Hunting Kiwis
Clara Hight was born in New Zealand in 1869, the daughter of recent immigrants Ann Smith (b. 1826 d. 1889) and David Hight (b. 1830 in Broughton, Northamptonshire, England) from the UK.
Her father, a farmer in Springfield, New Zealand, died in 1874 at the Bailey’s Hotel at Kowhai Pass (Canterbury). According to thePeerage.com: “He was attending a dinner on his behalf as he was about to leave the district. As he rose to speak, he dropped dead with apoplexy”.
Her mother died in 1889, and is buried near her daughter in Waddington Cemetery.
The family emigrated from England to New Zealand, arriving at Lyttelton on the ship Indianna in November, 1858.
Clara was one of 11 children – Saunders, Helen, Herbert (died age 1), Albert, Herbert, William, Jane, George, Harry and Ernest.
Source: Papers Past (The Star, Wednesday December 5th, 1888
Clara Hight is buried in Waddington Cemetery.
I also wonder about the story behind some of the gravestones.
Posted by Phillipa | May 27, 2011, 2:37 amThanks for the post – Clara is one of my many Hight relatives but I hadn’t seen this account of her death before.
Her father David was one of 11 children born in Northamptonshire to Samuel Hight (1806-1881) and Mary Ann Ward (1802-1867). Six of those children emigrated to New Zealand and settled in Canterbury, so Clara has a significant number of Kiwi relatives.
Posted by suzannedoig | October 21, 2012, 6:43 am