Onehunga, New Zealand

Late in 1846,

Men from the Royal Engineers were sent to Onehunga with instructions to survey and lay out the first site for the proposed settlement. The area chosen was on the left of the road leading down to Forbes' Inn. The specially designed cottages were then to be erected for the Fencibles. However, before building began, [Governor] GREY was assailed with doubts about the best strategic deployment of this small force and ordered all work to cease at Onehunga while alternative venues were reconsidered.

Consequently when the first contingent of Fencibles under Captain William H. Kenny arrived in Auckland on board the transport "Ramillies" on the 5 August 1847, the promised accommodation was not ready. Over three long and dreary months the unfortunate immigrants were confined first for some weeks on board ship and then, in response to urgent representations by Captain Kenny, they were moved to temporary quarters in the Albert Barracks situated on the ridge above Auckland in the vicinity of Albert Park and the present university.

The companies of the second battalion posted to Onehunga comprised some 80 other ranks, 56 women and 102 children. Their commanding officer, Captain Kenny, was accompanied by his wife and four children. These soldiers had served in various regiments of the British Army in [South Africa], India, Afghanistan, Burma, China, West Indies and Spain. They welcomed the opportunity to eventually own a home and land of their own and also escape the depressed conditions of their homeland. In the course of time a number of them were to take a prominent part in the public life of the village. William Barr, John McGhee, Adam Nixon, Charles Beswick, John Bates, William Reece and Henry Lavery, All served their community well.

About the middle of October 1847, and regardless of the fact that not one of the promised cottages had been completed, the decision was made to settle the Ramillies Fencibles without further delay. So during the next month the Royal Engineers planned and hastily built temporary barracks near the Springs. Two 100 foot long wooden sheds with partitions and some out buildings were erected. Early on the morning of the 15 November 1847, Captain Kennys Company of Pensioners, their wives and children, together with a number of wagons, set out on the seven mile walk to the new settlement.

The first established industry with permanent buildings was John Bycroft's flour mill and biscuit factory, built in 1854 by the springs in Princes Street. He built a dam so that he could regulate the water flow to drive his waterwheel and provide power to operate the mill machinery. Later he converted to steam power. Before this wheat grown in Onehunga, mainly by the Fencibles, had to be taken by road to the Eden Mill in Mt Eden. This mill was owned by the Reverend Walter Lawry and brought in 1852 by John Bycroft. The Journey there was exhausting and time consuming. To avoid this trip there is an account that Fencible Charles Beswick ground his own flour by carving out a bowl in a large stone near his back door, and with the aid of a pestle, made of tough manuka, ground the wheat into flour.

*The description "...Mrs Harriet Beswick with six of her ten children" is often quoted but, unfortunately, it is inaccurate.

If the woman in the photograph is Mrs. Harriet Beswick, then the children shown, mostly girls aged between ages 2 and 10 (?), cannot all be her own.
In 1860, the Beswick household consisted of Charles (58), Harriet (36), and their children: William (16), Samuel (12), John (10), Eva (5), Benjamin (3), and Luke (an infant born in February 1860). Charles’s daughter from his first marriage, Harriet (26), was by then married to Edmund Woodward of the 58th Regiment and living in her own home.
Harriet and Edmund Woodward had five children by 1860: Elizabeth (9), Eliza (8), Edmond (5), Thomas (3), and William (1). None of Mrs. Beswick’s other children had children of their own at that time. While boys of the period often wore smocks or tunics—making gender identification from clothing alone less certain—the children in the photograph do appear predominantly female. Since the younger Woodward children were boys, it is unlikely that the children shown are the Woodward children.
Charles and Harriet Beswick had no siblings in New Zealand, so there were no nieces or nephews who might account for the children in the image.
The photograph may have been taken on a special occasion. Possibilities include a birthday gathering for Eva, who turned five on 27 April 1860, or a baptismal celebration following the birth of Luke Jefferson Beswick on 6 February 1860. It is unlikely to be a mourning photograph, as their son Samuel died later in the year, on 17 December 1860.
The inscription refers to a Fencible named Thomas Rowlands, but no such person appears in the Fencible records. “Rowland” was Harriet Beswick’s maiden name. There was, however, a Rowland family in Onehunga. Witnesses to the baptism of Henry Woodward on 24 December 1865 included C. Beswick, Thos W. Rowland, and H. Beswick. Witnesses to the baptism of Sophia Woodward on 27 March 1870 were Mr W. Rowland, Harriet Beswick, and Ann Rowland. William Thomas Rowland died at Alfred Street, Onehunga, on 25 April 1895 in his 80th year, three days after the death of Benjamin and Louisa Beswick’s infant son.

Fencible John Bates and his family originally shared the double cottage with the Beswicks. However, the woman in the photograph cannot be Mrs. Elizabeth Hix Bates, who would have been about 75 in 1860. Nor is she likely to be their unmarried daughter, Sophia Ann Bates—New Zealand’s first postmistress and schoolmistress at St Peter’s Anglican parish school—who was 43 at the time and living independently. The Bates family had probably moved elsewhere by 1860 (census records may confirm this). The photograph might instead show Mrs. Beswick, or possibly family friend, Mrs. Ann Rowland (?), with a mixture of Beswick, Woodward, and perhaps Rowland children gathered for a celebratory occasion such as a baptism. But who knows!
The central doorway suggests the cottage was not divided when the photograph was taken, and therefore not shared.
The stated date of the photograph—1860—may be correct, but it could also be slightly later. The first photographer arrived in Auckland in 1848 (Isaac Polack), and outdoor photography began in Auckland around 1857–1858, making an 1860 image plausible.
The photograph was donated to the Old Colonists’ Museum by G.G.M. Mitchell, a solicitor and local historian born in 1889 and deceased in 1965. Harriet Beswick died in 1904, so it is possible that Mitchell knew her as a child or obtained the photograph from someone who had known her.
The photograph remains a mystery, but a cautious conclusion can be drawn. This 1860 image—long labelled “Mrs Harriet Beswick with six of her ten children”—may indeed show Harriet Beswick standing outside the double Fencible cottage at 40 Galway Street, Onehunga. Although the woman’s apparent age aligns with Harriet’s, the identification cannot be confirmed. The children present cannot all be hers, suggesting a mixed group of unidentified kids—possibly including some Beswick and Woodward children, and perhaps even Lucy Ann Rowland, who was described by her father in 1888 as being of unsound mind—assembled for a special occasion such as a baptism or birthday. The single central doorway indicates that the Fencible cottage was no longer divided, supporting the likelihood that the scene represents a single-household setting.
The fencible cottage plan (below) was "presented by G.G.M. Mitchell in 1954”. It’s a single house layout so this example was probably built for soldiers of higher rank.

Onehunga - New Zealand