E. J. Scales

Biography contributed by Debbie Evans (great-great-granddaughter)

Eliza Jane Scales (nee Montgomery) was born about 1852 in County Cavan, Ireland to farmers Richard and Margaret Montgomery. On 2 November 1876 she married Robert Scales from neighbouring County Fermanagh and just under a year later their son Thomas was born in October 1877.

On 27 November 1879 Eliza, Robert and Thomas left the port of Plymouth as assisted immigrants on board the Westland. They arrived at the port of Lyttelton on 21 February 1880 but were unable to embark immediately. The ship had an outbreak of measles and scarlatina during the voyage during which four children died and the passengers were quarantined on arrival, with married couples such as Eliza and Robert sent to Ripa Island in Lyttelton Harbour.

A year after their arrival Eliza gave birth to a daughter, Margaret Ann. In 1888 the family was living in Woodend just north of Christchurch, where Robert worked as a farm labourer. It was here in Woodend that Eliza signed both the 1892 and 1893 Suffrage Petitions, and where she first appears on the 1893 Kaiapoi Electoral Roll with the occupation of domestic duties.

In March 1899, Eliza’s son Thomas was successful in winning a parcel of land in South Canterbury in the Waikakahi ballot held after the break up of the Waikakahi Estate. Eliza and Robert sold their property at Woodend, comprising two and a half acres of rich land, together with a well built dwelling house of four rooms, dairy, large shed, and other buildings, situated on the Rangiora and Woodend road, and moved to Morven in the Waimate district of Canterbury to farm with Thomas.

In 1906 Robert was successful in obtaining a parcel of land in the Steward Settlement ballot held after the break up of the Waitaki Plains Estate near Oamaru but it is not clear whether they ever moved onto this land as Eliza and Robert both appear in the 1908 and 1911 electoral rolls with their old address of Morven. In 1913 Robert was reported to the Otago Land Board for not meeting the residence requirements of the Steward Settlement land and in that same year he sold the land. The auction advertisement spoke of a new Dwelling-house, seven rooms, Bathroom, Hot and Cold Water, and every possible convenience but perhaps Eliza never got to live in this.

In 1910 Eliza had a stroke from which she partially recovered. She and Robert were living at 10 Oxford Street, Timaru in 1914 and it is here that Eliza died on 19 April 1915 from complications from her stroke. She was buried in the Timaru Cemetery on 21 April 1915.

Sources

NZ Department of Internal Affairs, "Deaths," database, Births, Deaths & Marriages Online (https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz : accessed 19 May 2021), Eliza Jane Scales 1915/4321

NZ Registrar of Births, Deaths & Marriages, NZ Death Printout post 1874, Deaths in the District of Timaru During the Quarter Ending the 30th of June 1915: 56, Eliza Jane Scales; New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs

"Death," Timaru Herald, 20 April 1915, p. 6; digital images, Papers Past, (https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/THD19150420.2.31 : accessed 19 May 2021)

Timaru District Council, "Cemeteries Database," database, Cemetery Search (https://www.timaru.govt.nz/services/community-andculture/cemeteries/cemetery-search : accessed 19 May 2021), Elizabeth Scales

New Zealand, "Archives New Zealand, Passenger Lists, 1839-1973: 1880 Westland," Robert, Eliza & Thomas Scales; digital images, Church of the Latter Day Saints, Family Search (https://www.familysearch.org : accessed 9 Nov 2019)

"The Westland, From Plymouth, In Quarantine," Lyttelton Times, 23 February 1880, p. 4; digital images, Papers Past, (https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/LT18800223.2.12 : accessed 9 Nov 2019); From: http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers

Archives New Zealand, "Archway. Digitised 1892 Women Suffrage Petition Roll," database and images, Archives New Zealand, (https://www.archway.archives.govt.nz/ : accessed 15 Jun 2021); E J Scales, Sheet 192 - Region: Woodend (R25672824)

Archives New Zealand, "Archway. Digitised 1893 Women Suffrage Petition Roll," database and images, Archives New Zealand, (https://www.archway.archives.govt.nz/ : accessed 15 Jun 2021); E J Scales, Sheet 253 - Region: Woodend (R24946317)

New Zealand, Electoral Rolls, vol. 1893 Kaiapoi General Roll: p. 41, no. 2241; digital images, "New Zealand, Electoral Rolls, 1853-1981," Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com.au : accessed 15 Jun 2021)

New Zealand, Electoral Rolls, vol. 1905 Waitaki Roll: p. 71, no. 3884; digital images, "New Zealand, Electoral Rolls, 1853-1981,"Ancestry, (https://www.ancestry.com.au : accessed 15 Jun 2021)

NZ Department of Internal Affairs, "Deaths," database, Births, Deaths & Marriages Online (https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz : accessed 17 May 2021), Thomas Scales 1922/1790

NZ Registrar of Births, Deaths & Marriages, NZ Death Printout post 1874, Deaths in the District of Christchurch During the Quarter Ending the 31st of March 1922: 16, Robert Scales; New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs.

Ireland. General Register Office. Civil records - Marriages, 1876 Marriages Solemnized at Swanlibar in the Church of Swanlibar in the Co. Cavan: 39, Scales-Montgomery, 1876; digital images, Ireland. Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht Irish Genealogy, (https://www.irishgenealogy.ie/en/)

Image

Eliza with her son Thomas and daughter Margaret Ann, circa 1881.