He fathered twenty children. Fifteen by his first wife Mary Ann Linkins and five by his second wife Sarah Elizabeth McDonald
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1874
Letter from NZ. 17 May 1874, Hodges Swain, 37, farm labourer, with a wife and five children, wrote home from Invercargill to his parents and friends to give his impressions of the new country. The evening before he had brought home three pounds to give to his wife. He had never lived so well in England, and he too was rejoicing in the eight hour day. As he contrasted the new life with the old, he seems to have felt some bitterness about the past: "I very often think of the slaves in England and the empty bellies A man is drove to be dishonest in England, but here there is no call for him to be if he will work…. Tell several of the farmers round about Elham that I thank them for turning their backs upon me or else I should not have come"
New Zealnd Electronic Text Centre
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1890
Death of wife Mary Ann
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1899
Aged 63 he married Sarah Elizabeth McDonald aged 30.
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