John Hardcastle in England

In the late 1880s John Hardcastle invented loess stratigraphy and initiated the study of scientific palaeoclimatology. He did this in Timaru, in South Canterbury, in the South Island of New Zealand. Harcastle was in his thirties when he made his critical observations on the loess deposits of the Dashing Rock section on the coast at Timaru; he is seen as a New Zealander, making his discoveries in New Zealand, but he was born in, and spent a few years living in, England.

1858: the ship Maori leaves Gravesend, in Kent, and travels to Lyttelton in the South Island of New Zealand. The Maori sailed on 23 March 1858 and arrived in NZ on 14 July 1858. On board were the Hardcastle family:

Thomas Hardcastle, aged 40, labourer and mechanic; his wife Caroline 33, and children John 10, Thomas, Elizabeth, Cresser, Caroline, Edward and Charles.

It was an assisted passage, the family received some financial support from an immigration promoting association.

1851: there should be some trace of JH in the 1851 census. This requires more searching. There is an entry for John Hardcastle b. about 1847 in Heath, Yorkshire and listed as living at Allington in Nottinghamshire in 1851. JH would be the only child to be listed by the UK census; he was captured by the 1851 census; by the time of the next (1861) census the family were living in NZ.

1846: birth certificate. JH may have been born on 1 Sept.1846 at Beverley in East Riding of Yorkshire. That would make him 10 when he left on the Maori- which agrees with the data on the passenger list. A dating problem; some other sources give 21 January 1847 as birth date, and the birth location as Heath, Wakefield, Yorkshire, England. JHs parents- Thomas and Caroline were married in Beverley in June 1846. Timaru District Council lists his birthdate as 21 January 1847; the marriage date probably makes the January date more likely.

Three documents to start the search for the junior John Hardcastle. Travelling with John on the Maori was his younger brother Cresser. Now Cresser could be a person of interest due to his very unusual name; Cresser is a good marker- and where Cresser is John should be also. And why Cresser?  the Hardcastle male names are straightforward names like Thomas, John, Edward and Charles- where did Cresser come from?  The mother of JH and Cresser was Caroline, and her maiden name was Hebb. Another distinctive name which may help in the great search for details of JH in UK.

Some details: Cresser Hardcastle b.Newark?, Lincolnshire, England in 1852; d. Timaru 1928

Important book: The Roots of the Hardcastles; an Old Yorkshire Family, by Michael Ronald Hardcastle. [TROTH] The chapter about the Hardcastles moving to Australia and New Zealand- particularly useful. The emigration list in TROTH omits Thomas- this was presumably a simple typo.