We have often admired this headstone for its unusual ‘drop shadow’ leadwork lettering, which seems quite modern for the era. It was a prime candidate to be cleaned. The plot fronts Church of England on the main road, if ever you are passing. Here is the Incledon family story:
Matilda Ellen Myhill was born in Deptford, Kent in 1844. Her father was William Myhill, a compositor at Lloyd’s Register. This organisation was named after a 17th-century coffee house in London that was frequented by merchants, marine underwriters, and others – all men associated with shipping.
Matilda’s first husband was Henry Hanson (a merchant’s clerk),. They married in 1865 and had four children. Her sister Emma married Henry’s brother Louis the same year. Emma & Louis emigrated to New Zealand in 1873. Henry Hanson died in 1876 and Matilda appears to have emigrated with her children to New Zealand shortly after.
Matilda then married William Henry Kingdon Incledon in Wellington in 1878, a man nine years her junior. William was born in Devon in 1853, the illegitimate child of Mary Incledon. (Was Kingdon his father’s name?). William and Matilda’s son William was born in 1878 and was the second of three successive generations named ‘William Henry Incledon’.
In 1879 William was fined 5s for removing the surface of the street in Sussex Square. In 1887 he became a licensed dealer for the Westport Coal Company. In 1889 the Kilbirnie main road contracts was transferred to him. William was also fined in 1889 for failing to stamp his weights.
In 1890 William sold his Wood & Coal business. The following year he appears to have gone farming in ‘Nainai’ and also supplied his own milk cart in Cuba Street.
In 1899 the family were living in Abel Smith Street, father and son living next door to each other and both working as dairymen. By 1902, William & Matilda were living in the Hutt and in 1905 they were living in Victoria Street, Petone. It was here that William died, aged 55. He left his estate in trust for his wife and son, but gave £50 to each of his Hanson stepchildren.
Matilda died in 1927 at her home in Laing’s Road.
Also interred in this plot with William and Matilda are their son, William Henry Incledon 1878-1940 and his wife Florence Tregigda 1877-1959; granddaughter Florence May McKenzie 1899-1944, and daughter Louisa Rosina Stevenson (nee Hanson) 1873-1952.
Plot Ch Eng/A/61
