Individual Details

Marriage

In 1841, Espie was married to Ethel [? Downes]. It was common gossip, in later years, that his bride, who was only sixteen or seventeen years old, had been left at Poverty Bay by a vessel which had had to put in for a re-fit. In strict fact, the young woman was among the passengers whom Captain A. Campbell brought in the Minerva in June, 1841, after an uneventful voyage. The marriage ceremony was conducted by the Rev. W. Williams and they were the first European couple to be married by a clergyman in Poverty Bay. Their children were: Emma (Mrs. Walsh, who was slain in the massacre), John Edward (born at Te Arai in 1848 and died in January, 1933) and Mary Jane (who became Mrs. Alexander Robb).