Caton Street in the suburb of Sydenham, Christchurch

Caton Street in Sydenham – Named after John Henry Caton (d. 1870). Caton owned a number of properties in Montreal Street. This land was advertised for sale in The Press after he drowned in the McLachlan River near Sydney. His death is registered at Coonbarabran in New South Wales. The construction of Caton Street was discussed at a meeting of the Sydenham Borough Council in 1883, reported in the Star. It appears on an 1890 map. First appears in street directories in 1892.A reasonable amount of information from the library website. Found the same information from 1883 where the construction of the street was discussed. In 1886 it became a public street. In 1893 there were complaints about the bad state of the street and in 1904 there were complaints about dirty gutters. Papers Past had the usual birth and death notices. Trying to find out about John Henry Caton was both easy and hard. I couldn’t find out when he came to New Zealand but as he came from Australia the shipping records are more difficult to find. I found a court notice in Australia in 1856 where a John Henry Caton occupation butcher was charged with threatening language.In 1858 in Lyttelton there is mention of John Henry Caton selling his butcher business. He then took over the Canterbury Hotel or Lyttelton Hotel. Both hotel names were mentioned. Next mention is in the court news about stealing cattle. Case was thrown out. In 1869 the court news was very busy with his bankruptcy details. The same year he was charged with conspiracy fraud involving a figure of £3000. His address was Horseshoe Lake. In December 1869 he was sentenced to 3 years of hard labour in Lyttelton goal. In 1871 John Henry Caton’s properties were sold by public auction including the Montreal St property where Caton St is now situated. There was also Harewood Forest in the Oxford District and property at Lincoln plus a Ferry Rd property. The properties were put up for sale by the trustees who were appointed by the courts in 1869. I haven’t been able to prove his death. I checked Australian newspapers with no joy. There is a John Caton buried at Coonabarabran parents Charles and John. All the family trees on the ancestry website have John Henry Caton dying in 1914. Trouble is that this John Henry Caton was married to Elizabeth Simpson in 1873 in Victoria, Australia. This John Henry Caton was also a butcher so it is possible but his death notice in 1914 says that he was a colonist in Australia for 68 years. There was an article in the Akaroa Mail in 1882 about John Henry Caton and it said that he was born in Smithfield and he went to Sydney in 1849. He came to NZ in 1853 and returned to Australia when he was released from jail. It was this article that mentions him drowning in McLachlan River in 1870 and that he is buried at Coonbarabran. I couldn’t find McLachlan River but did find MacLaughlin River. Also if he was sentenced to 3 years in Lyttelton jail in December 1869 how did he manage to drown in Australia in 1870. Confused because I am. This is a tiny street that runs off Montreal St and it has a couple of businesses on it. It runs to Kent St and I had already written up Kent St but when I walked there today I realised that I hadn’t walked Kent St properly. This is because Kent St is split into two by a business.

Edited as I seriously sidetracked with this street as I found John Henry Caton interesting. I was up to midnight researching John Henry Caton. I still can’t find any evidence that he died in 1870s by drowning as the 1882 article mentioned. The death notice for the burial in Coonabarabran is definitely a baby. I wondered if it was a grandchild as the father of the child was Charles Caton but John’s son Charles was only 8 years in 1870 plus the family were still in New Zealand in 1870. I found another John Caton who died accidently in 1872 in Liverpool NSW but I doubt it is my John Henry Caton. It looks like the John Henry Caton who died in 1914 is the same John Henry Caton who was in New Zealand. The family trees on ancestry website were so confusing especially as some of them had him married several times with the first one still alive in the 1860s. I can’t find out how he got to Australia or New Zealand but he possibly came went to Australia in 1852 in a ship called Rip van Winkle but could only find passenger list for a trip to the US. It is likely that his first wife was Emma King and they married in 1846 and had one child Horatio. John Henry Caton appears in the 1851 census with his wife and son. There is no sign of him in later censuses but in 1861 Emily and Horatio is living with her parents. Emma is supposed to have died in 1865 but I can’t find proof. Not helped by Horatio marrying someone with a similar name. John’s second wife was Isabella Boyd Myers a widow. They were married in 1854 in Victoria and had a daughter Esther in 1856 and were still in Victoria. John Henry Caton was in the courts in Victoria for using threatening language. In 1858 he was in Lyttelton selling his butcher business and buying the Canterbury Hotel. Sounds like he did a lot of deals buying up land and it sounds like he didn’t mind breaking the law to make money. The courts threw out the case about him stealing cattle and not everyone was happy about this. Things came to a head when he was charged with conspiracy and fraud in 1869. He also was declared bankrupt the same year yet he owned a huge amount of land throughout Canterbury. Catons Bay near Little River is possibly named after him. In December 1869 he was sentenced to 3 years hard labour to be served in Lyttelton Goal. I have no idea when he left New Zealand but his wife and 4 children left Lyttelton in December 1871 and went to Hobson’s Bay Victoria. John’s wife Isabella died in February 1873 and is buried by herself in Bendigo. John then married Elizabeth Madeline Prowse Simpson in April 1873 and she died in 1888. His fourth wife was Elizabeth Smitham AKA Elizabeth Smitham – Wirebrook and they married January 1889 and she died in 1916. One of the Elizabeth’s was known as Betsy. In Australia John Henry Caton’s occupation was butcher which is the same occupation that he had in England and occasionally had in New Zealand. The cynic in me suspects that John Henry Caton deliberately wanted authorities in New Zealand think that he was dead. Interesting character and his first wife was still alive when he got married in 1854. I also wonder if he did some dodgy stuff in England which is why he disappeared to Australia.