30/05/2026
At the AGM of the Onslow Historical Society on Wednesday evening Francis Fanning presented some of the artefacts and records of the auction and real estate company, J H Bethune, with whom he was associated for most of his long working life, and thanked the Society for providing a repository where such material will be both stored and available for research purposes.
J H Bethune was founded by John Hugh BETHUNE in Wellington in 1877. He and many of his family were buried in Bolton Street Cemetery. John was born at Dingwall, Scotland in 1827 and arrived in NZ in 1851. He spent a couple of years in NSW winding up the affairs of a whaling business at the Auckland Islands, but returned to Wellington in 1854 to go into business with George HUNTER, son of the first mayor of Wellington. In 1857 he married one of George's 6 sisters, Frances (F***y), and they had 11 children (6 sons and 5 daughters).
In 1877 John set up in business on his own as J H Bethune & Co., and traded as an auctioneer successfully for many decades thereafter.
Sadly, all of John and F***y's daughters died as young women, before any of them married and had children. When John died in August 1894 he was buried in the family plot with his daughters Jessie (1879), Catherine Mary (1885), Frances Helen (1886) and Jane Munro (1892). The remaining daughter, Hariette May, joined him in the plot in 1897, and two of the sons, Keith Willis and Walter Ellis, were interred in 1901 and 1929 respectively. Their mother was buried in 1904, one month after the death of another son, George Hunter, who was buried in Karori Cemetery, where he was joined in 1926 by his youngest brother Arthur Alexander. Many years later (in 1964), the ashes of Elizabeth Felicia Bethune (nee SMITH), who had married the oldest son Hector Kenneth in 1905, were interred. He died by su***de in 1908, and 5 years later Elizabeth married his younger brother Walter, by whom she had 3 children. The only other marriage of the 11 siblings which resulted in offspring was that of John Hugh (1860-1914), to Isabella GUTHRIE in 1896- they too had three children.
The relocated Bethune family headstone is tucked away on the Powles Path in the gully below the Easdale Street steps entrance to the cemetery.
Inscription on Tombstone: Sacred to the memory of John Hugh BETHUNE, 19th March 1827--10 August 1894, and Frances, his wife, 15th June 1827--19th May 1904, and their children; Jessie, Catherine Mary, Frances Helen, Jane Munroe, Harriette May, Keith Willis, Walter Ellis.
