The Examination of Samuel Bridge and Richard Mascall both of the parish of Romney in the said Town and Port Labourers concerning their respective Settlements to be taken upon Oath in open Court this 26th day of May 1800. Before his Majesties Justices of the peace there present.
In the first place the said Samuel Bridge saith for himself that he was born in the parish of Smarden in the county of Kent where his Father then resided following the capacity or employment of a Bricklayer, and that he hath never been a hired servant for a year or done any other act to gain a settlement elsewhere to the best of his knowledge and belief.

This picture is reproduced from a photograph of a locket, so the original image must have been small and probably cut out from a larger picture. The locket was taken to New Zealand by William's son (William 3) and the family there always believed that the picture was of William 2. There is a resemblance to the son (see below) but this man looks to be at least 35 years old and the son was only 27 when he emigrated.

A curious feature of the picture is that the head is shown against a patterned background, presumably wallpaper. Studio photographs always had plain backgrounds to avoid distraction and there were no amateur photographers taking snaps in the 1870s. However, it is conceivable that a commercial photographer might take a picture of the saloon in a public house, featuring the genial host, possibly to be used for advertising or just as a framed picture on the wall. If there were such a photo of William 2, it would probably be the only one taken of him and after his death one of his daughters might have cut out his head from the larger picture, to put in a locket and keep as a memento.

Although the New Zealand family (below) originally believed William 3 to have married Anne, there is no evidence for this, while the marriage to Harriett is recorded in the original register and the details given then would have been correct at the time. A subsequent divorce at that date, although technically possible, would be extremely unlikely Also the records show that William and Harriett did have children and the birth records agree well with that for the marriage. In particular, the Fulham address for William 2 on his mother's death certificate matches the one later used to register the birth of his children.

Three enthusiasts for genealogy: Jill, Brian and Rosemary

William 3 is not found in the 1881 census or thereafter because he emigrated to New Zealand. The information below was provided by his great grand-daughter, Jill Spooner; she and her cousins Rosemary Godwin and Brian Bridge have been researching their family history in New Zealand for some years. There is good agreement with what is known from the English records (date and place of birth and mother's maiden name) and the blood tie has now been confirmed by comparing the y-dna markers for Brian Bridge, great grand-son to William, with those for other members of the wider family.

The small photograph most likely dates from about 1875 and very probably shows Annie in her late teens. The original picture (which had been folded and so damaged at some stage) showed her standing wearing a dress with a bustle, a style which was in fashion only in the 1870s and peaked in the middle of the decade. The hairstyle with interwoven tresses on top of the head is also very typical of that period. It had been thought that the picture showed William's mother but if this were so, the photograph would have to date from about 1850 and quite apart from the question of style, there are almost no surviving photographs of that age.

The attractive red varieties that are so popular and well known today come from much later, probably about the end of World War I. It seems about this time a Mr Bridge (of Mangere, near Auckland) bred the first red strain of tamarillo to be grown in New Zealand. He named it 'New Black' ... Continued reselection of these original red strains by growers has led to the large high quality kinds that are now being grown commercially in New Zealand.