Chapter 1

The following was originally written by William Oke Kempthorne around 1947.

The original copy was deposited with the Early Settlers Association in Dunedin on June 1947.

To understand who the various characters are, it is necessary to know the following:

1.            This part of the Kempthorne family in New Zealand (there are other Kempthornes in New          Zealand) is descended from:

                Edward Stoneman Kempthorne who was born in England 3/12/1825.

                Priscilla Jane Jenkyn Oke who was born in England 16/7/1836.

2.            They had the following 12 children:

                Silas Edward                                                                       Frances Jane Oke

                Mary Oke                                                                            Ellen Oke

                Edward Alfred Oke                                                             Priscilla Oke

                Selina Elizabeth Oke                                                           Arthur Henry Oke

                Silas John Oke (my grandfather)                                        William Oke

                Charles Phillip Oke                                                             Arnold Oke

3.            One of the persons referred to is Mrs McGukin, this is the married name of Frances Jane Oke    above. The other is Mrs Blakie, which is the married name of Ellen Oke above.

In this version, I have attempted to remove the repetition that is in William's original manuscript, along with old grammatical styles and if something did not seem interesting, I have left it out.

Is it weird my name is William as well?

In writing this history of the time to be covered, naturally divides into three periods,

1.            At that time prior to 1876 in which year the family went to Heriot. 

2.            From 1876 to 1916 when the farm "Parkdale" was a going concern,

3.            From 1916 to the present.  

It has been the usual practice since the Otago Early Settlers association was founded, to classify the pioneers according to the ship they arrived in and the date of that arrival. 

My parents, Edward Stoneman Kempthorne and his wife, Priscilla Jane Jenkyn Kempthorne (nee Oke), arrived in Otago with this invasion.

They originally left Cornwall, England, in 1858 for Victoria, Australia. After staying there five years, they came on to New Zealand in 1863.

First my father came alone in a ship, possibly "The City of Edinburgh".

Three months later my mother Priscilla, arrived with her children, Edward Alfred, Mary and Elizabeth,  in the French Barque, the "Suffren". They were all small children at that time.

My father was 36 years old when he came to Otago.  He had spent five years in Australia, less what time he took to return to England, and there get married in 1858. While in Victoria, he was with the mounted police for some of the time, and for the rest he was mining or doing team work.

While the spirit of adventure, and the need of providing for his family had something to do with father's decision to come to New Zealand, at the back of his mind there was always the desire to possess a piece of freehold land on which to farm.  He had been brought up on a farm in the homeland, but it was leasehold and held on a system of 'lives', and although he was the eldest son, and the last of the 'lives' on the current lease, following his father and grandfather, the other two 'lives', he wished to have land that he could call his very own.

His heart was never in police work or mining, he had been a farmer and wished to become again in this new land in which the conditions were so much better than the old, especially with his family growing up around him.

Farming in Australia did not seem to have appealed to him on account of the heat, and the different system of farming to that which he was accustomed.  It required more capital in those days than he had to outlay.  

Mrs. Blakie writes: July 18 1946.

About the freehold and father's wish to own the land, as for this he could see, each little bit of land at home would have to be divided again in then divided again.  Mother's people on her mother's side had been freeholders since they came over from Normandy, and she was a most ardent suupporter of the freehold idea.

On arrival in Otago he set out inland to the diggings.  But he only got as far as the neighbourhood of Lawrence, when returning miners from Cromwell and Arrowtown gave such poor reports on the prospects, that he decided to go no further, and took a job for a short time working on the roads.

 

On hearing that Brannigan and 12 mounted constables had arrived in Dunedin to keep order among the rush of miners, and being acquainted with him, and having worked with him when in the mounted police in the Victoria, he returned to the coast and applied for employment.

In this he was successful to a point, but he could not pass the medical examination on account of his having only one lung.  However, he was given work in connection with the police forces, because he was known to be an experienced horseman.  On getting this steady employment he sent for mother, and she and the three children arrived in due course.

He met them in Dunedin, and they proceeded to Taieri Ferry where he was then stationed.  Shortly afterwards, he was sent Tokomoriro which is now called Milton, and then to Outram in the years following.

The following, was written by a Priscilla, around August 1 1858:

'Married at the Illogan Church Town, Cornwall, May 1858, Edward and his wife Priscilla landed in Melbourne middle of December 1858.  Lived there until July following, then went up to Pleasant Creek gold diggings, stayed in that neighbourhood until May 1863, came down to Ballarat and stayed until the beginning of September, then left for Melbourne and Dunedin in New Zealand.

 Landed there September 23, 1863, lived in Tokomoriro until June 1864, then to West Taieri in which neighbourhood where we stayed until June 1876.'

The following was written by a Silas John otherwise known as Jack:

'He was making for the Arrowtown rush but only got to Lawrence, as all men were coming back, and said it was no use to go there and starve.  He worked on the roads at 11 shillings per day for a short time.  Then he went to Dunedin, and joined as a trooper and stayed with them for two years.  With  11 other men he was paid off when Cobb and Co. took over the gold escort.

Brannigan was superintendent and Bevin was Sergeant Major and the pay for the trooper was 11 shillings per day.  One of those jobs he got to do when in the police, was to ride from Dunedin to Naseby to bring a witness, Starbuck, who was the last to see Yorky, who was murdered at Millers Flat.  

 

He was then sent to Taieri Ferry to look after it for a short time, then sent on to Tokomoriro as jailer.  He had only one prisoner, Black Peter. 

From there he went to Outram to drive chaff from  Dunedin to the Dunstan for the escort horses.  He had a dray with four or five horses, and the chaff was pressed in bales which came from Sydney. 

Mother came over from Australia when he was at Milton.  He was at this place only six months.

He was two years in the police altogether, but he never wore a uniform, as he was never passed medically fit, having only one lung. 

 The ride from Dunedin to Naseby, 70 odd miles, was ridden in one day.  When he was paid off he bought the team that he had been driving for the police, four white horses, half draft, named Rodger, Lee, Vic, and Di, and a light wagon.  With this team he started carrying from the Taieri to Dunedin.  He eventually found that it paid better to go inland for wool.

When father was stationed in Outram, one day he saw a brother of the man Gilbert who went mad near Melbourne and shot about 15 people.  These Gilbert's were French Canadians, and he knew them intimately in Victoria, in his digging days, for they had a claim next to the one in which he was working.

Father never let on that he saw him, but the man was arrested the same day, being recognized by another man. while carting chaff to the Dunstan for the police, he capsized very nearly every trip, as the roads were so bad, they went along the sides of the hills in many places, and there were no cuttings.'

Mrs Blakie writes on July 18th 1946:

About black Peter. If there was only one in the jail at that time, it was not Black Peter who was otherwise known as Edward Peters. I think his own words describe him.

 “It's only poor Peter maam. Poor Peter won't hurt nobody maam.”

It will not be fair to mention the name of the man who was there, as there are a lot of descendants, and those we know, very fine people

About the time father was in the police force, he told us three years. When he was paid off he received 60 pounds for compensation. That helped him to buy the five greys. We don't seem to know what they cost, but when he lost Fanny and Duncan, he paid 60 pounds for ones that he bought in their place.

He paid 23 pounds for three-year-old Jess, who was our buggy horse for so long.

Mrs Barton, Bess (Selina Elizabeth) , has the following to say in connection with this..

You will see by the paper in Mother's writing that we arrived in New Zealand On 23rd September, 1863 not in 1864 as stated by Fan (Mrs MCGuckin).

Father could not get to meet the ship on the day we landed, so he got Superintendent Brannigan to help us to the boarding house, then father arrived next day.

I was the baby in arms at that time. I cannot remember shifting from Toko to the Taieri, but I can remember Sam Corry as a trooper at Toko, a big man.

One of his girls pushed Alf into the Toko river, and if Sam had not been close by and plunged in, and pulled him out, he would have been drowned.