PIONEER FAMILY

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25996, 27 December 1949, Page 2

PIONEER FAMILY

ROYAL FORBEARS ARRIVAL IN KAIAPOI IN 1851 Miss Frances J. Welch, of Camside, Kaiapoi, is not only a descendant of a Canterbury pioneer, her father having come to the province in 1851, but she is also a descendant of Margaret Plantagenet, granddaughter of King Edward I. Miss Welch about 10 years ago received confirmation of her family’s Royal descent from the then Windsor Herald at the College of Arms. London (Mr A. T. Butler). That confirmation was the climax of many years’ research on the part of Miss Welch. Her curiosity as to the possibility that her family was of Royal origin had been aroused many years earlier, when she was a child, by a chance remark of her father. The suggestion was promptly dismissed by her mother, but Miss Welch’s interest had been aroused. The name “Woodstock,” which her father gave to a property at Oxford that he once owned, also had Royal associations, said Miss Welch in an interview, and she added that she was certain that her father would not have desired to link himself with Royalty unless there was good reason for it. The first names appearing on the family tree prepared by the Windsor Herald are Edward I, of England, and Margaret, daughter of Philip, Le Hardi. King of France, his second wife, and the last names are Miss Welch’s parents. William Phillip Welch and Ann Talbot. A Canterbury Pioneer William Welch was a Canterbury pioneer. He came out in 1851 with a land order given him by his father, the Rev. Thomas Coleman Welch, of Pattishall Vicarage, Northamptonshire. The land order for 50 acres was arranged in England through Edward Gibbon Wakefield, and on arrival young Welch had to be identified by Godley before he could take over his land. Miss Welch lives to-day on part of the original property. Her father revisited England between 1859 and 1861 and on his return took up land at Oxford. Here misfortune in the form of a drpught in 1866 befell him. Sheep died and he could not sell a boof. Wool was worth only threepence or fourpence a pound, and Mr Welch was forced to leave his farm and- tramp over the Alps ii) search of a fortune in gold on the fields of the West Coast. In 1869 he went back to England again, and while there married Ann Talbot, whose people were in business in Northamptonshire. Mr and Mrs Welch returned again to New Zealand and lived on 30 acres of the original 50 taken up bv Mr Welch in the fifties. This is located two miles north of Kaiapoi. In 1893 he died. There were three children by the marriage, two of whom are living. Beside Miss Welch, there is Mr J. B. Welch, of New South Wales, who has a family of two to keep alive the Welch family line.