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What a story lies behind this Register of
Marriage from 1860!
William Flower Blatchford arrived in
Lyttleton in 1851 and was almost immediately employed by Samuel Manson as
schoolteacher for the Manson and Gebbie children at the Head of the Bay. It seems as though the school itself was
originally located in the Gebbie homestead of Greensland. Agnes, born in
Scotland in 1840, was the oldest Manson child and it's unlikely that she had
had any formal schooling until William’s arrival. Nine years later William and
Agnes were married in the ‘Schoolhouse’ – which may, by then, have been a
separate building on the north side of Gebbie’s Pass Road, opposite the
yet-to-be-built St Peter’s.
In April 1861, William wrote of
having
a nice little girl just 7 weeks old. She is a fine child and both
mother and her are in good health, Thank God for it. She is to be baptised on
Sunday next, and her name is to be Lydia Mary… I find that a wife adds to the
cares of a man, but I am thankful to say we get on very well together.[1]
(What Agnes thought of married life we
don’t know!)
A lovely accordion which belonged
to William Flower Blatchford remains in the possession of the family.
