Mrs Maplesden

Biography contributed by Jane Dudley - great great granddaughter.

Ellen Keyes was born in 1849 in Springfield, Essex, England. She is listed in the 1851 census, aged two, living with her grandparents, John and Martha Crouchman, at their farm in Essex. In the next census she is recorded as a scholar, learning to read and write.

Ellen later worked as a housemaid, like many of her sisters, in Kensington, in London. On 22 August 1874, she boarded the S.S. Soukar, a large sailing ship to sail from London to New Zealand. She was aged 25 at the time of the voyage and travelled alone. Of the 600 passengers, only 6% were single women. To be permitted onboard each had to give a ‘character reference’.  Ellen’s character was ‘excellent’.

During the voyage she stayed with the rest of the single women and their matron Mrs Murray. Whilst onboard she met a young man from Kent, Oscar Maplesden, also aged 25.

Accounts of the voyage include beautiful sights like schools of dolphins and whales, amazing sunsets and sunrises, starry nights, and meteor showers.

The sailing was good, until the Cape of Good Hope. There they encountered a fierce storm - chain plates were broken off the main sail, and items swept overboard. The single men’s cabin was briefly flooded with water at one point.

The Soukar arrived in Evans Bay on the 2 December. As the single women walked off the boat, the crowd cheered. Ellen and Oscar married at the Wellington registry office in February, 1875.

As a rapidly growing city, there were many opportunities for Oscar to build his cabinet making business. Unions had also improved conditions for workers.

Ellen and Oscar had 11 children. Sadly, four of their children would die young, this was not unusual as infant mortality was high in Wellington at the time. They then lived in Kaikoura for a time, before moving back to Wellington for the rest of their lives.

She signed the petition aged 44 whilst living in Newtown, Wellington. She also enrolled to vote a few months later.

Several of her daughters, Florence, Madeline and Lottie, while too young to sign the petition, later became involved in the seamstress’s union, a force for improving women’s working conditions. Her son Vincent was involved in the maritime workers union and later the formation of the NZ Labour party. Their son Hector died aged 28 in the First World War, and their son Archibald died aged 42 in a trolly car accident.

She was remembered by her granddaughter, Joan Maplesden (later Dudley) as quite a formal Victorian lady of her time.

Ellen and her daughter Florence, would later visit England and Europe via a steamship in the 1920’s, before returning to New Zealand. She lived to the ripe age of 96.

Image:

Painted portait of Mrs Ellen Maplesden in her later years - image provided by Jane Dudley

Sources:

Links to images of the SS. Soukar:  National Library of New Zealand natlib.govt.nz

Sailing ship Soukar at Dunedin Wharf National Library of New Zealand natlib.govt.nz

1874 voyage of the Soukar https://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-Bre01Whit-t1-body-d36.html 

Oral family histories 

Papers Past    https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz

Rootsweb passenger list https://freepages.rootsweb.com/~ourstuff/genealogy/Soukar