Emelius Joseph Le Roy

This previously unidentified image was produced by Crombie Photographers, a studio operating in Auckland between 1855 and 1872. It was taken after the Industrial Exhibition of 1862, as their honorable mention award is referred to on the reverse of the carte visite. Part of a group of loose images found at the home of George BARTLEY, it is believed to have once belonged to Edward Bartley.

We can now identify the subject as Emelius LE ROY. The Le Roy and Bartley families both came from St Peter Port Guernsey. They are also linked by family connections to GUILLE and HAMON of Sark, Guernsey and Jersey.

Research at the Auckland Naval Museum reveals that Le Roy, born in Guernsey about 1827, was a sailmaker who joined the Royal Navy before settling in Auckland in 1850. He established a sail making business in that town, as well as operating a schooner between Sydney and Auckland.

Robert and Edward Bartley were early members of the Auckland City Rifles, established to defend the population and property in the event of hostile incursions. Le Roy also joined the organisation in late 1857 in preparation for its official establishment in 1858. The force was intended both to support the garrison and take part in active service.

This carte visite was probably produced in 1868,the year the Rifles were disbanded. In February of that year Le Roy was  promoted lieutenant of the Auckland Naval Volunteers

Auckland Star 16 April 1901

Image from The Cyclopedia of Auckland p33

For further information on Le Roy's service and awards refer: http://navymuseum.co.nz/medals/index.php/78-display-numbers/217-1001

Emelius Le Roy married Catherine Tabel in Auckland, in 1855 (refer Sydney Morning Herald 15 March 1855). Extensive genealogical information on the ancestors and descendants of this couple is available on line at: http://www.thebarrier.co.nz/History/LeRoyFamily.htm
and: http://www.taylor-thomas.org.uk/familytree/family.php?famid=F1233&ged=Taylor-Thomas%20family.ged

New Base for Bartley Archive

BARTLEY FAMILY ARCHIVE

Meg Bartley, Archivist

 homestead51@gmail.com

During May our household moved to Northland. 

Bartley Archive is now based in the Whangarei District. The project is a volunteer one, begun in 1998, providing research assistance to private individuals and public organisations.

While this move was a lifestyle choice, it provides a good opportunity to increase our knowledge of the Bartley connections to the region.

Family members settled in Silverdale, Kaipara, Whananaki and other areas of the mid-north, with connections extending to the Bay of Islands.

Donations to the archive of images, genealogical data and ephemera are gratefully received, on the understanding that materials will be shared with other researchers. 

Claude Bartley and Cassie Tooher

Claude Victor Bartley was the youngest child of Edward Bartley and Elizabeth Hannken. 

He was born at Devonport, Auckland 23 June 1881[i] and followed his elder siblings to Devonport School in 1888.[ii]

In 1909 he married Catherine (Cassie) TOOHER. Cassie was from Thames and theirs was a summer wedding, celebrated 26 January 1909.[iii]

Cassie Tooher

The couple had four children: Allen Victor 1909, Eva Kathleen 1911, Claude Francis 1914, Owen John 1917.

Claude and Claude 1914, from the album of George Bartley

Allen Bartley about 1919, from the album of George Bartley

Cassie was the sixth child of John Tooher and Catherine DERMODY. Her parents emigrated from Tipperary and were married at the Cape of Good Hope in 1865. They settled in Thames where John worked as a miner. Their eldest daughter Margaret (Maggie) was born in 1869, later marrying Martin DOLAN. Twins James and Bridget were born in July 1876 but did not survive. Mary Anne was born in 1878. She married Michael KEANE. The next daughter Ellen arrived in June 1879 but died 6 months later on 30 January 1880. Another daughter followed in 1881, christened Ellen Josephine, she was known as Nellie and later became the wife of William BARTON, also of Devonport. John was born in 1884.

Thames Star 5 November 1904

At the time baby Ellen died, January 1880, the family lived at Terrace Block 27 in Thames.[iv] Two months later, Cassie’s father John was hospitalised after being caught in a fall of earth on Queen of Beauty Hill.

In 1895 the Toohers' family home was threatened by a fire at the neighbours property.

Thames Star 24 April 1895

Thames Star 26 April 1895

John never enjoyed good health after the accident but survived until 6 November 1910. He was buried on 8 November at the Shortland Cemetery in Thames.[v]

Thames Star 7 November 1910

Claude died of influenza 19 April 1919 and was buried at O’Neill’s Point 21 April 1919.

Cassie died suddenly at home on 4 March 1921 and was interred in at O’Neill’s Point Cemetery.

Auckland Star 5 March 1921

The four children were orphaned. Allen spent some time at St Joseph’s Orphanage in Takapuna until his Aunt Kate( widow of Frederick and mother of George) was able to bring him to live with her.

This image shows the new block in 1924 which was under construction when Allen stayed there.

Kate and George Bartley

Allen’s siblings were taken in by their mother’s family and were raised in Thames.

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[i] NZRBDM 1881/2202

[ii] Devonport School enrolment # 1730

[iii] NZRBDM 1909/517

[iv] Obit Thames Star 31 Jan 1880

[v] Shortland Cemetery Records Ref#P3087

Tooher family research by M W Bartley

[vi] NZRBDM 1919/3544

May Bartley and William (Bill) Allen & Eva Bartley and William (Bill) Cotes

May Bartley and William G Allen 

May Elizabeth Bartley was the ninth child of Edward Bartley and Elizabeth Hannken. She was born at Devonport 21 July 1875. Like her siblings she attended Devonport Primary School. She shared the family love of music and theatre.  

May as Queen of the Fairies - an early stage triumph reported in the Observer 20 June 1891 page 14

 At the age of 26 May married Bill ALLEN owner of the stationery firm W. G. Allen & Co. The wedding took place on 13 November 1901 at Holy Trinity Church in Devonport.The couple met through music and shared that interest all their lives.

Observer 21 November 1901

The light operas and musicals of this period made for popular programming. The Christmas performance of HMS Pinafore in 1903 proved a sell out show and a successful fundraiser for the Devonport Band.

May and Bill welcomed a son Bryan William 18 May 1902, followed soon after by their daughter Lois

Bryan William Allen in full command of his vehicle, from the Album of George F Bartley

May and Bill lived in Mt Eden all their married life. May died there in January 1951. Bill followed her a few years later, in May 1956.

Eva Bartley and the Cotes Family

Eva with her brother Percy who died in early adulthood Photo by Josiah Martin & E Partington Auckland.

Eva Rosine Bartley was the tenth child of Edward Bartley and Elizabeth Hannken. She was born 16 May 1877 at Devonport.

The younger Bartley children found good friends in the Cotes household. They were also Devonport residents and attended the Devonport Public School. Amy Cotes was a good friend of both May and Eva. Her brother Bill, Des Grattan and Bill Allen and the Bartley brothers all shared musical and social connections.


Observer 9 September 1905

Eva was late to marry. Her brother Percy (born 1878) was physically frail from just after his primary school years. He required nursing care. Eva became his inseparable nurse and companion by the time he died of consumption in 1907. Four years later, aged 34 she married William Proctor COTES on 2 February 1911 at Holy Trinity Church in Devonport.
Eva and Bill had one daughter Marjorie Eva



 Bill, as he was known was born in 1881 in Dudley, Worcester, where his family were living at 107 Stourbridge Road (RG11 2878/152p52). Bill's father, Arthur Edward Cotes was a native of Matlock in Derbyshire employed as a traveller for a drapery firm. Bill's parents Arthur and Annie were married in Manchester, Annie's home town, on 27 June 1874. The family emigrated soon after Bill was born and settled in Devonport. Bill had an elder brother Henry (known as Harry). Harry became engaged to Florrie COURT in 1898, a daughter of John Court.


Observer 12 February 1898


The romance did not prosper, however, and Florrie married another of their circle, Charles Rainger. Harry remained unmarried.
Bill's sister Amy Cotes married Desmond GRATTAN  3 October 1900. The couple had four children. 

Observer 13 October 1900

Albert Ernest Bartley and the Williams family

Albert Ernest Bartley was the 8^th child and fourth surviving son of Edward BARTLEY and Elizabeth HANNKEN. He was known in the family as Allie and was born at Devonport, North Shore, Auckland on 5 November 1873 where he attended the local primary school in his early years.
In 1901 his sister May was married. Allie was groomsman for Bill  ALLEN on that occasion. A few years later he stepped forward as the groom himself, when he married Lucy Helena WILLIAMS, 14 February 1906 at Sacred Heart Church in Ponsonby, Auckland.[ii]

 Lucy was almost 10 years his junior, being born in 1882 in Thames. Her parents were John and Margaret Williams[iii] . We know she had at least three siblings, as they were also baptized in the Catholic Church in Thames.

Her brother Thomas Henry was born in 1876 [iv], her elder sister Alicia  in 1877[v]  and younger sister Sarah was born in 1884.[vi]

The Williams family moved to Auckland some time after Sarah was born and settled in Ponsonby.

Albert and Lucy were married in the Catholic Church in Ponsonby. Two years later sister Sarah Williams married Bernard George HOLTON in the same church.[vii] Bernard’s parents were Thomas Holton and Emma PURSER from Clapham, England.  From the 1901 census we know of a second son William and a sister Edith. Bernard was a commercial traveler and the marriage was not a happy one. He moved to Australia and was living at 63 Surrey St Darlinghurst when he died. [viii]

Albert and Lucy had two children Jack b 27 November 1907 and Trevor Yelverton b 1909

. 

Jack and Trevor in the garden at Devonport

Lucy died aged 31 on 10 November 1913. [ix]

After Lucy’s death Alicia helped to raise her young nephews, as well as caring for her widowed mother.  Mrs Margaret Williams died 7 December 1922 and was buried at  Waikumete Cemetery.[x] In 1923 Alicia and Albert married. 

Albert died 15 October 1940 at home at 54 Albert Road Devonport.[i]

Alicia survived Albert by 24 years and died in Auckland on 4 August 1964.[xi]

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[i] Oneils Point Row T Plot 89

[ii] Index to Catholic Parish of Ponsonby Record of Marriage 1906 #171355

[iii] Index to Catholic Parish of Thames 1882 #95580 Record of Baptism

[iv] Ibid 1876 #95837

[v] Ibid 1877 #95189 transcribed as Eliza Prudence

[vi] Ibid 1884 #95733

[vii] Index to Catholic Parish of Ponsonby Record of Marriage 1908 #17145

[viii] NSW Register Deaths 1954/16091 16 August 1954 Informant brother W Holton of 97 Victoria St Potts Pt

[ix] Oneils Point Row T Plot 89 NZRBDM 1913/8135

[x] Waikumete Cemetery Records PRESBYTERIAN DIVISION C Row 3, Plot 8 NZRBDM 1922/2312

[xi] Oneils Point Row T Plot 87