Mitchell Family: what happened to! *COMPLETED*

[SPC]

    Is this MITCHELL tree on ancestry, one which is viewable to the public ?

I think it is a public tree, but am not sure whether one needs to be a subscriber to see it.  I searched using "George Harrow Mitchell" as the search term.

Simon

[Lucy2]

Cheers Simon.   

Mmm ... lnr

"Henry MITCHELL" deaths on NZ index are for 1882 (55 yrs) and 1884 (51 yrs).   

Rebecca MITCHELL shows on 1871 census as being a 4-year-old (bc 1867).   


Added:   FREE BMD - BIRTH -- MAR -- 1867
MITCHELL - Rebecca -- Reg'd.  Kingston (Surrey / Middlesex)

[SPC]

The same census gives a birth for Henry MItchell around 1836 and Sarah around 1834 (1837 and 1835 in the 1861 census), so the family tree has a few errors.

Simon

[Gwila]

This is what I know. I am no relation but a researcher about the Industrial Schools.
Henry was not a nice man.
After Sarah died just a week before arrival he married Elizabeth Heatley in 1875 who looked after his 5 children. He was violent towards her as he was frequently drunk and she left him around the end of 1875. He deserted his children leaving them in a house with a neighbour Mrs Brown feeding them. He appears through 1875 and 1876 in court news for failing to contribute towards his children and from all accounts was pretty unrepentant about it all.  William and George were sent to the Burnham Industrial School in Christchurch in 1875. By 1876 Henry appears in Dunedin and he is in court for failing to contribute towards a child in the Caversham Industrial School in Howe St. This is either George or William having been transferred from Burnham or another 3rd child.
In 1880 back in Auckland, Henry is once again in court (twice during the year) for failing to pay towards his children still in Industrial School/s. He is unemployed and had spent 3 months in jail in 1879 for the same offence. By August 1880 he owed 118 pound and had spent another 3 months in gaol. The court news states here that he abandoned his children on a wharf in Oct 1876, but George and William had already been committed to Burnham in March and reports then said they had been abandoned in an empty house in Wellesley St and fed by neighbours.

 In court news in 1875 William is described as 2 years older than George, however I think the dates were the wrong way round.  Upon the death of James Henry in the Coromandel is states that Henry the father was from Wimbledon Common near London.  He would have been born about 1836 if passenger dates are correct.
I have the paperspast links for this but you can search using Henry Mitchell as an exact phrase.
I know nothing about 3rd and 4th marriages.  Hope this helps. Gwila

[lnr]

thanks you so much for this very much appreciated regards lnr

[Gwila]

Glad it was useful.
The marriages  mention in the posts here,  I don't think relate to this Henry Mitchell. The newspaper reports indicate that he was living in boarding houses or in gaol and no mention of other wives, plus it looks as if he could be the Henry Mitchell who died in 1886.
There are mentions of a baby born on the voyage and/or that Sarah died in childbirth but on the Zealandia records it says she died of chronic bronchitis and diarrhoea and no mention of a child. The newspapers mention 5 children which are the older ones we know about.  There are too many William Mitchell's to work out which one he might be, but dates that would match could be 1925, 1940, 1945, 1951 if that helps. Given that the mother and stepmother Elizabeth were off the scene and Henry patently couldn't give a toss for his children I very much doubt the children came back into a family situation with him. They most likely were licensed out as farmhands or servants as soon as they were 15 under the Industrial Schools Act and William may have made a life in the Canterbury Otago area as he nothing to back to Auckland for.