Biography contributed by Bernadette Siebert.
Matilda Toovey was born in 1880, daughter of Abraham Toovey and Jemima Jenkins. She was born after Abraham's death in the Mahurangi River in 1879.
Matilda married Richard Abraham Heywood in Warkworth on 2 December 1898. They had seven children: Richard Stanley Abraham in 1899, Irene Matilda in 1901, Laura Margaret Unsworth in 1903, Henry Ralph in 1905, Ruby Hellen in 1907, Robert Carl in 1909, and Wyvim Frank in 1914.
Four months after the last birth, Matilda died on 6 December 1914 at Warkworth. She made a will just before she died, leaving all of her estate, worth about 500 pounds, solely to her husband.
Richard remarried two years after Matilda’s death to Christine Ruth Bond, who also died young in 1935, aged 44yrs. Richard died 24 Aug 1954, aged 75, and was buried in the Warkworth Cemetery.
