Individual Details

Polly HOLMES was the daughter of John HOLMES, a boat builder, located at Devonport. Like the Bartley’s, the Holmes family came from St Helier, Jersey. After leaving the Channel Islands, their family moved to Sunderland, England and to Australia. In Auckland they were able to re-establish their close connection with the Bartley brothers, Robert and Edward, who had moved to New Zealand in 1854.
John HOLMES and his brothers, James and William, trading as Holmes Bros. built a slip at the bottom of Victoria Road near the landing reserve, where the wharf buildings are today. There the first North Shore built steam ferry – the ‘Waitemata’- was constructed. Their first ferry services company Waitemata Steam Ferry Company did not prosper and folded in 1867. The steamer was transferred to a new company- the North Shore Steam Ferry Company and renamed.
Another progressive boat builder in Devonport was Alex ALISON. His son Ewen was for a short while in partnership with John Holmes. His grandson, Ernest married Freda Verne BARTLEY, daughter of Clement BARTLEY. (see note attached to Ernest ALISON, husband of Freda Verne BARTLEY)

Birth	1866
Marriage	1882	Arthur Edward BARTLEY
Known as		Polly

Spouse	Arthur Edward BARTLEY (1860 - 1940)
Child	Eva Elizabeth BARTLEY (1882 - )
Child	John Edward BARTLEY (1885 - )
Child	Arthur Frederick BARTLEY (1887 - 1967)

Notes