HODSON, James Edwin
Born c1859; died 16 November 1918, aged 59; buried 17 November 1918; age 59
James Edwin HODSON was born near Moscow, Russia in about 1859. He was one of several children of Scotswoman Joanna McGILL (1832 to 1884, who lived in Russia from childhood) and her husband, James Hodson (1820 to 1881?). They were married in the British Chapel in Moscow on 14 April 1849.
James Edwin’s father, originating from Rochdale, Lancashire, had been invited to Russia to help establish the textile industry there. He worked to found Novikoff’s cotton mill around 1850 and the Sabinsky Manufacturing Company in Moscow (i).
It seems that both parents came from families with wide and deep connections to textile production and trade – his mother’s ancestors were Hugenots who escaped France to Scotland in the 1680s. Development of textiles and trade in Russia required administrative, technical, and financial support and advice, as well as experienced/ hands-on know-how. There were many opportunities for those with the right skills from the north of England. Exports of British textile knowledge to Russia lasted at least until the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 (ii).
However, by 1871 James Hodson senior had returned his family to England and the England census shows them living on their investments at 5 Talbot Street in North Meols, Southport, Lancashire. Ten years later, and just before his father’s death, James Edwin was 21 and working as an articled clerk to a firm of solicitors. The family had moved to 18 Princes Street but were still in Southport. James junior seems to have become known as Edwin about now, possibly because his father had the same first name (iii).
Family sources claim some medical education for Edwin prior to his legal training, which in those days took place as an apprenticeship rather than in a university. Qualifying as a barrister (iv), at some stage Edwin went into a partnership in Southport at 9 Tulketh Street with Walter Ernest Mawdsley, but a notice dated 9 July 1889 in the London Gazette (v) reported its dissolution.
Born c1859; died 16 November 1918, aged 59; buried 17 November 1918; age 59
James Edwin HODSON was born near Moscow, Russia in about 1859. He was one of several children of Scotswoman Joanna McGILL (1832 to 1884, who lived in Russia from childhood) and her husband, James Hodson (1820 to 1881?). They were married in the British Chapel in Moscow on 14 April 1849.
James Edwin’s father, originating from Rochdale, Lancashire, had been invited to Russia to help establish the textile industry there. He worked to found Novikoff’s cotton mill around 1850 and the Sabinsky Manufacturing Company in Moscow (i).
It seems that both parents came from families with wide and deep connections to textile production and trade – his mother’s ancestors were Hugenots who escaped France to Scotland in the 1680s. Development of textiles and trade in Russia required administrative, technical, and financial support and advice, as well as experienced/ hands-on know-how. There were many opportunities for those with the right skills from the north of England. Exports of British textile knowledge to Russia lasted at least until the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 (ii).
However, by 1871 James Hodson senior had returned his family to England and the England census shows them living on their investments at 5 Talbot Street in North Meols, Southport, Lancashire. Ten years later, and just before his father’s death, James Edwin was 21 and working as an articled clerk to a firm of solicitors. The family had moved to 18 Princes Street but were still in Southport. James junior seems to have become known as Edwin about now, possibly because his father had the same first name (iii).
Family sources claim some medical education for Edwin prior to his legal training, which in those days took place as an apprenticeship rather than in a university. Qualifying as a barrister (iv), at some stage Edwin went into a partnership in Southport at 9 Tulketh Street with Walter Ernest Mawdsley, but a notice dated 9 July 1889 in the London Gazette (v) reported its dissolution.
Gertrude and James Edwin Hodson
(Photo thanks to Ron Spanton, grandson)
(Photo thanks to Ron Spanton, grandson)
His plans had changed. On 29 April 1889 at St George’s Church, Everton, West Derby, Liverpool, Edwin married Gertrude HUNTER (b1869 d1933). He was 29 and Gertrude 19. Family sources report that they first met in a coffee house in Liverpool where Gertrude worked, and while there were class differences, (of concern to her but not to him), they cemented what proved to be a long-lasting relationship after a honeymoon in France.
Their start to married life was a little unusual. A child, Fergus Hodson, was born to Shropshire house servant, Annie Elizabeth POSTAN in February 1888 in Lancashire. No father is listed on Fergus’ birth registration and it is unclear who his father was. At the time of the 1881 census Annie, then 18, had been working in North Meols as a general servant for Blackburn cotton manufacturer William CULBERT, then 28, known to the family as a great uncle of Gertrude. Fergus’ biological father could have been Gertrude’s brother, William Hunter; or it could have been Edwin.
But whatever the case, the Hodson couple brought him up as their own, taking him when, soon after, they set off for Australia in 1889.
They first tried life in Adelaide, South Australia where son Victor was born on 16 March 1890 (vi). They then decided to try horticulture and moved within a year to Mildura, Victoria. Sited in north-western Victoria on the banks of the Murray River, the family grew to include Gertrude Joan in 1892, Florence Eugenie in 1894, and Adeline Constance in 1895.
Edwin seems to have abandoned legal practice for horticulture, purchasing land to do so, perhaps trying his hand at growing the grapes, citrus, almonds or fruit for drying that the area has become known for. However, an advertisement in the Mildura Cultivator on 1 June 1907 notified the discharge of a mortgage he had taken out in February 1891 over land covered by the First Mildura Irrigation Trust, signalling that this did not work out for them.
Meanwhile an irrigation venture was tried on the Murray River by the Canadian/American Chaffey Brothers, who attempted to apply their Californian experience. While early Mildura harvests in the mid-1890s were good, by 1896 their company had been liquidated and many settlers forced into foreclosure. Edwin had to try something else to support his growing family.
First, he took his family to Sydney where they stayed long enough to enrol Fergus, Victor, and Gertrude in Mortdale School about 20km south of the central city (vii). In 1898 Hilda Laura was born. However, her birth does not seem to have been registered in Victoria or New South Wales, or in New Zealand where they went in 1899.
At the age of 39, Edwin abandoned self-employment when he relocated his family to Brooklyn, Wellington where they settled. He then worked in clerical positions including for the Wellington City Corporation.
Living first in Ohiro Road, close to Brooklyn Village, the older children attended Vogeltown School from 25 May 1899 (after the school house had been moved to Brooklyn where it was later renamed Brooklyn School). By January 1902 the family had moved to Tanera Crescent and by April 1904 to Bruce Avenue, Fitchett-town (as it was then known, named after early settler Ashton Fitchett whose farmland was sold off for subdivision). They rented there for a while before settling on a property with which they were connected for a long time, number 20. Three further sons and five further daughters were born here from 1900 to 1915 (viii) taking the total Hodson offspring to 14 children, (five sons and nine daughters). It is not entirely clear when the house at number 20 was built as council records do not go back this far, but a drainage map of the property in 1911 shows its outline at time when additions were made to the house (ix).
In the same year part of the Hodson’s Bruce Avenue land holding was sold off to a builder (Lot 40) who erected two houses above the Hodson’s. This may have been how the extensions to the Hodson house were partly funded (x). The younger children would have greatly enjoyed occupying a large, sloping, bush-clad section running between Bruce Avenue above the house and Laura Avenue below. Facing due north with panoramic views of Wellington harbour and hills, houses here remain closely held with views that, to this day, are largely undisturbed.
In Brooklyn, Fergus took up amateur athletics and competitive running. He co-founded the Brooklyn Harriers, and later organised the Olympic Harriers and represented Wellington in NZ cross-country championships. He found work at Bing Harris and Co as a warehouseman and commercial traveller. In 1915 he married and left home to start a family of his own.
Edwin and Gertrude’s son Victor, a wireless operator who had served a telegraphic cadetship with the Post Office, died in April 1917 aged 27 after contracting tuberculosis a year earlier (xi). Family sources say he served in the Royal Australian Navy in World War I, based for a time as a petty officer in Darwin returning to New Zealand. He died at 20 Bruce Avenue and was buried in Karori Cemetery in Public2 section, plot 28R. His probate indicated that his father was with him when he died and that he left two insurance policies worth £600.
Their start to married life was a little unusual. A child, Fergus Hodson, was born to Shropshire house servant, Annie Elizabeth POSTAN in February 1888 in Lancashire. No father is listed on Fergus’ birth registration and it is unclear who his father was. At the time of the 1881 census Annie, then 18, had been working in North Meols as a general servant for Blackburn cotton manufacturer William CULBERT, then 28, known to the family as a great uncle of Gertrude. Fergus’ biological father could have been Gertrude’s brother, William Hunter; or it could have been Edwin.
But whatever the case, the Hodson couple brought him up as their own, taking him when, soon after, they set off for Australia in 1889.
They first tried life in Adelaide, South Australia where son Victor was born on 16 March 1890 (vi). They then decided to try horticulture and moved within a year to Mildura, Victoria. Sited in north-western Victoria on the banks of the Murray River, the family grew to include Gertrude Joan in 1892, Florence Eugenie in 1894, and Adeline Constance in 1895.
Edwin seems to have abandoned legal practice for horticulture, purchasing land to do so, perhaps trying his hand at growing the grapes, citrus, almonds or fruit for drying that the area has become known for. However, an advertisement in the Mildura Cultivator on 1 June 1907 notified the discharge of a mortgage he had taken out in February 1891 over land covered by the First Mildura Irrigation Trust, signalling that this did not work out for them.
Meanwhile an irrigation venture was tried on the Murray River by the Canadian/American Chaffey Brothers, who attempted to apply their Californian experience. While early Mildura harvests in the mid-1890s were good, by 1896 their company had been liquidated and many settlers forced into foreclosure. Edwin had to try something else to support his growing family.
First, he took his family to Sydney where they stayed long enough to enrol Fergus, Victor, and Gertrude in Mortdale School about 20km south of the central city (vii). In 1898 Hilda Laura was born. However, her birth does not seem to have been registered in Victoria or New South Wales, or in New Zealand where they went in 1899.
At the age of 39, Edwin abandoned self-employment when he relocated his family to Brooklyn, Wellington where they settled. He then worked in clerical positions including for the Wellington City Corporation.
Living first in Ohiro Road, close to Brooklyn Village, the older children attended Vogeltown School from 25 May 1899 (after the school house had been moved to Brooklyn where it was later renamed Brooklyn School). By January 1902 the family had moved to Tanera Crescent and by April 1904 to Bruce Avenue, Fitchett-town (as it was then known, named after early settler Ashton Fitchett whose farmland was sold off for subdivision). They rented there for a while before settling on a property with which they were connected for a long time, number 20. Three further sons and five further daughters were born here from 1900 to 1915 (viii) taking the total Hodson offspring to 14 children, (five sons and nine daughters). It is not entirely clear when the house at number 20 was built as council records do not go back this far, but a drainage map of the property in 1911 shows its outline at time when additions were made to the house (ix).
In the same year part of the Hodson’s Bruce Avenue land holding was sold off to a builder (Lot 40) who erected two houses above the Hodson’s. This may have been how the extensions to the Hodson house were partly funded (x). The younger children would have greatly enjoyed occupying a large, sloping, bush-clad section running between Bruce Avenue above the house and Laura Avenue below. Facing due north with panoramic views of Wellington harbour and hills, houses here remain closely held with views that, to this day, are largely undisturbed.
In Brooklyn, Fergus took up amateur athletics and competitive running. He co-founded the Brooklyn Harriers, and later organised the Olympic Harriers and represented Wellington in NZ cross-country championships. He found work at Bing Harris and Co as a warehouseman and commercial traveller. In 1915 he married and left home to start a family of his own.
Edwin and Gertrude’s son Victor, a wireless operator who had served a telegraphic cadetship with the Post Office, died in April 1917 aged 27 after contracting tuberculosis a year earlier (xi). Family sources say he served in the Royal Australian Navy in World War I, based for a time as a petty officer in Darwin returning to New Zealand. He died at 20 Bruce Avenue and was buried in Karori Cemetery in Public2 section, plot 28R. His probate indicated that his father was with him when he died and that he left two insurance policies worth £600.
Victor Hodson 1890 to 1917
(Photo thanks to Ron Spanton, grandson of James Edwin & Gertrude Hodson)
(Photo thanks to Ron Spanton, grandson of James Edwin & Gertrude Hodson)
Perhaps in a bid to recover from this loss, or while further work was being done on their house, the parents and younger children (William, Ida, Hubert, Edna, Muriel, and Joyce) moved to Eastbourne (Cain and Cameron streets) for a month in February 1918 where the four older siblings were briefly enrolled in Muritai School before returning to Bruce Avenue and Brooklyn School in March (xii).
When the influenza struck in November 1918, Edwin was older than the most affected age group. The Evening Post of 18 November said he was taken ill on Friday at noon while working in the rates office at the Town Hall and died the following day, after being taken to the temporary hospital at the Alexandra Hall in Abel Smith Street. He left a family of eleven. A death notice in the Evening Post stated:
HODSON.—On the 16th November, 1918, at No. 20, Bruce-avenue, Brooklyn, James Edwin, dearly beloved husband of Gertrude Hodson; aged 59 years. Deeply regretted.
Gertrude arranged for Edwin’s grave to be marked with the words ‘Deeply Mourned’.
It fell to Gertrude to bring up their younger children alone. Money may have been tight as the council burial plot was not paid for until 1934 and Edwin left no probate. Gertrude nevertheless showed excellent financial management skills in paying off Edwin’s funeral over 6 months until the debt was fully discharged (xiii).
When the influenza struck in November 1918, Edwin was older than the most affected age group. The Evening Post of 18 November said he was taken ill on Friday at noon while working in the rates office at the Town Hall and died the following day, after being taken to the temporary hospital at the Alexandra Hall in Abel Smith Street. He left a family of eleven. A death notice in the Evening Post stated:
HODSON.—On the 16th November, 1918, at No. 20, Bruce-avenue, Brooklyn, James Edwin, dearly beloved husband of Gertrude Hodson; aged 59 years. Deeply regretted.
Gertrude arranged for Edwin’s grave to be marked with the words ‘Deeply Mourned’.
It fell to Gertrude to bring up their younger children alone. Money may have been tight as the council burial plot was not paid for until 1934 and Edwin left no probate. Gertrude nevertheless showed excellent financial management skills in paying off Edwin’s funeral over 6 months until the debt was fully discharged (xiii).
Extract from E Morris junior funeral register for second half of 1918, (MSY-3711) held by the Turnbull Library
(Note age and address details do not tie up with other records)
(Note age and address details do not tie up with other records)
Many of Edwin’s children achieved proficiency, learnt the piano, acquired other skills, and gradually most married and moved away, largely to Auckland. Two brothers went farming in New Zealand (in Turakina and Taupiri), picking up their father’s earlier ambition in Mildura.
In the 1920s Gertrude subdivided their Bruce Avenue land into four. Electoral rolls in 1935 show some of her unmarried daughters still living at the neighbouring 21 Laura Avenue.
Gertrude died suddenly in Christchurch in 1933 while visiting a sick relative and she was buried with her son Victor in Public2 section, plot 28R. Her probate shows her own home was still heavily mortgaged so she may have done her best to provide housing close by for her younger family members. Electoral rolls show many people with the surname Hodson continued to live in Brooklyn close to the place where Edwin had first arrived.
In the 1920s Gertrude subdivided their Bruce Avenue land into four. Electoral rolls in 1935 show some of her unmarried daughters still living at the neighbouring 21 Laura Avenue.
Gertrude died suddenly in Christchurch in 1933 while visiting a sick relative and she was buried with her son Victor in Public2 section, plot 28R. Her probate shows her own home was still heavily mortgaged so she may have done her best to provide housing close by for her younger family members. Electoral rolls show many people with the surname Hodson continued to live in Brooklyn close to the place where Edwin had first arrived.
20 Bruce Avenue, Brooklyn taken from street below (Laura Ave) in June 2018
James Edwin Hodson is buried in Ch Eng2 section, plot 57E.
Researched by Ann Hodson (great granddaughter) and Jenny Robertson. Written by Jenny Robertson
(i) Family information.
(ii) Even by 1966 (New Zealand Herald 10 March 1966) the New Zealand Hodsons were keen to find more about their Russian resident cousins (children of their father’s brother) still thought to be living in Russia at the time of the revolution. As the family had returned to England before 1871, it is unclear which brother might have subsequently returned to Russia as an adult and been overtaken by the revolution or whether perhaps the family story is just that.
(iii) Applications, for example, for drainage permits in Wellington city record show the applicant was Mr E Hodson of Fitchettown.
(iv) New Zealand Herald 10 March 1966.
(v) London Gazette 12 July 1889.
(vi) Date taken from school record when Victor started at Vogeltown School in May 1899. Birthplace given in Letter of Administration signed by his father, in finalising Victor’s estate after his death in 1917. File held by Archives New Zealand, Wellington.
(vii) Brooklyn school records held by the Turnbull Library in Wellington.
(viii) Robert Arthur 1900, Christabel Jessie 1902, William Gerald 1904, Emily Ida 1906, Edna Frances 1907, James Edwin Hubert 1909, Jeanie Muriel 1912, and Joyce Winifred 1915.
(ix) Wellington City Council archives in Barker Street hold a wide variety of records including building consents, deposited plans, cadastral maps, drainage plans etc that help build a picture of changes to properties over time.
(x) I am grateful to the current occupants of 20 Bruce Avenue for their information and assistance in providing access to some of their own records, e.g. on right of way, cross access rights, maintenance of the right of way, drainage rights etc, including that the house was run as a boarding house before their arrival in the 1980s.
(xi) Death record.
(xii) Taken from school records.
(xiii) Funeral register of E Morris jnr held by Turnbull Library for the period July to December 1918. The burial entry for James Edwin Hodson on page 124 shows an incorrect age (27) and records his address as 25 Bruce Ave, but this seems to be an error as Gertrude’s own newspaper notice of his death gives his address as 20 Bruce Ave as do council permit records (available from city archives). Errors are understandable considering the large numbers of deaths in a compressed time period when people would have worked long hours under difficult and sad circumstances.
(i) Family information.
(ii) Even by 1966 (New Zealand Herald 10 March 1966) the New Zealand Hodsons were keen to find more about their Russian resident cousins (children of their father’s brother) still thought to be living in Russia at the time of the revolution. As the family had returned to England before 1871, it is unclear which brother might have subsequently returned to Russia as an adult and been overtaken by the revolution or whether perhaps the family story is just that.
(iii) Applications, for example, for drainage permits in Wellington city record show the applicant was Mr E Hodson of Fitchettown.
(iv) New Zealand Herald 10 March 1966.
(v) London Gazette 12 July 1889.
(vi) Date taken from school record when Victor started at Vogeltown School in May 1899. Birthplace given in Letter of Administration signed by his father, in finalising Victor’s estate after his death in 1917. File held by Archives New Zealand, Wellington.
(vii) Brooklyn school records held by the Turnbull Library in Wellington.
(viii) Robert Arthur 1900, Christabel Jessie 1902, William Gerald 1904, Emily Ida 1906, Edna Frances 1907, James Edwin Hubert 1909, Jeanie Muriel 1912, and Joyce Winifred 1915.
(ix) Wellington City Council archives in Barker Street hold a wide variety of records including building consents, deposited plans, cadastral maps, drainage plans etc that help build a picture of changes to properties over time.
(x) I am grateful to the current occupants of 20 Bruce Avenue for their information and assistance in providing access to some of their own records, e.g. on right of way, cross access rights, maintenance of the right of way, drainage rights etc, including that the house was run as a boarding house before their arrival in the 1980s.
(xi) Death record.
(xii) Taken from school records.
(xiii) Funeral register of E Morris jnr held by Turnbull Library for the period July to December 1918. The burial entry for James Edwin Hodson on page 124 shows an incorrect age (27) and records his address as 25 Bruce Ave, but this seems to be an error as Gertrude’s own newspaper notice of his death gives his address as 20 Bruce Ave as do council permit records (available from city archives). Errors are understandable considering the large numbers of deaths in a compressed time period when people would have worked long hours under difficult and sad circumstances.