Barnard Hoodless 1800 -1881 from Wetheral to Whangarei

Timeline

• Barnard was born the third son to William and Margaret in Wetheral and was baptised there on 11th May 1800.
• On 8th November 1828 there is a marriage record for Barnard Hoodless of Wetheral and Agnes Atkinson of Kirkby Stephen marrying at Gretna Green in Scotland.

• A second marriage takes place on 30th December 1828 in Wetheral to seal the deal and make doubly sure. The implications of this spike the imagination. Was it a forbidden match? They were certainly old enough to wed lawfully, Barnard was 28 and Agnes was 23 at the time while Gretna Green attracted persons under the age of 21 who wanted to wed without their parent’s consent.
• A year later they have a daughter Mary Ann Hoodless who is christened on 4th November 1829 at Agnes’s home village of Kirkby Stephen.
• 1841 Barnard and Agnes seem to put down roots in that area, quite a long way away from his family in Wetheral back in that time. The census that year records him as being a farmer at Raisbeck near Orton which is 60km south of Wetheral and 16 km west of Kirkby Stephen. Mary Ann appears to have been their only child.
• 1851 Barnard is working as a farm labourer and the family live at Bell Foot, a farm above Crosby Ravensworth. Mary Ann is now 21 and works at the house.

• 1861 Barnard is 60 years old now and appears to have done well enough to own his own farm. The three family members are at Bousfield Farm a 60 acre farm on the south side of Crosby Ravensworth Fell, just outside Orton.
• 1870-71 rather than retiring peacefully in the Cumbrian Lake District, Barnard next appears in the New Zealand Electoral Rolls of 1870-71 as the owner of 12 acres of land Parahaki, an area on the eastern bank of the Hatea river in Whangarei, Northland.
• Agnes his wife dies on 6th June 1879.
• 1881 He appears to have lived at this property until his death on 9th June 1881. Barnard and Agnes are buried at Mission Ground Cemetery, Whangarei.