Frederick William Hurst was the tenth child of William and Mary Ann Green Hurst. His parents were natives of Hampshire, England, but moved to the Isle of Jersey about 1832 to run a nursery. Frederick was born there on June 30, 1833. The youngest and eleventh child, Charles Clement, was born there May 28, 1839. About September, 1839, William Hurst sold the nursery and the family went to Essex, England to visit relatives.

Read the "Diary of Frederick William Hurst, Sr." (off-site)

There was a lot of interest at that time in the colonization of New Zealand, and his father caught the fever. He felt that with his large family it would be advantageous to go to a new country. There were six children—four boys and two girls, although if all of the children of William Hurst and Mary Ann Green had lived there would have been eleven. Frederick William was the tenth child, next to the youngest.

The family left England in the month of December 1839, bound for New Zealand and arrived there sometime in April 1840. They landed in what is now the city of Wellington. They found the country very wild and uncultivated, and had many frightening experiences with the natives. The natives of New Zealand were very friendly at first, but before the end of the year 1840, they took up arms and commenced murdering whole families because of the imposition and oppression of the whites. Fred, being too young to bear arms, carried food and supplies to his brothers and father while they cleared the ground and fought off the natives.

At the age of twelve, Fred was too small to join the volunteers, but he did some drilling along with other boys his age for several hours each day after school was dismissed. Sometimes they would also assist in making fortifications. His father and eldest brother had to drill and build forts, etc. Troops and ships of war came from England, and a great deal of blood was shed before peace was declared sometime in 1847.

Although the family was in a new country, the parents gave their children a good education for those days. During his school life, Fred studied the art of painting.

His father leased a farm near Karori and the two young boys, Fred and Clement, and an older brother, Alfred, were sent to take care of it. Alfred was careless and indifferent about the farm and Fred had to take the responsibility even though he was quite young. Because of that he decided to go to work on his own. He worked at a grocery, hardware and ironmonger’s store, beginning about December 1846. He stayed there about a year and then, through the persuasion of Alfred, he again tried farming. That evidently did not prove satisfactory, as he later went back to the store to work. When his brother Alexander died Fred was offered Alexander’s position although he didn’t accept the work until a later date. In the meantime he badly injured his back in an accident, which kept him ill for six to eight weeks.