Dent family connections
| Rank: Sergeant |
Religion: Catholic |
Eyes, Hair, Complexion: Blue, Sandy, Fair |
Birth Place, Trade, Height, Marital Status, Ship to NZ |
Prior to joining the Waikato militia John Crosby (aka Crosbie) had served several years in the British Army with the 55th and 99th regiments and had more recently been working on railway maintenance in Melbourne Victoria, Australia. John arrived in New Zealand on the "Swiftsure" with his wife, Maria, and one child. Their first New Zealand born child, Patrick, was born within six months of the regiment's arrival at Hamilton and he was one of the first militia children to be born there, although not the first.
His town grant was an acre on the corner of Firth and Albert Streets in Hamilton East and his 80 acre farm block, which he named "Mt Pleasant", was to the north of this section, in the vicinity of the road now named after him (Crosby Road). John was lucky with his land allocations, his town and country properties were near to each other and he had satisfactory access to his farm. Until proper roads and bridges were built many men experienced great difficulty in accessing their blocks because of the swamps, gullies and streams throughout the area. On his block John ran a cow, poultry and grew vegetables etc. which helped the family through the early days of the settlement when money and work was not plentiful. His farmhouse burnt down in 1876. A story is told of an early maori plot of peach trees on the eastern side of the river where John would back his dray under the trees, give them a good shake to dislodge the fruit and then drive off with the load.
In 1889 John Crosby was one of the fifty settlers who planted a tree in Sydney Square, Hamilton East, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the militia's landing at Hamilton. He died in 1902 aged 77 years and is buried in the Roman Catholic section of the Hamilton East cemetery