John Bernard Williams

In one of the corners of the Christ Church Cemetery in Russell is this grave belonging to 2 local residents named John Bernard Williams and his daughter Alice Isabella Williams. John married Mary Thompson in 1839 and settled in Russell in 1843. Together they had 8 children; Elizabeth, John Bernard Jnr, Thomas, William, Alice, Horace, Ella and Florence.

In the Kaikohe Library, the Bay of Islands Electoral Roll lists him as a Russell resident and a cooper by occupation. An enterprising man, he later became proprietor of the Cricketer's Arms Hotel built in Russell in 1866. He died on his 49th birthday in 1867 and was buried in the Christ Church graveyard. His wife, Mary born in 1821, died in 1889. 

Their first daughter Elizabeth was born in Sydney in 1843. She married James Clendon, son of the first American Consul in New Zealand. John Bernard Jnr married Clara Hickton and was a Justice of the Peace and the local wharfinger in Russell for many years. Horace Sydney Senior married Mary Wilkinson and was a prominent figure in Russell affairs and second chairman of the Bay of Islands County Council. Thomas and James married Matilda and Eleanor Cook, sisters, doubly binding the Cook and Williams families. John Bernard II, whom Trevor remembers as Uncle Jack, and his brother Bernard ran boats for many years in Russell in opposition to Fullers. They held the Royal Mail Service with their boats Korona, Aroha and Moana.

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