Thomas Hancock, with his wife and four children, arrived in New Zealand from England in 1841. Lydia, their fifth daughter, was the first of their children to be born in New Zealand. By 1858 the family were living in Newmarket where Thomas Hancock owned a brewery, Hancock & Co. The younger daughters all attended Ponsonby convent, walking there daily from from Newmarket. "Three of the girls were clever seamstresses; the others, they said, were a disgrace." [ref: "The Descendants of Thomas Hancock, Brewer and Publican of Auckland" compiled by Rex and Adriene Evans, 1995]