Sinclair Family of Wainuiomata
A DigitalNZ Story by Wainuiomata Museum
Family of Hugh Sinclair (1810-1871)
See: The Land Barons of Wainuiomata by Gavin Wallace (2015) available from the Wainuiomata Historical Museum Society
Born Ballantrae, Ayrshire, Scotland. Daughter of James Spiers and Margaret Rodger.
P1139 Taken 1868-1874 by James Dacie Wrigglesworth, Willis Street, Wellington
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Born Wellington. Son of Hugh Sinclair and Agnes Spiers.
P1140 Taken by James Bragge c1880. Date based on ATL 1/2-011018-F of Renata Tama-ki-Hikurangi Kawepo of same card style.
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Born Stanton Lacey, Shropshire, England. Daughter of Thomas Hill and Jeanne Charlotte Pierette Marianne Coendoz
P1148. Taken by John Owen at Broad St, Newtown, Montgomeryshire, Wales before arriving in 1878 on the Rialto.
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John Sinclair's first wife, Isabella, died on New Year's Day 1875 leaving behind their six year old daughter, Catherine Elizabeth. Kate, as she was known, went to live with her grandmother, Agnes at Moness. In October 1876 John Coendoz Hill commenced teaching at Wainuiomata School and served until December 1877. On 22 January 1878 his mother and siblings arrived at Wellington on the ship Rialto. John Sinclair married his sister, Jeanee Louise Henrietta Coendoz Hill at the residence of Rev James Paterson, The Terrace, Wellington on 02 February 1878. All four of their children were born in Wainuiomata. The eldest son, John Hugh Sinclair, died after eating the heads of lucifer matches on 19 October 1880 aged nine months and was buried in the Sinclair Family Cemetery.
Shows Sinclair homes: Moness surrounded by fruit trees (Hugh Sinclair) and Riverlea at back right (John Sinclair)
Taken by William Williams c1882-1883
Alexander Turnbull Library
Born Wainuiomata. Daughter of John Sinclair and Isabella Jackson Wood.
P1149 Photographer unknown. May have been taken before the family left Wainuiomata in 1883.
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Born Lowry Bay. Daughter of Hugh Sinclair and Agnes Spiers. She is holding her son, John Alexander, born Masterton 1883.
P1138 Taken by Pierce Mott Cazeau and James Bennett Connolly c1884.
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In January 1883, by order of the Supreme Court, all of the landed estate belonging to the Sinclair brothers (John and Duncan), was auctioned in order to repay about £15,000 worth of mortgages. This included the 370 acre Moness farm with its buildings and orchard. John Sinclair, the last member of the family still residing in Wainuiomata removed the sawmill plant to Taranaki and may have settled with his family at Normanby before moving to Ngaire.
Sinclair Sawmill in the background
Taken by Frederick James Halse 01 April 1888.
Alexander Turnbull Library
Back: Kate; Left Isabel; Middle Louise; Right Jeanne Spiers; Front Tom Douglas
Possibly taken at Normanby in the late 1880s. Photographer unknown. All the children were born at Wainuiomata.
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Although the Sinclair surname had gone from Wainuiomata, the presence of Sinclair DNA lin the community continued via Hugh Sinclair's niece - Mary Isabella McGregor who married John McIlvride at Crieff, Perthshire in 1855. All of their six children were born in Wainuiomata from 1860 to 1874. After 27 years as Postmaster John McIlvride and his wife left Wainuiomata in 1897 to live in Wellington.