Margaret – Mrs Frued or Freude or Mrs French
On 3rd December 1892, a woman arrived in Wellington at the Te Aro Hotel named Margaret. She had a note of introduction addressed to the hotel manager, George Harden, from Miss Crawford. The note asked George to make Margaret comfortable, as Margaret ‘had some trouble with her husband’. As his hotel was already full, George gave Margaret his own room and put up elsewhere. When registering her name with the hotel, she was very particular about its spelling: Death. Mrs Death.
On 8th December, Margaret paid her hotel bill and left in a cab. She told George that she was going to stay with some friends before leaving for Christchurch. He never saw her alive again. On 11th December, Margaret arrived at Mary Ann Patterson’s house at 128 Cuba Street (also recorded as Mrs Pattison). Mary Ann was a midwife and Margaret was expecting a baby. Margaret had not previously consulted a doctor about her pregnancy. She complained to Mary Ann about her heart. Her legs were swollen. She told Mary Ann that her name was Mrs Frued and Mary Ann observed that her luggage was marked with that name.
On Friday 3rd February 1893, Margaret gave birth to a little boy. Sadly he only lived for half an hour. On Sunday, Margaret gave birth to two more babies, both girls. The first lived for only 20 minutes and the second for half an hour. Mary Ann wanted to send for a doctor but Margaret did not think this was necessary.
Margaret was quite well until the following morning when she fainted. Mary Ann sent for Dr Mackin who arrived at 10:30am. Sadly Margaret died at midday. Dr Mackin said her cause of death was a from a haemorrhage but he refused to certify it, as he had not been caring for her throughout her delivery.
An inquest was held at the Victoria Hotel, Abel Smith Street on the following day (7th February). George Harden identified Margaret’s body for the jury. The jury also learnt that Margaret had told Mary Ann that she already had one child aged 6 years old, and that her husband was a farmer in Palmerston North. Her age was estimated to be about 30. A post mortem concluded that her heart was perfectly healthy and that she had lost a great deal of blood. The triplets were also confirmed to be perfectly healthy, well-nourished and very large. Mary Ann’s training and qualifications were checked and found in order. There remained a mystery as to where Margaret was between the 8th and 11th December.
The jury returned a verdict in accordance with the medical evidence and that the three infants had died from natural causes. They were also of the opinion that a doctor should have been sent for after the birth of the first child, when it became apparent that more babies were expected.
An unsent letter dated 19th December found among Margaret’s belonging was addressed to her brother, Mr Howarth in Canterbury (NZ). In this letter, wrote that she was ill and that ‘if anything out of the ordinary’ happened to her, that they should send for her clothes. She also wrote:
‘I leave my little Harry with you. I was on my way to you, but I have not got strength to go so far without a rest’ – ‘Your affectionate sister, M. French’.
We have not been able to verify Margaret’s full identity, as the father of her children is not listed in the Birth index, and no matching marriage between Howarth and French, or the birth for her son Harry (or Henry) can be found in the New Zealand records.
Margaret was buried in the Public section on 9th February. Presumably her babies are with her, but they are not recorded in the burial register. The plot is unmarked.
Postscript:
After sharing the above story on our Facebook page in February 2026, one of our readers, Don Stanley, undertook some research online and identified Carl Casper (or Jasper) French as a likely match for Margaret’s husband.
Carl was from Sweden and his occupation was recorded as ‘saddler’. He became a naturalised citizen in 1893 in Palmerston North, which verifies what was said at the inquest about his location. A family tree on Ancestry suggests they were not married.
Further research by Don on the NZ BDM index identified the birth of a little girl to Carl and Margaret in 1886, named Margareattie Howarth/Howorth French. Although we know that Margaret asked for her child ‘Harry’ to remain with her brother and sister, could Harry be a pet name for Margareattie? When her little boy was born, she told the midwife, Mary Ann, that she longed for a little boy and fretted very much at his death.
In 1898, Carl French married Sophie Rehbock and had two sons, Carl and Frank. They family moved to Australia. There are no descendants.
With the information Don found, we are able to carry Margareattie’s story forward. Her unusual first name led us to a match for her will at Archives New Zealand. Margareattie could not be found previously as she used the first name Ethel throughout her life.
In 1909, Ethel was living in the Samaritan Home in Christchurch when she married John Whitford. He turned out to be a bigamist. A year later she married Joseph William Bishop. They had two daughters: Katherine Maude (1912-1993, married Raymond Bushby) and Myrtle Marguerita (1916-1997, married Henry Lester Clarkson). Both daughters had children. So far, we have not been able to make contact with a living descendant on Ancestry website.
Margareattie died in 1943 and is buried in Waimairi Cemetery. We have requested that he FindaGrave entry be updated to show the correct spelling of her name and link it to her mother’s FindaGrave ID. In time, we hope that we can fill in the gaps in Margaret’s story.
Plot: *Public/#/177
By Julia Kennedy
