M. A. Lincoln

Biography contributed by Elaine Bell (great-great granddaughter).

Maria Augusta Lincoln (nee Scarlett) was born on 10 October 1823 in Halesworth, Suffolk, England, the daughter of Girling James Scarlett and Elizabeth (nee Brigham).

When she was six weeks old her father died, and she spent the first part of her life living with Scarlett and Brigham family members in Wrentham, Suffolk, and Brockdish, Norfolk.

On 10 March 1851 she married Robert Samuel Lincoln in the Independent Church, Beccles, Suffolk, and they lived for the first few years of their marriage in Wrentham, Suffolk, and for a brief period in London.

On 29 January 1856 Maria, together with her husband and 3 children, and her mother Elizabeth Scarlett, departed Gravesend for New Zealand on the barque Chatham, arriving in Auckland on 5 June. A son, William Girling Lincoln, was born on the voyage but lived for only six months.

Four more children were born in Auckland, two of these not surviving beyond infancy.

Maria and her family lived at various addresses in Auckland City - Victoria Quadrant, Emily Place, Queen Street, Bath Street, Symonds Street, and from 1884 until her death, in West Street, Newton.

She took an active part in community life in Auckland, and was involved in fund-raising to provide comforts for the patients of the Hospital and inmates of the City Refuges. In 1882 she was Chairperson of a group of 1100 ladies of Auckland who petitioned against "the bringing into operation the Contagious Diseases Act in this city", on the grounds that it would be detrimental to "the health, the morals, and general wellbeing of the community."

Maria Augusta Lincoln died at her home in West Street on 3 November 1906 at the age of 83, and is buried in Waikaraka Cemetery. She was survived by her husband of 55 years, her 5 children and 24 grandchildren.

Her daughter Annie E. Mears also signed the petition.

Images

Maria Lincoln (Family collection)

Sources