Jabez and elizabeth Bradbury

Jabez and Elizabeth Bradbury

Jabez Bradbury (ca1840-1894) married Elizabeth Hyde (ca 1837-1913) in Dunedin in 1865. They came to Wellington shortly after their marriage and by 1884 were living in Moxham Avenue. Jabez was a brewer by trade but in the years before his death had managed HD Crawford's dairy in Miramar. He fell out of a vehicle around 1892 and was badly hurt, and a year later fell off a hay cart and was injured again. These events possibly lead to depression, because Jabez began to feel that local people were shunning him and committed suicide in 1894.

Jabez and Elizabeth's son John went to the Boer War and on his return worked on the Crawford Estate. Elizabeth lived there with John for a while and later moved with him and his family to the Mangaroa Valley. Elizabeth died in Upper Hutt in 1913. Three of Jabez' and Elizabeth's children married and lived in Hataitai: William became a carter, Mary married William Walter McKenzie Kennedy and Sarah married Robert Goodin.

Sources: Evening Post 20 and 21 Apr 1894; information and photos from descendant.