William Hourston and Ellen Leask nee Corrigall - my generation’s g g g granduncle and grandaunt

William Hourston was born on the 30th of March, 1836, on Pomona, also known as Hrossey and Mainland, the main island of the Orkney Islands (Reference 62864; IGI/OPR Index: 1836-017). William went to sea at 17 on a whaling ship. He was on the whaling ship ‘Felix of Banff’ which sailed from Stromness on the 5th of March 1854 before sinking in the North Sea, stranding the crew for six days and nights on the ice. Three of the twenty four crew perished. About half the remaining men died after they were picked up by another vessel. Apparently William lost his toes to the cold, but another crew member, Jacob Brown, was frost-bitten so badly that the captain had to cut off both his legs with a sealing knife so he would survive (Cyclopedia of New Zealand, Volume 4, Otago and Southland, p. 658). Two years laters William emigrated from the Orkney Islands to New South Wales, Australia in 1856 on the ‘Conway’ as an assisted immigrant for the gold mining. I wonder if he had been inspired by his brother-in-law, John Corrigall’s adventures?

William Hourston Leask and his wife Ellen, nee Corrigall

I have not been able to locate William’s name as a passenger on the ‘Convoy’s’ voyage to New South Wales in December 1856. He landed in New South Wales on the 27th of December, 1856. From Australia, William went to Gabriel's Gully, Lawrence, in 1861, seeking gold, and then onto Blacks Diggings (Ophir) in 1863 with his brother, Samuel. Apparently he didn't do too badly with gold, and that may have encouraged his fiancee, Ellen Corrigall to emigrate from Orkney to marry him as well as setting him up in the farming business.

Ellen was born on the 10th of February 1837 in Firth. She was the fourth child and second oldest daughter of James Corrigall and Catherine Sinclair. Her younger brother Jimmie had settled in New Zealand by 1869. Her older brother John had traveled the world and spent time gold mining in Australia. John’s son, James and family immigrated to New Zealand in 1883. Ellen’s older sister Jean Clouston came to New Zealand in 1889.

Ellen arrived in New Zealand in 1867 and it is possible that she traveled with her brother Jimmie, although I have found no records to support this. Ellen married William on the 20th of October 1867 (Registration number 1867/10033).

William and Ellen had apparently had five children, three sons and two daughters. I have only been able to find out about four of the children to date. However, I have not researched the family thoroughly.

1. James who was born during 1868 and died aged 13 on the 30th of September 1881. He is buried in Omakau cemetery at Block 1, plot 28

2. William

3. Ellen who apparently married somebody Knowles and died aged 31 on the 29th of April 1906. She is buried with her brother James in in Omakau cemetery at Block 1, plot 28

4. Samuel who apparently married Margaret Gordon-Glassford and had four boys. He had supposedly intended to go overseas to serve in World War 1, but when his father died in 1915, he had to remain on the farm. Samuel was a surveyor and set up the first telephone system in the district. He mapped the area and calculated gradients for the railway but was unpaid as he was not registered. Samuel died on the 15th of May 1881, aged 47. He is buried with two of his infant children Jane McAdam Leask (1881-1882) and Samuel Leask junior (1875-1875) in Block1, plot 29B of Omakau cemetery

In 1983, when Ellen’s nephew James and family immigrated to New Zealand, William had a perpetual lease on sections 8, 17 and 24 of block 2, at Tiger Hill. That year, William also requested that the northern section 22 of Block II Tiger Hill be sold. William and Ellen’s property consisted of 700 acres freehold and 600 acres leasehold in 1903 (Cyclopedia of New Zealand, Volume 4, Otago and Southland, p. 657) and they ended up with about 600 hectares in total. William raised stock and grew wheat and barley and apparently he was called the ‘wheat king of Blacks’. William provided threshing services to other farmers, towing his threshing mill behind a steam-driven traction engine. He also owned the Shamrock Hotel in Ophir, which apparently catered for 2000 miners.

In 1898 William and Ellen erected a substantial two storied stone residence of thirteen rooms, not far from the proposed terminus of the Central Otago railway. This was Pomona House, their home, but later it became ‘Frewen’s Commercial Hotel’ or the ‘Commercial Hotel’. South of the hotel is ‘McKinnon’s Stables’, which was also built by William to house his work horses during the late 19th century.

Pomona House became Frewen’s Commercial hotel, where Janet Corrigall’s and William Irwin Wallace’s wedding dance was held in 1907. Now it is known as the Commercial Hotel having undertaken a significant transformation.

Ellen Leask (nee Corrigall) died on the 27th of December, 1907. William died on the 8th of June, 1915, aged 79. They are buried together in Blacks cemetery, Omakau in Block 1, Plot 30.

Ellen and William Hourston Leasks’ headstone at Omakau Cemetery

William’s obituary as published in the Dunstan Times on the 14th of June 1915, page 5