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« on: Saturday 03 October 09 05:49 BST (UK) »
Hi Chris
Thank you so much for that information and the piece about Thomas Brandon Brett. My GG -Grandfather was nephew of TB Brett and it appears they were similar in many ways. The nephew Henry (b 1843) came to NZ and founded a significant newspaper and publishing firm after beginning as a journalist by rowing out to meet the ships as they arrived from England. He later wrote White Wings which has become a valuable reference for we colonials tracing our families back.
Thank you for your research and time spent detailing the marriage and baptism information which appears to confirm Henry and Thomas Brett's parents as Thomas Britt and Sarah Ranger. I will search further on your 1066 website and SFHG now that I realise the spelling of surnames can differ so much.
A piece on Sir Henry Brett follows fyi..
Kind regards
Margie
Sir Henry BRETT was born and educated at St. Leonard's, Hastings, Sussex on February 23, 1843. He obtained his knowledge of the printing business in the office of his uncle, who was proprietor of the Hastings and St. Leonard's Gazette. Henry arrived in Auckland in September 1862 aboard the 'Hanover', and before going ashore was offered work on a daily newspaper the Southern Cross for £1 a day, as a shipping reporter, and in 1865 transferred to the N.Z. Herald, (Auckland NZ Daily.) After five years he bought an interest in the Evening Star (later named Auckland Star) and this was the start of his career as shipping journalist. He married Mary Moon, daughter of Mr James Moon, in 1864 and they had two sons and three daughters. In 1865 he was transferred in this capacity to the NZ Herald. In 1870 he joined Mr McCullough Reed in founding the Auckland Star, of which he became sole proprietor in 1878. The Star's politics have always been Liberal. Its early success was largely due to the use of carrier pigeons to cope with the then very incomplete telegraphic communication. In 1890 Mr Brett started the New Zealand Graphic, the first illustrated weekly newspaper in Australasia. In the 1880s he moved into the field of book publishing and he produced a number of quarto volumes including A history of Printing In NZ, Life & Times Of Sir George Grey and The Albertlanders. He was Mayor of Auckland in 1877 and 1878, president of the chief musical societies in Auckland, a founder and past president of the New Zealand Press Association, Commissioner for New Zealand at the Paris Exhibition in 1889, and a Commissioner of the New Zealand Exhibition in 1906-7 and the recipient of a knighthood in 1916. He personally collected the information for both volumes of White Wings. As a shipping reporter he was able to talk to captains, crew and passengers as the vessels docked. He wrote both volumes late in his life and died at Rotorua on 29 January 1927 in his 84th year and regrettably did not see White Wings Vol. 2 published in 1928.
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