Eliza Partridge

‘Mrs Eliza Partridge passed away yesterday morning, having attained the ripe age of 91 years’

Eliza was born in Birmingham, England in 1810. Her father was Thomas Pool(e) who was a locksmith and his wife Susanna (nee Lewis). Eliza married Thomas Stanley Partridge in Birmingham in 1843. He was a widower with two young children. They emigrated in 1849 with the children from both of Thomas’ marriages. Their youngest child, Clara, was born in Wellington in 1850 when Thomas was 51.

Thomas was the chief clerk in the first bank in Wellington, an appointment he accepted in 1850. He died in 1857 at the ‘Lunatic Asylum’ in Karori. He entered the asylum on the 30^th March 1857 and continued ‘sinking’ until his death on 30^th April. He was buried at Bolton Street.

In 1865, a man named Staner ‘summoned a widow lady, one Mrs Partridge’ for the sum of £25. This was for the value of chest of carpenter’s tools detained by her. She had held on to them as a former tenant left her premises with £7 rent unpaid and the chest was kept in lieu. Staner claimed the property was his. Judgement was given for the defendant with costs.

In 1869, Eliza was advertising two furnished rooms for let from in Tory Street. In 1879 she was offering to let a 4-room house at 14s per week and another 5-room house at 16s, situated in Grainger Street, opposite the Bay View Store on Clyde Quay.

In 1870, Eliza was called as a witness in a case of alleged drunkenness against Agnes Brown, married woman. Eliza said that Agnes had come to her house and asked for protection, which she refused. ‘Witness then favoured the Court with a series of opinions not much to the point’.

By 1899, Elizabeth was one of the first recipients of the Old Age Pension. She stated she was 88 years old and that she had been in the colony for 50 years. The newspaper said that she was too feeble to appear before the court and so was represented by Mr J.G.W. Aitken. She received the full amount of £18.

Eliza died suddenly in 1900, at the Home for the Aged Needy. Longevity seemed to run in the family as her youngest daughter Clara died in 1951, aged 100.

Eliza is the only interment in this plot.

Plot: *Public/F/54

By Julia Kennedy