Joseph Cripps 1883-1952

 

 

                                              Subject: Joe Cripps
                                              Photographer: Halma’s Studio, Ashburton, NZ
                                              Found: TradeMe

Today’s photo is a really nice one which has been well looked after, such a shame it ended up under the auctioneer’s gavel! Happily I have already found a descendant who I’m sure will be thrilled to receive it.

At first I wasn’t sure if the surname was Cripps as the P’s didn’t really look like P’s to me, however as there didn’t seem to be a lot of people with the name of ‘Cribbs’ in NZ (only one death & no births or marriages in the NZ BMDs) I went with Cripps.

Joseph Cripps was born in New Zealand on the 28 Mar 1883 to John & Sarah Cripps, he was the sixth of their thirteen children who were born in NZ from 1875 onwards.

John & Sarah had arrived in NZ from Oxfordshire as assisted immigrants on the maiden voyage of the ship Waimate, arriving 25 Jan 1875 in Canterbury after an 81 day voyage, departing Gravesend on 28 Oct 1874, John was a labourer and they were both aged 23, cost to the NZ Government £29.0s.0d.

 

They had been married in Bilton, Warwickshire just two months before they set sail:-

John was the son of Joshua Gregory Cripps [son of Patience Cripps] and Ann Gibbard, born in Bletchingdon, Oxfordshire & baptised in the St Giles Church there on the 16 Mar 1851. Sarah was the daughter of John and Martha Brain also from Bletchingdon & baptised there on the 29 Feb 1852.

John died in 1898 aged 46 and Sarah was still alive in 1915 when one of her sons died so I presume her death is the one registered in 1921:-

1898/5728 Cripps John 46Y
1921/5116 Cripps Sarah 68Y

After their deaths son John took over the family farm and from what I can gather in the various newspapers on Papers Past some of his brothers also worked with him.

Joseph married Agnes Isabella Lovett in 1909 and so far I’ve been able to identify at least four daughters for them although there may be more children born after the NZ BMD online cutoff date of 1914.

1909/6201 Agnes Isabella Lovett & Joseph Cripps

Joseph & Agnes were farming in the area of Anama in Mayfield, Ashburton. In 1914 Joseph ended up in the Ashburton hospital with a fractured thighbone after being knocked down by a team of horses. He survived and over the next 38 years Joseph & Agnes were living variously in Mayfield or Wanganui, in 1952 Joseph died and Agnes followed him in 1963:-

1952/19186 Cripps Joseph 69Y
1963/32617 Cripps Agnes Isabella 75Y

References: Papers Past; NZBDM Online; ancestry.com.au; FreeBMD; familysearch.org

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As mentioned before I have already found a grand-daughter of Joseph but if you are connected in some way to the CRIPPS family please feel free to either take a copy of the photo from here or contact me for a higher resolution copy. Contact by email is preferable but if you are going to leave a comment please don’t forget to include your email address.

Dawn Scotting
pandora[at]kc.net.nz