Hannah Ward Barron

Hannah Ward Barron (14 July 1829 – 10 November 1898) was a successful businesswoman, hotel proprietor and landowner in New Zealand. Biography She was born in Cork, County Cork, Ireland on 14 July 1829, the oldest daughter and third child of Elizabeth Lynch and shopkeeper Thomas Dorney. Initially, she was given the first name of Joanna, but soon she chose Hannah, instead. In Ireland, she learned how to read, write, sing and play piano and she was raised a devout Roman Catholic, "which sustained her all her life." Hannah survived an Irish famine (1845 to 1849) and married William Ward "probably on 7 October 1850" in Cork, Ireland. Only a few years later, William Ward set out to London and then Melbourne, Australia, arriving in August 1853. Soon thereafter, while pregnant and toting two infants, Hannah followed him, arriving on 24 October 1853. The young family lived in the Melbourne area but William "did not prosper." To support the family, Hannah went to work, operating a small shop and then a lodging house on Abbotsford Street, providing housing for miners. In time, she gave birth to more children, but her husband and seven of her eight sons died, succumbing to the many diseases that spread throughout the overcrowded city. She married again on 31 December 1862 to a butcher from Northumberland, England, named John Barron, and from then on was known as Hannah Ward Barron. However, her second marriage was not successful and nine months later, in September 1863, Hannah and her three surviving children sailed for New Zealand. They settled in Campbelltown (now known as Bluff), situated in a southern-most point of New Zealand. Hannah soon opened a shop for miners who worked in nearby goldfields.