New Beginnings

A Memory of Gipping.

We visited Gipping in 2003 to try to get a sense of the place our ancestors left in 1859 to start a new life in New Zealand. The flatness of the area was a significant contrast to the rugged coastal lands they farmed on their arrival in Little Akaloa, Canterbury. William Henry Elliss and his wife Sophia Rebecca Davey were resident in Gipping in 1858 when they married at the Primitive Methodist Chapel in Stowmarket. Their parents were Frederick and Caroline Elliss (nee Bass) and William and Eliza Davey (nee Fox), husbandmen, whose families had been in Gipping and Mendlesham for some generations. When William and Sophia left for NZ on the Mary Ann, bound for Canterbury, April 1859 they had been living in Haughley, William was a dealer, and they had a 7 month old son who died on the voyage out. Their parents stayed and died in Gipping, and Old Newton, and indeed Frederick and Caroline have a headstone  erected in their memory in St Mary's Old Newton by William Elliss. This still stands and was easily readable when we visited. We would very much like to learn more about what life was like for their families and neighbours in the 1850-70s, and what happened to any other family. There no longer appear to be Elliss or Davey family in the village, and indeed there do not appear to be cottages left where the census of the times suggests there would have been. Any descriptions, drawings, or other information that would fill in those memories for us would be greatly appreciated. Sophia Rebecca is rumoured to have died on board ship on a trip back to Britain in 1873, but no record of this has yet been found. They had two daughters and three sons in New Zealand most of whose descendants we have tracked down, and a reunion is to be held Easter 2010 at Little Akaloa to re-trace their early years in NZ. More information about when and why they came from Gipping, and what contact they may have sustained, and what life was like for the village at that time would be appreciated if such records exist with anyone reading this. Also the names of other families who may have left with or at the same time, as we do know for instance that a cousin of William's went to Canada from Gipping about 20years later and we have contact with that branch also - please email me, Barbara, at agbaallan@hotmail.com

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