Kate Mander

Signed family name

Mander

Signed given name

Kate

Given address

Masterton

Sheet number

493

Town/Suburb

Masterton

City/Region

Wairarapa

Notes

Biography and image contributed by Janice Goldsworthy (first cousin, twice removed)

From family wedding photo

Catherine (Kate) Bell Adams was born in 1864 in Edinburgh, Scotland. Her parents were Robert Adams and Elizabeth Duncan. Kate emigrated to New Zealand as a single woman in 1883. She travelled along with a large number of other young single women on the ship Forfarshire arriving at Dunedin. Her occupation on the ship’s passenger list is ‘General Servant’.

She married James Mander at Christchurch in 1890. After living in the South Island for a time they moved to Masterton where James ran a bakery and Kate a boarding house. Later they moved to Whanganui. They ran a tearooms there for a few years and according to newspaper reports Kate was always active in the community – ‘an active interest in the doings of the Baptist Church and is president of the Mother’s Union’.

Kate had no children but was close to her extended family, especially her cousins’ children. She seems to have been a strong, independent person. It must have been hard to leave Scotland and her family and travel across the world to seek work. (In the 1881 Scottish census she gave her occupation as unemployed.) As far as we know she had no family in New Zealand until some emigrated to Whanganui in the 1900s. She was also a caring person. Family members have fond memories of her helping and giving where it was needed.

She died in Whanganui in 1953.