Green Plot

Thomas Green

We first pick up Thomas Green’s story in 1877, when he was working as a draper’s assistant at Messrs Sutter and Co. in Timaru. He then worked for Gabites and Plante (drapers), also in Timaru.

Thomas and Ellen moved to the North Island in 1884 and he purchased the stock-in-trade of Mrs F. McGovern’s drapery and dressmaking business in Manaia, South Taranaki. He had plans to make extensive alterations to her premises. This was the beginning of his large drapery business, initially carrying the name Manaia House. He offered among other things ‘Gents suits made to measure’, printed cloth table covers, felt & tapestry carpets, dress materials in all the newest shades, a large variety of Ladies’ Skirts, leading shapes in Bonnets, and a variety of flowers, feathers, ribbons and laces.

In 1886, Thomas hired Miss Galvin from Hawera as a ‘first-class Dress, Habit and Mantle Maker’. She was responsible for the Dress Goods department. He also became the local agent for the Bradbury Sewing Machine Manufacturing company.

Thomas carried on his business successfully until May 1895 when he was forced to sell it due to ill health. His stock clearance included Men’s and Boy’s Kaiapoi tweed suits, a large variety of linoleums (2s to 4s 6d square yard), leather portmanteaux and tin trunks.

The Hawera & Normanby Star printed on 1^st July 1895:

‘We regret to hear that Mr Thomas Green, of Manaia, still continues in a very precarious condition, his medical advisers considering the case very serious’.

And in the same newspaper on 23^rd August:

‘Mr Thomas Green’s condition continues to cause the gravest anxiety to his friends’.

On 27^th June 1895, Thomas signed his will. His wife (Ellen Magdalen Green) was named as the executor. There is no record of the marriage in New Zealand and there do not appear to be any surviving children. We have not been able to establish Ellen’s maiden name.

On 30^th August, Thomas was admitted to Mt View Asylum in Wellington by the order of the Stipendiary Magistrate of New Plymouth. In October the drapery business was finally sold to John Hunt and Ellen moved to Wellington to be near Thomas.

From his admission in August, until February 1896, his health continued to decline. Thomas’s medical attendant in his few last days was Dr Thomas Radford King. Dr King was also the Superintendent of the Asylum. He described Thomas as being in a very weak condition and on the 18^th February, that he appeared to be sinking. His wife was informed. Thomas died on the 19^th and Ellen was with him. Dr King’s opinion was that death was due to ‘disease of the brain’. The headstone states he was 53 years old.

His body was taken to St May of the Angel’s Church, Boulcott Street where a Solemn Requiem Mass was held at 8:30am the following morning before the funeral departed the church at 10:00am for Karori Cemetery. Thomas is the only interment in this plot.

Ellen is recorded on the 1897 Electoral Roll living in Manaia, and then no further trace of her in New Zealand can be found. There is a record in The Daily Telegraph (Sydney) of the death of Mrs Ellen M Green, in July 1920. This was followed by the publication of probate for Ellen Magdalen Green. Eugene Joseph Sheehy is named as the executor of her estate, but we cannot find a connection between the Sheehy family and Ellen or Thomas. If we could, it would confirm that this is Thomas’s Ellen, and it may help identify where Thomas was born and who his family was.

Plot: *ROM CATH/A/3