Elizabeth Claridge
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Readers’ response:
Mrs Claridge is Elizabeth Duffell (1849-1918), who married Reuben Claridge on September 22, 1870, at St Andrews, Christchurch. Claridge had arrived on the Castle Eden on February 7, 1851. In 1900 they were living in Papanui on the Claridge farm, which was on the corner of Claridges Road and Highstead Road. They had six children. 1 Elizabeth acted as a midwife in the district.
Elizabeth Duffell arrived in Canterbury with her parents, William and Jane Duffell, and siblings John (1840-1914), Emma (1843-1927), Ellen (1844-1905), George (1846-1906) and Emily (1847-1878). Another sibling, Hannah (1838-1847), died before the family left. Five children were born after they arrived − Mary Jane (1851-1928), Charlotte (1853-1909), William (1855-1939), Bartholomew (1857-1933) and Thomas (1858-1938). William and his wife first settled in Fendall Town and then bought farms in Papanui and Sefton. 2 By the late 1860s, the family had moved to Sefton. Jane Duffell died and William married the mother of his eldest son’s wife. 3
After William’s death in 1892, he left a farm to each of the sons, except George and Thomas, who were left nothing. He also left £50 to each of the five surviving daughters and to the surviving children of the deceased Emily.
Of the children who came on the Cressy, John married Ellen Deal (1850-1909) in 1869, had five children and lived in the Sefton area; Emma married Sir George Seymour migrant Leonard Home Rook (c. 1833-1915) in 1862, had five children, and in 1900 they were living in Lyttelton; George had two de facto marriages and five children, was a labourer, and in 1900 was living in Lyttelton; and Emily married John Bainbridge Drake (c. 1834-1879) in 1865 and had six children.14 The Duffell family can still be found in Sefton. 4
Footnotes:
1. Helen Kennard, unpublished family history
2. Patricia Sullivan, unpublished family history
3. Patricia Sullivan, unpublished family history
4. Helen Kennard, unpublished family history