Growler Joll - a clout from a bridle in Cornwall, fisticuffs at sea and heaving with the bullocks in New Plymouth

THE NORTH ISLAND JOLLS

Turning away from the Cunnninghams to other NZ ancestors of my older sons Matthew and Peter, there is a comparative wealth of information.

This is particularly true with respect to the Jolls – and I hesitate somewhat against trampling on the toes of those who have gone before me in compiling family histories and genealogies. However, I will venture on, giving credit where it is due.

In my experience such information is so easily mislaid – and I feel reasonably confident that both future offspring and researchers will value the posting of the material online even though there may be some repetitions and overlaps.

I have acquired most of my material through Dennis (Denno) Joll of Kamo. Denno is the brother of Noeleen Cunningham (Joll). Let’s start with the Jolls and pick up later on with the Rouses - and then with some of the more remote ancestors of some of the NZ Jolls who stem from the foundation of New South Wales and some of its less than willing settlers.

My boys are descended from the Jolls through their maternal grandmother Noeleen. She is the daughter of Harold Joll (b 1902, married May Smith) and the granddaughter of Thomas Matthew Joll (b 1870, married Jessie Thompson). Thomas Matthew Joll was the son of Thomas Treliving Joll who was born in New Zealand in 1845 and who married Ann Langdon Jonas in New Plymouth in 1869. Thomas T. Joll was the fourth son of the NZ family founder Samual ‘Growler’ Joll (1805 – 1879).

Denno has supplied a Joll Family History that was prepared for the Family Reunion that was held in 1990. Its credits include mention of Esmene Chatterton (nee Joll), Phyllis Lomas (nee Joll), and of Sydney and Roy Joll who both visited the family homelands in Cornwall conducting research. I have also drawn on compilations from the same sources by Don Auckram.

At the outset it is perhaps wise to note that we are dealing here with the family of farmer Samuel ‘Growler’ Joll (1805 – 1879) and his wife Elizabeth (Vanderband Treliving, 1808 – 1882). The family originates from Calstock in Cornwall. Samuel and Elizabeth sailed on the ‘Timandra’, leaving Plymouth on the 2nd November 1841 arriving at New Plymouth, New Zealand on 24th February 1842.

The subsequent North Island family is not to be confused with that of Wesleyan Minister Digory Joll who emigrated to New Zealand from Lincolnshire on the ship Calypso sailing from London on 22nd July 1879 arriving at Dunedin on the 14th October. This family first settled in Oamaru where they started a grocery business and their many descendants now extend from Auckland to Invercargill.

As the genealogies of both families feature individuals with the markedly unusual name Digory Joll and both have links to Egloskerry in Cornwall they are almost certainly from the same original stock.

BEDHEUGH BYNYTHA KERNEWIC – BE FOREVER CORNISH

The Family History emphasizes the very long association of the Joll family with eastern Cornwall and that family members were ‘noted for their longevity and strength’. Records frequently identify family members in the vicinity of the parishes of Altarnun, Egloskerry, Lewannick, Wardstow and Calstock. It seems that, as well as being yeomen farmers, they were frequently clergymen and clerks.

According to the parochial records of the late 18th century, John Joll of Altarnun died in 1783 aged 98 years with his daughter Mary dying at 93 years old in 1826 and his daughter Honor dying at 90 in 1825. What these admirable statistics mask is that Honor died as a result of falling downstairs and that Mary died as a result of being attacked by a ram.

A fairly simple verifiable genealogy runs as follows:

• John Joll married Ann Phillip on 1 November 1714 at Egloskerry. They had eight children, including:-

• Josiah Joll, born 23 June 1723, Egloskerry, Cornwall. He married Thomasin Lean on 3 June 1753 at St Germans Church, Cornwall. Josiah, a yeoman, shifted the family to Calstock about 1780. Here he died in February 1784 and was buried at Calstock on 13 February. An extract from Josiah Jolls will reads, “I leave to my daughter Ann, wife of William Knight £10, to my daughter Sarah Joll, £20 when she attains 21. Residue unto my wife Thomzin Joll and my son Samuel Joll, my Executors.” Josiah and Thomasin Joll’s children include:-

• Samuel Joll, christened 25 April 1766, St Germans, Cornwall. Samuel married Sarah Bowhay on 5 December 1796 at Calstock, Cornwall. Samuel was a yeoman, owning Tumple farm, near Calstock, besides this he owned certain customary lands and houses, comprising quite a part of the village of Calstock. Samuel died in August 1807, leaving Sarah with three young children, and pregnant with a fourth. She was able to raise and educate her children, no doubt from the proceeds of the family properties. Oldest son, Josiah was to take over the running of the farms. Sarah died at Calstock in 1849. The children of Samuel and Sarah include:-

• Samuel “Growler” Joll, christened 10 December 1805, Calstock, Cornwall. Samuel married Elizabeth Vanderband Treliving on 16 May 1829 at Calstock, Cornwall. Listed on the Calstock tithes taken on 10 September 1839, Samuel rented a house in Calstock from brother-in-law, John Treliving, and arable land at Slades Park from Martin Rickard.

Samuel's occupation was listed in the Calstock parish register as blacksmith. Family folklore says that after a fight with his older brother Josiah, who clouted him with a bridle, Samuel decided to immigrate to New Zealand, to buy a farm from the New Zealand Land Company.

Beyond these early forbears, there more tentative links back to Thomas Joll, christened 28 March 1590, Egloskerry, Cornwall - Thomas married Jelion Pyn 28 September 1613 at Egloskerry. There are also possible links to George Joll of Artanun who married Margaret Dowrish in 1675.

This Joll was a substantial landowner who replaced his family’s old farmhouse near Calstock with a stone mansion named Harewood House. Through Margaret, this line of the family claims ancestry with the Carew, Denham, Dinan and St Leger families and further back to the Earls of Ormond and Kings Edward I and Henry III.

EMIGRATION ON THE ‘TIMANDRA’

Samuel, Elizabeth and their five children left from Plymouth, England, on the 2 November 1841, on board the ship Timandra, bound for New Plymouth, New Zealand. The Timandra was a barque of 382 tons captained by J L Skinner with George C. Forbes as the Surgeon Superintendent.

The official account of the voyage was written up positively to encourage settlers and buoy up investment in the New Zealand Company:

“Stoutest and best-found of all the vessels sent out to New Plymouth was the barque Timandra, 382 tons, Captain Skinner, which made the passage direct in 113 days. She left Plymouth on November 2, 1841, and arrived on February 23, 1842, bringing 212 passengers, the largest number sent out in any of the six vessels.

This fine ship had a pleasant voyage out. On the way out a call was made at Cape Town, where a fortnight was spent, including Christmas Day. In marked distinction to many of the emigrant ships of the 'fifties and the 'sixties, the Timandra was a happy craft, and everyone had a good word to say for her.

Among the passengers was Mr W Devenish, who brought out with him a small flock of Southland down sheep, the first seen in New Zealand. The Timandra seems to have been in luck all the way through, for she landed her passengers and cargo without a hitch in perfect weather, during her ten days stay off New Plymouth’.

Then as now official spin doctored documents were not to be altogether trusted. The family side of the story is that as:

‘According to the diary of D.M. Weekes, who was a passenger on the ship, the voyage was not a particularly happy one and long before they reached New Zealand dissatisfaction with the conditions had reached a critical stage.

The passengers were either steerage or cabin and there was ill feeling between the two. The language of the steerage emigrants was objected to and they in turn objected to the cabin passenger’s exclusive use of the awning poop deck, and also to their pretensions of organising the schoolroom but failure to work in it.

One reason for this was the regulation of the New Zealand Company that chloride of lime be sprinkled about the emigrants berths, considered necessary for the preservation of their health.

One morning towards the end of the voyage Samuel Joll endeavoured to stop the constable, Mr. Thompson, from sprinkling the chloride in his berth while his wife lay ill. The following are entries from the Ships Log:

“Friday February 11th 1842. At 10am I went down below…the ‘tween decks with Dr Forbes to see the chloride of lime sprinkled which some of the emigrants said should not be done as it burned their clothes.

I immediately took the bucket and…commenced sprinkling it over the deck when one of the emigrants named Joll seized hold of my collar and threw me down onto deck in presence of Dr Forbes and assistant superintendant for which offence Captain Skinner had him put in irons on the poop for 24 hours as a prisoner until he thought proper to beg pardon and keep the peace for the remainder of the passage.

Saturday February 12th 1842 Samuel Joll placed in irons on the poop but by 8pm Samuel Joll begged pardon and promised to keep the peace the remainder of the passage and therefore I let him out of irons.”

From family folklore passed down says Samuel Joll’s version of events were as follows. Elizabeth was lying ill on the bed when a sailor, whose duty it was to deal with their cabin, told her to get up and when she failed to do so he went to pull the bedclothes off her. This was too much for Samuel, who being a powerful man smartly knocked the sailor down.

The sailor then brought the chief officer to the scene and when Samuel was splashed with lime, he saw red and knocked him down too. A terrific struggle with several of the crew took place before he was restrained in irons as the captain ordered.

Apparently the apology requested and given by Samuel was no more than a matter of policy for once Samuel was ashore he borrowed a canoe, paddled to the Timandra and advised the captain not to come ashore. There is no record of the captain’s reply.

In this incident Samuel “Growler’ Joll was described as a blacksmith, was a powerful man physically, and most obstinate and cross-grained in his mentality.

On the voyage Elizabeth Joll,, quite apart from being bucketed by the crew, was occupied with sewing garments for the New Zealand Company. It seems that she completed a wardrobe over the 4 month voyage consisting of 5 men’s blue shirts, 4 women’s white cotton shifts, 5 boy’s blue shirts, 4 girl’s white shifts, 4 men’s grey shirts and 4 boy’s grey shirts.

The Timandra arrived at New Plymouth, New Zealand on 25 February 1842, also on board were the family of James and Betsy Wills, of Calstock, whose eldest son, Albert, was later to marry the eldest daughter, Ann, of Samuel and Elizabeth Joll.

SETTLING IN TARANAKI

The family spent the first weeks in New Plymouth in a whare [house made of raupo wood] while Samuel went to Omata, where he had purchased land, to build a shelter. Later joined by Elizabeth, they were to have another five children. In the first years of the New Plymouth settlement Samuel Joll took work on as a carter, carting flour from a mill to the beach for shipping to Wellington.

Samuel Joll brought the first transport into service in New Plymouth, and it was also the most unusual. Samuel Jolls transport was described in the Taranaki Daily News as a sort of a handcart, with Samuel or one of his sons acting in the capacity of shaft horse. Two goats followed next, then two dogs, and a dog as leader, led by one of the sons. When an extra pull was required “pig, pig, pig!’ or “Sool-em-up, boys,” was shouted, with the desired effect. With this strange team many hundreds of tons were taken from the mill to the beach.

In the 1846 census for New Plymouth, Samuel Joll is listed as the proprietor and owner of one cottage. The following census in 1852 lists his household as 6 males and 4 females and that he had 10 and a half acres of land made up of; 3 acres of furrow, 3 and 3/4 acres in crop, 2 acres in wheat, half acre in potatoes, half acre in oats, half acre in other crop, and a quarter acre in garden.

During the Land Wars, which started in March 1860, in Taranaki, Samuel Joll and his family had to evacuate their farm on the Bell Block and take refuge in New Plymouth for some months. Two of his sons served with the New Zealand Colonial Forces in Taranaki. Once things settled down Samuel returned to his farm, but the war flared up again in 1863 and Samuel and Elizabeth retired to Devon Street, New Plymouth.

In later life Samuel intervened to stop a bullocky lashing his bullock team when his cart had became grounded in the mud in central New Plymouth. He rushed in to heave behind the cart and was injured as a consequence. Thence forward, crippled with pain and rheumatism, he would then sit outside his Devon Street house and pass comments to passers-by about them, the country, and life in general.

It was on this account that he was nicknamed “Growler” Joll.


Samuel died at his home on 20 June 1879 and was buried on 22 June at Te Henui Cemetery, New Plymouth. Elizabeth lived with her daughter and son in-law Elizabeth and Samuel Driller until her death on 15 July 1882. She was buried with Samuel on 16 July 1882.



ANOTHER NORTHLAND FAMILY – THE ROUSES

To round off my posts about the family forbears of my two older sons, it seems sensible to briefly summarize here the information that I have on another of the constituent families – the Rouses of Whangarei. As previously noted, my two older boys descend from Edward (actually Edward Arthur) Cunningham and Clair Rouse (Lillian A’Clair) who married on the third of July 1929 in St Matthews Church, Hikurangi.

[And tying the relationship more deeply, Ivy Rouse, the daughter of Clair's brother James, married Dennis Joll, the brother of Noeleen Cunnigham / Joll in the 1950s]

Clair was the daughter of James Rouse (1872 – 1928) and Ethel Baylis - and the grand-daughter of the NZ founders Thomas Rouse (1834 – 1896) and Sarah Ann Kenworthy (1849 – 1934). Thomas and Sarah Ann were married at Waitangi Manse, Whangarei by the Reverend John Gorrie on 24th May 1867. A Prospectus for the Rouse Family Reunion that was held on 26th June 1982 noted 507 descendants or so at that time.

Thomas Rouse and Sarah Ann Kenworthy both left London on 28th May 1864 on the sailing ship ‘Portland’, arriving in Auckland on 28th August 1864. Thomas was in the army until his discharge in 1867 and had been born in North Hinskey, Berkshire. The birthplace of Sarah Ann Kenworthy is less certain but the likelihood is that she was born in or near Huddersfield, Yorkshire. I have posted their pictures below.