Riley Family

The descendants of Joshua Riley of Bradford Yorkshire can be found today in the Hammonds and Riley's who emigrated to New Zealand in the 1800's

My Riley roots go back to Yorkshire, in and around Bradford. The earliest ancestor that I can connect to is a Joshua Riley who was the father of George Riley born in 1764. George married Sarah Bentley in Bradford on the 8 March 1789. I have identified two children from this marriage – there may be more! The eldest son, Joshua was born in 1790 and Joel in 1792, both in Bradford. Joel married Hannah Penney in Bradford on the 2 January 1818.

They raised four children, Sarah 1818, Joseph about 1824, George 1824 and Mary 1831.

In the census of 1841, Joel is living in Bradford West End- Black Abbey with an occupation of Wool Comber. George is a miner and Mary a spinner. Joseph is not listed with an occupation, so he was likely younger then George – both were recorded as being 15.

Sarah was not living at home at this time; she had a child to a Henry Hammond in 1840. They married in 1842, shortly before embarking with Henry’s brother Richard and wife, to New Zealand from Gravesend on the 16 June 1842 aboard the ‘George Fife’. They arrived in Nelson on the 16 December 1842. Later they moved north to Bulls in the North Island to establish themselves.

See Sarah Riley, Henry Hammond (including photos) and her descendants in the Dynamic Family Tree.

It was reported in the Bradford Observer on the 30 Aug 1849 that Joel Riley, age 58 died of Cholera. At the time there was an outbreak of Cholera in the Bradford area.

As of yet, I have been unable to determine what happened to Hannah, Joseph and Mary. They do not appear in the 1851 census, although a number of Hannah and Mary Riley’s died in Bradford in those intervening years.

George however married Elizabeth Agley the daughter of Thomas Hagley and Henrietta Leach, at the Parish Church in Birstal outside of Bradford on the 30 August 1846. Elizabeth and her brother James both seemed to have dropped the 'H' in Hagley and assumed the name Agley after their mother Henrietta remarried. The reason for this is unknown.

In the census of 1851 he and Elizabeth with infant child John William born 1850 and daughter Hannah 1849 (visiting next door) were living at Bradford Moor. George was still listed a miner at this time and Elizabeth a weaver. George died at an early age on the 16 December 1859 of Phthisis (TB), an occupational hazard working in the mines. This left Elizabeth as a widow with, by now, in addition to Hannah and John; Henrietta 1852, James Agley 1853, Joseph Henry 1857 and was pregnant with Georgiana, born after George’s death in 1860.

By the time of the 1871 census, Hannah was a worsted weaver, John William a cabinet maker, Henrietta a worsted weaver, James Agley a butcher and Joseph Henry a worsted spinner.

John William married Mary Jane Wilkinson on the 11 August 1874 and shortly after left for New Zealand on the ‘Langstone’ for a better life, arriving in Wellington on Christmas day 1874. He and his wife Mary Jane then moved up to Bulls, where his aunty Sarah Hammond (nee Riley), her husband and family were living. Here he set up a Cabinet Maker establishment.

James Agley Riley married Amelia Ann Mitchell on the 30 November 1874. He and Amelia had a daughter Elizabeth Ann in September 1875 but who died a few months later in July 1876. On the 21 November 1878, they also left England for New Zealand on board the ‘Hudson’, arriving in Wellington as sponsored immigrants by his brother John.

James and Amelia also traveled up to Bulls and it was here on the 14 August 1879 that there first New Zealand born child and only son, Edgar Mitchell Riley was born. They then had three daughters – Florence Amelia 1882, Pauline May 1884 and Bertha 1886. During this time he plied his occupation as a butcher until sometime after the death of Edgar in 1899. He later moved to Te Puke and in the Electoral role of 1911 he is listed as a ‘ganger’ (foreman of a team of workers) on the railway. He was still listed as this in 1914. In the 1921 Electoral role he has moved to Grey Lynn, Auckland and has retired. Before he left for Auckland, his grandson Edgar Riley Mitchell had moved to Te Puke.

James Agley Riley, my great grandfather continued to live in Auckland with his wife Amelia Ann until he died on Christmas day 1930 at the age of 77. His wife Amelia was to live for many years dying in her 90’s.

I only remember her vaguely on a visit to Auckland as a young boy. All I can remember is that she looked old – but doesn’t everyone seem that way when you are young!

His only son Edgar Mitchell Riley died at an early age of 20 shortly after an offer to marry Eva Mary Mitchell. Eva shortly after gave birth to a son whom she named after his father - Edgar Riley Mitchell, my father, a twist on his name and utilizing her surname. Her parents raised Edgar in his early years as Eva went on to marry Edgar Mitchell Riley's cousin Gilbert Riley, the son of John and Mary Riley.

On 3 September 1879, their mother Elizabeth and eldest sister Hannah also left England. They came out on the ‘Arethusa’ a sailing ship of 950 tons, arriving in Wellington 7 December 1879. On the same ship came his other sister Henrietta, who in 1873 married James Garnett. They traveled out with their daughter Martha Elizabeth who was four at the time. The Garnets and Elizabeth and Hannah also moved north from Wellington to Bulls.

‘ARETHUSA' The voyage to New Zealand. A Diary of a emigrant on ‘The Arethusa’ voyage to New Zealand in 1879 (The same voyage that Elizabeth, Hannah and Henrietta and her husband James came to New Zealand). This makes very interesting reading, giving a good indication of life aboard an immigrant ship and it's voyage to New Zealand.

Hannah Riley married Albert Augustus Schulz a recent emigrant from Germany in 1882 in Bulls. They had six children – George Frederick 1883, Herbert Alfred 1885, August Albert 1886, Maud Elizabeth 1888, Arthur Riley 1890, Hannah Florence 1892. Both Herbert and August later died in combat in WW1, Herbert in Gallipoli and August in Belgium. Hannah died in 1925.

Henrietta and her husband James Garnett had three children – Martha Elizabeth 1875, Lily Riley 1880 and William (Willie) about 1884. James died at an early age of 36 in 1884. Henrietta later married a Bradley Scratchard in 1913, Henrietta dying in 1922.

A Joseph Henry Riley died 6 February 1910 at the Porirua Hospital, Wellington with a stated age of 43 on the death certificate, of pulmonary tuberculosis after being admitted there in 1900 by two doctors from Bulls with "dementia". It is not known at this time when and by which ship he came to New Zealand. The age of 43 would be correct if that was his age on admission to the hospital, however at the time of death he should have been 53. It was stated in the coroner’s report that he was last visited by a sister in 1908. It is assumed that this Joseph Henry Riley is the correct one as Bulls in 1900 had only a little over 500 residents so it unlikely that there would be two Joseph Henry Riley's living there. In a school journal Elizabeth Riley is quoted as saying that she came out to New Zealand with her five children. Elizabeth Riley died in 1910.

My father Edgar (Eddie) Riley Mitchell married Sybil Clarrisa Browne in Te Puke at the St John’s Anglican Church on 29 April 1931. They purchased a house on Oxford Street where they lived there remaining lives. He operated a photographic and fancy goods store most of his married life. He was a quiet unassuming man who gave up much of his spare time to the St John’s Ambulance which he helped found in Te Puke. I remember being able to get into all sorts of sporting events, rugby, boxing, equestrian by helping him carry his medical bag. He was a founding member of the local Rotary Club and became a Justice of the Peace in 1955. See also Hickmott, Curgenven, and Dynamic Family Tree Links