http://poriruacity.govt.nz/services/cemeteries

Friends of Porirua Cemetery, 32 Kenepuru Drive, Porirua (2026)

17/10/2026

She was shot by her husband who then tried to shot himself.

Liza (nee North) Mullins 1865 – 1920.

Liza North was born in Sedgebrook, Lincolnshire, England in April 1865 the daughter of Sarah (nee Dale) and James North.

Liza was one of four daughters their father was an Agricultural labourer. As a young women Liza became a domestic servant prior to marrying, in 1886, Frederick Johnson. Frederick was employed as a Railway plate layer.

The couple had six children the youngest Winifred Mary Johnson born in 1897, and was one, when her father Frederick died in the Leicester Rutland Lunatic Asylum.

In 1911 Liza is listed in the UK Census as a Char woman living with her younger daughter Winifred in Nottinghamshire. In 1913 Liza married William Amos Mullins. William was a widower, his wife Mary Ann Mullins had died in 1912 leaving him with three sons.

William was a Railway Signalman and it is possible that he was recruited by the NZ Government to work on the NZ Railways which by 1914 was the largest employer in New Zealand.

William and Liza arrived in Wellington with William’s youngest son William jnr and Liza’s two younger daughters Edith Annie and Winifred Mary Johnson. The family are recorded as living Clyde Key, Wellington as ‘recently arriving from England’ when on 12th September 1914 William appeared in court on charges of attempting to murder Liza and then to commit su***de.

Initially both were not expected to live with Liza suffering a bullet wound in the head and it seems that William then turned the gun on himself, both survived the incident.

William was convicted on both charges and was sentenced to life with hard labour. Liza following recovery may have been looked after by her daughters, Edith (22) and Winifred (17).

On 14th October 1919 Eliza was admitted to Porirua Asylum suffering ‘melancholia and was in moderate health and condition’ . Following treatment Eliza was released, date not stated, on probation but returned to the Asylum on 16th August 1920 where she was noted as in poor bodily health.

Eliza continued to decline in the Asylum and remained in bed from 25th August 1920 through to her death on 28th August 1920. The Coroner’s report noted that she was visited by her daughter Miss E (Edith Annie) Johnson, Titahi Bay on 27th August 1920.

The Coroner’s autopsy noted softening of the tissue around the point of entry from the orbit. (It is possible Eliza was blind in one eye) with the official death noted as ‘softening of the brain following on from lacerations of a old bullet wound in the head inflicted by her husband.

Eliza Mullins was interred on 30th August 1920 in the Non-Conformist section NC C 016.

Eliza's grandchildren in the 1980's arranged for the headstone to be placed on her grave.

William Amos Mullins was released from prison on 6th March 1924 on license. After 10 years the NZ Parole Board considered that William could be released under the 1920 Offenders Probation Act. The Act allow release under conditions which if breached would see the offender back in goal serving the original sentence.

The photo of William was taken in 1923 prior to his released on license. The NZ Police Gazette notes he had two blue scars between the eyes.

William remained in Wellington area and was employed as a gardener until in old age he was living in the Anglican Home for Aged Needy, Mount Victoria, Wellington .
William Amos Mullins died, aged 83, and was cremated, at his request, in Karori, and is presumed his ashes were scattered.

In his will William left his small estate to the Anglican Boys Home, Lower Hutt presumably where his son had been sent when William was in prison, and to his granddaughter Annette Mullins the daughter of his son William.

Notes
Edith Annie (nee Johnson) Bauke and Winifred Mary (nee Johnson) Dixon their and spouses are interred in Karori Cemetery, Wellington.

References
Porirua Cemetery Online
Ancestry.com
NZ Police Gazette
Archives NZ: Coroners Reports
Archives NZ: Probates
UK Census

Photos
Eliza’s grave, Porirua Cemetery: Porirua Cemetery Online
William c1923: NZ Police Gazette

10/10/2026

A Patient of the Crown
William James Bailie 1878 - 1924
Researched by Tania O'Regan

William James Bailie was a patient at Porirua Mental Hospital from 22 July 1910 until his death on 2 April 1924 — just shy of 14 years detained under the authority of the Crown.

William was the son of Thomas Cochrane Bailie (b. c.1843, Hillsborough, Down, Northern Ireland; d. 13 November 1921, Mornington, Victoria, Australia) and Sarah Ann Lovett (1856–1906), who married Thomas in 1876.

The Voyage of the Western Bride
William's grandparents decided, in 1855, to leave Ireland for Australia. Thomas was only 11 years old at the time. Among the passengers who boarded the Western Bride in Liverpool that year were William's maternal grandparents, his father, and several of his aunts and uncles. They travelled as unassisted migrants — a significant detail, since it meant they paid their own way rather than relying on the government-funded schemes that carried so many of their countrymen to Australia. Their voyage lasted more than three months, crossing the Atlantic and Indian Oceans before the ship finally made port in Melbourne on 26 September 1855.

The reason for their departure was the Victorian gold rush, a movement so powerful it reshaped migration patterns across the world. News of Ballarat's extraordinary strikes travelled quickly, reaching Ireland within months and offering a rare promise of opportunity at a time when hardship was widespread. Entire families uprooted themselves in response, leaving behind familiar landscapes for the crowded diggings and rough settlements of Victoria. The scale of the goldfields' wealth was immense: between 1851 and 1860, they produced £87 million worth of gold — roughly NZ $37 billion in today's terms. It was this promise of prosperity, however uncertain, that drew William's family across the world and set the stage for the generations that followed.

A Family Divided
Thomas's parents, Sampson Bailie and Mary Cochrane (b. c.1817; d. 29 October 1875, Manhattan, New York), had left for the United States around 1846, roughly three years after Thomas's birth. They settled in New York, where their second son, Samuel Henry Bailie, was born in Manhattan that same year. It was common practice at the time — and historically consistent — for one child, often the eldest son, to be raised by or spend extended periods with the mother's parents, later rejoining the family or migrating independently. This was not the case for Thomas, who remained in Melbourne for the rest of his life.

Born in Ballarat
Born in Ballarat in 1878, William James Bailie was the eldest of nine siblings — four sons and four daughters — whose lives spanned the working towns and rural districts of colonial Victoria.

The First Attack
A Victoria Asylum admission form (Case No. 6603), which records his previous episodes in detail, places his first recorded attack in 1902, at around age 24. He was treated at home rather than in an institution, suggesting the family first attempted to manage his symptoms privately. Between 1902 and 1904, notes indicate he was twice admitted to a lunatic asylum — possibly Kew, Ararat, or Ballarat — likely following escalating episodes after that first attack. Between these admissions, William appears to have lived and worked in rural Victoria: records suggest he worked as a labourer, lived in Mornington, kept sober habits, and remained physically strong.

In late October 1908, he suffered another attack, and on 3 November was admitted to Victoria Asylum suffering from acute mania. It was a dark period — he was legally committed until 21 December, when he was discharged as "recovered."

A New Start in New Zealand

It's here that William appears on a passenger list, travelling aboard the Warrimoo
toward New Zealand in January 1909. Roughly 19 months after his "recovered"
discharge, he appeared before the court on 19 July 1910 and was committed by order of R.S. Florence, Stipendiary Magistrate, with certifying doctors Pentreath and Nairn of Blenheim. His diagnosis on admission was "delusional insanity."

No Family in New Zealand
In 1909, William's brother John Bailie married Robina Rankin Wilson in Blenheim, with William present — strongly suggesting that his journey to New Zealand was intended to accompany his brother, perhaps in the hope of a new start. By 16 October 1911, John and Robina's son, Lovett James Wilson Bailie, was born in Mornington, Victoria — the couple had by then returned to Australia. This aligns with the coronial inquest's finding that William had no family in New Zealand at the time of his death.

Thomas Cochrane Bailie died on 13 November 1921 in Mornington, Victoria. It remains unclear whether William ever learned of his father's passing.

2 April 1924
On 31 March 1924, William went out to work as usual. He fell ill that day and did not recover. He died at 4:45 am on 2 April, in the presence of Attendant Sloane, from heart disease.

A Visitor, Unexplained
The coronial report noted that on 26 April 1919, William received a visitor —
E.J. Woolley, of 9 Walter Street, Wellington — nearly five years before his death. It's a small detail, but one that raises questions, and adds to the quiet sadness that runs through so many of these stories at Porirua Asylum.

Sources
1. Victoria Asylum Admission Form, Case No. 6603, William James Bailie.
2. Public Record Office of Ireland. Marriage Licence Bonds, Diocese of Down,
Connor & Dromore, 1835 (Sampson Bailie and Mary Cochran).
3. Passenger list, ship Western Bride, Liverpool to Melbourne, departed 1855,
arrived 26 September 1855. [Repository —Public Record Office Victoria (PROV),
Index to Unassisted Inward Passenger Lists]
4. Passenger list, ship Warrimoo, Australia to New Zealand, January 1909.
5. Marriage record, John Bailie and Robina Rankin Wilson, Blenheim, New Zealand,
1909. [NZ BDM]
6. Birth record, Lovett James Wilson Bailie, Mornington, Victoria, 16 October 1911.
[Repository —Victorian BDM]
7. Court committal record, William James Bailie, Blenheim, 19 July 1910. Certifying
magistrate R.S. Florence; certifying physicians Drs Pentreath and Nairn. [Family
Search]
8. Porirua Mental Hospital patient records, William James Bailie, admitted 22 July
1910, died 2 April 1924. [Repository —Family Search]
9. Coronial inquest report, William James Bailie, 1924 (including record of visitor
E.J. Woolley, 26 April 1919). [Repository — Family Search]
10. Death record, Thomas Cochrane Bailie, Mornington, Victoria, 13 November
1921. [Repository —Victorian BDM]

Photos
William James Bailie c1908: Archives NZ
Bailie grave, Non Conformist, Section, Porirua Cemetery: Allan Dodson, October 2026

12/09/2026

They are connected by an incident in Porirua Asylum, both now lie in unmarked graves in Porirua Cemetery.

Thomas Emmerson Watson 1876 - 1938 William Hunter Brown Hammond 1870 - 1917

Thomas Emmerson Watson 1876 - 1938

Thomas Emmerson Watson was born in Alston, Cumberland, England on 4th July 1876 the son of Elizabeth (nee Story) and John Watson.

Thomas, a farmer’s son grew up with two older brothers William and Joseph with a younger brother Samuel.

Thomas was working as a farm labourer, possibly for his father, in 1901 but in 1911 is listed as a single man employed as an Asylum Attendant at the Lancashire Asylum. Thomas was recruited from Lancashire Asylum by the New Zealand Government as staff in the New Zealand Lunatic Asylum arriving in New Zealand 1914 / 1915.

In 1917 Thomas was selected in the Military Ballot, he indicated he was, a single man, employed as an attendant at Porirua Asylum and had been in New Zealand for two years. Thomas signed attestation forms on 15th June 1917, listed a cousin in Wanganui as his NZ contact with his mother Mrs E Watson, Cumberland as his next of kin.

Thomas entered Featherston Military Camp as 57918 Gunner Thomas Emerson Watson, 32nd NZ Field Artillery. Gunner Watson was assessed by a medical panel at Featherston Military Camp on 19th August 1917 where it was noted that due to a boyhood accident he was ‘practically blind’ in his left eye. Gunner Watson was granted LWOP on 31st August 1917 and released from the NZEF.

Thomas returned as an attendant to Porirua Hospital where on 5th September 1917 a patient William Hunter Brown Hammond he became verbally abusive towards Him. When Attendant Watson was unlocking a door between hospital wards William struck the Attendant ‘on the left side of his head.’ Thomas was blind in his left eye and would not have seen the attack. In the scuffle that followed, the patient and attendant fell to the floor with William underneath Thomas. A second attendant Cockburn came to the assistance of Thomas. At one stage William had a “grip of Attendant Cockburn’s balls”

The two attendants were able to place William in a single room where during a routine assessment he complained that Watson had kneed him the stomach. Dr Simpson of the Asylum checked him but apart from minor bruises associated with fall William displayed no symptoms of being kneed.

William Hunter Brown Hammond died on 6th September 1917. Porirua Asylum advised the Wellington Coroner who, because of the suggestion that an Attendant had caused the death, requested an autopsy by a Doctor not associated with the Asylum and a Coroner’s jury made up men from Wellington City rather than the usual Porirua area panel.

This attack, and the newspaper reporting, may have been the reason for Thomas to leave the Asylum service. Thomas is recorded as a Probationary Warden at Kaingaroa as of 23rd October 1917. As required, while on Military LWOP, he advised on 13th April 1918 that he was employed at the Kaingaroa Prison Camp, Rotorua.

The Kaingaroa Prison Camp or Kaingaroa Aforestation Camp was used to house Military Prisoners as well as Civilian first offenders and ‘hopeful-cases’ deemed low risk to escape. The prisoners were used to clear the arid volcanic ashes and plant pine trees that would eventually form the Kaingaroa Forest.

While a Prison Officer at Kaingaroa Thomas married on 10th September 1919, Lelia Louisa Jane Symons. It is possible that Lelia with her two young sons followed Thomas to Kaingaroa.

At the end of WW1 Thomas was listed in the 1919 NZ Gazette as being appointed, in the Justice Department, as a Warden at Kaingaroa, Bay of Plenty, from 1st November 1918. Thomas moved to Auckland being appointed to the Prisons Department, on 29th February 1920 as a Warden, H.M. Prisons, Auckland.

Thomas and Lelia returned to Wellington in the mid 1920’s with Thomas recorded as living in Wellington Central in 1925.

Lelia Louisa Jane Watson died on 13th September 1936 and is interred in Karori Cemetery, Church of England 2, Plot 454.

It is possible that Lelia had been caring for Thomas and could no longer care for an aging Thomas as he was admitted to Porirua Asylum on 10th June 1936 , Thomas was admitted suffering hypomania. Hypomanis is a milder form of mania, with shared symptoms, includes high energy, rapid speech, racing thoughts, and a reduced need for sleep. The main differences involve intensity, duration, and overall impact. that increases energy without causing major disruption to daily life.

The medical officer at Porirua also noted that Thomas was showing signs of arterioseleiois, hardening of the arteries, and enlargement of the heart.

Thomas. towards the end of 1936, ‘passed into a depressed state, he had been in bed for over a year’ when he died on 11th August 1938. The official cause is listed as ‘arterioseleiois and auricular tribulations’,

Thomas Emmerson Watson is interred in the Church of England section CE M 036.

Notes
See also William Hunter Brown Hammond

Photos
Thomas's grave, Porirua Cemetery: Allan Dodson, August 2026.
The unmarked grave is beside the path and inline with Whitehall
Lelia's grave, Karori Cemetery: Karori Cemetery Find a Grave

11/09/2026

They are connected by an incident in Porirua Asylum, both now lie in unmarked graves in Porirua Cemetery.
William Hunter Brown Hammond 1870 - 1917
Thomas Emmerson Watson 1876 - 1938

William Hunter Brown Hammond was born in St Andrew, Edinburgh, Scotland in 1870 the son of Helen Neilson (nee Brown) and William Hammond.

William was one of three children, he was five when his father died. He continued to live in Edinburgh with his mother, her sister and his two siblings. In the 1891 census William is listed as a 20 year old farmer, living with his mother Helen and Aunt Jane Henderson Brown, 18 Morningside Drive, Edinburgh. Both William’s mother and Aunt are listed as ‘living on private means.’

William’s mother died in 1895 but he had immigrated to New Zealand earlier, being recorded in the New Zealand 1896 electoral rolls as a farmer, Kent Road, Korito, Taranaki.

William married Mildred Elizabeth Cooper on 6th April 1896, the couple’s only child Henrietta Jane Hunter Hammond was born in Taranaki in 1897.

The family remained in Taranaki through to the early 1900’s then moved to Wellington. William is recorded a labourer living in Taranaki Street, while Mildred Elizabeth Hammond was living in Seatoun.

William was a patient in Porirua Asylum from 11th April 1914 to 6th May 1914 and was then discharged. On 30th July 1914 William was re-admitted to Porirua Asylum and committed on 5th August 1914. Described as of good physical condition but suffering a mild form of maniacal delusions of persecutions. Notes taken by Porirua Asylum when William was committed record him as “a single man who had at one time worked on the wharves. As far as I know he has no relations in the Dominion.”

Williams’s condition slowly worsened “he became more suspicious and is delusion of persecution deepened.’ He was reported to have complained about attendants using electricity on him and was known to have ‘suddenly attacked other patients.’

On 5th September 1917 while with other patients he became verbally abusive towards Attendant Thomas Emerson Watson. When Attendant Watson was unlocking a door between hospital wards William struck the Attendant ‘on the left side of his head.’ In the scuffle that followed, the patient and attendant fell to the floor with William underneath Watson. A second attendant Cockburn came to the assistance of Watson. At one stage William had a “grip of Attendant Cockburn’s balls”

The two attendants were able to place William in a single room where during a routine assessment he complained that Watson had kneed him the stomach. Dr Simpson of the Asylum checked him but apart from minor bruises associated with a fall William displayed no symptoms of being kneed.

William Hunter Brown Hammond died on 6th September 1917. Porirua Asylum advised the Wellington Coroner who, because of the suggestion that an Attendant had caused the death, requested an autopsy by a Doctor not associated with the Asylum and a Coroner’s jury made up men from Wellington City rather than the usual Porirua area panel.

The panel assembled at Porirua, on 7th September 1917, where it heard the sworn statements from the Asylum Doctors and Attendant Watson. The panel was given evidence from Dr Fyffe , that William had suffered a rupture duodenal ulcer rupture leading to his death. There were no signs of kneeing and in Dr Fyffe’s opinion the rupture could have happened at any stage.

The jury returned the verdict “died of a ruptured duodenal ulcer caused in a struggle between the deceased and Attendant Watson who had been attacked by the defendant and that there is no blame attachable to the attendant who acted purely in self-defence.’

The jury was then rushed to the last train back to Wellington as there was no accommodation for them available in Porirua.

William Hunter Brown Hammond was interred in Porirua Cemetery on 10th September 1917 in the Non Conformist Section NC F 055.

There was later a payment of six guineas (£1 1s 0d) to Dr Fyffe so conducting the autopsy, and a note that an Evening Post Reporter had also been in attendance at the autopsy at the Coroner’s Court inquest.

The NZ Truth, on 15th September 1917, took up the case under the by-line “More must be heard of the matter” querying that the jury had delivered the verdict “without retiring” and suggesting the verdict should be put aside with Watson potential facing charges in court.

On 19th September 1917 following NZ Truth and questions raised in the NZ Parliament, the Coroner Mr McCarthy provided to the Under Secretary for Justice a full outline of the process taken to call and manage the Coroner’s inquiry into William Hunter Brown Hammond's death.

The NZ Truth investigation faded as the impacts of the October Battle of Passchendaele with the large casualty lists being published.

Thomas Emerson Watson is also interred in Porirua Cemetery. The grave, unmarked is in the non-conformist section NC F 055.

Photos:
Hammond Grave, Porirua Cemetery: Allan Dodson, August 2026
Watson Grave, Porirua Cemetery, Porirua: Allan Dodson, August 2026

05/09/2026

Winifred Dagg (née Riches) 1902 - 1923
(Prepared by Tania O'Regan with the inspiration of the late Merle O'Regan)

Winifred Dagg (née Riches), who died on 8 September 1923 aged just twenty one, was far from her birthplace in Brighton, England. She was the daughter of Charles Francis Riches and Kate Louise Riches (née Self). Charles was born in Wi******er in 1870 to his mother, Mercy Annie Churchward, who had left the naval districts of Plymouth behind by the time of his birth. ¹

Mercy Churchward was born around 1842 and belonged to a family of six children raised in Stoke Damerel, Plymouth. The neighbouring towns of Plymouth, Devonport, and Stonehouse revolved around the Royal Navy and the dockyards. The Churchward’s lived within this environment, where dockyard labourers, sailors, marines, and transient workers shaped daily life. The family’s circumstances were unstable, and several daughters were drawn into the vice districts surrounding the Octagon. ²

Mercy’s parents were imprisoned for keeping a brothel in the Octagon area. In 1862, Mercy appeared before the Stonehouse Court of Justices accused of sending a threatening letter to Captain Henry Treffry Fox, who was married at the time, accusing the said Captain Fox of fathering her sister’s child. Newspapers dismissed the allegations, describing Captain Fox’s wife, Frances Jane, as simple for believing such claims after Frances personally visited the Octagon establishment. ³ The scandal nevertheless had consequences. Frances Jane Fox filed for divorce and, after marrying Her Majesty’s consul in Corsica, became Comtesse de Stirling. She eventually settled in Santa Cruz, California, far from Stonehouse and her former husband. ⁴

Mercy’s siblings followed varied paths. Her sister Faith Winifred Churchward emigrated to New Zealand in 1881 aboard the Piako, travelling as a nursemaid for the Scott family. She married Richard Russell in Dunedin in 1885 and lived in South Dunedin and later Abbotsford. Faith Winifred died in 1909 and is buried in Southern Cemetery. ⁵ Her early migration created a pattern later echoed by Mercy’s son Charles, who would also leave England for New Zealand.

Mercy herself left Plymouth behind. On 1 April 1870 she gave birth to her son Charles in Wi******er. No father was named. ⁶ In 1885, Mercy married William Riches in Brighton. Mercy and Charles lived in Brighton until Charles married Kate Louise Self. ⁷

Charles and Kate had two daughters, Elizabeth Kate Riches (born 1900) and Winifred Riches (born 20 March 1902). Both girls were baptised at Holy Trinity Church, Aldershot. ⁸ Aldershot was dominated by army life, with cramped living conditions and frequent infectious disease.

In 1903, Charles and Kate emigrated to New Zealand aboard the Tokomaru. The voyage was long and crowded, carrying assisted immigrants and families seeking new opportunities. The Riches family arrived in Wellington on 22 December 1903 and were contracted to land at Port Chalmers. ⁹

Winifred grew up in New Zealand and married Thomas Henry John Dagg in Napier in 1922. Within a year, her health declined severely. Autopsy and coroner’s records show she suffered from advanced phthisis pulmonalis, the term used at the time for tuberculosis. ¹⁰ When admitted to Porirua Mental Hospital on 26 July 1923, she was physically frail and showing signs of confusional insanity, a condition often associated with severe infection, exhaustion, and delirium. ¹¹ Porirua Mental Hospital admitted patients whose tuberculosis had progressed to delirium or inability to care for themselves.

Winifred became bedridden for the last three weeks of her life. Pressure sores developed because she could not move. Her husband and mother visited her on 28 August. Winifred died at 10 p.m. on 8 September 1923 in the presence of Nurse Stow. The coroner found she died from phthisis pulmonalis, known today as tuberculosis. ¹²

Winifred’s older sister, Elizabeth Kate Riches, had died two years earlier in 1921, also aged twenty one. Her death certificate confirms she too died of tuberculosis. ¹³ Tuberculosis was widespread in early twentieth century New Zealand, particularly affecting young adults. Many families experienced multiple losses, and it was not uncommon for siblings to die within a few years of each other. The fact that both sisters died at the same age from the same illness suggests a shared exposure or susceptibility, possibly originating in childhood or early adulthood, before effective treatments existed. ¹⁴

Although Winifred had no children of her own, her story did not end with her. The family line continued through the siblings who followed both herself and Elizabeth Kate, and it is through their children and grandchildren that this history has been preserved. Their willingness to pass down memories, documents, and shared research has allowed Winifred, Elizabeth, Mercy, Faith, and the wider family to be remembered with clarity and dignity. This story stands because they carried it forward. ¹⁵

Winifred Dagg was buried in the Church of England section of Porirua Cemetery, in Sub Area B, Plot 10. Her grave, like many of those belonging to patients from Porirua Mental Hospital, remains unmarked. The burial register records her interment on 12 September 1923, authorised by her father, Charles Francis Riches. ¹⁶

Her obituary notice in her hometown referred to Winifred as a Riches, not Dagg, which aligns with family testimony regarding the nature of her relationship with her husband. ¹⁷

Footnotes / References
1. Wi******er Birth Register, 1870.
2. Plymouth and Devonport newspaper archives, 1860–1870.
3. Stonehouse Court of Justices, Plymouth, 1862 proceedings.
4. Santa Cruz historical notices relating to Frances Jane Fox (Comtesse de Stirling).
5. Southern Cemetery, Dunedin burial records, 1909.
6. Wi******er Birth Register, 1870.
7. Brighton Marriage Register, 1885.
8. Holy Trinity Church, Aldershot baptismal registers, 1900–1902.
9. Tokomaru Passenger List, 22 December 1903.
10. Porirua Mental Hospital coroner’s report, 1923.
11. Porirua Mental Hospital admission records, 1923.
12. Porirua Mental Hospital autopsy findings, 1923.
13. Births, Deaths and Marriages NZ: Death registration for Elizabeth Kate Riches (1921).
14. Public health reports on tuberculosis in New Zealand, 1900–1930.
15. Family oral histories and private records.
16. Porirua Cemetery burial register, 1923.
17. Local obituary notices, Brighton, 1923.

Photos
Thought to Be Winifred : Riches Family
SS Tokomaru: Riches Family
Winifred's grave, Porirua Cemetery: Allan Dodson, September 2026
Winifred's grave is in the foreground, the tree has been planted on the grave of
Matilda Clarke 1848 - 1929 CE B 09

29/08/2026

A simple headstone “ To My Dear Mother”

Catherine Jane (nee Curnow) Brown 1858 – 1903

Catherine Jane Curnow was born, on 30th April 1858, in Penance, Cornwall, England, the eldest child of Charity (nee Martins) and David Brown .

Catherine grew up in Cornwall with two younger brothers David and Thomas Gilbert Curnow and sisters Mary and Martha Maria Curnow.

Catherine’s father was a tin miner. The Cornwall mines in the middle and late 1870’s were in decline, in the first six months of 1875 10,000 Cornish miners immigrated to South Africa, Australia and the United States where their skills were in demand.

The Curnow family immigrated to the United States. Catherine’s younger brother David Curnow died, in 1881, in Nevada County, California . Nevada County is the site of the oldest, deepest and richest gold mine in California. Catherine’s, father, mother, brother Thomas Gilbert and sister Martha Maria Curnow are also buried in California.

Catherine came to Nelson , New Zealand possibly from California there are a number of Curnow families who were located in Collingwood, Nelson, another gold mining area in the 1860’s.

On 13th March 1880 Catherine married Henry John Brown . Henry. ‘Harry,’ was born in Richmond, Nelson on 9th January 1855. The couple’s first child was born in Nelson on 10th December 1880.

Catherine Jane Brown was pregnant with the couple’s second daughter, Charity Jane Brown, when Henry took part of the Colonial Invasion of Parihaka, Taranaki.

The Colonial Government assembled a force of 1500 men, Armed Constabulary and Volunteers to crush a non-violent Māori resistance movement against land confiscation. Volunteers included a contingent of 200 men from Nelson, H Battery NZ Regiment of Artillery, Nelson City Ri**es, Waimea Ri**es and Stoke Ri**es. One of the Stoke R***e volunteers was Private Henry Brown.

Henry’s Obituary mentions landing by surf boat before the assault on Parihaka on 5th November 1881. The campaign for the Stoke Ri**es was short as they were back in Nelson late November 1881 in time for birth of Charity on 12th December 1881.

The Brown family remained in the Nelson Region with Mary Catherine, 1883, Martha Selina, 1884, and Henry John ‘Jack’ Brown born in 1885. The family moved to Hawera, Taranaki where Thomas Gilbert Brown was born in 1886. While Henry was employed by the Hawera Borough Council for 24 years and also served with the Hawera Fire Police, Catherine had another seven children .

Agatha Sophia Brown was Catherine Jane and John Henry Christian Brown’s twelfth child and was born in Hawera on 19th October 1902.

Catherine Jane Brown was admitted to Porirua Asylum on 13th November 1902, not long after the birth of Agatha. Catherine was admitted in a state of ‘great excitement’ and found to have a heart condition but otherwise in good condition.’

Catherine remained in good condition until 2nd June 1903 when she was found in an ‘exhausted condition but not apparently dangerously so.’ On 3rd June 1903 Catherine was tended by a nurse but died that morning. The inquest reordered her death, at age 44, of was reordered as valvular disease of the heart. Catherine’s husband John is recorded as living in Hawera but was ‘coming down tonight.’

Catherine was interred the same day that she died.

The Coroner’s report also noted that Catherine had been committed, ten years ago, to Mount View Asylum, Wellington.

Catherine Jane Brown is interred in the Non-Conformist Section NC I 058

The grave has a simple headstone, possibly installed in the late 1930’s by her daughter Charity Pearl (nee Brown) Parkinson. The wording in a 1937 notice In Remembrance to her father bears similar wording.

Notes
John Christian Henry Brown remarried in 1906 to Eveline Gertrude Blanchard, they had a son in 1908 Arthur Richard Brown.

John Christian Henry Brown died in Hawera in 1936.

References
Ancestry.com
Archive NZ: Coroner’s Reports
Paperspast Online
The Prow: Nelson Provincial Museum
Wikipedia : Cornish Miners
NZ BDM
Porirua Cemeteries Online

Photos
Brown grave, Porirua Cemetery: Allan Dodson March 2026.

Friends of Porirua Cemetery

17/10/2026

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