William Alfred INKSON, b: 17 Apr 1859 Kings Lynn, Norfolk
His Story
William Alfred was the third child, second son of Thomas Harborow b. 16 Dec 1834 and Martha, his older sister having died in infancy. We had thought he was the oldest son until the recent discovery of Thomas Henry [opens a new tab]. He went on to found the 'New Zealand' Inksons.
He was born at home on 17 Apr 1859, as seen on his birth certificate. Home at that time was St James' Street in Kings Lynn, Norfolk and his father is described as a railway clerk. A Mormon record gives his date of baptism as 25 Apr 1861. Perhaps Thomas Harborow and Martha didn't want to tempt fate by having him baptised before he reached two years of age?
At the time of the 1861 census, William Alfred was 2 years of age and living with his parents and his younger sister on Exton's Road, Kings Lynn. At the time his father was said to still be a railway clerk. Ten years later, at the time of the 1871 census, he was recorded as 11 years old [the census night was early April so he hadn't quite reached 12] and living with his parents and five younger siblings in Burnham Sutton where his father was the station master.
10 years further on and the 1881 census finds the reportedly 20 year old William Alfred [he was actually 2 weeks short of his 22nd birthday on the night of the census] living at 40 Albert Gate, Knightsbridge, London where he was one of 18 boarders from all over the country, all described as drapers assistants or furnishing salesmen of one sort or another. He must have been working for one of the large furnishings companies and as the Harvey Nichols store was just across the road from Albert Gate it is most likely that that was where he was working.
Shortly after that census he must have emigrated to New Zealand because in mid-1885 he was a 'salesman' living at 53 Cambridge Terrace, Christchurch and sufficiently established to subscribe to 50 shares of the 'Christchurch Gold-Mining Company Ltd'. He would have been 25 years of age. There is no known information about what vessel he sailed on or exactly when and where he arrived in New Zealand.
He was working for a furniture company called AJ White's in Christchurch and went on to marry Mary White, a daughter of the owners in 1897 when he would have been 38 years old. The family story is that that was not what Mr White's family wanted and the date is significant : Mr White had died in 1895.
William Alfred and Mary went on to have six children. There are no known New Zealand census returns so there are only glimpses of the family in the years following the marriage. In 1902, a Post Office directory shows him [but not Mary] as being on the High Street in Christchurch, more or less next door to the White's furniture store. In June 1904 the family arrived in England for a trip 'home' [at least as far as William Alfred was concerned] on RMS Athenic. The UK immigration record notes that he was 45 and she was 38. Two children accompanied them : Alfred [4] and Irene [2]. Irene's proper name was Veronica Maud but she was known in the family as Rene.
In 1911 the Christchurch South Supplementary Roll [a list of voters] shows that they were living at 82 Jerrold Street and that he was retired. He would have been 52 years old.
William Alfred died on 18 Jun 1913 whilst on a trip to Queensland, Australia. He must have been in Toowoomba, about 100km west of Brisbane, as that is where he was buried. He would have been 54 years old but his tombstone records that he was 56 for some reason.
Mary lived another 26 years or so, dying in Christchurch on 4 Jun 1939 aged 70.