Earliest North Nibley Hadley Families

St Martins Anglican Church in North Nibley, Gloucestershire

The earliest dates in Saint Martin's North Nibley parish register are from the late 16th Century and these show there were two Hadley families in this Gloucestershire town at that time.  One was headed by Humphrey Hadley and the other by Thomas Hadley, who themselves were most likely related.  How long the family was there and where they came from, if anywhere, is yet unknown.

It is Thomas Hadley's line which is most likely the line which eventually found its way to New Zealand in the 19th Century.  UK Census records from the 1880s on show that Charles Harman Hadley started a family on New Zealand's West Coast in the 1860s but later returned to England around 1871.

Charles' son Joseph, one of the children born in the UK after the family's return, for a yet unknown reason was drawn back to New Zealand in the 1890s.  During the 1891 voyage, he married Sarah Margaret Gardiner, in Cape Town, South Africa.  The story from family members was that Sarah was taken ill on the voyage and was cared for by Catholic nuns in Cape Town.  Joseph carried on to New Zealand after they were married and Sarah followed sometime later.

This time the family stayed in New Zealand and this line is the source of many of the Hadley families in New Zealand.