James and Elizabeth were married on 10 October 1848 (the sixth anniversary of their arrival in Auckland), when he was 25 and she only 16 and they established a home in Robinson St in the Village of Parnell.

James became an expert rope-maker and in 1850 started his own ropewalk in Hobson Street, making a wide variety of twines and ropes from dressed New Zealand flax.

[1] During this period Freemans Bay was an industrial slum with coal and lime traders, glass and asphalt works and the town morgue.

[3] James and Elizabeth spearheaded the Freeman’s Bay Mission, a Methodist outreach centre, and from 1860 held cottage prayer meetings and outdoor services.

[4] The New Zealand Contagious Diseases Acts were a reflection of those in the UK which had initially been restricted to naval and army barracks, but soon spread country-wide.