Colin Lamb
I am glad someone else has picked up on the high living of a laborers son, if Henry and Eliza are his parents I have the rest of his family in the union poor houses so how dose one go from the poor house to a social light in New Zealand it does not make sense to me.
Yes, it is difficult to comprehend.
But it is of course possible.
One of my Wife’s GGrandparents was an unqualified Chemist and exPub Landlord who had a factory making a cure all tonic like the one your HAH Hitchens produced, look up Jackson’s Febrifuge for more info on these tonics which were widely available at that time.
Do note my other post about an HAH Hitchens resigning his army commission, if this person is your relative then there is no way the Son of a Labourer could have gone on to get a Commission in the British Army, that just did not happen and it is only in the last 40 years that this has changed prior a private education was one of the only routes to a Commission in the Armed Forces.
