Margaret Keith Phillips was the eldest daughter of Ann Butters and Alexander PHILIP(s) born 1 August 1854 in Adelaide, South Australia. Her Scottish parents left County Angus in 1852 and arrived in New Zealand in February 1864 aboard the Swiftsure, after roughly ten years in Austalia. The family settled in the gold town of Shortland Thames where Margaret's father Alexander and brother James (born 1856) set up a cab and bus service. Other siblings were Agnes (1857), Lillie (1859-1864), Elizabeth (1863) and Jessie (1866).
Margaret married Thomas HANSON in Napier on 30 January 1875 and had the following children: Jessie (1875), William Alexander (1877), James Philip (1880), Frederick Thomas (1882 died at 5 weeks) Ernest GORDON (1891) and Morton Stanley (1894, died at 8½ months).
Thomas and his father, William HANSON were ship and later house builders, having emigrated from Sunderland, County Durham, at the end of the 1850s. In Auckland Thomas, his father and brothers subdivided and sold house and land packages in the Mt. Eden area, then a new suburb. For a time they lived in Mt Roskill Rd (Dominion Road), near Brixton Ave. Around 1911 Thomas and Margaret moved to 22 Cromwell Street.
Margaret has been described as a lovely lady, although strict towards the children. When family members visited for afternoon tea, the adults would chat inside while the children remained outside, having been permitted only one biscuit each. The family had strong connections to the Wesleyan or Methodist Church and Thomas donated the land on which the Dominion Road Methodist Church was built.
In 1920 Margaret was admitted to Avondale Mental Hospital with senile dementia. She was often agitated, depressed and suffered from frightening delusions. Margaret died in the asylum on 23rd March 1929. She left behind four adult children who were all married and living in the Auckland area.
Biography contributed by Margaret Jenkin (great-granddaughter)
Sources
- BDM Certificates
- NZ Electoral Rolls
- PapersPast – newspaper articles
Image
Margaret (Phillips) and Thomas Hanson
Click on sheet number to see the 1893 petition sheet this signature appeared on. Digital copies of the sheets supplied by Archives New Zealand.
Community contributions