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//The Lush Family//  Vicesimus Lush was born in London on 27 August 1817. He was given the Latin Christian name Vicesimus because it meant twentieth, and he was his father's twentieth child. Vicesimus graduated B.A. from Corpus Christi College in 1842 and M.A. in 1847. While at Cambridge he met and married Blanche Hawkins. At seventeen Blanche had lost both her parents and went to live with a widowed aunt at Ewelme in Oxfordshire, until she married Vicesimus 6 years later on the 5th May 1842. In June of 1843 there first child who they named Blanche Hawkins. Their second child, Charlotte Sarah was born in 1844 closely followed by her sister Mary Eliza in 1847 and her first brother Charles Hawkins in 1849. On 14th May 1850 Vicesimus, Blanche their children and a servant girl left England on board the Barbara Gordon, the journey to New Zealand took them a whole 5 months arriving in late October. When they arrived they lived briefly at St Johns College before in December moving to Howick where Vicesimus became the first resident vicar. He remained there until 1865 during that time he built a house at Cockle Bay and Ewelme cottage in Parnell. While he was in Howick he had five children, Alfred in 1852, John Martin Hawkins in 1854, Anne in 1857, Margret Edith in 1859 and then the youngest William Edward in 1862.Unfortunately, Charlotte, Eliza and Alfred died all died over 9 days in 1854 of Scarlet fever. Later in 1865, Ewelme Cottage became the family's permanent home. Between 1865 and 1868 Vicesimus made regular trips to the inner Waikato then finally he became the first resident vicar of Thames. Lush left his wife and children alone for almost two and a half years in Ewelme Cottage. It was not until 1871 that they were all in a new home in Thames. In 1876 Margret Edith died of Scarlet fever, the same fever that killed her siblings. In 1881 in failing health, Vicesimus was transferred to Hamilton. In 1882 he moved back to Parnell so he could be near his medical advisor and on the 11th of July he passed away. Blanche went back to Hamilton for two months while Ewelme Cottage was extended and moved back in late October. The oldest son Charles was a epileptic and died in 1883.

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