Biography

Frances was born on August 25th, 1813, the youngest of thirteen children
of William J. Bolden and Elizabeth Robert Banister, at St Botolph,
Aldersgate, London, England, and baptised there on October 6th the same
year.1
Frances followed her father’s occupation and worked as a bookbinder.
At the age of 28 in 1841, she was living at St George, Bloomsbury in
Middlesex, and by the time of the 1851 England Census she was at
St George the Martyr, Middlesex.2
By 1857 Frances had only two brothers and a sister still living.
She accompanied her nephew Frederick Coxhead (her deceased sister
Elizabeth Ann’s youngest son) and his wife Mercy Perkins, sailing from
Gravesend, England, for New Zealand aboard the SS Palmyra.
The ship departed on October 28th, 1857 and arrived on February 14th,
1858. With them were six children. The two older children were born to
Frederick’s first wife, Sarah Barnard, who had died in 1848. Frances’ assistance
would have been invaluable, especially as Mercy was expecting her fifth baby
around the date of arrival at Port Chalmers, Otago, the port for the nearby
township of Dunedin.

1 Image of Frances Mary de Lacy, Dunedin, most likely taken by her great
nephews, Coxhead Brothers, photographers in Dunedin, New Zealand.
The image is in a Coxhead family photo album.
2 England Census of 1841

After their arrival, Frances (then aged 45 years) met Thomas Corbett de
Lacy (aged 35 years) and they were married. The announcement in the
Otago Witness on November 13th, 1858, read:
At the Episcopal Church, Dunedin, on the 9th ult., by the
Rev A.H. Wyatt, THOMAS CORBETT DE LACY, of
Ravensbourne Lodge, Upper Peninsula, late of Moscow,
Russia, and son of T. Brown De Lacy, Esq., of Pout-yrachan
Court, Monmouthshire, to FRANCES MARY,
daughter of W.J. Bolden, Esq., of London.
A notice of the marriage was published in the Monmouthshire Echo on
February 10th, 1859, and in the Monmouthshire Beacon on February 19th.
Thomas was a notable early settler to Dunedin and his life story is told by
Toitū Otago Settlers Museum and can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX07nMdImes
Frances and Thomas remained integral members of the Coxhead family,
when Frederick died in 1868. He left Mercy with the melded family of nine
children, though the older two were independent by this time.
The family lived at Rothesay-Ravensbourne, and it was here that Frances
died aged 81 years on June 13th, 1896. She was buried in the Dunedin
Northern Cemetery in Block 93, Plot 24, 25, a grave described as a white
marble slab stone grave with concrete surround and wood chip top.
After Frances died her niece, Marian Frances, daughter of her sister Helen
Bolden, arrived in Otago.
Marian was born on April 9th, 1849, in Islington, Middlesex, England, to
Adam White and Helen Bolden and was baptised on June 18th, 1849, at
Regent Square Scotch Church, Saint Pancras, London. She had one sister
and three half-brothers.
Her father Adam was a Scotsman and a naturalist who worked at the
British Museum, and was one of the founders of the Museum of Scotland.
As a naturalist he wrote many books, and he co-wrote publications on
New Zealand insects and fauna.3
She departed from London on September 16th, 1897, and sailed to
Dunedin where she lived at Rothesay-Ravensbourne.
3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_White_(zoologist)
Adam White papers – Archives Hub (jisc.ac.uk)
In his later years, Thomas left his Ravensbourne home to live with
Frederick’s son, Frederick Mansfield Coxhead, and his wife Eliza, who
occupied the family home at 76 Duncan Street, Dunedin. Thomas died
there aged 91 years on September 20th, 1913. He was buried with
Frances.
In his will Thomas Corbett De Lacy left his assets to be shared equally
between Eliza Coxhead and Marian White.
Marian remained in Dunedin. Her addresses are listed in the City and Area
Directories as 312 High St in 1911, 498 Great King Street 1914–19, 316
High Street in 1928 and 310 High Street in 1931.
Marian was also buried with Frances and Thomas on August 12th, 1933,
the day following her death aged 84 years.
In her will Marian left her paintings to Harry Barnard Coxhead, her books to
Probationer Nurses Dunedin Hospital, her furniture and personal effects to
her landlady, £50 each to five women, and the remainder of her personal
property to ‘Ruth Eleanor White, the widow of my stepbrother, David
Watson White living at 97 Withrow Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada’. A
codicil added ‘Alice Maud Mary Maris of High Street (£100)’.