Bowring Family NZ

My great grandfather, James Bowring, arrived at the Canterbury Port of Lyttleton, New Zealand on the 22nd of July 1874. The ship, the Eastern Monarch had set sail from Plymouth England 71 days earlier on the 7th of May 1874.

There was a family of ships bearing the Monarch name. Some brief information about them can be seen on the Monarch Ships page. The Eastern Monarch page gives a brief account of the Journey from Plymouth to Lyttleton and a brief insight to the accommodation on board.

James was aged 23 years at the time of his arrival, having been born in England (beleived to be Winterbourne, Dorsetshire) in 1850 and Christened on 21st of March 1851 at Martinstown, Dorsetshire, England.

James was the son of Daniel Bowring - what little is known of James father and mother can be found on the Daniel Bowring page.

James married Cassandra or Cressandrew Jury (Henry's birth certificate shows Cressandrew yet I believe other documents show Cassandra) and lived in the Kaiapoi, Clarkeville area North of Christchurch. James family information is shown on the James Bowring Family page. The Register of Birth Death and Marriages has James surname listed on the Register Index as Bowzin for his marriage to Cassandra Jury in 1880.

James settled in the area just to the North of Christchurch called Kaiapoi and Clarkville. In 1954 a booklet was written by one of the old time resident's of Clarkville - Charles Brokelbank - as part of a centennary celebration? The book - in a sort of story format, tells about the area and residents of the area throughout the approximate 100 years prior to 1954. Well worth the read to see what life was like for the early settlers of Clarkville. Click on the Clarkville story above. There are 20 pages.

The Bowring Ancient Ancestry Pages Link takes you to fourteen more pages which take the Bowring ancestry back to as early as 300 BC and shows that the Bowring family has a number of Kings and Royality and well known figures in history in their ancestory.

Note: If you are a close or distant member of this family and you have information to fill in any of the obvious gaps where information is missing - please get in contact with that information. If you see any information you know to be incorrect - please get in contact with the correct information. I also maintain detailed family information on a computer program called Family Tree Maker for Windows. Information I enter in there includes - place of birth, place of death, date and place buried - include plot numbers, known addresses. Copies of old photos would also be appreciated.