Matilda Bayfield
Return to Randolph Group Photo
Original information:
Matilda Bayfield (1817-1909) and husband Arthur came out in the fore cabin with a young family. He set up in business in Lyttelton as a druggist and chemist. In 1853 he moved to Cashel Street, Christchurch, while he was building his own shop opposite the White Hart Hotel, but he did not carry on with this plan and was soon back in Lyttelton. The Lyttelton Post Office was moved into his shop and he was appointed sub-postmaster.
He was a member of the Lyttelton Colonists Society, a church property trustee and a vestryman for the Holy Trinity Church. He died in 1861.
Mrs Bayfield carried on for a year and then sold the business. By 1867 she owned a chemist’s business in Lyttelton called the Apothecary’s Hall.
She lost £800 in the Great Fire of Lyttelton (October 1867). She had no insurance and was declared bankrupt, but was discharged on the grounds that she had suffered great misfortune. She died in Sumner in 1909, aged 92.