Enoch and Ann Jellyman and nephew Enoch Jellyman

Seaview Cemetery. Block 24, plot 477.

Enoch and Ann Jellyman¹ arrived in Nelson on the Bolton in 1842. They settled in Poormans, now Marsden, Valley, as tenants.²

The Jellyman headstone at Seaview Cemetery

Mary Ann, nee Teakle and known as Ann, was born on the 12 April 1822. She died 27 July 1895 in Stoke aged 73, was buried in the Wesley Churchyard and later moved to Seaview Cemetery.

Enoch Jellyman was born 1 April 1811. He died 4 October 1879, aged 68, in an accident when his horse fell as he was going to inspect his land at Poormans Valley. 

Enoch and Ann were married on the 3 June 1838. They had about 5 acres of land on Poormans Valley, living in a cob house or a hut with a roof probably made of thatch. It is likely that Enoch was digging drains and building roads for the New Zealand Company until that Company ran out of capital. Two years after arriving in Nelson the couple had their first child, Emma.

In 1849 Enoch bought land in what is now Nayland Road, Stoke and farmed there growing wheat, barley turnips, hops and other crops. He had four cattle as well. Later he bought land in the Wairau in Marlborough which he leased until his sons were old enough to farm there.

Ann and Enoch had seven children, many of whom married into the local Ching family. The children were:

• Emma who married John Harris Ching
• George,  born 1845 and married Rose Allport, the daughter of Thomas and Rachel,  who was born in Australia.
• James, born 1847, who married Mary Ann Marsh in 1866 ( he was 19 and Mary Ann 16). He set himself up as a carrier and was later  a city councillor for Marlborough.
• Henry, born 1849, who  married Elizabeth Wells at the Stoke Wesleyan Church in 1868. He was a butcher, later becoming a vet.
• Eliza,  born 1852, who married Joseph Frederick Fedden in 1886 in Blenheim. Eliza Jane Fedden was buried at St Barnabas Anglican Church, Stoke in 1927 aged 74. She was living in Hope with Joseph, who died in 1900. The 1893 Electoral Roll has Eliza Jane in Reefton with an occupation of domestic duties.
• Mary Ann (Polly), born 1854, who married James Mundy in 1887. The 1893 Electoral Roll shows that Mary Ann was living in Stoke, with an occupation of domestic duties. Mary Ann died in Stoke in 1924. James died in 1936.
• William John,  born 1856 and died 1904. He married Elizabeth Anne Ching in 1880. They lived in Marlborough and had 9 children.
• Elizabeth, born 1858 and died 1924. She married Henry Ching who died in 1929 and together they had 12 children. 
• Alice, born 1859,  married Charles Samuel Jennens in Blenheim in 1888
• John, born 1862,  died 1933 and married Jane Cox (parents of Harold Jellyman who died fighting during WWI)
• Agnes Charlotte,  born 1864,  died 1938 married Thomas Ching who died in 1948. They had no children and are buried in Seaview Cemetery.

All of the  children would have attended Stoke School and the boys would have been expected to work on the farm alongside their father. Enoch bought land in Marlborough where George, James, Henry and William all eventually settled.

Enoch Jellyman junior was born 22 June 1842, some four months after his uncle Enoch and aunt Ann arrived in New Zealand. He sailed on the ship Violet,  arriving in Nelson on 6 July 1864. The following month he bought the Spring Grove store which sold groceries, drapery, crockery, footware, clothing, stationery and ironmongery. By 1867 he sold this business and decided to take a trip on the ship Cissy back to England,  arriving back in New Zealand by 1869. 

Ten years later at the age of 36 Enoch died of tuberculosis, from which is father and later his stepmother also died. He did not marry. He was buried at Seaview Cemetery with his uncle and aunt.³

2017 (updated 2021)

Story by: Cheryl Carnahan