Charles George Croot

A; Bible now in the position of the Charles Leslie Croot family is inscribed:

“Eleanor Croot a Gift by the Sunday-School Wesleyan Methodist Annesley Woodhouse for reciting a peice (sic) October 27, 1844”

It is tempting to suppose that Eleanor was a sister of Charles George, and that he took the Bible as a keepsake when he left for New Zealand.

The Histories

The Histories of the Stevens—Croot Family Heritage

Charles George Croot was born in the parish of Kirkby, Nottinghamshire, England, in 1839. We know little of his background except that his father George Croot, was a farmer. There is evidence to suggest that he may have resided, prior to coming to New Zealand, in the village of Annesley Woodhouse (see inset).

Charles George Croot came to New Zealand on the sailing ship Bombay
(below) and landed at Port Chalmers on 9 September 1862—a trip of
84 days out of London. He had traveled steerage in the company of his childhood friend from Kirkby, Henry Ely Shacklock, who, like Charles, was 23 years old.

Charles George Croot’s death certificate gives his occupation as “miller”, but we have no direct record of his occupation in Dunedin. Family legend has it that he set off for the newly-opened Otago goldfields, but that he failed to find his fortune there.

We do know that by 1865 he had married Elizabeth Pearce, bought a section and built a house in Grosvenor Street, Kensington, Dunedin, on the east side of the Oval sports ground, where he was to live for the rest of his life.

Charles George Croot (1839—1876)

Charles’ home town is situated some 18 miles to the north of the city of Nottingham, close to Sherwood Forest. In 1860, Kirkby was a small colliery town of some 2,880 people, which also supported a significant frame-knitting industry. Most of the land in the area was owned by the Duke of Portland, whose manor house dominated the landscape.

Annesley Woodhouse, southwest of Kirkby, was then (and remains) just a small hamlet near to the great house of Annesley Park, known to English literature as the birthplace of Lord Byron’s first girlfriend, Mary Chaworth, the subject of his early poem ‘The Dream.’

With its plentiful and easily-worked coal deposits, Nottinghamshire was one of the first areas in England to become industrialized in the late 18th century. When Charles was a young man there would have been a wide range of factory jobs, skilled, and unskilled for those entering the workforce.

Kirkby—in—Ashfield

… was an ARMED MERCHANTMAN sailing the high seas from 1808-1870

Though primarily just a trader on the China service, this 26-gun, 1228-ton sailing vessel saw action in the Malacca Straits in 1810. She ended her glorious career in Bombay in 1870.

The Bombay

Reproduced with permission from
“THE CROOT FAMILY ALBUM”
by Charles Croot, 1992