P - Painter Puzzle

William Barratt was a painter in Camberwell, Surrey. He lived with his wife and growing family in Wellington Street and James Street, Camberwell from the baptism records of their children.

Nothing is known of his early life. He first appeared in records when he married Mary Ann Moore at St Anne in Westminster on 15 March 1830. In the next 11 years they had 7 children; 6 daughters and 1 son. Sadly their first born daughter Emma lived only 14 months and died just a couple of weeks before their 2^nd daughter was born.

What was life like for the young family ? What were their living conditions ? Having a trade would have enabled William to earn money and have access to better dietary choices than unskilled workers could afford. Still, living in London or on the outskirts, they would have been witness to overcrowding and poor sanitation that was common at the time. Smoke from fires would have filled the skies.

New opportunities were afoot though and in 1841 William and his family applied for passage with the New Zealand Company to emigrate to the new colony and begin a new life in Wellington. There would be an abundance of work opportunities for a painter in a growing city.

They sailed on the London, leaving 2 January 1842 with their 6 children aged from 8 years to 4 months. Arriving in Wellington in May they set up home in Thorndon where William found work and added being a glazier to his job title. What a contrast in their surroundings too, wide open spaces, sea air and clear skies. Another son was born a year after their arrival.

Each ship arriving brought new settlers, all needing a home to live in. William was not the only painter and glazier in town but it can be assumed there was enough work to go around during those early years. The earthquakes in 1848 and 1855 may well have boosted the incomes of tradespeople as homes and civic buildings needed to be repaired or rebuilt.

However, William seems to have vanished at some point between the marriages of two of his daughters. Caroline on 31 March 1855 and Sophia on 17 September 1856. What happened ? Did he leave in search of work outside of Wellington ? Was he injured in the earthquake of 1855, or at work in the aftermath ? Did he desert his family ?

There aren’t many clues. A notice in the Lyttelton Times on 4 August 1858 lists 4 letter for William Barratt as returned from Christchurch. Is that where he went ? Organised settlement of Christchurch began in 1856, perhaps he saw this as his opportunity to move and establish a business there with less competition than he had in Wellington. The intention may have been for the family to follow him.

By 1861 though, the majority of his family had moved south – but not to Christchurch. They made their homes with their new husbands and began raising their own families in the Marlborough/North Canterbury regions. Youngest daughter Ellen was married in Blenheim in 1861 and most of her brothers-in-law and her brothers were working on the large sheep stations of North Canterbury at Flaxbourne, Kekerengu and in the Clarence.

A coroner’s report found at Archives detailed the death of a William Barratt in Christchurch on 18 January 1859. But despite having that information, no record of the death has been found on the historical births, deaths and marriages registers. It seems likely that this could be him though, as his widow Mary remarried in Kaikoura on 3 July 1861.

Perhaps this is as close as we are going to be able to get to resolving this, and it will forever remain a loose end.