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On an errand of mercy to help Mrs Hamlin, the wife of the Missionary living at Orua Bay who had become ill, Captain William Cornwallis Symonds was drowned. Captain Symonds obtained medical supplies and proceeded to Orua Bay in one of the ships boats. A sudden squall blew up which upset the boat and only one of the five men in her, a Maori oarsman, survived. Of the Company, Captain Symonds, James Adams and Mr McAlpine were drowned. He probably was the first European to drown in the Manukau Harbour.

The United Service Magazine reports: We deeply grieve to record the premature and melancholy fate which, since the above was transmitted, has befallen the highly promising officer in whose company Capt. Best made the journey described in this narrative. Capt. William Cornwallis Symonds, of the 96th Regt., eldest son of the present Surveyor of the Navy, to whom our naval architecture is so deeply and practically indebted, after studying, with marked distinction, at the Senior Department of the Royal Military College, proceeded to New Zealand, his regiment being stationed in New South Wales, with the appointment of Deputy Surveyor-General, for which he was in every respect qualified. Of his assiduity and intelligence in the discharge of very active duties in a region gifted by nature, but as yet imperfectly known, we have recently had proofs in a journal kept by Capt. Symonds, with a perusal of which we were favoured ; and we have reason to know that his personal popularity was unbounded amongst the New Zealanders, whom his manly and humane character materially tended to conciliate and civilize. It is unnecessary to add that he was justly respected and beloved by the European residents. An act of noble solicitude for one of the latter occasioned his lamented death on the 23rd of November last. The wife of a missionary at the settlement being ill, and no medical aid at hand, Capt. Symonds, with characteristic feeling and energy, proceeded himself, at all risks, to a vessel at some distance, to procure the necessary assistance. The weather was rough, the sea ran high, and, on returning from the ship, the boat swamped. Poor Symonds—remarkable for his athletic and handsome person was an expert swimmer, and struck out manfully to gain the shore, some miles distant, with his companion, Mr. Adams, who, after a stout struggle, sank and rose no more. Symonds still persevered, and was long seen buffeting the waves with unsubdued vigour and presence of mind ; but when close to the shore he suddenly disappeared,a shark had pulled him down. The monster was taken, and a portion of the remains was found in its stomach. Thus miserably perished one of the finest young men in the British Service. Capt. Symonds had, not long before, purchased his company, and paid the difference to come on full pay: he has found an early grave in the public service, and in the immediate performance of an act of humanity at great personal hazard.

There are two Symonds Streets in Auckland - the Central City thoroughfare is named after William Cornwallis Symonds, whilst Symonds Street in Onehunga is named after John Jermyn.²

On 6 September 1943 William J. Sewall, publisher of The Carthage Evening Press. Carthage, Mo., and Mrs. Sewall observed their golden wedding anniversary by keeping open house at their residence, 1607 South Main street, Carthage, last evening.
Mrs. Sewall was the former Mary Taggart, a daughter of the late Rev. and Mrs S.B. Taggart, of Upper Alton.
The wedding took place on Sept. 6, 1893, at 7 o’clock a.m. in the Taggart homestead on Liberty street, now Washington avenue. The bride’s father performed the ceremony. The couple left to attend the Chicago World’s Fair after the ceremony.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Sewall are natives of Illinois. Both graduated from college in the spring of 1886. Sewall completing his school work at Blackburn University while Mrs. Sewall graduated at Shurtleff College.
The Upper Alton public school, now Horace Mann, was being built in the early part of 1886. Miss Taggart took the position as teacher of the high school when the new building was opened in September that fall. This was the first high school Upper Alton ever had. After two years in this position she went to Carthage to take a place on the faculty of a collegiate institute. Sewall had gone to Carthage two years before to take a place as a newspaper reporter on The Press which he owned a few years later. He was a native of Virden and worked on papers in that town and in Springfield while in school. He is widely known in newspaper circles in Missouri and Illinois and has served as president of the Missouri Press Association and in other capacities.⁴