Eliza Jane Charleton arrived in Lyttelton, New Zealand on June 8th, 1869, aged 18 years as a general servant on board the ship ‘Caroline Coventry’. In the book “White Wings” by Sir Henry Brett, the following information is given of this voyage. ‘Caroline Coventry’, 1869, 880 tons, Captain Ollery, sailed 25th February, arrived 8th June, after a stormy passage of 129 days. Passengers 68. Total cost of passage:£15. Signed Promissory Note (No. 9) for £15 on the understanding that the notes are not to be collected if the immigrants remain in the province three years from the date of their arrival there. When researching Eliza and Thomas I originally had them having three children, then quite by accident I stumbled upon another child by the name of Ethel Mary Perry Cleghorn, born 18-Dec-1894 at Dunedin and registered at North East Valley by Eliza. I thought this is great, nobody knows about this child and we all knew Thomas had taken off and left Eliza and children. Was this child born before he left or after? I thought it best to start with the Birth Certificate, which when it arrived from the Registrar General, I thought, now nobody can say, “Oh you must have made a mistake, that’s not right at all”. Well it was not long in coming. I swapped information with Karen Cleghorn and I sent her a copy of the certificate. She immediately wrote back saying I had it wrong, that it was Sarah Jane’s baby (Eliza’s eldest child). I did not believe this as I was told that the only certificate that you can rely on as being factual is the birth certificate, as the information supplied when registering a birth is then checked with the Doctor. At this time I was trying to find Sarah’s marriage date with little success, I knew she had married a Harry or Henry Graves. Ross rang me from Dunedin to say that a Tip Top man called Jack Graves had left some information at Eric Andrew’s shop at Karitane. From this we have been able to prove that Sarah was the mother, and at age nineteen and probably unmarried, I can only assume that Eliza was trying to protect her daughter from disgrace.
It seems probable that Thomas Cleghorn left Eliza about 1887 but at this stage there is nothing to prove it. I did get his Death Certificate hoping that it may shed some light on the matter, but no Eliza Jane (Granny Cleghorn). He may have had someone in Wanganui although it appears not, as he was buried in a pauper's grave. Apparently nobody claimed his body. His grave has no headstone. The family would have to buy the plot before a headstone could be erected.