Emily Louisa Hoggard

Signed family name

Hoggard

Signed given name

Emily Louisa

Given address

Scarboro Terrace

Sheet number

408

Town/Suburb

Mt Victoria

City/Region

Wellington

Notes

Biography contributed by David Hoggard

Emily Louisa Hoggard (neé Fountain) was born in Newington, Southwark, Surrey, England (now part of London) in 1867 to William George Fountain and Jane Louisa Fountain (neé Noakes). The family were living at 41 Theobald St in Lambeth, Surrey at the time of the 1871 census (2 April). The household comprised of William, Jane and their four children. Tragically, in 1872 Emily’s mother died; it is presumed that Emily’s sister, Amelia, also passed away before 1874.

In 1874, when Emily was six years old, William took his three surviving children with him to New Zealand as assisted migrants on the Golden Sea. The ship arrived on 1 May 1874 but the crossing had seen 18 cases of scarlatina on board, costing the lives of 11 children with another still ill, so the ship was quarantined off Somes Island in Wellington Harbour. On 4 May, eleven crew members, unhappy with quarantine conditions, broke into the hold, stole some liquor and went on to mob Captain Strachan. Strachan fired his revolver, at which point the Native Contingent of the Armed Constabulary were called out from shore to restore order. The last of the passengers were released from quarantine by 20 May 1874. It has to be wondered if this had an impact on the young Emily.

Despite this unfortunate welcome to New Zealand, the Fountains made a home for themselves. William set himself up with a painting business in Molesworth St, Wellington and married a widow, Mrs Harriet Astridge, in 1876.

Emily married Leonard Hoggard on 14 March 1892 in Dunedin. Leonard came from an established Wellington family, his father (John Farr Hoggard) having served on the committee which welcomed Governor Hobson to New Zealand in 1839. Leonard, at this point, working for Levin and Company, general wholesalers, as a clerk.

Emily Louisa Fountain’s name does not appear on the surviving parts of the 1892 women’s suffrage petition, but she did sign the successful 1893 petition under her married name of Hoggard, at which time she lived at 39 Scarborough Terrace in Mount Victoria, Wellington. Her sister, Jane Elizabeth Pollard (neé Fountain), can be found on the 1892 petition but not the surviving parts of the one circulated in 1893.

William George Fountain died at the age of 75 in 1909, a few months after his only son – William Charles Fountain, a bookbinder at the Government Printing Office. It can be presumed that this was a very difficult time for Emily, losing her father and brother so close together.

Emily and Leonard went to Whanganui in 1904 when Leonard was promoted to manager of the Levin and Co branch on Taupo Quay and from 1911 to 1920 they lived in the prosperous neighbourhood of Campbelltown in East Whanganui, so we can imagine that they would have lived quite comfortably.

Emily consistently appears on the electoral roll; where her occupation is given as ‘married’. She and Leonard had three children - Norman Leonard (b.1893), Ina Kathleen (b.1897 – later Mrs Fowler), and Irene May (b.1905 – later Mrs Dixon). Given Leonard’s position in the Levin Company, Emily probably did not need to work outside the home.

She participated in social life, attending the Marsden School féte in 1927 and her daughter Irene’s society wedding in 1926.

Emily and Leonard’s home was burgled by the notorious housebreaker Charles Dawkins on 27 November 1922.

In 1920, the Hoggards returned to Wellington. The couple resided at 87 Upland Road, Karori until Leonard died in 1938; Emily passed away on 19 March 1947.

Their son Norman, meanwhile, had served on the Western Front in the First World War as a Lance-Sergeant. He was wounded but survived, although ultimately Norman passed away before his mother, in 1944. Again, this must have been a difficult time in Emily’s life.

Emily and Leonard are buried together in Karori Cemetery. Emily’s sister Jane is buried with them; the sisters had lived together in the last years of Emily’s life.