This is the plot of Adolphus and Emily Le Sueur. The Le Sueur name is old French for shoemaker.
Adolphus Albert Le Sueur was born in 1847 in St Helier, Jersey. In 1874 he married Emily Elizabeth Renouf in London. Emily was also from Jersey. Adolphus worked as a commercial traveller dealing in mantles, millinery and dressmaking, employing 8 women and two girls.
Their first three children were born in London before they emigrated to Auckland in 1883. Adolphus purchased the Bon Marche store and traded in the business of “draper, hosier and haberdasher”. In 1890 he sold the business and in 1898 the family moved to Wellington.
By August 1905, the family were in London after spending considerable time in Jersey. Adolphus was reported to be suffering great weakness. They returned to Wellington in February 1906 on the Corinthic. He died in 25th April at 9 Harper Street, his eldest daughter’s house. It was a private interment and no flowers were requested. He was only 58.
In 1903, Adolphus was diagnosed with pernicious anaemia. This may have been the reason why in March 1904 he sold up the contents of the family home “The Bungalow” at Salisbury Terrace. The sale offered “superior Brussels carpet”, “magnificent picture of Mary queen of Scots 6ft long by 4ft high”, “very choice Swiss net curtains” and “9 piece dining room set upholstered in buffalo leather”. The sale was so extensive that the auction house put on transport and refreshments to the house for auction day. Adolphus, his wife and youngest daughters Constance and Eunice then departed for an extended trip to Europe.
In 1910 their daughter Constance married Eric Johnstone and Emily hosted a party at the house “The Bungalow” in Salisbury Terrace (they must have bought all new furniture?). Emily wore a green silk frock and carried a pink heather bouquet.
In 1913 there was another auction to sell all the furniture of “The Bungalow” prior to Emily leaving on an extended trip to England. This time the goods were “costly chesterfield lounges in green velvet”, “valuable solid walnut dining room suite”, “latest model Singer drophead treadle sewing machine” and “a choice collection of pot plants and flower bowls”.
Emily died in 1930, aged 82. Perhaps the Mary Queen of Scots painting didn’t sell at the first auction, as Emily left it in her will to her daughter Beatrice.
