Ellen Farrer

1820 - 1915

 

 

Ellen Farrer was born on August 4th 1820, 5th child of Benjamin Farrer ( silversmith and clock and watch maker of Pontefract Yorkshire) and Ellen Farrer (nee Thompson). Little is known of Ellen's childhood but she clearly was close to her parents, as the family returned to Pontefract for the baptism of her own children. Her mother's maiden name is carried by two of her children as their middle name.

Ellen married John Middlebrook in early 1847 when she was aged 26 years, and was living in Liversedge when she had her first child some 10 months later.

She was aged 42, with 7 children when she had John made the long voyage on the Shalimar to New Zealand to start a new life for her family.

Clearly a very strong woman, after only 4 years she was alone, with John having died early aged just 54, the vision she must have had for a better life must have tuned into a nightmare. She moved from the residence the family lived in above the butchers shop John ran in Victoria Street, to a new home in Duke Street Newton ( this street later changed its name to Karaka Street.  It appears she lived here for some years,daughter  Elizabeth having married in this house in 1868. Its unknown what happened to the land the family owned in Whangarei and Northland.

Later it appears that Ellen moved to Katikati for some time living near her son Samuel, and then later in life it seems she lived for quite some time with her eldest daughter Jane. She is mentioned in letters from Jane in the 1880s when Jane is living in Opua. ( James is also living in Opua at this time as well) . By the early 1900's though Ellen is living at  and is listed as the owner and ratepayer at 38 Cobden Street Auckland ( Jane is living next door at number 40)

Ellen lived a long life, though it appears to be interspersed with periods of illness. It is noted in 1903 in the Bay of Plenty Times that Samuel Middlebrook had returned to Auckland to pay a last visit his dying mother.

Ellen obviously survived this bout with illness and moved back in with Jane, who by 1914 was running a boarding house in Arkles Bay. This is where Ellen died, aged the grand old age of 94 on January 15 1915.