Henrietta Mason

Henrietta Emma Rex was born in a tent at Stawell, Victoria in 1859 to William and Dorothy Rex (see previous story).

Henrietta married Harry Brooks Mason who was a printer (as was her father) in 1884. Their children were Henry Greathead Rex (b 1885) Irene Ellen (b 1887)  Henrietta Rex (b 1889), Spencer Rex (b 1891), Dorothy Emily Rex (b 1893), John Brooks Rex (b 1899), Read Rex (b 1904) all born in Wellington.

She attended the first Women’s Social and Political League meeting in 1894 at which Miss Price read a paper on “The Higher Education of Women”. Henrietta selected the musical pieces for the evening. At the following meeting Henrietta read a paper on “The Nationalisation of Music”. The following lecture was given by Miss Yates “Home Perils Combatted by Vegetarianism and Temperance”. Eventually she was elected vice president of the organisation and sat on the committee with notable women such as Mrs T K Macdonald and Mrs R J Seddon.

Alongside the League and raising her children, Henrietta also gave dancing classes on Mondays and Thursdays at 8pm and children’s classes on Saturday afternoons at her private hall in Ghuznee Street. She continued teaching assisted by her daughters until the start of WWI.

Harry died in 1938 and Henrietta in 1944. She left her piano to her daughter Dorothy, her house at 74 Tinakori Road to her daughter Irene and her two cottages in Elizabeth Street to Dorothy and Read. Her estate was worth about £2,800.

Of their children, Henry [Rex] was elected mayor of Te Puke in 1915 and was given the portfolios of attorney general and minister of justice in the first Labour Government in 1935.

Henrietta Rex graduated with a BA in Economics from Canterbury College in 1913. She became a novelist and also a missionary on Raga Island. She worked for 20 years at Columbia University, New York City. In 1973 she established The Hon Rex Mason Prize for Legal Writing in honour of her brother and is the oldest legal writing prize.

Dorothy received the second highest mark in New Zealand for the junior civil service exam in 1910 and spent periods living in Sydney and New York. John Brooks became a civil engineer and Spencer Rex joined his brother Henry in partnership as Mason & Mason barristers and solicitors. Read Rex became a journalist and was a conscientious objector in WWII. Irene became an amateur actress and lived independently in Sydney.

Harry & Henrietta Mason and all of their children except for Spencer are interred in this plot which has a ‘hip tomb’ form like the one Henrietta organised for her parents.

Plot Ch Eng 2/M/439

William & Dorothy Rex

William Rex – “another link in the chain of early colonists has been severed by the death of Mr William Rex”

William’s obituary described him as being of a roving disposition. He was born in 1818 at North Shields, Northumberland. He trained as a printer and resided with his widowed mother who ran a boarding house in Newcastle.

From there he went to Argentina which coincided with Buenos Aires declaring war on Uruguay in 1851. After riding out those troubles he returned to Newcastle before heading off to the gold fields in California. Gold then lured him to goldfields in Victoria and then after the discovery of gold at Gabriel’s Gully he came to Otago. He spent some time mining on the west coast too.

In between all of those adventures he married Dorothy Ellen Taylor in 1857 at Geelong. Dorothy was born in 1821 in Gateshead, Durham. Their children were Henrietta Emma (b 1859) and George (b 1861).

William lived that last 25 years of his life in Wellington where he returned to his trade as a printer and for many years was at the Government Print Office. He still took an interest in mining and speculating on the Thames goldfields.

The newspapers give us a few glimpses into his life: In 1875 the family were living in Molesworth Street when William was fined 5s for allowing his chimney to catch fire. And in 1885 he was charged for having allowed soapsuds to flow from his property into the street.

The Old Age Pension Act became law in 1898. The Act gave a small means-tested pension to elderly men and women with few assets who were ‘of good moral character’ and had for the previous five years been leading a ‘sober and reputable life’. In February 1899, the Pensions Court granted William and Dorothy £18 each which was the maximum permitted. William died in November the same year, aged 81.

Dorothy continued living at their home in Taranaki Street and kept lodgers. She died in 1906 aged 83/85 (depending on records) and was “held in esteem by a large circle of friends”.

The ‘hip tomb’ form of their plot has three marble plaques – one for each William and Dorothy and a third inscribed with “Erected by their loving daughter”. More about Henrietta next time …

Plot: Ch Eng/M/19

Rex family plot

William Corfield

electrocuted at Miramar

William, aged 24, was driving a lorry belonging to his employer John Keir along Evans Bay Road on 3rd November 1906. He was carting timber from Miramar wharf to Eason’s Mill at Kilbirnie. He noticed a wire lying on the road. To prevent it getting tangled with the cart’s wheels, and not knowing it was live, grasped it with both hands and was immediately killed. The wire carried a charge of 2000 volts.

William Weldon, also a carter and present at the accident said that he had noticed that the wire across the road had been sagging for months before the accident. It was thought that a load of furniture had touched the wire and bought it to the ground.

At the time of William’s death, his effects totalled £7:0:0 and was owed £1:8:0 in wages.

The Public Trustee acting as administrator for William, “his relatives being resident outside of the colony”, made demand on John Keir for the payment of £105 13s in compensation. Mr Keir’s insurance company paid the sum which was forwarded to William’s widow in Lewisham, Sydney by bank transfer. Mr Keir’s then sought to recover this amount from the Electric Light Company on the ground that the accident was due to their negligence. The Company refused to pay and an action was taken in the Supreme Court.

The company blamed a cart laden with furniture as causing the wire to be pulled from a safe height and that the accident was caused by William’s contributory negligence in handling the wire.

His Honour Mr Justice Button gave judgement on 21 November 1907 in favour of John Keir as it was in his opinion that the Electric Light Company had not maintained the wire at such a height above the roadway to prevent vehicles from touching it.

William, also known as William Corfield Wilson and William Wilson was born in Queensland in 1882 and married Florence Cole in 1904 in NSW. Their son Russell John was born the same year. She remarried to Arthur Wrigley in 1912 and he was killed in WWI in 1915.

This headstone reads “erected by his friends”. William is the only interment in this plot.

Plot: ROM CATH/O/101

William Corfield plot

Thomas William Rose Porter

Thomas William Rose Porter (1843 – 1920) and Major, the War Horse.

We were lucky to meet a family member of Thomas William Rose Porter who told us some stories about him and agreed that we could share a story with you.

Most likely born in Streatham, Surrey, England, on 2 August 1843, Thomas William Potter was the son of John Potter, an agricultural labourer, and his wife, Jane Phipps. It is thought Thomas later changed his name to Porter and claimed to have been born in India, the son of John William Porter, an officer in the 7th Bengal Native Infantry, and his wife, Jane Emily Rose.

Thomas served on H.M.S. Hercules in raids against pirates on the coast of China in 1857–8, and then migrated first to the gold fields in Australia and then to New Zealand. Between 1863 and 1866 he served in the Colonial Defence Force in Hawke’s Bay under the name Potter. During this period he began to study the Māori language. He remained on the East Coast after leaving the Defence Force.

On 9 May 1873 he married Herewaka te Rangi-Paea Potai, of Tokomaru Bay. Together the couple had at 9 children, among them the tattooer Tāme Poata and the singer Fanny Rose Porter, known as Princess Te Rangi Pai.

Descendants of the Porter family told us that Thomas’ favourite horse had once grazed at Karori Cemetery and thought that the horse is buried in the cemetery. We have managed to find out some details about his horse “Major”.

Born in the Wairarapa, Major was the only New Zealand horse to serve in the South African ‘Boer’ War and return back to New Zealand. He initially belonged to Lieutenant Robert Collins of the Fourth Contingent. After Collins was wounded, Major served with a number of men before coming into Thomas’s possession in May 1901. In the South African ‘Boer’ War, Thomas was Commander of the Seventh New Zealand Contingent (1901) and the Ninth Contingent (1902).

Thomas rode Major throughout South Africa and some records suggest that they covered an estimated 3000km to 6000km.

Major was twice wounded in action (in the knee and shoulder). As about 60% of the horses died in combat it is miraculous that Major survived these wounds. The campaign is recorded as notorious for the demands it placed upon horses. Once they reached South Africa, after a stressful sea journey, the horses were constantly on the move.

When the decision was made that all of the 8000 horses, taken to South Africa, were not to return to New Zealand, (due to duress and the tsetse fly threat to New Zealand), varying people protested on behalf of Major, and it was decided that Major should be sent to England to be ridden in the coronation parade of King Edward VII in 1902. After being sent to the wrong castle in England the horse made it to London in time for the parade. Lt Col Porter was commander of the Coronation Contingent and proudly rode Major in the coronation parade.

Following the coronation Major was returned to New Zealand, where he was quarantined on Matiu/Somes Island for three months. Major travelled the country with Thomas in while he worked in Canterbury, Wellington and Gisborne.

Herewaka Porter died in Christchurch on 7 December 1904. Thomas married his second wife Florence Ellen Sheppard at Petone on 6 January 1906; they were to have no children. It is likely that this is when Major would have grazed around Karori Cemetery as while Thomas worked in Wellington he lived in Karori.

Thomas retired from the Public Service in 1908 and moved back to Gisborne with Major. Major was described as “an exceptionally fine stamp of horse, possessing all the best points of strength and endurance”.

Sadly Major died at Thomas’s private Gisborne residence Heatherlea on 11 May 1909, from the effects of a severe chill. Contrary to the family story, there are no records indicating that Major was relocated from Gisborne and buried in Karori Cemetery.

During the First World War, Thomas was brought out of retirement and moved back to Wellington. He was appointed Dominion Commandant of the National Reserve and later Inspector of Recruiting Services.

Thomas retired (again) in 1919 and died on 20 November 1920 at his residence in Austin St.

Thomas’s funeral was a full military funeral featuring a gun carriage and a firing party. The regimental band was in attendance and the pallbearers were colleagues who had served with Thomas during his career.

Ch Eng/N/69

Thomas Porter
Major

Porter plot

Constance Annie de Bathe Vaughan

‘she gave her life for her child’

Widely known as Miss Connie Brandon prior to her marriage, born in 1869 she was the eldest daughter of Henry Eustace de Bathe Brandon and his wife Anna Wilson. She was the granddaughter of Alfred de Bathe Brandon, an English solicitor who was one of the New Zealand company settlers who arrived on the “London” in 1840. The Brandon family plot is highly visible at Bolton Street cemetery. Her father died in 1886 and left the family ”slenderly provided for” owing to the fact he could not get an insurance policy on his life due to lifelong poor health.

In 1894 Connie married Leonard Castle Vaughan, the second son of a Somerset gentleman who had emigrated with his brother in 1891. At the time of their marriage, Leonard was a farmer in Marton. They were married at St Paul’s church and the bridge wore an ivory silk dress and was given away by her uncle, Mr A de B Brandon (Mayor of Wellington). After the wedding breakfast, the couple departed by train for Paekakariki en route for New Plymouth where they spent their honeymoon.

During their married life, the couple attended many receptions at Government House. In 1898 there was a fancy dress ball held there, and Connie and her husband dressed as Benedict and Beatrice from ‘Much Ado About Nothing’. Her outfit consisted of a white satin petticoat handpainted with roses, green velvet skirt looped over the petticoat and trimmed with jewelled gold embroidery, richly embroidered bodice, sleeves of white satin slashed with green velvet, point lace collar and cap with pearl ornaments. We were very fortune to find a photo of the pair in costume.

The couple divided their time between the Manawatu and Wellington. In 1900, the Rangitikei operatic society put on a “highly credible performance of the ‘Mikado’” of which Connie undertook the entire stage management. She was directing amateur dramatics right up until a month before she gave birth.

Connie’s death notice was printed the same day as her son’s birth notice. Her son Leonard Eustace was born on 31st August 1901, at their home in Tinakori Road.

There were numerous floral tokens and telegrams and letters received attesting to the high esteem in which she was held. The Manawatu Standard printed “The death of Mrs Vaughan, wife of L. Vaughan, late of this district, cast quite a gloom in this vicinity, where she was extremely popular”.

In Connie’s will, which she signed the day of her death, she left her clothing and sewing machine to her mother, but her wedding dress and veil to her husband. Her bicycle was bequeathed to her sister Gladys and £5 to her servant Eva.

Leonard returned to England with his brother in November 1901. We presume Leonard Eustace was cared for by his Brandon relatives. In 1905, Leonard returned for his son and he was accompanied on his return trip to England by his sister in law Florence Brandon, presumably to care for her nephew.

In 1911, father and son were living with his parents in their 30-roomed ‘Barton Grange’ in Somerset with 8 servants. Leonard remarried in 1926, aged 55 and had two further children. His bride was 25. He died in 1964.

We last pick up Leonard Eustace departing Liverpool for South Africa with his wife Ellen and daughter Veronica en route to North Rhodesia where he is listed as a game ranger in 1947.

Plot: Ch Eng/L/53

Constance Vaughan plot

Edwin Joseph Ellis

“Missing Link” – have you any goods to sell? I never refuse them

We recently shared a story with a photo that had the “Missing Link” second-hand shop in the background. Some of you were curious, so we did a little digging …

The shop sat on the corner of Dixon Street and Taranaki Street (adjacent to the present Hope Gibbons Building). At about the time the photo was taken, the proprietor was Edwin Joseph Ellis. We can’t confirm his origins but we believe he was born around 1860.

Edwin first appears in the records in the Victoria police gazette in October 1897, with a warrant for deserting his wife and two children. His occupation was described as ‘hawker’. He was arrested in November.

In January 1899, there is another warrant for his arrest, this time in NSW – charged with being about to leave the colony to defeat the provisions of the “Deserted Wives and Children’s Act”. His physical description included the fact he had no fingers on his left hand! He had left home with a swag and a violin in a case. The complainant was his wife Caroline Ellis but now there were three children on the scene: Florence, Agnes and Edward. Somehow Edwin and Caroline must have patched things up as their younger children William, Matthew, Beatrice and Alexander were born in New Zealand between 1899 and 1910.

In 1903 in Wellington, Edwin was charged with three counts of having purchased goods from boys aged under 16 years. He pleaded guilty and was fined 20s for each of the charges. In 1909 he was fined 3s for purchasing a shirt after 6pm. His defence being that the man had come to him twice pleading with him to buy the shirt, as he was hard up and wanted a bed, and it was only then that he made the purchase.

But theft seems to have been the family’s primary woe. In 1908 a boy (unnamed) was convicted of stealing a pair of boots from Edwin worth 7s 6d.

In 1908, his wife Caroline was acting as a second-hand dealer in Adelaide Road. She had unwittingly purchased a pair of stolen planes. Alexander Swanson who was defending the charge of theft claimed that while he was muddled with drink, he had received the planes from another man who could not since be found. He was sent to jail for seven days.

In May 1909 Frank Kerwin was convicted of stealing a tape measure from Edwin, valued at 5s. In July, Peter Neilson and Francis Lawson were jointly charged with stealing a blanket valued at 9s.

Edwin’s second-hand shop “Missing Link” was burgled in October 1909 by Alfred Driscoll and Thomas O’Neill. They stole a miscellaneous selection of watches, chains and jewellery valued at £12 19s 6d.

In 1910 Maurice Pointon and Joseph Haughey were charged with breaking and entering the “Missing Link” and stealing two revolvers, one clock and three tobacco pouches, valued at £2 10s.

By June the same year a sale of all the stock in trade of the “Missing Link” was held as the premises were to be pulled down. Edwin relocated his shop to the corner of Tory and Vivian Streets and the site was replaced with “Belchers Buildings”. In 1917 he had another clearing sale due to the expiration of his lease. We presume he retired at this point.

He was said to have acquired considerable property in Te Aro, most notably the land for the new Municipal Milk Station in Tory Street that he sold for £7,600. The site is the present day carpark for Noel Leemings. But his obituary said that many old residents will remember his shop at the corner of Taranaki and Dixon Streets.

Caroline died in Sydney in 1927 while on a visit to her daughter and is interred at Randwick cemetery. Edwin died in 1932 aged 74. His son Alexander was interred in the same plot in 1979. Edwin’s Will & probate runs to 70 pages and his estate was valued at £17,961. Amongst his belongings was 3 violins.

ROM CATH/W/234

Missing Link shop
Ellis family plot

Rachel Rothenberg

Rachel was born in Kovno in Russian Poland to Lyons Caselberg and his wife Leah Joseph. In 1840 the family moved to Wales. The rapid expansion of coal mining had led to major economic growth in the Wales and new Jewish communities were founded especially in the heavily industrialised South Wales Valleys like Merthyr Tydfil where the Caselbergs settled. The Jewish congregation was established there in 1848 and the first synagogue built in 1852.

In 1856 Rachel married Henry Lyons, a ‘general dealer’ from Swansea and children Abraham, Moses, Sophia, Esther, Louis and Fanny were born. Henry died in 1867 and the following year Rachel married Emanuel Rothenberg who was also a ‘general dealer’ and also from Kovno. Hannah, Aaron and Gertrude were born before the family emigrated to Wellington. Not all of the children from her first marriage accompanied them. They sailed on the ‘Orairi’ from London as steerage passengers.

On arrival in Wellington, Emanuel opened a store in Willis Street. He was declared bankrupt in Wellington in April 1879. He stated that his bankruptcy was caused by sickness in his family and having a number of bad debts. A certificate of discharge was issued in August and in September he auctioned off his remaining stock. In 1880 the family had grown with the birth of William and they were living in Taranaki Street. According to later testimony by her sons, Emanuel died in Australia when they were very small children, and no further record can be found of him.

We don’t know how Rachel managed to support her large family on her own. The children attended Mt Cook School and William won a scholarship to Wellington College, and then studied law. Aron trained as a dentist completing his studies in England. Two of the daughters became teachers. In her later years Rachel she lived at 34 Buller Street with daughter Annie and son William. It was there she died in 1919, aged 81 and her death was widely reported.

Plot: Jewish/A/137

Plot of Rachel Rothenberg

Eleanor White

‘they also serve who only stand and wait’

Who organised this sweet headstone for a widow?

Eleanor White was the eldest child of William and Harriet Jones and born in Birmingham in 1847. William was a miller. At some point the family emigrated to Melbourne and it was there that Eleanor married Alexander de Pedros Kellett in 1864. He and his brother Samuel were grocers.

Eleanor’s husband had the publican’s licence for the Victoria Hotel at Prahran. In 1866 an employee by the name of Young sued Alexander for £4 for wages. Amongst his other misdemeanours, Young had been insolent to Eleanor and use threatening language towards her. But Alexander lost the case, as he had not discharged Young on the instant the insolence was given. Alexander appears to disappear from the records at about this point.

We next pick Eleanor up in New Zealand at her wedding to Charles Loynes White in 1876. Charles was the postmaster at Balclutha and later also a Registrar of marriages at Bulls. There were no children of this  marriage either. Eleanor’s Will left the bulk of her estate to her nephew Charles Hunter White (b 1886), the eldest son of her brother in law George. She said that “I have brought him up from childhood and who has been as good as a son to me”.

Charles Hunter White passed the Junior Civil Service Exam in 1903 and became a cadet in the Government Insurance Department. Eleanor was also widowed in 1903.

Charles served in WWI in Western Europe with the Wellington Regiment and Eleanor was his next of kin. They shared a home at 3 Cardall Street Newtown, until Eleanor died in 1925 aged 79. We assume it was Charles who oragnised the headstone. The line on the headstone is from a poet by John Milton “On His Blindness”.

Charles worked as a civil servant his whole working life and died in 1943. He is buried in the Servicemen’s section. He left his whole estate to Catherine Mahoney (b 1899),the wife of John Mahoney. Charles had been living at the same address as the couple since 1935. He may have been their lodger.

Eleanor White – Plot: Public 2/H/589
Charles Hunter White – Plot: Soldiers/H/3/14

Plot of Eleanor White

James Phillips

The catastrophe at Miramar

At about 3:30pm on 6 June 1910, a mass of earth without the slightest warning came down upon two men who were working in the drive at the Miramar cutting, and completely entombed one of them.

The two men John Wilson and  James Philipps had just gone into the drive after a “shot” had been fired. The shot bought down a mass of earth and after they entered the drive, a second mass came down and buried both of them.

James Wilson was rescued at about 8pm, having been administered chloroform while they tried to extricate him and immediately sent to the hospital. By 11pm the contractors had as many men as could work in the cutting engaged in the search for James Phillips. They worked through the night but it wasn’t until 11:30am the following day that they found his body.

An inquest was held on 8th June. James was described as a competent man who had the confidence of his employer and the men. He had been employed for about 2 months and had been foreman for the last five weeks. Discussion was held on the method of work, competency of the men and oversight of the Wellington Harbour Board. The medical practitioner present when his body was found thought that death had been instantaneous.

“A verdict was returned that the death was accidental and the coroner recommended that the Chief Engineer of the Wellington Harbour Board be instructed to report on the best methods of carrying out this admittedly dangerous work, with a view to minimising the risk run by the workmen engaged thereon”.

James’ funeral departed from the Mortuary Chapel of E Morris jun, 60 Taranaki Street on 10th June for Karori Cemetery. James was a married man with two children. A Benefit “social” in aid of his widow was held at the Druids’ Hall, Taranaki Street on 12th July. James is the only interment in this plot and we have been able to confirm who his family were, other than that his wife’s name was Elizabeth.

Plot: Ch Eng/Y/193

Funeral of J. Phillips, killed at the Miramar Tunnel, Wellington, 1910, Wellington, by Zak (Joseph Zachariah). Purchased 2013. Te Papa (PS.003328)

Plot of James Phillips

Mary Ann Clapshaw

Born in 1849 Mary Ann Tiernan but known as Marion, she was raised in Quebec city, Canada by her Irish born parents. At age 16, she married Evan Davies. They went to India and spent 10 years in Bombay where he was now Colonel Davies, 7th Royal Fusiliers. There were no children of the marriage. During their married life, Marion served as head school mistress of the regiment.

Evan died in June 1875 in Bombay and in October the same year Marion married James Frances Clapshaw (a native of Somerset, England). James was a warrant officer in the Second Battalion Royal Fusiliers. Their eight children were born in India, six survived to adulthood.

From 1890, the family were living in Australia while James served as warrant office on the Australian staff.

In 1902 the family came on to Wellington. It was at this point that Marion appears to have become a  breadwinner. She opened a school from her home in 1903 specifically for adults:

“Adults of both sexes desirous of improving neglected and backward education are invited to join my Culture Classes. All English subjects thoroughly taught. The beautiful arts of reading and speaking quotations from the best poets and writers. Teacher and student brought together under the most pleasing and refined circumstances. Correspondence taught and letters written” (Evening Post 22 Oct 1904)

Special attention was offered to “nervous and dull pupils”.

In 1905, Marion was made bankrupt. She stated that her earnings had only been about £5 a month and her husband, who was a church verger, had been receiving about £6 a month and that she had a family of six. She attributed her present position to sickness and accidents in her family.

Her school continued from her home “Quebec House”  with her daughters joining her as assistant teachers. At her daughter’s wedding in 1911, Marion was described to be wearing  a dress of black crepe de chine relieved with oriental insertion, and a black hat with jet and chiffon trimming.

Marion died quite suddenly at her residence 27 Wilson Street, Newtown, from heart failure, aged 67. James died in Christchurch in 1927. Marion is the only interment in this plot.

Plot: Ch Eng 2/D/133

Mary Ann Clapshaw
Clapshaw plot