John Harper

John Harper was born in Norfolk in 1826 and he died on 8th December 1916. His wife Elizabeth died on 7th January 1916 and they are buried in the Woolston Cemetery. There were several brief obituaries but I extended my search to January 1917 and found one with more information. John Harper came to New Zealand on the Randolph with his wife and three sons. Note the passenger list for the ship only has John and his wife Elizabeth with son Elijah. Their son Randolph was born onboard the ship. There is no guarantee that the passenger list that I found online is correct. The obituary said that they lived in a cave in the Heathcote Valley when they first arrived and then in a sod hut near the Heathcote River. He farmed in what is now known as the Woolston district. Said to have been the first to use a horse driven threshing plant in New Zealand. Later he was the driver of the Ferry Road Coach. Lived on Ferry Road at a spot called Harper’s Siding. This is where Harper’s Road later Dampier Street was formed. He left 6 sons, 4 daughters, 60 grandchildren, 72 great grandchildren and 2 great great grandchildren. One of the obituaries was worded in such a way that it sounded like he had 160 children. None of the obituaries mentioned that he was a survivor of the shipwreck Taiaroa in 1886. His wife wrote a letter to the editor to correct the article which said that he was a brickmaker. She said that he was the owner of the Ferry Road Coaches