suffrage_petition
Surname: 
Phillips
Given names: 
Elizabeth
Given address: 
Dome Valley
Sheet No: 379
Town/Suburb: 
Dome Valley
City/Region: 
Auckland region
Notes: 

Biography contributed by Bernadette Siebert

Elizabeth Phillips was the wife of Charles Phillips. The ship Whirlwind arrived in Auckland on 16 July 1859 from London. Among its passengers were Joseph and Esther Phillips, Charles and Elizabeth Phillips, and Robert Phillips. The men were brothers and some of the sons of Mark and Elizabeth nee Langton of Theddlethorpe, Lincolnshire, England. They were followed in later years by brothers Isaac and Ann Phillips who arrived in 1861 via Melbourne and finally by Horby and Elizabeth Phillips in 1883. After their arrival the Phillips brothers went to work clearing bush in the Dome Valley, north of Auckland. Soon they were settled on their own land in an area of the Dome Valley called Phillipsville, and later to be known as Streamlands.

Charles Phillips was born in 1839 in Theddlethorpe, Lincolnshire, the eighth child. He married a Hampshire born girl, Elizabeth ABBOTT in 1859 in Lincolnshire. They had eleven children akk born in NZ, registered in Mahurangi, near Warkworth.

  • Charles William (1859-1923)
  • Thomas (1861-1903)
  • Francis (1863- 1953)
  • Frederick (1864- 1923)
  • Sarah Anne (1867- 1934)
  • Amy Jane (1868-1945)
  • George Henry (1870- 1931)
  • Arthur Ablott (1871-1933)
  • Elizabeth Heywood (1875- ) marr Richards
  • Clara (1876- 1876) 10 weeks old
  • Annie Maud (1881-1960)

Although the family was reported to have lived first in Drury after they arrived in NZ, from at least 1861 they farmed at Kaipara Flats, near Mahurangi, next to brothers, Joseph, Isaac and Robert. Charles was active in local government collecting road tax for the Highways Board and Chair of the Mahurangi Co-Operative Society in 1880 and elected to the Licensing Committee for Mahurangi Warkworth in 1891. His produce and stock, exhibited at the Mahurangi Agricultural Shows won prizes for many years.

Charles died in 1905 when he was 68-years-old. He had been a resident of the district for over forty years. 'Of late years he had been accustomed to spend the winter in Auckland, and about three weeks ago came to town on his annual visit. He apparently enjoyed the best of health right up to the day of his death, the cause of which was heart failure.'  Charles left a will leaving everything to his dear wife Elizabeth, and then equally to his children, except for sons Charles William and Francis who were left a few pounds only, because their father had built a house for each of them.

Elizabeth died in 1928 in Auckland, where she was living with her youngest daughter Annie Maud Kasper. The local newspaper reported on her life, 'Passing away at the ripe old age 90 after a short illness, another of the old pioneer settlers of this district has gone to rest...After several years residence at Drury, they came to Dome Valley and spent some 23 years there farming. A section of the road between Warkworth and Kaipara Flats was occupied by several of the Phillips family and came to be known as Phillipsville.' She left a will with effects valued at one thousand pounds to be shared among her children, or grandchildren. Both Charles and Elizabeth are buried at the Warkworth Anglican Cemetery, with a large marble headstone. Under Elizabeth’s name it reads, 'A beloved mother true and kind, A beautiful memory left behind'.

Sources

NZ electoral rolls (ancestry.com)

Archway NZ national Archives

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/

NZ Herald 5 Feb 1880

Ak Star 2 May 1891

NZ Herald 31 Jul 1905

Rodney & Otamatea Times 4 Jul 1928

Findagrave.com

Click on sheet number to see the 1893 petition sheet this signature appeared on. Digital copies of the sheets supplied by Archives New Zealand.

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