03 January 2016

Pulling the wool over multiple marriages, the life of William Frankpitt





Recently I was asked to do some research into a branch of family members that I had not done research on before and while shaking one of the branches, I came across some interesting information while doing an archive search that lead to a search through past newspapers in New Zealand. I ended up with some unexpected information that got my attention and that was the rest of the afternoon gone running down the basics to what I could find.


The search began when I searched for some information within the New Zealand National Archives website looking for William Henry Frankpitt. I wanted some clues to other family members and unexpectedly stumbled across two divorce records for William and a trial file from Greymouth that is available from the Christchurch archives. I was wondering about the three files so did the usual search on the Papers Past website and I came up with plenty of results on the life of William Henry Frankpitt. I will try to get these records in order.


I cannot find his birth for the time being, which is around 1871.  Henry is married in 1904 to Mary McArthur in New Zealand and a year later in 1905 they have a son Samuel Frankpitt. Around this time Henry is mentioned as being a shopkeeper in Kokataki on the South Island near Greymouth. Between 1908 and 1909 there are several civil court cases involving large sums of money from who I assume are companies (one being a biscuit company) from amounts ranging from 6 shillings to 27 pounds. It could be the beginnings of what would happen in years to come. In 1911, Mary passes away leaving Henry with their young son, Samuel. Henry does marry again once in 1913 and again in 1920, but this is plenty more to the story that I have found.


The biggest chunk of information was to occur in 1913. I will talk about the court case and leave the marriages until later as one of them does interconnect it seems with this court case. William appears within newspapers once again on the 8th of March, 1913 where he had been charged with an offence by having under false pretences 17 bales of wool with the value of around £196 from a local farmer, William Clayton. William represented himself to the farmer as being an agent for a wellington wool broker. It was mentioned he was a storekeeper residing a few miles away from Hokitika. On the 29th of March the prosecution needed a further week to work on the case and a bail application was made of £200 and two sureties of £120 each. It turns out within the news on the 9th of April 1913 Mr Frankpitt had represented himself as an agent for Murray, Roberts and co from Wellington and also told the farmer that he could obtain £2,000 in credit. By the 18th of June 1913, William had been sentenced to 9 months imprisonment.


Amazingly at the same time, William had remarried in 1913. He was a storekeeper in Auckland when he had a marriage ceremony. It was after the ceremony that William had learnt his wife, Nellie was a divorcee. According to the newspaper he had been acquainted with Nellie for several months. They travelled to Greymouth and he went away on business while he was there. The ‘business’ could have very well been in regards to the wool, but when he returned Nellie had vanished to Christchurch after selling all his furniture. He had gone to court to get an annulment for his wife’s desertion. He had been unable to find her in the city. The Judge in the court case to do with the bales of wool during sentencing concluded that both cases were actually separate when William had mentioned what had occurred with his wife. An interesting note before going further would be when William enlisted into the Army in 1915. He states he had not been sentenced to imprisonment by the civil powers even though he was discharged as being medically unfit.


William would marry Mary Braun in 1920, when Samuel would be around 15 years in age. In 1922 problems arise with the previous marriage. It turned out that the first marriage had not been nullified through the courts and was not until 1922 that this case would appear in the courts. According to the New Zealand Herald on the 31st of May, William had only found that his wife whom he thought was dead was actually alive and well in Wellington 12 months after he had remarried to Mary. The judge declared that the current marriage would be null and void would be made absolute within three months time. The matter went before the court again in regards to the second marriage not being binding and that William may have to pay maintenance or some form of alimony. It was pointed out that Mary was now working and William was now in hospital after an accident of some sort. William passed away in April in 1924 at the age of 53. It did not say if he died because of being crushed in an accident.


I found this case to be an interesting one as you never know what the twists and turns would be until you place the information together. All this came about on a whim through researching some records within New Zealand births deaths and marriages. I had only gotten the basics through official records, but further research uncovered more information. I will have to do some more research on William Henry Frankpitt especially order a certificate to confirm who his parents actually are. His birth certificate is actually missing, but other records say he was born in New Zealand on the West Coast on the South Island. There are several other people with the same name. I will get lucky and that is all what family history research is all about. Here I was thinking the added branch from the Downey family that married the Milverton’s in Palmerston North would not contain much at all.


Sources used

Family Search

Births, Deaths and Marriages, New Zealand


New Zealand National Archives

Papers Past

The following are through Papers Past the search terms were William Henry Frankpitt

Civil Court Cases, Evening Post, 7 February 1908

Grey River Argus , 8 April 1913

Supreme court sessions, West Coast Times , 17 June 1913

William Frankpitt, Civil cases, Evening Post, 9 April 1913

William Downey, A DEAL IN WOOL , Grey River Argus, 9 April 1913

William Frankpitt divorce, Auckland Star, 13 May 1921

Marriage Annulled, New Zealand Herald, 31 May 1922

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