Adolphus Le Sueur

This is the plot of Adolphus and Emily Le Sueur. The Le Sueur name is old French for shoemaker.

Adolphus Albert Le Sueur was born in 1847 in St Helier, Jersey. In 1874 he married Emily Elizabeth Renouf in London. Emily was also from Jersey. Adolphus worked as a commercial traveller dealing in mantles, millinery and dressmaking, employing 8 women and two girls.

Their first three children were born in London before they emigrated to Auckland in 1883. Adolphus purchased the Bon Marche store and traded in the business of “draper, hosier and haberdasher”. In 1890 he sold the business and in 1898 the family moved to Wellington.

By August 1905, the family were in London after spending considerable time in Jersey. Adolphus was reported to be suffering great weakness. They returned to Wellington in February 1906 on the Corinthic. He died in 25th April at 9 Harper Street, his eldest daughter’s house. It was a private interment and no flowers were requested. He was only 58.

In 1903, Adolphus was diagnosed with pernicious anaemia. This may have been the reason why in March 1904 he sold up the contents of the family home “The Bungalow” at Salisbury Terrace. The sale offered “superior Brussels carpet”, “magnificent picture of Mary queen of Scots 6ft long by 4ft high”, “very choice Swiss net curtains” and “9 piece dining room set upholstered in buffalo leather”. The sale was so extensive that the auction house put on transport and refreshments to the house for auction day. Adolphus, his wife and youngest daughters Constance and Eunice then departed for an extended trip to Europe.

In 1910 their daughter Constance married Eric Johnstone and Emily hosted a party at the house “The Bungalow” in Salisbury Terrace (they must have bought all new furniture?). Emily wore a green silk frock and carried a pink heather bouquet.

In 1913 there was another auction to sell all the furniture of “The Bungalow” prior to Emily leaving on an extended trip to England. This time the goods were “costly chesterfield lounges in green velvet”, “valuable solid walnut dining room suite”, “latest model Singer drophead treadle sewing machine” and “a choice collection of pot plants and flower bowls”.

Emily died in 1930, aged 82. Perhaps the Mary Queen of Scots painting didn’t sell at the first auction, as Emily left it in her will to her daughter Beatrice.

Le Sueur plot
Le Sueur family portrait

Peter Frank Jacobsen

Peter Frank Jacobsen was primarily a highly respected architect but also gained note as an accomplished chess champion.

Peter Jacobsen, and his younger brother Theodore, were born in Nelson. Their father Johann Sigismund Martin Jacobsen was a builder and designer, and both sons were trained by him in Christchurch. Frank established the partnership of Jacobsen and Peez in c.1880 and moved to Wellington in 1888.

The Jacobsen brothers formed a partnership which designed about 20 buildings over a ten year period. The partnership dissolved in c.1890 and Theodore moved to Palmerston North in c.1893. Frank remained in Wellington and designed at least 13 houses, two club buildings, a shop and the Shamrock Hotel.

As a chess player Jacobsen had a formidable reputation. Whilst in Christchurch he was especially energetic in bringing about New Zealand’s first chess championship congress (1879), in which he took part, winning the third prize. He is interestingly described as having a “colonial reputation as a chess player.” He was a very prominent prize winner in local tournaments, his last success being to gain the first prize in a large competition promoted by the Wellington Workingmen’s Chess Club, of which he had been President for two years at the time of his death.

He died in 1893 of Typhoid and was buried in Karori Public Section Plot number 243

Jacobsen Plot
Shamrock Hotel being relocated to present location.

Harry Croft

1898 was a sad year for the family of George Turner Croft and his wife Catherine Stokes.

Catherine was the daughter of Richard Stokes and his wife Catherine Tigh(e). She was born in London in 1845.  Her mother died when Catherine was 9 and the family drifted apart. In 1861 she was working as a housemaid in Hertfordshire for William Ward “Landed Proprietor” and his family of eight children. She was one of twelve servants. In 1871 she married George Turner Croft, a carpenter.

The young family emigrated about 1875 and after a few years in Canterbury, they came on to Wellington.

On New Year’s day 1898 at Wellington Hospital, their son Harry Croft died of pneumonia. He was 20 years old. The newspaper said that he died suddenly after a short illness. The funeral procession departed from Wellington Hospital at 3pm on 4th January for Karori Cemetery.

About two weeks later on 14th January, a building owned by George Croft at Petone caught fire. The fire was thought to have been caused by a spark from a bush fire in the neighbourhood. When the alarm was given, the Gear Meat Company’s Brigade arrived and attached a number of lengths of hose to a connection in the Company’s yard. This was too short and when the Petone Brigade arrived, their hose was joined on. Once water pressure was applied, several lengths of the Brigade’s hose burst. All efforts were deemed useless and in a short while the building, and a £50 organ built by their son, were destroyed.

Just 5 months later on 27th May, Catherine died at her home on the Esplanade in Petone, aged 52.

George then married Charlotte Johnston on 15th February 1900 but they only lived together for three weeks as George thought he had “caught a tartar”*. George separated from Charlotte, allowing her £1 per week maintenance. He then travelled to England with two of his children, and returned via South Africa where he served in the war for about a year. On his return, he discovered that Charlotte had gone to South Africa and bigamously married John William Chapman. In 1905, George filed for and was granted a divorce from Charlotte. He died in Auckland in 1919.

Also interred in this plot is their daughter Grace Catherine and her husband Duncan Morrison.

*we had to look this up: someone that turns out to be unexpectedly unpleasant or formidable

Croft Family Plot
Croft family portrait without brother Harry or mother Catherine
Catherine Croft

James Boucher Winton

James Boucher Winton – erected by his friends and comrades

James was born in 1864 in Greenock, Renfrew, Scotland. He was the youngest child of John Winton and his wife Jane Kerr. His mother died when he was 3 and his father remarried.

He came to New Zealand about 1881, aged 19 and by 1888 he was working on Cuba Street as a crockeryware merchant for “Winton and McLauchlan”. It was here that Terrence Gormley, sometimes cab proprietor, was charged and dismissed with stealing James’ pony harness.

In the 1890 directory, James described himself as an importer. The company opened a second branch on Lambton Quay in 1898.

James was also a member of the Wellington Cycle Corps, one of its “most popular and prominent members”.

He acted as Honourable Secretary of the first ever Wellington Cycle Corps ball in 1899 in the Masonic Hall “The decorations were tasteful and elaborate, conspicuous among them being the crest of the corps,  a wheel crossed with arms, while bicycles suspended around the walls of the hall denoted the avocation of the corps” (Evening Post, 27 July 1899)

James died in May 1900. The newspaper reported that he suffered from “an affection of the heart” and that he succumbed to it at his residence on Dixon Street.

James died intestate and his estate comprised £15 cash, two promissory notes of £26-13-4 each, £6 effects and mining shares £13.

He was interred at Karori Cemetery with full military honours. The coffin was carried into the cemetery on a gun carriage  attended by a detachment of D Battalion. The First Battalion Wellington Rifles furnished the firing party of 19 men and one sergeant who fired volleys over the grave. The Garrison Band also attended.

Personal friends rallied to organise a headstone for his grave. The Cycle Corps donated £2 to the fund.

James Boucher Winton Plot
Cycle corps 1909

John Thew

John was born in 1824 and Mary was born in 1828.  They were both from Northumberland. Their first son was born in 1859. In 1871 they were living in Durham where John was working as a Labourer.

They were married on 2 October 1878, 10 days before they emigrated from Plymouth.

They came to New Zealand on the ship Fernglen arriving off Nelson on 2 January 1879 along with 250 other government immigrants. As there was no demand for immigrants in Nelson, the ship was telegraphed and moved on to Wellington. They were 54 and 50 at the time. They were accompanied by their six surviving children.

In 1881 they were living in Thompson Street where John was again working as a labourer.

In 1882 Mary was renting rooms out to boarders in their Nairn Street house.

Bankrupted in September 1883. In 1884 he was charged with having driven a cart over the footpath in Willis Street and he was fined 10 shillings. In November he was charged along with his son with the assault of a boy called Florence McCarthy. Defence was on account of Florence having stolen some eggs and a bridle. They were fined 1 shilling. Their daughter Mary won sewing prizes at Te Aro School in 1884 and 1885.

The son Matthew was a member of the Loyal Orange Lodge.

In 1890 John was granted a lease of a small portion of the Town Belt for £10 per annum.

John died in August 1895. His funeral departed his residence in Nairn Street for Karori Cemetery. Mary also died at Nairn Street in 1913, aged 85, from heart failure. “North of England papers please copy”.

Thew Plot

Hester Mary Wise

Hester Mary Wise – our dear mother

We did a story on Hester last year, mostly because we love the name. But couldn’t find out much about her. And we still can’t!

Although Hester doesn’t appear in the newspapers giving us any hint of her day to day life, we thought that she deserved a bit of a face wash. If you want to see the glamourous new Hester for yourself, she’s on the main road through the cemetery. Follow the map / directions in the link below.

We know that she was born Hester Mary Parker, the daughter of John Parker (gardener) and was living on Old Kent Road at the time of her marriage to John Thomas Wise, at St George Camberwell in 1868.

Hester and John then moved to Wales where John worked as a clerk at the Blaenavon Ironworks before he was lured to New Zealand by the Wellington Gas company where he worked for 20 years before retiring to go farming in the Hutt.

Hester died in 1907 and John in 1909.

They had two sons – Walter Edward and Arthur Henry.


Arthur, his wife Louisa and daughter Melva are also interred in this plot.

https://wellington.discovereverafter.com/search-results?search_first=hester&p_fname=&search_last=wise&p_sname=&cemetery=&site=wellington&advanced-search=Search#
Wise Plot

Victoria Howe

The first name on this headstone is Victoria Howe, who died in 1896 aged 47, after a long and painful illness.

Victoria was born (according to family record) on a ship in Wellington Harbour in August 1848. Her parents were William Rowett and Mary Barker and they were married at St Clement Danes, Westminster in February that year. William was working as a servant at the Angel Inn in Wych Street at the time.

But now in Wellington, it was William’s chance to be his own master, and he ran Livery Stables and advertised the hiring of horses and gigs from his premises at the rear of the South Sea Hotel. He was also a jockey in local horse races. Sadly he died in 1853 aged only 29.

Mary remarried John Patti(n)son the following year and their daughter Mary Ann was born in 1856.

In 1867 Victoria married John Howe, a second-generation fellmonger and son of John Howe senior who had arrived in Wellington in 1842. When John senior died in 1877, he left 86 grandchildren. John Howe senior had a dairy farm off Kent Terrace, between Elizabeth and Pirie Streets, and it was here that the John and Victoria’s children were born.

In 1873 Victoria made her Will leaving her estate to her children, once her youngest child had come of age, and the executors of her Will were to be her stepfather John Pattinson, and William Tustin.

Throughout 1874 Victoria was advertising furnished apartments for rent on Kent Terrace, with or without board. An enterprising way to add to family resources.

In 1878, Victoria was advertising for a nurse girl, and again in 1880 for a “useful young girl”. Clearly she had her hands full.  In 1879, John was advertising for his lost black terrier “Fido”.

At Victoria’s death in 1896, John Pattison renounced the execution in Victoria’s will: “I have not intermeddled in the estate … and will not hereafter intermeddle therein with the intent to defraud creditors…”. And as the William Tustin had died 4 years previous, it was her eldest son John Albert Barker Howe who applied for administration of her estate. John Albert was 28 at the time and his younger siblings were Willie Ernest 23, Mary Maud 21,  Leila Martha 17 and Harry Vaughan 16. John Howe took no interest in his wife’s Will.

John Albert went on to state that his three youngest siblings were living with their grandfather John Pattinson and they had no funds of their own for their maintenance and that the eldest of the three, Mary Maud, was an invalid. John Howe  was not in a position to maintain his children and had not for many years past contributed to their support. He had not lived with Victoria for the last five years of her life and was not in custody of the children. Victoria’s estate consisted almost entirely of a house with a net income of about £100 a year.

An Order was then made by the court that the sum of 20 shillings per week may be allowed from the estate for the maintenance of the children.

John Howe died at Wellington Hospital in June 1898, in his 62nd year.

Mary Pattinson died in 1906, aged 80 and John Pattinson in 1910, aged 95! The newspapers noted he had lived under the reigns of George IV, William IV, Victoria, Edwards VII and George V. Both are also interred in this plot.

The plot is also the final resting place of 10 Howe and Pattinson family members.

If you want the map / directions to find this plot, please click on the following link:

https://wellington.discovereverafter.com/search-results?search_first=victoria&p_fname=&search_last=howe&p_sname=&cemetery=&site=wellington&advanced-search=Search
Howe Family Plot

John Priest

accident prone?

John’s arrival in New Zealand was not the most auspicious start. He and his wife Catherine Sinclair, both emigrants from The Shetland Islands were passengers on the immigrant ship “City of Auckland” which became shipwrecked at the Otaki River mouth in 1878. Fortunately there was no loss of life.

In 1887, John’s trap capsized opposite the Petone Town Board quarry, caused by his horse taking fright at a passing train. His sister sustained a serious injury to one of her legs and the load of produce was pretty well destroyed.

In 1890, after returning to his home in Upper Hutt after purchasing prizes for school children, he was in the process of dismounting his horse when it shied. One foot was caught in the stirrup and he was dragged for some distance until the stirrup strap broke. As a result he broke several ribs.

In 1891 he was sued for £200 in damages by William Backrow for false imprisonment. It was alleged that John had caused William to be arrested on a charge of stealing three planks of timber which was afterwards dismissed by the Justice of Peace. After some evidence was given, it was announced the case had been settled with the plaintiff for £30 in satisfaction of his claim.

In 1898, John was standing opposite his front door in Rintoul Street when a cyclist rode by at great speed and without a lamp and knocked him down. Two bones were broken in his left leg. “Worse still, the wheelman remounted and rode away without evening stopping to make enquiries as to the consequences of his carelessness” (EP 2 June 1898).

In 1901 he was fined for leaving his horse and vehicle unattended.

Aside from his mishaps, John worked as a farmer and then became a very busy contractor. He lived at 124 Rintoul Street and was constantly advertising for carpenters, paper hangers and houses for lease.

After Catherine died in 1895, John married Emily Woodland. He left three surviving children. John shares the plot with both of his wives.

Priest family plot

John & Grace Twist

Old residents of Oriental Bay

John was born at Prescot, Lancashire in 1840, the son of a labourer. In 1861 he was working as a joiner in Salford.  He arrived at Lyttelton on the ship Amoor in 1864 and quickly shifted to Wellington.

In 1868 John married Grace Whebby whose parents, Thomas & Edith, had arrived in Wellington on the ship Clifton in 1841. They were from Somerset. Thomas worked as a milkman who lived in Oriental Bay but he died in 1857 and Edith went on to be a leading figure in Oriental Bay affairs. She raised her 8 children alone. In 1865, Edith was charged with a breach of the Scab Act as her sheep were unclean!

John also contributed to the “progress of affairs” in Oriental Bay in the early days. He also laid the telegraph wire with Samuel Brown between Wellington and Masterton. He constructed a large number of buildings in early Wellington and was proclaimed “an expert craftsman” (Evening Post 9 Sept 1914). Later in life he worked in the Public Works department.

In 1893, the Twist house in Hay Street, Oriental Bay burned down. Owing to the high situation of the house, the Brigade were unable to get water up to it. All that could be done was to remove some furniture, including a piano. The house and contents were insured for £300. The property was known as ‘Te Ngaio’ and shortly after the fire, Grace who owned the property, auctioned the bare land off.

In 1895, Grace died. Her funeral departed from their new home at 53 Ghuznee Street. She was 49 years old. Her Will (dated 1891) stated that her piano should go to her daughter Edith. How fortunate it had been saved in the fire!

John died in 1914 aged 74. His funeral left his son’s house at 13 Garden Road, Northland for Karori Cemetery. He was survived by six sons and one daughter.

Grace Twist (Whebby)
Oriental Bay 1890s
Hay Street detail

Frank Batchelor

Francis Raymond Batchelor (Frankie) died 1924 age 2 ½ . He was the only child of Major Francis Roy Batchelor and his wife Helena.

Frankie’s father, Frank, was a member of the Salvation Army. He was born in 1885, in Charleston (West Coast), to Thomas Francis Batchelor and his wife Jane Tierney. Thomas was a farmer at the time.

Frank worked for a while in Queensland, where he likely met his wife Helena Hutton Elliot and married her in 1920. He then took charge of the Vivian Street Men’s Hostel for returned soldiers, and was then manager of the People’s Palace in Christchurch.

After the death of their Frankie in 1924, Frank and his wife ran an orphanage on behalf of the Salvation Army, until Frank’s death in 1934.

A funeral service was conducted at the Vivien Street Citadel (it was very hard to find a photograph of the original building) “…where hymns and other appropriate music was played by the Salvation Army Band, which also played the “Dead March” as the funeral cortege passed through the city streets.” The service was conducted graveside by Commissioner Cunningham. Frank was interred with Frankie.

(Lieutenant) Helena Batchelor died in Queensland in 1943, aged 57 and is buried in Gympie Cemetery.