William Geary

http://www.geocities.ws/yeshuaeducare4life/FamilyUnit.html

Thomas and son William Geary were transported to Tasmania in the ship "Jupiter 2" arriving on 27 May 1833, after being tried at Derby Quarter Sessions Court on 28 June 1831. Their crime was "breaking into a grainery and stealing two bags of grain." William arrived in NZ about 1836, before the seven year sentence was up. William arrived in Otakou (Otago) Penninsula in 1843, perhaps as a whaler. William was said to have pushed the first cow ashore at the peninsula in Dunedin.

A letter from Henry Crook was received in NZ in 1837 stating that William's wife (Charlotte) had died in England, and that the children were too young to come to NZ by themselves.

There is another story that says that William thought his wife, Charlotte, and sons had drowned in a ship sailing to NZ, but in actual fact they were still alive in England.

William had been growing potatoes in Otago. When there was a famine in Taranaki, he sent potatoes up to them. The Maori chief in exchange gave William his daughter, Etahi Parekepa (Elizabeth). They had five half-caste Maori children. Two daughters died in infancy, and their three sons were named John (Black John, born 1848), Thomas (born 1850), and William (Black Billy, born 1853).

William later asked Rev Everett (a missionary returning to England) to visit his now adult boys (William & John) in England and ask them to come to NZ – which they did in 1859.

In 1866 William drowned in Otago Harbour.