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Hi Kate,

Thanks for replying. My records handed down from my mother show 18 children to Martin and Emma. The names and dates match yours for the most part, however I don't have William Horace Durham at all. Instead I have two you don't have: Sarah Elizabeth b. 1862, and James Ernest Ashwin b. 1872 and died young. The other major difference is I show Theodore Craven Ashwin as being born in 1855, not 1862, which would make him the eldest child. Helen Elizabeth, Sarah Elizabeth, and James Ernest all died young.
(These records are from a photocopy of a paper supposedly written by Martin listing the dates and names of his children, and from a family tree written by Bernard “Barry” Carl Ashwin [1897-1975], son of Manley John, compiled in 1960).

Regarding Hagley House, I have that Martin's spinster sisters Helen (Ellen) and Mary Ann (Marion) came over on the Sebastopol and started the school in Christchurch. My great-grandmother Jane Ratcliff lived with my mother and her parents since before my mother was born, and they were quite close. According to Jane (from my mother's book) both Jane and Esther "Alexandra" (your g grandmother) attended Hagley House as students. Jane returned to Christchurch (from California) in 1900, a widow with two children to take care of her aged aunts, both in their late seventies.

I have copies of certified copies of both Martin’s and Emma’s deaths.

Best, Tom