 16 March 1897 at Grey River Hospital, West Coast, South Island, NZ.

Mary Anne CASTLE [formerly PAWSON nee LAWSON] was a midwife and died 13 July 1880 of Cancer [6 months] in Christchurch. She is buried in Barbadoes Street Cemetery, Christchurch, plot 1996.

During the course of my research, I was contacted by Sue CUERDEN of Brisbane, her ancestor was named Samuel Sharpe CASTLE. He was born at Rotherhithe [London] on 28 December 1815 to Samuel Sharp[e] CASTLE and Elizabeth MARKS. He married Sophia SHEARMAN in 1839 in London and does not appear in England after the 1851 English census.  Sophia died 1859 and their son Henry Samuel CASTLE left for New Zealand before 1871 when he married Ellen Elizabeth WILSON at Greymouth, South Island.

As an aside, Henry [Samuel's son] and Ellen had a daughter Amy CASTLE [b 1880] who was the first female entomologist employed by any New Zealand museum, and one of the first woman scientists in the New Zealand public service" and worked for the Dominion Museum in Wellington. Her Dictionary of New Zealand Biography entry mentions nothing is known of her after the 1940's, however Sue Cuerden's online query states Amy died 23 February 1971 aged 90 at Ardene Court, 40 Headland Park Road [Devon, UK].

Update 15 Oct 2013: now amended in Dictionary of NZ Biography.

I love the link to Amy... I often worked in the entomology department at Auckland War Memorial Museum when I commenced employment there in 2008 :-)