Lewis and Eliza Hook

When Eliza died in 1907 aged 67, she was described as one of the oldest residents of Wellington. She arrived on the ship Lord William Bentwick in 1841 aged 6 months old and was a daughter of George Maxted. He became a sheep farmer in Johnsonville.

There is only one reference in the Wellington newspapers to ‘Eliza Hook’ and that was her being fined 10s, reprimanded and discharged for drunkenness in 1861.

She died at her home in Hopper Street leaving a widower, six daughters and three sons.

Eliza married Lewis (or Louis) Hook in February 1861, one month after the birth of their first child. The first time Lewis appears in the paper is in 1864, charged with drunkenness and using obscene language in a public street. He too was fined 10s. In 1865, the couple were living in Little Taranaki Street and Lewis was recorded as a mariner.

In 1872, Lewis was charged with carrying passengers on the harbour without a licence. Lewis had a contract to convey health officers over to Somes Island. He usually took his passengers in a large sailing boat, but on this particular day as he had only one passenger and there was no wind, he used a small waterman’s boat. The magistrate looked upon the complaint as unfounded and the case was dismissed.

Lewis was on Te Aro beach in 1880 when he found a letter in a bottle. It was one from of the Pareora immigrants addressed to an aunt in England. It is assumed it was intended for a homeward bound vessel and when this was not met with, the letter thrown overboard in Wellington harbour on arrival.

In 1883, Lewis made an application to the secretary of the Defence Department to become the Coxswain of the Torpedo Steam Launch. In this letter he lays out his experience:

‘… I have been engaged on the waters of Wellington and coasts of New Zealand for the past 24 years … I was in the British Navy 3 years and 7 months from 1850 to 1854. I was paid off, I then joined the Brazilian (?) navy for a few months. I took my discharge and joined the Peruvian navy for about 3 years, During the above engagements under fire and received two wounds, I was Present when general Garabaldi was wounded in Calia South America. I am sorry to say I have lost my discharges in Victoria, Australia’

There is no record if his application was accepted.

In 1888, Lewis made a claim to the Compensation Court of the City Corporation as he alleged that two sections of land owned by him in Grainger Street had been ‘injured or diminished’ in value as a result of the Te Aro reclamation. He no longer had a water frontage and sought £550 damages. Mr T.K. Macdonald and J. Lockie were the assessors. The outcome is not recorded in the newspaper.

Lewis died in 1920, aged 87 years.

Also buried in this plot are:

George Walter James died 1892 aged 30 years. He was a boiler maker and the first husband of their daughter Louisa Twyman Hook.

Lewis and Eliza’s son, Lewis Alexander Hook died 1910 aged 38;

and their daughter Louisa Twyman Johnson died 1922 aged 58.

Plot: *Ch Eng/#/30

By Julia Kennedy