Talk:William Stuart-Forbes (1835-1906)

This is the public domain page about him on KiwiWiki:

Sir William Stuart-Forbes - I became very intersted in this surname after finding a burial at Clareville Cemetery, for Lady Marion Stuart-Forbes and family.

Marion Stuart-Forbes wife of Sir William Stuart-Forbes died 12 December 1889. Hilda Hiley died 19 May 1887. Katherine Evelyn died 12 April 1895, Emma Louise died 1939. And in another grave in the same cemetery, there is a burial for Marion E. Renwick second daughter of Sir William and Lady Marion Stuart-Forbes died March 11. 1940. Marion married Thomas Renwick nephew to Thomas Renwick of Nelson.

Sadly Hilda Hiley was only 5 months old when she died, but, the name HILEY was researched further, and I was surprised to learn that Sir William's brother, John Stuart Stuart-Forbes took this name whilst in USA, Hiley is from a brother in law's family in England.

The ancestral home for the Forbes family was at Monymusk, Pitsligo, Aberdeenshire, sadly now the castle is but a ruin, but, I have been on a website there, and there are plans to restore some of the Castle.

William was born 1835, he became the 9th Baronet, the title having been handed down through an Uncle with no issue.

Henriette Jemima married on 1st September 1863 to Rev Walter Hiley, of Thorpe Arch. Yorkshire, she was a sister to John and William.

William married Marion, third daughter of J. Watts of Bridgend. Nelson. New Zealand on 1st July 1865.

They first settled in Nelson, where son Charles was born, later they came up to Wairarapa, to Carterton, William was Secretary to the Pastoral and Agriculture Association and an Accountant, also Auctioneer.

William drew a block of Crown Land, which was situate in what is now Richmond Road, Carterton, there was a squatter there, and as Sir William was not living there then, it was decided through the Court, judgement was granted as to whoever was living on it that evening, sadly in his haste, he became tangled in a lawyers bush (prickly...) and hard to get out off, and the squatter won..

When Lady Marion died, Sir William left the area, and settled in Blenheim and re married, where he married Florence Rose in 1900.

Sir William died 5th July 1906 and is buried in Blenheim. I hold photographs of the graves here at Clareville and Blenheim and photographs of some of the family.

John, brother to William, had enlisted with 7th Calvary, under the name of John Hiley, sadly John lost his life along with Custer and the Sioux Indians on in 1876. When, after the battle, searches were made to notify family of the dead, and it was then that they found out whom John Hiley really was... a letter was sent to the family....

There is a Memorial for John at St. John's Church in Edinburgh, here again I have photographs off it..

Back in 2004, there was to be a Memorial for the soldiers who were in a mass grave and died at Little Big Horn, I was planning to attend it, but it was cancelled, and a trail was marked instead in their honour.

William and his brothers had attended Rugby School in England, this school has received a copy of this research for their Archives, also Burkes Peerage.

Getting back to Pitsligo Castle, plans were afoot, to restore some of the buildings, as I have been in touch with Friends of The Castle, the gardens were to be re developed, as once in their heyday they were outstanding.

Seems there is another twist to the Stuart-Forbes family, and I have managed to trace some descendants, but this is unique, Aladair Mac Donnell of Glengarry, he laid in an unmarked grave in Dunedin for years, dying of rheumatic fever aged 28 in 1862, he had visited NZ once before, 1857 when he bought a tract to land in Canterbury and stocked it with sheep and cattle naming it Culloden, returning to his native Scotland to try and recruit anyone to join him on his Glengarry Estate in NZ but failed.. this write up, only skims the surface of this very interesting family..

I believe that the ship that brought many of our ancestors to New Zealand the "Katherine Stuart Forbes' was named after this woman. The barque (sometimes recorded as a ship) was built at Northfleet docks in Kent UK in 1818 for the Chapman company. She weighed 457 tons - the length was 117 feet. She made a number of trips to Australia and New Zealand sometimes bring immigrants. Sometimes sheep or timber. Many of my ancestors arrived at Port Nicholson on the 'Katherine Stuart Forbes' in 1841