Finding the Driffill family in the Auckland Star

In late May, the digitised version of the Auckland Star for the period 1870 – 1903 was made available on the Papers Past website. The digitisation project was a joint venture between the National Library of New Zealand and Auckland City Libraries.

Over the last few weeks I have been keyword searching the digitised text for “news” in relation to significant family names especially the DRIFFILL family. Keyword searching DRIFFILL is always a challenge because as anybody who is named Driffill will know, this unusual surname is often spelt incorrrectly.  Add to this the challenge of optical text recognition which generates the searchable text,  the complications of typesetting Driffill and the inevitable result is that the name “Driffill” is frequently recorded incorrectly in databases.  Just a small challenge for the family historian who has memorised every possible misspelling of Driffill (and there are at least 20 possibilities).

The Auckland Star database has yielded a number of news items concerning Thomas Driffill and his family. So I begin with the newspaper masthead, dated the closest day to my grandfather’s date of birth.

Given that Thomas lived in Tairua and on Slipper Island, this makes his “appearance” in an Auckland newspaper less likely. The Thames Star and The Bay of Plenty Times are the most likely sources of Tairua news.  However Thomas and his family did manage to make the news from time to time, particularly in the late 1800s and the early 1900s when both Thomas and his now adult children, emerged from the seclusion of Slipper Island.

Firstly the mundane.

Even in 1903 it was impossible to avoid parking rules. If you think that restrictive parking practices are new, think again. The Auckland Star of 1 October 1903 reports on Page 5 in the Police Court section

“Horses and Carts. – George Marriott, who tethered a horse on the footpath of Hobson Park-road, was fine 5/, and similar penalties were imposed upon Thomas Driffle, who tethered a horse on the footpath of Manukau-road, and Daniel McCarthy, who drove along Manukau-road after sunset without a light”.

Thomas may have been living in the back blocks of colonial New Zealand, but it was still very difficult to hide from the relatives back home. Thomas had obviously not kept in contact with his family in England because his brother William had advertised in the newspaper for “news” of Thomas. This was a simple process. UK based relatives would place an advertisement in the Lloyd’s Weekly newspaper in London and when the newspaper arrived in New Zealand, almost every newspaper in New Zealand would re-print the relevant advertisements for “missing friends and family”.  Needless to say, with a name like Driffill it was difficult to remain anonymous.  William’s original request for information relating to his brother Thomas was printed in the Lloyds Weekly on 7 February 1897.  The Feilding Star was one of many city and provincial newspapers who reprinted William’s request and on 29 March 1897, the Feilding Star recorded that:

“Thomas Driffill was last heard of in 1895 from Pepper Island, Auckland, New Zealand. Brother William asks”.

William obviously continued to advertise for information regarding his brother for many years and eventually he did receive news about Thomas and this is confirmed by the Auckland Star of 15 November 1900, which reported in it’s “Missing Friends” column that:

“Lloyd’s weekly newspaper of October 7, 1900, says: – We are indebted to the Auckland “Star” for news of Thomas Driffill (July1) asked for by his brother William at Putney. He is still living at Slipper Island.”

As a farmer, Thomas clearly had to sell his stock and purchase breeding stock from time to time.  This was a difficult process from a farm situated on an off-shore island. However the Auckland Star reports that Thomas Driffill often purchased specialist stock at the local “fairs”. The Star of 10 February 1899 records that
“Hunter and Nolan’s sheep fair, held at Green Lane yesterday afternoon was very successful. Nearly all the lots were disposed of, and the prices obtained were in advance of last year’s rates”.

The paper goes on to report that the highest price paid on the day was for a Lincoln ram, Mr W H Laycock being the purchaser at 7 ½ guineas.  William Laycock was a Tairua farmer and almost certainly a friend of Thomas Driffill.  Thomas was bestman/witness at George Laycock’s wedding in 1800.  It was no surprise to see that Thomas also purchased stock at the Hunter and Nolan’s sheep fair on the same day.  The Star reports that “T. Driffell” purchased two Lincoln rams for 1 ½ guineas each.  No doubt Thomas and William would have transported their prize Lincoln rams by boat, to their farms at Slipper Island and Tairua.

Thomas was also involved in some more “newsworthy” incidents. The Auckland Star dated 3 September 1894 reported Thomas’ involvement in the “rescue” of a seriously injured Maori. The clipped article from Page 2 is shown below.

Finally the Auckland Star dated 26 February 1885 gave a full account of the boat accident at Slipper Island that claimed the life of Elizabeth HOTHAM Trott’s son, John Trott. While this report identifies John as Thomas’ son, later reports correctly identify John as Thomas’ stepson.  However the relationship between John Trott, Thomas Driffill and Elizabeth HOTHAM Trott in 1885 is clearly made.

“BOAT ACCIDENT NEAR TAIRUA. A Boy Drowned.
While the steamer Glenelg was at Slipper Island on Tuesday last, an unfortunate boat accident occurred, by which a lad named Driffle, son of Mr Driffle of Slipper Island, lost his life. Captain Amodeo informs us that the Glenelg went into Slipper Island for the purpose of loading cattle. The manner in which this is done is as follow: A rope is made fast to the cutter in the yard ashore, and they are hauled off to the vessel, which lays at anchor about a cable distant, two at a time, by means of the steam winch, while one of the boats is dept in the water for carrying the line to and fro. Two bullocks which were being sent off in this way rushed from the yard and along the beach, so that the rope by which they were made fast got under the stern of the Glenelg boat and capsized her. She contained four persons, viz. Mr Jocelyn (first mate) in charge, two A.B’s, and a lad of 18 years of age, son Mr Driffle, proprietor of the island. One of the seaman swam ashore, while Mr Jocelyn and the other seaman stuck to the boat, from which they were subsequently rescued. The lad Driffle, however, who was unable to swim, was in great danger of drowning. Immediately the accident was observed, boats were sent off from the Glenelg and the shore but before they could reach the scene of the accident Driffle had sunk. The second mate of the Glenelg (Mr Peachy) and another of the crew dived several times and succeeded in recovering the body, which was taken ashore to Mr Driffle’s house. Here every effort was made to restore animation for two hours, but unsuccessfully, much to the grief of all present, and especially the parents of the deceased. After the accident the Glenelg went to Tairua and brought Constable Joyce to Slipper Island. He ascertained all necessary particulars and arranged that an inquest should be held to-day.”

The inquest for John Trott has been sighted by the writer at the New Zealand Archives Wellington office.  There is no doubt that the young man who drowned at Slipper Island in February 1885 was John Trott, son of Elizabeth HOTHAM Trott, Thomas’ common law wife.  At the time of John’s death, my grandfather Arthur Driffill was 18 months old, his older sister Ada was nearly 3 and his younger brother Clem was a 6 week old baby.

Papers past can be accessed via this link http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast