Biography contributed by Jacqui Beets (great-great-granddaughter of Emily Potbury)
Eleanor (also known as Ellen or Ellinor) Annie Wesgate was born on 21 November 1856 in Calcutta, West Bengal, the daughter of Henry Weston Wesgate of the Indian Civil Service and Annie Wesgate (nee Slaymore). Eleanor was educated in Norfolk, England and then went to Ireland, where in 1878 she was an inmate of the South Dublin Union Workhouse, with a baby daughter named Violet.
In November 1878 Eleanor sailed for New Zealand as an assisted single female emigrant aboard the Waikato, arriving in Lyttelton on 18 January 1879. She was listed as a nurse from Norfolk. Violet, who remained in Dublin with a Mrs Emily Potbury, passed away at 22 months of age. In 1880 Eleanor had a son, Henry (Harry) Wesgate/Westgate. In 1883 Mrs E. A. Wesgate of Perry Street, Masterton sponsored the now-widowed Emily Potbury and her four children as nominated emigrants to New Zealand, with passage costs of £19.7.6. The Potburys sailed on the Westland, arriving 31 October 1883.
On 23 July 1887 Eleanor married accountant Ernest George Rawnsley (1864-1935), who took on Harry as his stepson. Their son Ernest Claude Rawnsley was born on 12 December 1888. The Rawnsleys lived in Auckland, Oamaru, Andersons Bay (where Eleanor signed the Petition), Christchurch and Timaru. Eleanor’s mother-in-law Mary Rawnsley and sister-in-law Hester Rawnsley also signed the Petition.
Eleanor took a keen interest in charitable, political and patriotic concerns. She was a member of the Dorcas Guild, Red Cross and Lady Liverpool Societies, was the Sumner Delegate of the Women’s Political Reform League, and Treasurer of the Sumner War Funds Committee. She and Ernest were prominent members of local golf, croquet and tennis clubs.
Eleanor Rawnsley passed away aged 75, on 29 September 1932 at her residence, 90 Opawa Road, Christchurch. She is buried in Bromley Cemetery.
Sources
1871 England Census; The National Archives; Kew, London, England.
Ancestry.com https://www.ancestry.com.au
Archives New Zealand https://www.archives.govt.nz
Family Search https://www.familysearch.org
Find a Grave https://www.findagrave.com/
Ireland, Poor Law and Board of Guardian Records, 1839-1920; Workhouse Admission and Discharge, 1878-1880. p. 143. National Archives of Ireland; Dublin, Ireland.
Irish Births, Deaths and Marriages online www.irishgenealogy.ie
New Zealand Births, Deaths and Marriages online www.bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz.
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
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