Mrs Maggie Egerton

Biography contributed by Rachael Egerton, great granddaughter to Maggie.

Margaret (Maggie) Forbes was born in Edinburgh c.1868, eldest child of George Forbes and Jane Forbes (nee Jamieson).  The Forbes’ brought their family (Maggie, Mary, George) to New Zealand c. 1875 and a further three children (Fraser, Jane, Alexander) were born here.

On 27 December 1887 Maggie married Harry Egerton at the house of her mother in Winton, Southland.  Harry’s brother Frederick James Egerton and Maggie’s sister Mary Forbes (both also of Winton) were witnesses at their wedding. 

Harry Egerton, born in January 1859, had also come to New Zealand as a child with his parents, around 1865.  His father, uncles and brothers worked in various sawmills around Winton and nearby Forest Hill, Southland.  From school rolls it is clear that the younger siblings of both Harry and Maggie attended the Forest Hill School at the same time (in the early and late 1880s). It is possible they first met in this small settlement.

Women were granted the vote soon after the signing of the 1893 women’s suffrage petition, when Maggie was 25.  She was enrolled in the Invercargill electorate in 1896, 1897 and 1899. However, for much of her married she lived with her family on the outskirts of Winton.

Maggie and Harry had ten children who survived infancy: Fraser Lawrence (b.1894), Harry* (b.1898), Arthur William (b.1900, ‘Art’), Francis Oswald* (b.1901, ‘Frank’), Albert Alfred* (b.1902, ‘Bert’), Sabina Ellen (b.1903, ‘Bin’, married name Crawford), Thomas James (b.1904, ‘Tom’), John Edward (b.1906, ‘Jack’), Leonard (b.1909, ‘Len’), and Blanche Elizabeth (b.1912, ‘Beau’, married name Clayton).  [* denotes children whose births were registered with the name spelt “Edgerton”.]

Harry worked variously as a sawmiller and labourer.  This led the family to spend a short period of time living at the remote settlement of Cromarty, Preservation Inlet, Fiordland, where Harry worked for McIntyre’s Sawmill when their eldest child, Fraser, was small.  They also lived in Orepuki for a while.  Maggie was left alone with the children for an unknown length of time while Harry went to Tasmania, Australia, in search of gold.  Like so many others he did not strike it rich, and according to family memories he had to work his passage home.  Her two eldest sons, Fraser and Harry, served in World War One, both returning safely. 

Stories passed down by her children to the next generation indicate Maggie did not have an easy life and worked hard to look after her family.  She died on Monday September 30th, 1918 at her home in East Winton at the age of 50 when her youngest child, Beau, was only six.  The death record gives cause of death as ‘Chronic Phthisis’ (consumption/tuberculosis), which she had suffered from for years, and pneumonia, a recent illness.  A newspaper article on her death commented that she “was held in the highest esteem in this district for her kind and neighbourly qualities, and wide spread sympathy will go out to the sorrowing husband and family in their very great loss”. She was buried at Winton Cemetery.  Her husband Harry died on 13 July, 1923 at the age of 65, and was buried in the same plot. 

Sources:

Births, Deaths, Marriages NZ
Winton Cemetery Records
Electoral rolls
Southland school rolls
Paperspast
Family stories

Author: Rachael Egerton (great granddaughter).  I am happy to receive corrections or additions from anyone who has primary source information showing different or extra details.

Maggie and Harry Egerton, probably at the time of their marriage