Ellen Hardy–Commonly known as Mrs Miller–and Daughter Ethel

 

 

I have very long and involved stories to tell about Ellen Hardy, but for this photo, which is so different from the usual family photos taken during Victorian times,I just wanted to display it in a pretty fashion.

Ellen Hardy’s photograph was the subject of biscuit tin lids. Apparently back in the early years of the 20th Century the biscuit companies used to put photos of beautiful girls and women on the lids of their biscuit tins. I’ve never seen one like it myself but I wonder if perhaps this photo was for one of those tins.

Obituary Mrs Margaret Rea

 

The Rea family are still quite a mystery to me. I have very little information on them and I understand from the few people who have attempted to research them that its a difficult family to trace.

Mary Jane Rea was my Great Great Grandmother. I would love to know more about her. She left my GG Grandfather in Katikati and came to live in Ponsonby in Auckland at least as early as the beginning of the 20th century , though they remained married all her life.

Her Mother was Margaret Rea, the rather imposing woman in the photo below.

 

The journalling is from her obituary in the Auckland Star February 6 1925

One of the links with the early pioneering days of Katikati was severed by the passing away on Tuesday last of Mrs Margaret Rea at the residence of her daughter Mrs Stanaway. The late Mrs Rae with her husbandand four children came out to New Zealand in 1875 with the first batch of settlers under the late Mr G Vesey Stewart, founder of the Katikati settlement. Throught the fifty years since arrival in the country the deceased lady resided at Katikati, and it is believed she was the last of the band of original adults who took part in the building of the settlement. The late Mrs Rea by her sterling qualities, kindly disposition and readiness to tender help and advice, endeared herself to all who knew her. her Husband predeceased her 12 years ago. She leaves four daughters and 2 sons.

The Goodwin Brothers

 

This layout features a photo of my Grandfather and his two brothers.

Trevor Owen Goodwin was my grandfather. Born in 1912, and his brothers Phillip Austin ( known as Austin) and Warren Basil were each born 2 years apart.

I’m picking this photo was probably taken around 1925, with Trevor looking to be nearing his early teens.

There was originally a 4th ( older ) brother – Lester Rae Goodwin who was born in 1909. Sadly though he died aged just 4 years in 1913 of cancer of the eye.

A Letter of Recommendation

 

A brief background to the layout below. Stewart Rea was my 3x Great Grandfather. He was one of the “ Number 1 party” – the first group of Irish settlers to accompany George Vesey Stewart to begin a settlement in KatiKati in the Bay of Plenty.

The Sam Middlebrook mentioned in the article on the first page,  who was in the employ of the Lands and Survey Department was my 2x Great Grandfather. He eventually married Mary Jane, one of Stewart Rea’s daughters.

 

Journalling on this layout reads:

The Stewart’s lived at Lisberg near Ballygawley in County Tyrone and Vesey Stewart built up a business as an estate manager. He also built a linen mill at Lisdoart, also near Ballygawley. With the mill he also erected houses for the staff which are still standing in 2010. However this venture failed and near bankruptcy and with the land and religious troubles escalating during the 1860s and early 1870s, he began to think of emigration, not only for himself and family, but as an ‘Ulster plantation’. Vesey Stewart departed London on the 19 December 1873 on-board the ss Mongol, the first steamship to New Zealand. He was looking for land suitable for his proposed settlement. In late April 1874 Vesey arrived in Tauranga and was very impressed with the area.The Survey Office put at his disposal a young man named Sam Middlebrook and together they rode towards the northern end of the harbour, through trackless hills, swamps and rivers.
Application for 10,000 acres of land was made to the Waste Lands Board and Vesey returned to England and began the task of recruiting suitable families and friends through the Orange Lodges in Northern Ireland to join his Ulster Plantation in New Zealand.
On June 8th 1875 the Carisbrooke Castle left Belfast with 238 settlers, among them the Rea ( or Wray) family who had worked on his estate in Ireland. In January 1877 Vesey Stewart began arrangements for the 10,000 acres adjoining the original block for a second party of special settlers. He returned ‘home’ with many letters of support from the first party and wrote Notes on the Origins and Prospects of the Stewart Special Settlement, Katikati, New Zealand; and on New Zealand as a Field for Emigration . Again he went on a recruiting campaign and his second party, which included his parents Captain Mervyn Stewart, his wife Frances, his brother Hugh, Hugh’s wife Adela and their son Mervyn left for New Zealand on the Lady Jocelyn. On the 17 August 1878 the Lady Jocelyn arrived in Auckland with 378 immigrants for Katikati on-board.
The letter opposite, written by Stewart Rea (or Wray as the name was sometimes spelled) ,was clearly a great letter of recommendation and assurance to the future settlers of the KatiKati Region.
P2 - transcription of letter
Sir- Being informed that you are about to start for Ireland with the object of bringing out a second party of settlers to locate upon the lands adjoining us, which you secured from the Government for that purpose on such favourable terms, permit me to wish you a pleasant voyage, every success in your mission, and to say a few words of what I think of this country as a home.
I have 80 acres of right good land: a beautiful stream runs through it and whilst the greater part of it is a sort of rich loam, easily worked, I have enough bush to keep me in firewood all my life,and that of many generations after me. All this free of rent for ever. In fact, the trees are larger and the foliage richer, than those at Favor Royal at home. I have about 15 acres in cultivation and the crops are certainly magnificent, and far surpass my most sanguine expectations. My house is comfortable and I feel quite happy and contented, and never regret leaving old Ireland, with its miserable wet climate, for the bright skies of New Zealand.
I have no hesitation in strongly recommended any sober and industrious man, with a few hundred pounds capital, to join your second party, and of course if he has a wife and grown-up family to assist him, so much the better. But you will be able to give a more experienced advice on these points than I can, and looking forward with pleasure to seeing you back with us
again, with many of our old friends and countrymen, with hearty
thanks for your unvarying kindness to me since I left
Ireland with you in 1875.
Yours very gratefully ,
Stewart Wray.

Ellen (Farrer) Middlebrook

I think of this woman ( my 3x Great Grandmother, as the  matriarch of my family . It was she and her husband who chose to bring their family of 6 children to New Zealand in the 1860s to start a new life. Sadly her husband John died less than 4 years after their arrival, and how easy it may have been for Ellen at the time to return to Yorkshire to the very well established Farrer family, and yet she remained, with her children and forged a life for herself and brought up 6 children each of whom became successful in their own ways, all having children of their own.

I hope to learn more about her life but I needed to create a layout with the information I know now and hence this layout using a very small and poor quality photocopy of a portrait taken probably in her 30s  or early 40’s – maybe  before she left England.

I would love to know where the original of this is.

 

 

Journalling reads
Born Ellen Farrer, to father Benjamin (clock maker) and Ellen nee Thompson, in Pontefract, Yourkshire on August 4 ,1820, Ellen married Johhn Middlebrook, brewer of Millbrook, Leedson February 2nd 1847 . They lived in the Liversedge area of Yorkshire for the early part of their marriage and and emigrated to New Zealand with their 6 children under the assisted immigration scheme, arriving on the ship Shalimar in 1862 ,to begin a new life.
They bought land in Matakohe and Whangarei, but moved to Auckland, and when her husband died in 1866 Ellen remained living in the central Auckland area for some time but did live with her children at various times She lived till the ripe old age of 94, dying in Arkles Bay at the home of her daugther Jane, of old age. Through Ellen Middlebrook I became the 6th Generation of my family to live in New Zealand.

The Wedding of Jane Thompson Middlebrook and Henry Whitnall Smith

 

I love this wedding photo. The fashions are glorious and the bride beautiful and the groom handsome.

This Jane Thompson Middlebrook is not to be confused with her aunt of the same name.  She was the second daughter of John and Mary Ann Middlebrook, who,  at the time of this wedding were living in Ponsonby in Auckland but later moved to Te Awamutu.

 

Henry Whitnall Smith was the son of Henry James Smith. According to a newspaper article I have regarding his Diamond Wedding Anniversary, he was born in Auckland around 1870 and was the first baby baptized by Bishop Cowie in Old St Pauls Church.  Henry was a well known Auckland Photographer, with studios in Queen Street for many years.  Quite a few of the family photographs I have are Whitnall SMith photos.

There was a lovely description of the wedding in the Social Sphere  column of the New Zealand Observer

The New Zealand Observer was one of a number of illustrated weekly newspapers popular in the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was first published in Auckland in 1880 and continued, with name changes, until November 1954.

The column read

A pretty wedding was celebrated on Wednesday afternoon, March 26th, at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Khyber Pass. The contracting couple were Mr H. Whitnall Smith, of Auckland, and Miss Middlebrook, second daughter of Mr -J. Middlebrook, of St. Mary's Road, Ponsonby The Rev. G. Carver, officiated. The bride was given away by her father, and looked very pretty in a handsome trained dress of white brocaded silk, made with transparent yoke and sleeves, and trimmed with chiffon and orange blossoms she also wore a coronet of orange blossoms, tulle veil, and carried a beautiful shower bouquet presented by the bridegroom, who also gave her a dainty gold watch.
The bridesmaids were Miss Wood, Miss Wild, and Misses Edith and Ettie Middlebrook, two little sisters of the bride. The first couple wore charming dresses of fine white muslin elaborately tucked and inserted with lace, and trimmed with cream silk, white chiffon picture hats, and each carried a beautiful shower bouquet and wore a gold twin-dove brooch, presented by the bridegroom. The little girls wore dainty creme cashmere frocks, tucked, and the yokes and sashes of silk, and white leghorn hats trimmed with chiffon They carried baskets of flowers and wore gold brooches, the gifts of the bridegroom. Mr Kinnear, dentist, acted as best man, and Mr J. Middlebrook, Jr. as groomsman. Mrs Middlebrook, mother of the bride, wore a handsome black silk gown, trimmed with lace, turquoise blue and jet bonnet Mrs F. Stonex, sister of the bride, wore a pretty grey voile dress trimmed with creme guipure insertion threaded with black ribbon velvet, and the bodice trimmed with chiffon, black toque Mrs Whitnall- Smith, mother of the bridegroom, wore black Mrs Armiger, black silk tucked blouse, black skirt, and black hat. The bridal party drove to the residence of the bride's parents, where they were entertained at afternoon tea, and in the evening a party was given in the Ponsonby Hall, which was most enjoyable and successful.

The Golden Wedding of John and Mary Ann Middlebrook

It seems long marriages are common in my ancestry – I found this article on Paperspast regarding the Golden Wedding Anniversary of John and Mary Ann Middlebrook which gave me more information on the family. I was interested to know that John was not initially a butcher ( a career which ran in the family- his father and brother being butchers as well as several of his sons) but was a printers apprentice to begin with.  I have little information on the early years after the Middlebrooks arrival in New Zealand so I relish every little snippet of information like this.

Papers Past has been a great source of information. I am lucky as it appears there were only 2 Middlebrook families in New Zealand in the early days so a search of the name yeilds great results.

 

Journalling in this layout reads

MR. AND MRS. J. MIDDLEBROOK.
TE AWAMUTU, Thursday.
To have experienced a full fifty years of married life comes to few couples, but such a distinction has just been achieved by Mr. and Mrs. John Middlebrook, two of Te Awamutu's most respected and revered townspeople. Mr. Middlebrook came out to the colony in 1562, from his home in Yorkshire, by the ship Shalimar, while his ultimate bride-to-be had accompanied her parents to New Zealand four years earlier in the ship Spirit of Trade. As a youth Mr. Middlebrook tried his prentice hand at printing, working for some time on the old "Southern Cross" (now incorporated in the "New Zealand Herald" and afterwards taking up the trade of a butcher. In 1874 Mr Middlebrook considered his affairs had prospered sufficiently to warrant his taking unto himself a life partner, and on July 22nd of that year he was married in Newton. Auckland, by the Rev. Ward, to Miss Mary Tucker, daughter of Mr. John Tucker, formerly of the Royal Artillery. Mr. Middlebrook and his bride settled down in Auckland until early in the present century, their family growing up round them. In 1902 Mr. Middlebrook decided to remove to Te Awamutu, and he has in the interim built up the butchery business that bears his name. To mark the golden wedding anniversary the family—or as many as could attend —assembled at the old people's residence and celebrated in customary style, a feature being a repetition of the wedding ceremony of fifty years previous. Mr. and Mrs. Middlebrook were the recipients of many congratulatory messages from friends all over the Dominion, and at the wedding breakfast felicitous speeches were made and toasts enthusiastically honoured. The family consists of eleven sons and daughters, twenty-two grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.