Cornthwaite John Hector was born 6 May 1835, in Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania), though his application to start a post office lists his birthplace as Liverpool, England. He was the son of Cornthwaite Hector and Elizabeth Budd.[1] Cornthwaite and Elizabeth had emigrated from Portsmouth to the British penal colony of Van Diemen's Land, the southernmost of the Australian colonies, where they had been given a grant of land by the British government.[1] They had arrived at Hobart on the ship Lang on Tuesday 23 December 1828.[3] By 1840 the family had moved to Kororāreka, New Zealand.[4]
At ten years of age, Hector was present at the Battle of Kororāreka.[1] He became notable for his "gallant conduct" at that battle for "bringing up ammunition from the stockade during the heaviest fire", according to a newspaper report of the time.[1]
Hector, along with his brother, George Nelson Hector, worked for Bishop George Augustus Selwyn, (the first Bishop of New Zealand) on board various vessels he used to travel among the islands of the Pacific Ocean.[1]
The Maori Wars prompted many English people to leave New Zealand and the Hector family, with the exception of George Nelson Hector, moved to Australia. Hector's mother, Elizabeth, died at Victoria Street, Surry Hills, Sydney, New South Wales, on Wednesday 22 September 1847, aged 42.[5]
