Bodkin Family - Early Settlers in Central Otago, New Zealand

My wife Jane's family in New Zealand descend from the Bodkins of Armagh, Northern Ireland. Jane's great, great, great grandparents were James & Esther Bodkin (nee Esther Charles) who married in Armagh in 1837. Esther died in 1888 aged 67 and James was therefore probably born around 1815-1818. [lower photo]

Jane descends from their son James who was born in 1845 in Dennygard, County Derry. He came to New Zealand in 1864. He married Eleanor Black (born 1854 in Cookstown, Ireland) in 1872 in Queenstown, New Zealand. [upper photos]

We have an invoice for 15s [top photo] from James' business. He describes himself as a 'Practical Watch & Clockmaker, Jeweller etc.' A very useful trade on the Otago Goldfields.

James had an elder brother John, whose death is recorded on gravestones in the family plot in Desertmartin and also in the Wakatipu Mail of 24 August 1888:

'BODKIN - On 23rd May at sea, on board the SS City of Sydney, on the homeward bound voyage (from China), John Charles Bodkin, MD Surgeon, HIM Customs and Navy, Chefoo, China, brother of James Bodkin of Queenstown.

Apparently the New Zealand family featured a picture of J.C. Bodkin on the wall of their house for many years.

NOTE ON CHEFOO / YANTAI

Chefoo (as Yantai was then officially known) played a role in the second Opium War (1856-1860). This conflict between the Western powers and China was concluded by the Treaty of Tianjin, under whose terms nearby Dengzhou (Penglai) was opened to foreign trade and investment as a ‘Treaty Port’.

The first British consulate, Morrison, finding Dengzhou's port too small and shallow, recommended the lease title be shifted to Chefoo, which has a large, sheltered bay (there is still a street in town named after him). Other consuls followed Morrison in setting up their establishments on Yantai Hill.

The town never achieved the success of other treaty ports to the South, such as Shanghai, but brought some modest prosperity to the Shandong coast. The boarding school for the children of Western missionaries was sited in Chefoo because of its favourable climate. The treaty which ended the Sino-Japanese war of 1895 was signed in the Chefoo Club

The Chefoo School also known as the Protestant Collegiate School or China Inland Mission School was a Christian boarding school established by the China Inland Mission - under James Hudson Taylor- at Chefoo (Yantai), in Shandong province in northern China, in 1880. Its purpose was to provide an education for the children of foreign missionaries and the foreign business and diplomatic communities in China.

The curriculum was based on the British education system, heavily emphasizing classical courses designed to prepare students for entrance to British universities such as Oxford and Cambridge. Mr W L Elliston began to teach the first three pupils in 1881.

By 1886, the number of pupils grew to over 100, and there were three departments - the Boys', Girls' and Preparatory School. In 1886 the Boys and Girls schools were separated. The children of China Inland Mission workers alone numbered over 200 children by 1894.

Yantai is now a prosperous city of 3m people, dwarfing the town of Penglai, the original treaty port site.