Alfred Preece (1844 - 1916) was the seventh child of James and Mary Ann Preece. He was born at the Parawai Mission, near Thames. He had a great knowledge of Maori customs and language.
He spent some years with his parents at Ahikereru and then at Whakatane, before going in 1856 with them to live at Te Tiki, Coromandel. He probably received some of his schooling in Auckland, but from 1858 Mr H Woodward Williams, was tutor to the Preece (and possibly other) children at Coromandel.
By 1862, Alfred owned a claim on the Coromandel Goldfields. During his lifetime he was involved at various times in the gold mining industry on the Coromandel Peninsula. However in 1863, Alfred aged nineteen and his brother Marsden were working on the Preece family farm at the Tiki and making improvements to the homestead. His father had written to Donald MacLean to ask if a position was available for Alfred in Government Service. In 1865 Freddy was briefly employed by Mr Mantell but with a change of Government, the appointment quickly lapsed.
From 1863, with fighting in Taranaki and then Waikato and the East Coast, most CMS mission families were forced to leave their stations. As the fighting got closer, threats were conveyed to the Preeces. They refused to move. Most of the European population of Coromandel however, moved to the cities.
By 1865 Alfred was engaged with others in timber trade. He purchased land in and around Coromandel. In 1871 Alfred, listed as a "Timber Merchant" was living in or near Haven Street, Thames. Some time later he lived at Te Tawhiti on "Beesons" Island in the Coromandel Harbour. Later still he lived in Preece's two storied accommodation house on Tiki Road.
Alfred married Agnes Saunders, a widow with no children, in 1869. Agnes was the second daughter of George and Maria Thom. George Thom, born in Dundee, became a Master Mariner. He traded in the Kawhia area and along the North Island and New South Wales coasts. He was lost at sea when his ship, the brig Union disappeared in a storm off the New South Wales coast in 1848.
Agnes' mother, Maria Kautawhiti was a woman of rank from the Kawhia area. Tradition says that Agnes was born in New Zealand. She was baptised by a Presbyterian minister "in the Parish of Wollongong" (probably at Shoalhaven) in New South Wales where her parents were living, in 1842.
Tradition says that following the death of her parents, Agnes and a sister (Isobella) were brought back to New Zealand by a close relative who later became Tawhiao, the second Kingitanga monarch. Agnes was confirmed at St Mark's Anglican Church Remuera Auckland, in 1858.
Maria and George Thom had (at least) five children, Mary Ann the eldest (who married and remained in NSW) and George, Agnes, Isabella and Jessie. The four younger children came to New Zealand.
Agnes is believed to have taught at St Paul's School (probably in Official Bay) Auckland. She married her first husband Joseph Saunders 1864, but he died the same year. She married Alfred Preece in 1869.
There were six children in Alfred and Agnes' family: Mary Ann Jesse born in 1870, Emily Selena 1872, James Wathen Alfred 1874, Ethel Isobella 1877, Eliza Agnes 1880 and Eunice Laura 1884.
Agnes died in 1915, and was buried in the Kapanga churchyard on Tiki Road, Coromandel. The following year Alfred died in Whangarei while travelling in the north on business. He was buried at Coromandel near his wife and father.
Look at other parts of the Preece story by following the links to the Index page.