It has been a common experience for many of us to have to correct the spelling of our name, and then to have no answer to the question where the spelling came from. Finding some answers has been quite a story.
Beyond knowing that Bill Roxborogh's father was Charles Henry Roxborogh who had died in Christchurch in 1960, there was little to go on.
Neither Bill nor his younger brother Harry had had any contact with their father. Years of searching by different members of the family were fruitless until Cathie Roxborogh suggested looking at his military records. Up until that point there was confusing contradictory information on number of marriage certificates. There was an absence of a birth certificate. The death certificate from 1960 stated he was born in Glasgow and that he came to New Zealand 46 years earlier. Searches in the UK and telephone books in Australia, New Zealand and the States were also fruitless.
The military records added to the contradictory information and red herrings but also indicated that Charles Henry had used a number of aliases, and that he had a police record. The police archives gave details of charges and provided a reasonably handsome looking photograph. It still appeared that his real name was Roxborogh.
Looking in the Canterbury Public Library John Roxborogh came across a record of the marriage of Charles William Chapman and Mary Elizabeth Wainwright on 6 January 1891. The 1891 date was within a possible range (the ages on marriage certificates and the death certificate suggested a number of possible years for his date of birth from 1891 to 1898). Chapman was a known alias. Might it in fact be his real name?
The 1914 marriage certificate for Charles Henry Roxborogh gave his parents as William Charles Roxborogh and Elizabeth (Wainwright). His other three marriage certificates have variations. In 1917 his parents were Charles William Roxborough and Ellen Winton, in 1933 they were William Harry Roxborough and Mary Wainwright, and in 1946 William Charles Roxborough and Elizabeth Mary Wainwright. It did seem likely that he was not born in Scotland but in New Zealand, and that his actual family name was Chapman.
Members of the Ashburton association of genealogists helped take the story a stage further by putting John in touch with Chapman family researchers and the family tree for Charles William and Mary Elizabeth Chapman. This shows the birth of Charles Henry on 6 April 1893. A large part of the riddle was now solved, though of course many questions remain.
We can now say that as a family name, the spelling "Roxborogh" is unique to the known New Zealand descendants of Charles Henry Chapman (1893-1960) and Lizzie Maud Woolley and their two sons, William (Bill) and Harry.
The spelling also sometimes appears as a variant of the place name Roxborough in Philidelphia. An example is a listing for the Presbyterian Church in Roxborough Philadelphia. In the time of William Penn the present day Roxborough area was named Rocks Burrow and in 1706 changed to Roxborough. Web searches sometimes bring up links from this area together with a few misspellings of people whose name is properly spelt "Roxborough".
Charles Henry Roxborogh (father of Bill and Harry Roxborogh)
Charles was the second child of
Charles William Chapman and
Mary Elizabeth Wainwright.
He was
born in the Wairiri Valley
near Hororata,
Canterbury, 6 April 1893 while his parents were resident at Glentunnel and he died in Christchurch on 5 October 1960.
His older brother
Joseph was born in Lincoln in 1892, and his younger
siblings were David, Ada, William, Edith, Gilbert, Archie and Ernest.
Places associated with his early years are mostly in the Selwyn District of the Canterbury Plains just south of Christchurch.
His marriage to Lizzie Maud Woolley in 1914 when he adopted the name Roxborogh was the first of four. He was recruited from borstal in Invercargill in January 1917 to serve in the First World War. He trained in Trentham and was sent overseas in June 1918 ("E" Company, 39th Reinforcements) after a further period in prison for bigamy. He was again in prison after the war, remarried again twice, and spent his last years in Christchurch. He probably worked as a jobbing builder. He was remembered as charming but there were darker sides to his character.
The information given on his World War I military records saying that his father was Charles Henry Roxborough and that his mother was Ellen Lewis Roxborough who lived in Racecourse Road Ashburton is false.
Neither Bill nor Harry ever discovered the information about him now available from army and police records, nor did they ever see a photograph of him before they died. Charles had no other known children.
Charles Henry's father, Charles William Chapman was born in Prebbleton, now near Lincoln University, on January 9, 1868 to Samuel Chapman and Elizabeth Mealing who had been married on 10 July 1856 in St Michaels Church, Christchurch. Other children of this marriage appear to be Rachel born 30 December 1865 who married Robert Henry Crocker 31 December 1881; Isabella born 30 June 1871; Amy Louisa born 3 August 1873; Agnes Fanny, born 13 July 1875; and James, born 29 November 1879, all baptised in the Wesleyan Church, Christchurch.
Charles Henry's mother, Mary Elizabeth and her twin sister Susannah Bridget were born in Springston, also near Lincoln, on 26 January 1869 to Charles Wainwright and Sarah Keeling from Nottinghamshire who had travelled with their daughter Sarah on the Cresswell, leaving London 27 May 1859 and arriving in Lytellton on 12 September 1859.
Mary Elizabeth may be the Mary Chapman who was working at Greenpark near Lincoln in 1896, and at Ellesmere in 1903. Susannah married a William Thomas Morris and they had a son William Charles Morris who died in infancy 17 April 1906 in Southbridge, and who is buried in Ellesmere Cemetery. Other siblings of Mary and Susannah besides Sarah, whose date of birth is not known, were Charles, born 16 March 1867, and William John Jackson, born about 1874 who married Eliza Edith Eagle 31 October 1905 in the Methodist Church, Kaiapoi.
Lizzie Maud Woolley (mother of Bill and Harry Roxborogh)
Elizabeth was born 161 Whitehall Road, Walsall, England, 5 December 1889, the eldest child of William John Woolley and Jane Adkins who migrated to New Zealand around 1910 and lived in Devonport, Auckland.
William John Woolley died at 10 Beaconsfield Street, Devonport 30 May 1924. He was born ca 1864 and at the time of the 1881 census he and his parents Henry Woolley and Ann (Barnett), and their 6 children, William, Albert, Harry, Clara, Sarah Jane and Lizzie, were living at 72 Ablewell Street, Walsall in north Birmingham. In 1895 they were living at 53 Queen Street. There are records of the baptisms of Sarah Jane (7 March 1875) and Clara (25 August 1872) in St Matthew's Church, Walsall. Both parents were born around 1834, but so far searching has not unearthed a record of their marriage or that of William John Woolley to Jane Adkins. Jane Adkins died 3 December 1937 and is buried in Takapuna cemetery plot F209.
Elizabeth or Lizzie was one of four children, including William Henry married to Blanche who lived in Cambridge, and Harry who is remembered to have lost an arm in World War I.
She married Charles Henry Roxborogh on 1 June 1914. Their first child Bill was born in Devonport on 6 October 1914, and their second, Harry on 19 February 1916. By August 1915 there was a warrant out for Charles Roxborough "who may assume the name Chapman".
After Lizzie Maud and Charles Henry Roxborogh divorced 13 November 1920, she married John Douglas Perrett, 16 November 1920 in the Presbyterian Manse, Devonport. She died aged 36 in Devonport on 27 June 1929 and is buried in the Oneills Point Cemetery. There was one son, Trevor, to her second marriage.
John Roxborogh, married to Jenny, is the eldest son of Bill Roxborogh. Tania Roxborogh's husband Phillip, is Bill's youngest son. As well as our children, we rejoice in having a number of siblings and half-siblings, and their children, who share our family name, its spelling, and the mystery of its origin. We think it is a good name!
So far, the occasional occurrence of the spelling found in names in other countries appears to be due to isolated typing mistakes and not registered names.
If your spelling of Roxborogh really does have no "u" in it and is not Roxborough, Rosborough, or Roxburgh, we are almost certainly related. If your name is Chapman it is also possible!
As things have come to light we realise how important it is to understand and accept the past to move on in our own lives. Perhaps some of Charles and Lizzie's inheritance can be put to good use, along with insight into the vagaries of human nature. Many of us in the family share a Christian faith, have to grown to understand how complicated life is for many people, and recognise that acceptance and healing is part of what Jesus was about.
Today, a name which family members have to explain constantly because of its unexpected spelling (we sometimes give up), has become an asset as a unique identifier. Hence the domain name, roxborogh.com, of this website.
We invite other members of this family to provide links and email addresses so that we can trace the family tree. Please email John with any information you have.
Updated: 24 July 2004, 30 August 2005, 25 February 2008, 5 January 2009, John Roxborogh.