Originally transrcibed as Louise Ann Blakemore
Biography and photos contributed by her great great grandson, Craig Ellis.
Louisa Watson was born in the small Yorkshire village of Thorpe Hesley in 1849.
She had two younger sisters; Sarah Ellen (Nellie), born in 1851 and Mary Eliza, born in 1853.
Mary Eliza married a Johnson but died at the age of 27 in 1880. It is not known if there were any children born.
Sarah Ellen married Robert John Morris in 1874, and they emigrated to New Zealand in 1889 aboard the “Aorangi” with their four children. Robert died in 1902 and Sarah remarried Samuel Shaw.
They lived at 18 Walter Street, Wellington for a time and then both died in hospital within 24 hours of each other in 1926, probably from tuberculosis.
The three sisters' father, Emmanuel Isaac Watson, was a nail maker in Thorpe Hesley, as were his father, grandfather and great grandfather before him. Emmanuel was imprisoned in 1861 for his part in the bombings of two other nail makers in town, who had refused to join the union. He was then pardoned and released a few months later, as several witnesses came forward with alibis for him on the night the bombings occurred. Several years later at an enquiry into the unions, Emmanuel admitted that he had in fact performed the bombings, at the behest (and payment) of the union, but had been given immunity to testify, so no further action could be taken against him.
In 1870 Louisa married Joseph Blakemore and they had two children together; A son named, Joseph John Boden Blakemore who was born in 1871, and a daughter named Katie Jane Blakemore who was born in 1877.
In 1886 Louisa took her two children, and sailed on the ship “Zealandia” to Lyttleton, under Captain Phillips, leaving her husband behind.
At the time Katie was six years old, and Joseph was about 15, and it is still unclear why Louisa’s husband did not accompany them on a risky journey to the other side of the world, with so many unknowns. It is however, very clear, that she was a strong and determined woman to have undertaken this voyage on her own.
Upon arrival in Christchurch, Louisa made her way to Wellington and found work at the Petone Woollen Mill. It appears there were many other mill workers there who had emigrated from northern UK cities, and it is possible that she had pre-arranged employment there through a friend or acquaintance.
She worked hard, saved and eventually was able to buy a house in Nelson Street Petone, and from there was able to trade up and buy several other properties in and around Wellington over the years.
In 1894 she re-married a fellow worker at the mill, named William Herbert Montague, but no further children were born, and William died in 1914.
Her daughter Katie married a printer named Stephen Geary, and they had four children; Ida, Norman, Keith and Eileen, and they lived for many years in a house at 19a Buller Street in Wellington. All four children went on to have families of their own.
John Joseph married Emily Isabella Costello and they had six children; Edgar Boden, Constance Louise, Gladys Katie, Herbert Boden, Claude Costello and Egbert Louis.
Edgar died at three years of age, and Herbert Boden was killed in Passchendaele in WW1, but the remaining four married and went on to have families.
In 1924, Louisa was the victim of fraud by a Land Agent by the name of Frederick Joseph Fanning, who misappropriated around 200 pounds, which she had placed in his trust account for a property purchase or sale. None of the money was recovered, and as Louisa was about 75 years old by this time, she no longer had the capacity to work, and ended up spending her final days living in a room at her daughter Katie’s house in Buller Street.
She died in 1936 aged 86, and is buried, along with three other family members, in Plot 174 Y CH ENG at Karori Cemetery in Wellington, under her second married name of Montague.
She was no doubt a formidable woman who leaves a large family as her legacy, and today can count a few great, great, great, great grandkids in her ever-growing clan.
Images
Louisa Ann Blakemore (born Watson)
Petone Woollen Mill (Date unknown)
1932 - Four generations. Louisa (seated), daughter Katie (standing left), granddaughter Eileen Jackson (born Geary) holding Louisa's great granddaughter, Geraldine Jackson, (became Ellis).
Christmas 1930 - Louisa surrounded by some of her family at 19a Buller Street, Wellington. Great grandaughter, Lois on her lap, daughter Katie standing left rear and Katie's husband, Stephen Geary- left front. Right front is Louisa’s grandson, Keith and granddaughter Eileen middle rear, with granddaughters-in-law, Eva and Sylvie.
