Anthony St George WHITE b. 11 Nov 1842 India d. 12 Nov 1872 Chaucer Road, Hospital Hill, Hawke's Bay, New Zealand: RYKEN and ROSENAU

1842 - 1872 (30 years)

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Birth 11 Nov 1842 India

Gender Male

Occupation 12 Jan 1866

Listed as Police Constable in The Colonist Newspaper as well as in Apology published 30 Dece 1865 in Nelson.

Death 12 Nov 1872 Chaucer Road, Hospital Hill, Hawke's Bay, New Zealand

Benefit Notice to support Anthony St George WHITE's family

Burial Old Napier Cemetery, Napier, Hawke's Bay, New Zealand [2]

Anthony St George White (1842-1872) - Find a Grave-gedenkplek

Origins

Patriarch & Matriarch

Thomas WHITE (Father)

Matlida UNKNOWN (Mother)

Siblings 2 Siblings

	1. Clement WHITE
+	2. Anthony St George WHITE b. 11 Nov 1842, India d. 12 Nov 1872, Chaucer Road, Hospital Hill, Hawke's Bay, New Zealand (Age 30 years) ▻Caroline SCADDEN b. 28 Dec 1846, Gwinear, Cornwall, England d. 27 Feb 1894, Whataupoko, Gisborne Region, New Zealand (Age 47 years), m. 14 Feb 1866, Christ Church Cathedral, Nelson, Tasman, New Zealand
+	3. Alfred Henry WHITE b. 11 July 1845, Kochi, India d. 4 Sep 1917, Auckland, New Zealand (Age 72 years) ▻Alice Isabella WILMETT b. 01 Oct 1856, Newport, Monmouthshire, Wales d. 01 Apr 1944, Auckland, New Zealand (Age 87 years), m. 1875, New Zealand

Person ID P1042 Ryken Family Tree | Ancestors of Paul RYKEN

Last Modified 8 Sep 2021

Father	Thomas WHITE
Mother	Matlida UNKNOWN
Family ID	F572	Group Sheet \| Family Chart

Family Caroline SCADDEN
b. 28 Dec 1846, Gwinear, Cornwall, England
d. 27 Feb 1894, Whataupoko, Gisborne Region, New Zealand (Age 47 years)
Other Partners: George BATES

Marriage 14 Feb 1866 Christ Church Cathedral, Nelson, Tasman, New Zealand [3]

Anthony St George WHITE and Caroline SCADDEN's Wedding Advertisement

Notes

MARRIED. Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XXV, Issue 21, 15 February 1866

Married:

MARRIED. Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XXV, Issue 21, 15 February 1866

On the 14th February, at Christ Church, Nelson, by the Rev.G.H.Johnston, Anthony St. George, second son of the late Dr. Thomas White, Deputy-Inspector-General of Hospitals, her Majesty's Madras army, to Caroline, fourth daughter of Mr Richard Scadden, late of Cornwall, England.
↑ Marriage: "New Zealand, Civil Records Indexes, 1800-1966"
citing Marriage, New Zealand, registration number 1866/4282, Archives of New Zealand, Wellington.

FamilySearch Record: Q24J-P5G8 (accessed 5 October 2022)
https://www.bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/Search/Search.aspx?Path=%2FqueryEntry.m%3Ftype%3Dmarriages

Children

	1. Caroline Matilda WHITE b. 5 Nov 1866, Nelson, Tasman, New Zealand d. 2 Feb 1905, Gisborne, Gisborne Region, New Zealand (Age 38 years) ▻ Henry BORST; Percival EDWARDS
	2. Emily Harriet WHITE b. 1868, Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand d. 1869, Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand (Age 1 year)
	3. Alice Muriel WHITE b. 05 May 1871, Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand d. 23 May 1920, Gisborne, Gisborne Region, New Zealand (Age 49 years) [Father: natural] [Mother: natural]
+	4. Eliza WHITE b. 11 Oct 1872, Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand d. 14 Oct 1934, Gisborne, Gisborne Region, New Zealand (Age 62 years) ▻ George Warner HERIVEL m. 16 Oct 1894

Family ID F390 Group Sheet | Family Chart

Last Modified 19 Jul 2024

Notes

In November 1866 there is a report in the West Coast Times:

"We would remind our readers that Anthony St George WHITE (P1042) exhibits his phantasmagoria this evening, of which the most interesting portion, no doubt, will be the colored photo-graphic views of the Maungatapu tragedy. The narrative he delivers, has, we understand, been carefully arranged, and brings to light any incidents connected with the murders
not known to the public."

As Anthony was a police constable he probably worked on the case, the details of which follow:

Maungatapu Murders - The notorious Burgess Gang

The trial of the notorious Burgess gang caused a sensation in the small town of Nelson in 1866. Murder was a rare crime and this one involved not just one, but five victims, and everyone was desperate to know all the grisly details....

Murder on the Maungatapu

The story began with the mysterious disappearance of five men on the Maungatapu track between Nelson and the Wairau in mid June1866. The first victim was travelling alone from Pelorus, and then it was the turn of a group of four from Deep Creek, on the Wakamarina goldfield.

The perpetrators were Richard Burgess, Philip Levy, Thomas Kelly and Joseph Sullivan, hardened criminals who had served prison time in England, Australia and Otago for robbery and burglary. Collectively known as the Burgess gang, they had arrived in Nelson via the Otago and West Coast goldfields on June 6, 1866 and decided to rob a bank in Picton.

A change of plan saw the gang returning from Canvastown to the eastern side of the Maungatapu track. The new strategy was to lie in wait for men heading for Nelson from the Wakamarina goldfield and rob them of money and gold.

On June 12 they strangled and suffocated James Battle, a 54-year old whaler who had been working as a farm labourer at Pelorus. The robbery netted them a mere three pounds and seventeen shillings.

The following day, the gang hid behind a large rock and ambushed a group of four men travelling from the Wakamarina to Nelson with a packhorse. Led off the track into dense bush, storekeepers John Kempthorne and James Dudley, innkeeper Felix Mathieu and miner James de Pontius were variously strangled, stabbed and shot. Having removed a quantity of gold and money, the gang loaded their victims’ swags onto Old Farmer, the horse, led him into the bush and shot him.

The men were missed almost immediately by their friends, and a large search party, including men from the Maori community, was soon on the hunt for them.

Meanwhile the gang had slunk back to Nelson, where they spent money cleaning themselves up and buying new clothes

Local newspapers were full of the story of the "goldfield rogues" and the "supposed case of sticking up".

The failure of the search to find the missing men fed fears that they had been murdered. Suspicion fell on the free spending gang members and they were all in custody by the evening of June 19.

Sullivan took advantage of a Government offer of a 200 pound reward or a free pardon for any accomplice and turned Queen's evidence. He told police he was only the lookout, while the other three were responsible for the murders of all five missing men.

Information from Sullivan led to the location of the bodies of the Mathieu party on June 28, following the finding of Old Farmer by Hemi Matenga from Wakapuaka. The bodies were carried to Nelson and were viewed by thousands of people in the engine shed, which acted as a temporary morgue. This building still stands in Albion Square. Two days after the funeral the body of James Battle was found, and he was buried in the same grave. Nelsonians paid for a five-sided monument to stand over the shared grave at Wakapuaka Cemetery.

Burgess wrote his confessions while in gaol.

All four men were convicted of the murders, with Burgess, Kelly and Levy being hanged at the Nelson Gaol on October 5, 1866. Their bodies were buried in unconsecrated ground behind the gaol. Sullivan's death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, and he served time in Dunedin before being pardoned in 1874 and returning to England.

In a grisly twist, the dead men's heads were removed from their bodies and plaster casts made from them. This was done in a bid to support the theories of phrenology, a pseudo-science that sought to determine personal characteristics by examining the shape of an individual's head. The casts are displayed in The Nelson Provincial Museum.

The bodies of the hung men were not afforded the dignity of a proper burial. On the night following the executions the bodies were buried in the gaol yard. Over time some of the remains have almost certainly been dug up and possibly mistakenly reburied as Maori remains
After Anthony St George WHITE's untimely death most of his former colleagues in the theatrical business were generous with their time and donations to help his family - and when one lady actress did not enter into the spirit of things her actions were well noted in the Tuapeka Times 21st November 1872.

"Poor Anthony White, well-known to Dunedin play goers as a painstaking although not too successful actor, has paid the last debt of nature in Wellington. He has for many years been before the Dunedin public, and has always won for himself friends among his fellow professionals, and those with whom he had become acquainted.

Having been in failing health for some considerable time — only in fact, able to get through his parts lately by the use of stimulants before going on the stage, his widow and children have been left but poorly off, and in connection with the subscriptions for the relief of those who have been left destitute, I may perhaps be pardoned for devoting a few lines in mentioning an instance of meanness and cold heartedness such as I should fain hope is not often met with.

Mr. White, when acting at the Princess Theatre for a long time, played in company with an actress well-known in Duned in, and for whom, as well as for the other professionals, he was kindhearted enough on more than one occasion to do little favors in the way of copying and. altering parts & c, and other things which thos e who have any knowledge of behind the scene stage matters, can well understand.

Playing nightly with him so long, it might have been supposed that Lady (who by the way, is reputed to be the possessor of cash and jewellery to the extent of two or three thousand pounds), would have had sufficient of the milk of human kindness in her heart, to assist to a moderate extent the widow who his been left destitute. But no ; for on being appealed to by Mr. Hoskins, who is endeavoring to raise funds for Mrs. White, the "charming" lady, after some searching in her pockets, produced eighteen pence ! and finally raised the donation to the munificent sum of two shillings and six-pence ! It is to be hoped that this worthy display of liberality will bear the fruit it deserves.''

Died:

On 12 Nov 1872 at Napier after a protracted illness, Anthony St George WHITE (P1042), 28, second son of the late Thomas White, Surgeon Madras Army HEICS, Dep Insp of Hospitals and brother of Alfred WHITE of Wanganui and Clement WHITE of Dunedin.

[Otago Daily Times, Issue 3362 of 14 Nov 1872, p.2 on paperspast.natlib.govt.nz]

Anthony St George WHITE[1]

Thomas WHITE

Matlida UNKNOWN

Clement WHITE

Anthony St George WHITE

Caroline SCADDEN

Alfred Henry WHITE

Alice Isabella WILMETT

Thomas WHITE

Matlida UNKNOWN

Caroline SCADDEN

George BATES

Caroline Matilda WHITE

Henry BORST

Percival EDWARDS

Emily Harriet WHITE

Alice Muriel WHITE

Eliza WHITE

George Warner HERIVEL

Anthony St George WHITE^[1]