OBITUARY

Evening Star, Issue 20311, 21 October 1929, Page 7

OBITUARY

MRS MARY WOOLSEY PIONEER SOUTH ISLAND SETTLER When the brig Magnet came to Waikouaiti from Sydney on March 10, 1840, she brought eleven families, the heads of which were engaged to work for Mr “Johnny” Jones, the pioneer who was one of the very first to start real settlers’ work in the South Island. Mr and Mrs B. Coleman,- who were Sussex folk, and had been in Australia for about two years, were of the party. Mr. Coleman at once accepted the job of-working on Cherry Farm, reducing it. by the aid mostly of grub hoes, to a state of fertility. One of his family was Mary, then a child of four years, having been born at Hove, in Sussex. 1 She was the eldest of eight. In common with all others of the party the Colemans suffered hardship for ajvhile, sometimes being short of imported foods, at other threatened by the Maoris. ' , Mr Coleman stuck to Mr Jones s service until he had saved enough mofiey to strike out for himself. Ho bought land from the Maoris, and it is commonly believed that he grew the first crop of grain in the M'aikouaiti district, at Mount Cornish. Two years later the Colemans and some of - the other folk who had conie with them from Sydney decided to make new. homes at Otakou on the Otago Peninsula, and they transferred their families ’and belongings thither by whaleboats, the only means of transport then available. It was an exciting day for these isolated settlers when the John Wickliffe arrived in 1848. The subject of this notice, recounting in after years her experiences, said: —“ I • remember going to Otakou with my parents to see the arrival of the John Wickliffe. 1 went to the top of the hill'with' my : cousins and other children to get a good look at her. When; the John Wickliffe and Philip Laing arrived there was quite a little settlement, comprising thirty-four families, at Otakou. At that time my father was

keeping ,an accommodation house, 'and was trading with the' whalers. There was then plenty of milk J and butter, and the hardships that had to be iaced by the emigrants in 1848 were nothing when compared with those which had to be endured by the Magnet, s passengers.” C Not long after the arrival of “the first ships ” at Port Chalmers the Colemans moved up to that little township, and Mr Coleman lost his life by. a boating accident on October 1,1849-

Ho started with others to go from Port -Chalmers to Dunedin, and the fierce north-east wind capsized the, boat off Black Jack’s Point, the only survivor being ' the, steersman, named Hunter. Mrs' Coleman ! subsequently married Captain Peter Williams, who came out as a whaler in 1829, and the second marriage produced two children. Mary was in due course married at Port Chalmers to Mr Charles Woolsey. who was a master mariner, but came out to Port Chalmers as a passenger and left the sea, taking up the busi-

ness of a waterman. He died on July 20, 1800, after being paralysed lor about seven years. There were sis children in the family, two sons and two daughters being still alive; Up to .three weeks ago Mrs Woolsoy kept her 'usual health,- failing , very little bodily, and mentally as altert as ,at any time during the past fifty or sixty years, when she had the pleasure of receiving distinguished visitors who wanted a chat about old times. _ The Duke of York met her when he visited • the Otago Early Settlers’ Hall in 1927, tho presentation to His Royal Highness being by,his express wish.. The immediate cause of death was a paralytic seizure and haemmorhago of the brain. The passing away was at the residence of one of her sons in Dunedin. . Mrs Woolsey is survived by three sisters—Mrs C. T. Haynes (Christchurch), Mrs George Smyth (Port Chalmers), and Mrs John Stumbles (Timaru) —arid also by a half-sister — Mrs Roberts (Oamaru). ; The Town Hall flag was at half mast this morning until 12 o’clock as a mark of respect’ to Mrs Woolsey’s memory. The flag was then lowered and afterwards ' run to the truck in celebration of Trafalgar Day. Shortly after: 11 o’clock to-day the body was conveyed, to tho Early Settlers’, Hall, received with reverence by the president, secretary, arid other officers of the association, and deposited in the main hall. At 2 p.m. a memorial service was conducted in the hall by the Rev. Dr ■ Herrington, after which the body was, taken to the Port Chalmers New Cemetery. The Rev. T. : A. Pybus, Methodist minister, of Port Chalmers, conducted the graveside service, Mrs Woolsey haying attended that church when residing at Port. Mr F. W. Knight, president of the Early' Settlers Association, represented that body at the funeral, and Mr Alfred Ecdes represented the Otago branch of the New Zealand Historical Association., Dr Herrington's connection with the burial of Mrs 'Woolsey embodies a coincidence. He conducted the Dunedin service in his capacity as the ex-minis-ter of First Church, 'no other man being yet appointed, but it also turns out that, Dr Merrington’s .parents went from the Old Country to Sydney by the, same ship—the Coromandel—that conveyed Mrs Woolsey’s parents to that port. ■

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