The history of the Roil family

(August 22nd 2015)
Report by Coralie Smith, photo by Maureen Dabinett

At the August 2015 meeting we were entertained by David Kemp, landscape artist from Mahana. Born at Haumoana in the Hawkes Bay, David (pictured right) is descended from one of Nelson's earliest families.

The Roil family emigrated from Alton, Worcestershire arriving in Nelson on the "Bolton" in March 1842. Four children came with Thomas and Sarah and one more was born in New Zealand.

David descends from William Roil, the youngest son. The name Roil has changed over the years, starting off as Ryall. All good genealogists know that as many of our ancestors couldn't read and write, names can easily be misspelled so be wary of this when searching for them.

The Roils lived on the piece of land at the seaside of Nayland Road and Saxton Road in Stoke. Coolstores now cover this area. The last buildings were pulled down in 1962 but the original well is still in place.

They grew hops, coming from a rural background, and David has trawled the Papers Past website to get mentions of their hops, sawmill, oxen, an appearance in court for one son, and many other family items. David has started an art work incorporating all these aspects of early European settler life (see photo below).

Eliza Roil married Capt Jim Jackson and went to live on whaling stations in the Marlborough Sounds, bringing a more genteel style of life to this part of the world with her lacemaking, although she was known to swear as good as the men in her older age.

Mary Anne married John James from Rockville. William Roil had won a ballot of land and gave some to the newly weds to farm while he farmed the rest.

Anne Roil married Francis Skilton and also lived in Golden Bay. This couple were to lose 4 of their sons in WW1.

Harry found himself in court charged with disorderly behaviour and as a result decided he was better off working a saw mill near Christchurch.

David's mother has only died in the last fortnight, aged 94 years. A spinner of wool, David displayed several items she had knitted or woven for him using wool spun by herself.

She had paid a visit to Collingwood cemetery about 10 years ago after David shifted to Mahana, where Thomas Roil is buried. Thomas' wife Sarah and other family members are in the Richmond cemetery.

David wanted us to take away from his talk the message that we should all be writing up our own family stories but in particular our personal stories, not just for our descendants to know what we did but also to tell them about the things we valued.

His father was a drover around Hastings and was known as a "gentleman drover" as he always shone his shoes and wore a tie when presenting himself at a new job - values that David still believes in.

[ Return ]