On that day in September 1864, there was another family waiting to board the Barque Alfred – John and Anne Waddoups with their three daughters, Harriet, Mary and Matilda.

John Waddoups (1824-1895) was born in September 1824 in Aston le Walls, Northamptonshire, England, the oldest of five sons born to Samuel Waddoups and Ann Brewer. He worked as a farm labourer in Aston le Walls. He married Ann Halford (1824-1902) on 21^th September 1853 at St Nicholas’, Warwick. Ann was born in Warwick in July 1824, the second of eleven children of Robert Halford and Mary Roberts.

John and Ann were living in Warwick, where John was working as a labourer, when their first daughter, Harriet Ann was born on 24^th November 1854.

On 9^th July 1858 John and Ann with three-year-old Harriet set sail from Liverpool for Table Bay, Cape Town, South Africa on the ship Edward Oliver. Edward Oliver was one of the earlier ships carrying assisted immigrants to the flourishing Cape Colony. John was described on the passenger list as an agricultural labourer, to be employed by City Works, Cape Town. Edward Oliver was described as having “superior accommodation”, however there was excessive illness on board and fifteen of the 473 passengers on board died on the journey. There were also seven births. The Ship’s Surgeon, Frederick William Johnson, was accused of negligence and improper conduct and said “not to have been completely sober during the whole voyage”.

The Edward Oliver arrived on 12^th September 1858 and we know little of the Waddoups family’s life in the colony, other than that they had two more daughters, Mary Elizabeth born about 1861 and Matilda, born July 1864. In the 1863 Cape Almanac, John was listed as a quarryman, living at 43 Vandeleur Street.

After six years in the colony, the Waddoups were looking for a change and, like the Aylward/ Ryan family, saw the offer of free passage and land offered by the Waikato Immigration Scheme as an opportunity to leave the now depressed Cape. When the offer was first made there was a complete commotion in the Colony and the office of the New Zealand Agent in Cape Town was mobbed. The Waddoups family were among the 1,000 chosen and so, on 27^th September 1864, John and Anne, with Harriet (10), Mary (3) and three-month-old Matilda boarded the Barque Alfred, alongside the Ryan/ Aylward family for a fresh start in a new colony.

Other stuff you might find interesting:

Aston le Walls village, Northhamptonshire

Waikato Immigration

Journeys to Waipipi – from Woodford to Cape Town