RootsChat.Com

I guess the next step is to follow up the families English roots.  Perhaps you already have.  There's a Hester Road, by the Battersea Bridge (over the River Thames), in Pimlico, London, for instance. The Christchurch Museum is sending me some info on Thomas and Thomas Samuel that might touch on this pre-NZ history.

Here's that family tree I mentioned: 

Thomas Hester (age 25) and wife Mary Ann, (28) arrived at Lyttelton on the ship Sir Edward Paget, July 2, 1856, with Thomas Jr (2) and Elizabeth (infant). They were from Pimlico, London.

One of their sons John Louis Hester was born 2.8.1864 and d. 1941.  In 1895 he married Mary Ann Dunn, (b. 1870, d. 1952).

John and Mary Hester's children were:

Enid Marjory Hester, b. 1.10.1897, d. 29.5.1984, (my grandmother; I was one of her pallbearers at St. Saviour's Anglican church, Kaitaia on that day).  Their children were John Ellis Dyer, Allan Ross Dyer and Mary Florence Dyer. 

Olga Winifred Hester, b. 1899, d. 19??. In 1918 she married William James Palmer, (b. 1896, d. 1937).   Their children were Joan Winnifred Palmer, John Rex Palmer and Patricia Olga Palmer.

Gordon Lisle Hester, b. 1900, d. 1937.  In 1929 he married Ruby Mary Wilmott Hansen. Their children were June Speechley Wilmott Lisle (who married Brian Carter) and Beryl Winsome Lisle

The following generations are also on this summary. 

John Louis Hester, who lived in Kaitaia was my Great Grandfather.  I have a family tree here and it will include his line.  He built quite a fine house in Kaitaia.  It's still standing today in what was the site of the old Kaitaia mission house where the Treaty of Waitangi had it's second signing as it travelled around the country. 

Regarding Thomas Hester, he seems to have been a storekeeper and undertaker in Oxford Street, Lyttelton in 1866 until at least 1875.  He died at that location August 10, 1878.  Two services were held, one at the Forrester's Hall where he was a member and one at the Wesleyan schoolroom, (see Paperspast).

Among his children was Alfred Munt Hester who married Annie Elizabeth Ayers on 6 August, 1896 at the house of George Ayers, another Lyttelton lodge member. Thomas Hester and Mary Anne Hester nee Speechley were shown as the parents.

I know my grandmother wanted to call her daughter Mary Anne too, after Mary Anne Dunn, her mother.  But her surname was Dyer so that would have  spelled M.A.D. She knew her mother was teased at school and she thought her daughter Mary, my aunt, would be too so she found another middle name for her.

I can't find any reference to the ship Thomas Hester arrived on, but a "Mr Hester" arrived on the "Viscount Canning" at Auckland on 21 June, 1865.

Here's a couple of people and/or details that might have been missed;

John Chaworth-Musters, J.P. of Annesley Hall, Wiverton Hall and Colwick Hall died 7 Nov. 1887 after a short illness, (Scarlatina / scarlet fever), at his shooting box in Aumont, Senlis, France aged 49 years, (b. Wiverton Hall 9 Jan., 1838).  He also used to travel to Norway to go salmon fishing, Norway having some of the finest salmon fishing at that time, which might explain why some of the family were born there. (Source CAC Collection, Auckland Museum).

Also Miss Gertrude Adelaide Byron Chaworth-Musters married Mr Angus Gordon on 30 Dec., at Wairoa South, (now known as Clevedon, near Auckland, New Zealand) at the All Soul's Anglican Church.  Captain (later Major) John Whitney was the uncle of the bride who arranged the wedding reception, according to the Observer (newspaper) of 11 Jan., 1890. 

Major John Whitney married one of the Chaworth-Musters family before travelling to NZ and establishing the Colonial Ammunition Company. The Major died on 6 Sept., 1932 and I think is also buried at Clevedon.

I would be very interested if "awahl" has details of the Annesley decoy, (duck trap).  It was from here that mallard duck were introduced into New Zealand.