Click on a couple to find out more about them.

This page covers what is known about John Henry and Mary Ann, and the Mace family. John Henry took three of his children to New Zealand in the 1870s ...

Married sons - that is, the next generation of Hearfield families - each have their own page, like this one. The data used to assemble the tree is included, together with its sources.

John Henry Hearfield (b.1835 at Stockton)

John Henry HEARFIELD   ==   Mary Ann MACE

John's birth	No record found!	?
Mary's birth	20 March 1834: Marianne Mace, d. of John & Jane Mace, bapt. at Bedale	IGI
Marriage	Q4 1858: John Henry Hearfield m. Mary Ann Mace at Bedale	BMD record
Children	Q4 1859: John Charles Hearfield born at Manchester Q4 1861: Henry Hearfield born at Manchester Q1 1864: Thomas Mace Hearfield born at Salford Q3 1865: Margaret Hearfield born at Salford Q1 1868: Jane Mace Hearfield born at Chorlton Q3 1869: Jane Mary (should be Mace?) died at Salford Q3 1870: William Hearfield born in Manchester	BMD records
John's death	Q4 1898: John Henry Hearfield died at Salford, aged 82 (though in fact he was 64)	BMD record
Mary's death	Q3 1871: Mary Ann Hearfield died at Manchester, aged 37	BMD record

1841 Census: Stockton	John Herfield	30	(head?)	(not given)	(Married?)	NOT b.Dur
	Margaret Hearfield	30	(wife?)	-	(Married?)	NOT b.Dur
	Mary Herfield	7	(daughter?)	-	(Unmarried?)	b.Dur
	Robert Herfield	5	(son?)	-	(Unmarried?)	b.Dur
	Henry Herfield	8	(son?)	-	(Unmarried?)	b.Dur
	Charles Herfield	3	(son?)	-	(Unmarried?)	b.Dur
1851 Census: 60 Bishopton Lane, Stockton on Tees	John Hearfield	43	Head	Whitesmith emp. 1 man, 3 apps.	Married	b.Northallerton
	Margaret Hearfield	43	Wife	-	Married	b.Marton, Yks
	John Henry Hearfield	17	Son	Draper's apprentice	Unmarried	b.Stockton, Dur
	Mary Ann Hearfield	16	Daughter	-	Unmarried	b.Stockton, Dur
	Robert Hearfield	14	Son	Currier's apprentice	Unmarried	b.Stockton, Dur
	Charles Hearfield	13	Son	-	Unmarried	b.Stockton, Dur
1851 Census: 71 High Street, Stockton on Tees	Henry Hearfield	17	Servant	Draper's apprentice (lodging with the Watson family)	Unmarried	b.Stockton
1861 Census: 47 Collyhurst Rd, Manchester	John Henry Hearfield	26	Head	Innkeeper	Married	b.Stockton, Dur
	Mary Ann Hearfield	27	Wife	Housekeeper	Married	b.Bedale, Yks
	John Charles Hearfield	18m.	Son	-	Unmarried	b.Manchester
1871 Census: 141 Knightley St, Manchester	John Henry Hearfield	36	Head	News Agent	Married	b.Stockton on Tees
	Mary A. Hearfield	35	Wife	Housekeeper	Married	b.Bedale, Yks
	Henry Hearfield	9	Son	-	Unmarried	b.Manchester
	Thomas Hearfield	7	Son	-	Unmarried	b.Manchester
	Margaret Hearfield	5	Daughter	-	Unmarried	b.Manchester
	William Hearfield	9m.	Son	-	Unmarried	b.Manchester
	Paul Burns	33	Lodger	Shoemaker	Widower	b.Ireland

Comment . . . John Henry appears twice in the 1851 Census, and not at all in the 1881 and 1891 Censuses. His son John Charles was sent to live with his grandparents in Bedale in about 1870, After his wife died, he took the three remaining children and went off to New Zealand.

Henry HEARFIELD   ==   Elizabeth WOODS

Henry's birth	Q4 1861: Henry Hearfield born at Manchester	BMD records
Marriage	Henry Hearfield (26, tailor) m. Elizabeth Woods (19) on 5 September 1888 at St Mary's Church, Addington, Christchurch. Henry's parents were John Henry & Ann Hearfield (nee Mace), hotelkeeper. Elizabeth's parents were Henry & Margaret Woods (nee Kennedy), carter. Witnesses: Margaret Hearfield, 44 South Belt, Christchurch, and Henry Woods, Dickens street, Addington, carter.	Dr.J
Children	Margaret Irene Elsie Hearfield b. 8 January 1890 to Henry & Elizabeth, Walker street Henry Mace Hearfield b. 8 January 1892, Walker street, Addington Elizabeth Estelle Hearfield b. 11 April 1894 to Henry & Elizabeth William Leslie Hearfield b. 19 February 1897 to Henry & Elizabeth Thomas Clive Hearfield b. 6 August 1900 to Henry & Elizabeth, Spencer street, Addington Eva Minnie Hearfield b. 13 May 1903 to Henry & Elizabeth John Keith Hearfield b. 6 March 1905 to Henry & Elizabeth Dorothy Vera Hearfield b. 16 December 1906 to Henry & Elizabeth, 25 Spencer street, Addington, Christchurch	Dr.J

Comment . . . My thanks to Dr. Jones (Dr.J) in Australia for sharing the fruits of her research in Christchurch Library. She adds:

"... it seems to me that John Henry and Mary Ann Hearfield (parents) took the other children including Henry to New Zealand sometime after 1871, settling in Christchurch. This makes sense as a number of the Bedale Maces had also emigrated to New Zealand in about the 1860s, famously establishing Macetown, a now deserted gold-mining town in a remote area of Otago in the South Island."

Margaret HEARFIELD   ==   William LONGTON

Margaret's birth	Q3 1865: Margaret Hearfield born at Salford	BMD records
Marriage	William Longton (28, draper, born Blackwood, Victoria) m. Margaret Hearfield (23, born Manchester, England, now living in Dunedin) on 25 June 1889 at Christchurch. William's parents were James (deceased) & Phebe Longton (nee Hedgelock). Margaret's were Henry & Mary Ann Hearfield (nee Mace), commercial traveller. Witnesses: Henry Mace, manufacturer, Christchurch, and Robert Clay Jones, Dunedin, electrician.	Dr.J

John MACE   ==   Jane DOBBY

John's birth	John, s. of Thomas and Ann Mace born 4 January 1801, bapt. at Berwick upon Tweed 16 January 1801	IGI
Jane's birth	1 June 1800: Jane Dobby, d. of Thomas and Elizabeth Dobby, bapt. at Wells, Yorks.	IGI
Marriage	30 December 1824: John Mace m. Jane Dobby at Bedale	IGI
Children (a)	9 January 1826: Thomas, son of John and Jane Mace bapt. at Bedale 1 July 1827: Elizabeth, d. of John and Jane Mace bapt. at Bedale 2 January 1829: John, son of John and Jane Mace bapt. at Bedale 26 December 1830: Christopher, son of John and Jane Mace bapt. at Bedale 3 June 1832: Jane, d. of John and Jane Mace bapt. at Bedale 20 March 1834: Marianne Mace, d. of John and Jane Mace, bapt. at Bedale 16 August 1835: Christiana, d. of John and Jane Mace, bapt. at Bedale 2 July 1837: Henry, son of John and Jane Mace bapt. at Bedale 30 December 1838: Charles, son of John and Jane Mace bapt. at Bedale	IGI
Children (b)	Q4 1869: John Mace died at Bedale, aged 10 Q4 1858: Thomas Mace m. Sarah Ann Simpson at Bedale Q4 1868: Christiana Mace m. George Bary at Bedale Q1 1890: Thomas Mace died at Bedale, aged 64 Q2 1893: Thomas Mace m. Martha Ann Jacques at Bedale Q4 1893: Elizabeth Mace m. William Lambert Kay at Bedale Q2 1905: William Robert Mace m. Florence Pratt at Bedale	BMD records
Jane's death	Q2 1879: Jane Mace died at Bedale, aged 79	BMD records
John's death	Q3 1857: John Mace died at Bedale	BMD records

1841 Census: Emgate, Bedale	John Mace	40	(head?)	Joiner	(Married?)	NOT b.Yks
	Jane Mace	40	(wife?)	-	(Married?)	b.Yks
	Thomas Mace	15	(son?)	Joiner, apprentice	(Unmarried?)	b.Yks
	Elizabeth Mace	14	(daughter?)	-	(Unmarried?)	b.Yks
	John Mace	13	(son?)	-	(Unmarried?)	b.Yks
	Christopher Mace	11	(son?)	-	(Unmarried?)	b.Yks
	Jane Mace	9	(daughter?)	-	(Unmarried?)	b.Yks
	Mary Mace	7	(daughter?)	-	(Unmarried?)	b.Yks
	Christiana Mace	5	(daughter?)	-	(Unmarried?)	b.Yks
	Henry Mace	4	(son?)	-	(Unmarried?)	b.Yks
	Charles Mace	2	(son?)	-	(Unmarried?)	b.Yks
1851 Census: Emgate, Bedale	John Mace	50	Head	Joiner	Married	b.Sunderland
	Jane Mace	50	Wife	Joiner	Married	b.Snape
	Thomas Mace	26	Son	Joiner	Unmarried	b.Bedale
	Christopher Mace	20	Son	App. joiner	Unmarried	b.Bedale
	Jane Mace	18	Daughter	App. joiner	Unmarried	b.Bedale
	Mary Ann Mace	16	Daughter	App. joiner	Unmarried	b.Bedale
	Christiana Mace	15	Daughter	App. joiner	Unmarried	b.Bedale
	Henry Mace	14	Son	App. currier	Unmarried	b.Bedale
	Charles Mace	12	Son	-	Unmarried	b.Bedale
1861 Census: Emgate, Bedale	Jane Mace	61	Head	Innkeeper	Widow	b.Snape
	Thomas Mace	35	Son	Joiner	Married	b.Bedale
	Sarah Ann Mace	29	Wife	-	Married	b.Bedale
	John Mace	1	Grandson	-	Unmarried	b.Bedale
	Charles Mace	22	Son	Joiner	Unmarried	b.Bedale
1871 Census: Oddfellows Arms, Emgate, Bedale	Jane Mace	61	Head	Innkeeper	Widow	b.Snape
	Thomas Mace	45	Son	Joiner	Married	b.Bedale
	Mary (Sarah) Mace	38	Daughter in law	-	Married	b.Catterick
	Elizabeth Mace	9	Grand-daughter	-	Unmarried	b.Bedale
	Thomas Mace	7	Grandson	-	Unmarried	b.Bedale
	Charles Mace	4	Grandson	-	Unmarried	b.Bedale
	Jane Ann Mace	2	Grand-daughter	-	Unmarried	b.Bedale
	William Robert Mace	1m.	Grandson	-	Unmarried	b.Bedale
	Charles Hearfield	11	Grandson	-	Unmarried	b.Lancashire
1881 Census: Oddfellows Arms, Emgate, Bedale	Thomas Mace	56	Head	Innkeeper (with 2 servants)	Widower	b.Bedale
	Elizabeth Mace	19	Daughter	Housekeeper	Unmarried	b.Bedale
	Thomas Mace	17	Son	Carpenter's app	Unmarried	b.Bedale
	Charles H. Mace	14	Son	-	Unmarried	b.Bedale
	William R. Mace	10	Son	-	Unmarried	b.Bedale
	Charles Hearfield	21	Nephew	House carpenter	Unmarried	b.Manchester
	Thomas Hearfield	16	Nephew	Groom	Unmarried	b.Manchester
1891 Census: Oddfellows Arms, Emgate, Bedale	Thomas Mace	27	Head	Joiner and builder	Unmarried	b.Bedale
	Elizabeth Mace	29	Sister	-	Unmarried	b.Bedale
	Jane A. Mace	22	Sister	-	Unmarried	b.Bedale
	William R. Mace	20	Brother	Grocer's app	Unmarried	b.Bedale
	Charles Hearfield	31	Cousin	Joiner	Unmarried	b.Manchester
1901 Census: Oddfellows Arms, Emgate, Bedale	Thomas Mace	37	Head	Innkeeper	Married	b.Bedale
	Martha A. Mace	32	Wife	-	Married	b.Ripon
	Pattie Mace	7	Daughter	-	Unmarried	b.Bedale
	Thomas Mace	4	Son	-	Unmarried	b.Bedale
	Alice Mace	2	Daughter	-	Unmarried	b.Bedale
	John Mace	1	Son	-	Unmarried	b.Bedale
	Hannah M. Jacques	36	Sister in law	-	Unmarried	b.York

Comment . . . Snape, where Jane was born, is a couple of miles south of Bedale and a mile or so north of Well. Elizabeth was not in Bedale in 1851 - she was at 21 Park Lane, London, a kitchenmaid in the service of the Lord Chamberlain!

Macetown . . . It really does seem that the young men who disappeared from Bedale in the 1850s and 1860s sailed off to the other side of the world to dig for gold in New Zealand! According to the Macetown site, (now apparently defunct)

"Once gold had been discovered in the Arrow River in Central Otago by William Fox in the year 1862, men were lured there from all over the world by tales of the richness of this new field. Amongst those who arrived on the scene were the Mace brothers, John, Charles and Harry ..."

Cow Club . . . The Cow Club was a sort of local insurance company intended to protect cottagers and tradesmen against the accidental loss of a beast. It was operating in 1862, when the Secretary and Treasurer was one Thomas Mace. The Cow Club Book is in Bedale Museum.

Builder's estimate . . . Thomas Mace and his cousin Charles Hearfield (I assume) were asked to do the joinery work on Sir Charles Dodsworth's new house.

The estimate survives in the Mace account book, which is also in Bedale Museum.

Gravestones
. . . These gravestones are in Bedale churchyard. Next to Charles John's stone is another commemorating his sisters, Nellie King and Margaret Leng.

Oddfellows Arms
. . . The pub is now known as The Three Coopers. It's just down Emgate, 50 yards from the Market Cross. According to the landlord, the house had been a pub for 300 years, and the Mace family had owned it for much of that time. The last Maces there had given up and emigrated to New Zealand in the 1980s (?), and after that the business had gone downhill.

Mace family research
. . . If you reached this page looking for information on the Mace family, you might wish to contact Jill Le Bian (nee Mace) at jill.lebian@free.fr. She emailed me (Nov 2009) to say:

... I am descended from Charles Mace and Fortune Crawford whose son Francis born Berwick 1749 founded the branch that your Maces and mine both stem (from). The Francis in question was a ladies' man and had children from two or three ladies. My ancestor (3 times great grand-father) Charles Mace who married Elizabeth Drysdale and was a carpenter in Berwick was the son of Francis and Jane; they had quite a few children, probably in wedlock although I can't find the marriage lines.

Francis then had a daughter with Elizabeth Greensel whom he acknowledged before having other children with Jane. Before this he had a son James (half brother to my ancestor) with Elizabeth (may have been Greensel but I don't know). I was sent the copy of an affidavit made by Anne Mace wife of Thomas on 5/03/1814 in Berwick concerning two of her children, Jane (16/06/1803 Monkwearmouth) and John (18/01/1801 Monkwearmouth) born in legal wedlock. Anne's husband was a French prisoner at the time. As there seem to be no other Johns around it would be feasible to imagine that her son John and his sister were the children of Thomas Mace, grand-son of Francis and son to my own great great great grandfather Charles the carpenter in Berwick. This document was sent by one of the Mace brothers' (who went to Australia and the NZ, hence Macetown) descendants. As Anne found herself alone with two children in Monkwearmouth (next to Sunderland where John says he was born) where several of Francis' descendants were living - his son James Mace and Mary Clark and Jane Mace his grand-daughter and her husband John Fenwick - she seems to have returned to Berwick where I believe she had family, descendants of great grand-father Francis, and siblings of her husband Thomas.

One thing I have learned about this branch of the Maces is that they certainly stuck together, often going to places where there were already Maces (Kent) or returning to Berwick and later Sunderland where there were relatives ...

. . . Another correspondent with an interest in the Mace family is Shirley Thompson (sthomson@clear.net.nz) who emailed me (Jan 2010) to say:

... My great-great-grandfather John Simpson (c1801-1845) was a watchmaker in Bedale. I don't know for certain if he was also an innkeeper, but Mary, his wife/widow certainly was, and then their son. They had the Royal Oak, not too far from the Maces, around the corner in the market place. Their children were obviously friends. The sixth Simpson child, Sarah Ann (1831-1863) was the first wife of Thomas Mace.

The eldest Simpson son went to Victoria, Australia in 1854. It is not known if he influenced the Mace brothers to go there, or if they influenced a younger Simpson brother, Christopher (1830-1907, my great grandfather) to follow. However I am reasonably certain the Maces did influence Christopher to come to NZ, as Christopher Simpson and Henry Mace went into partnership on a New Zealand farm. This was about 1877-1880. Sadly the partnership fell apart in a rather dramatic way.

The Simpson-Mace links were not over though, as Henry Mace "adopted" two of his sister Mary Ann Hearfield's children, Henry and Margaret. Henry's son Clive (Thomas Clive) married one of Christopher Simpson's granddaughters. On top of all that, I became friendly with a Mace descendant here in NZ, and she gave me a great deal of Mace information before she passed away.

It is fairly obvious the lure for the Mace brothers was gold, however their progress in NZ was traced by a historian some time back by their involvement in the game of cricket! On the other hand I feel Christopher Simpson, though he could turn his hand to many things, was mainly interested in farming. Hence in that partnership with Henry Mace, he ran the farm, and Henry put in some of the money and was actually running a brewery in Wellington and dabbling in a number of other things.

You can see from all of that there is an amazing link, and some of the Hearfields in NZ are also Mace and Simpson descendants too. Henry died on 5 Sep 1940, his 52nd wedding anniversary! However his wife Elizabeth had died som years earlier, on 11 Mar 1926 in Palmerston North. They are both buried in Palmerston North, but in different cemeteries. She is in the old one and he in the newer one. Perhaps the old was full??

Don't think that because Macetown named after the Mace brothers, that there is anything there, as it is a gold mining ghost town, only able to be visited by horses or four-wheel-drive vehicles. Henry Mace and Christopher Simpson named their farm 'Bainesse Station' and the locality (a farming area with a small school, nothing else) is known to this day as Bainesse. The name is a puzzle, but my belief is that it is named after Bainesse Farm, near Catterick. Christopher may have worked there.