Matthew was born in Somerset, England in 1824. He arrived in Wellington on the S.S. Arab in 1841 with his parents and siblings. In 1864 he married the widowed Janet Downie (nee Robertson). The groom and bride were 40 and 39 years old respectively. Janet had a son named Alexander from her first marriage born in 1849.
Matthew went farming at Turakina for many years and then settled in Durietown. He moved to River Bank, Wanganui after Janet died in 1895.
In October 1903 he sold up everything and left the Wanganui to move Wellington where he purchased a house in Ellice Avenue [now Porritt Ave]. He married early in 1904 to Lucy Maria Haylock. The groom was 80, the bride was 41. From 1899 to 1903, Lucy had been living at River Bank and was working as a housekeeper. Was she Matthew’s?
Shortly afterward the wedding, Matthew made his Will. He died on 7th August 1904.
‘He was a quiet unassuming man, and took no active part in public matters. He was well known and highly respected’ – Wanganui Herald, 9 August 1904.
In Matthew’s will, his stepson Alexander Downie received £800. A niece of his first wife Janet, named Mysie McAlley, received £50. The rest of his estate went to his wife Lucy. The newspaper published that it was valued at £5387 in total.
Alexander Downie died in 1921 and left his estate to his cousins. Lucy never remarried and died in 1949 and in her Will left her property in Duncan Terrace and all of her assets to the Christian Assemblies of Australia and New Zealand. She is the second interment in this plot.
Plot: *Public 2/K/4
By Julia Kennedy
