Community Contributed

Ellen Hayward (nee Gilbert 1857 - 1948)

Kete Horowhenua2020-03-23T16:51:16+00:00
Ellen Gilbert was born in Devon, England and migrated to New Zealand in 1887. She taught in Picton before she married William Hayward and the couple were pioneer dairy farmers at Hautere Cross near Te Horo.
Date of birth1857
Date of death1948
Mothers nameEliza Gilbert
Spouses nameWilliam Hayward
Spouses date of birth1852 - 1932
Spouses place of birthHenstridge, Somerset, England
Mothers iwi or nationalityBritish
Spouses date of death8 July 1932
Spouses place of deathOtaki
Fathers nameWilliam Gilbert
Marriage date3 January 1893
Place of marriageSt Marks, Wellington
Fathers place of deathBarnstaple, Devon
Siblings, , , ,
Fathers occupationPainter
ChildrenWilliam Gilbert Hayward, , , ,
Cause of deathSenile dementia
Buried whereOtaki cemetery
Places of relevanceTe Horo, Hautere Cross, , ,
Last known residenceHautere Cross
Educational achievementsTeachers Certficate
Previous namesGilbert
Place of birthBarnstaple, Devon, England
OccupationTeacher
Nationality or IwiBritish New Zealander
Place of deathHavelock North
Spouses Iwi or nationalityBritish New Zealander

Ellen Gilbert was born in the Gilbert family home at 120 Pilton Street,Pilton, a suburb of Barnstaple in county Devon, England in 1857. She was the oldest of five daughters of William Gilbert (1819 - 87) and his wife Eliza, nee Robins. William was a painter and Eliza was the daughter of Samuel Robins, a prominent radical, trade unionist and Republican. Samuel was from Barnstaple but he had lived in Bristol for some time and had returned to Barnstaple after the Bristol riots of 1832. Back in Barnstaple he became an innkeeper at the Old Plough Inn. Eliza had a sister Mary and a brother Samuel who migrated to the U.S.A.

Ellen Gilbert four sisters all remained in Barnstaple, but Ellen attended Teachers' Training College in Truro, Cornwall in 1878-79, passing her exams in divinity and making a favourable impression on the Diocesan inspectors. From 1882 to 1884 she taught at Barnstaple Trinity Church of England School and then from 1885 to 1887 she taught at the Girl's and Infant's School in Yetminster, Dorset. A memo of agreement dated 16 January 1886 between Ellen and the school board records that she was to be paid an annual salary of £70 in quarterly instalments.Yetminster was the home village of the Hayward family by this time and Thomas Hayward, an uncle of her future husband, was a board member, so it is very likely that she met William Hayward while she was teaching there.

Ellen left England in late 1887. She travelled to New Zealand as a governess for the children of the Truebridge family whose direct descendant the late Michael Truebridge who later established a prominent surveying and property development business in Levin. Ellen was an assisted immigrant to this country recruited as a primary school teacher. She paid £10 of her £26 fare, the government of the time picking up the tab for the balance. Ellen sailed from Plymouth on the steamship Kaikoura on 22 October 1887 and 42 days later docked at Lambton Harbour, Wellington.

Ellen's entry in Immigration records reads:

Gilbert, Ellen: Age 29; County Devon; Teacher; Paid in cash £ 10.

Cost to government 16 pounds. Wellington 1072.

Also on board was:

Truebridge, Annie; 31; Dorset; to husband; Alfred 4 yrs; Ethel 2 yrs.

Source: IM 14/487 (search by K.E.H. May 1992)

Miss Gilbert was certificated as a teacher by the N. Z. Ministry of Education on 22 December 1887. For five years she taught at Picton School in Marlborough. A letter of appreciation for her services is dated 21 Decemebr 1892 and indicated that she was leaving to be married.

Ellen married William Hayward (1852 - 1932), farmer of Te Horo who had arrived in New Zealand in 1885, on 3 January 1893 at St Mark's Church of England across the road from the Basin Reserve in Wellington. After their marriage they settled first on William's farm in the Mangaone valley a few kilometres into the hills from Te Horo on land William bought in 1892. Later, in 1898, they moved to a new block of 55 acres at Hautere Cross and while William cleared the land and established a dairy farm, Ellen ran the Hautere Cross Post Office from the front room of their unpretentious farmhouse. She sometimes taught sewing at Te Horo School and taught Sunday school from her home until St Margaret's Church was built at Te Horo.

Willam and Ellen's only child William Gilbert Hayward was born on 17 June 1900. William was 48 years old and Ellen was 43. After her husband died, Ellen continued to live in the farmhouse for many years until she moved in with her son William Gilbert Hayward and his wife Thelma in the new home they built on the farm in 1932. When she became too invalided for home care she spent the last three years of her life in a rest home in Havelock North where she died in her 91st year in 1948.

Though Ellen was a very good correspondent with her own and with William's family back in England, neither William nor Ellen Hayward ever returned to England for a visit. How different it is now in the modern era of the global village with rapid international travel putting families but a day or so apart no matter where they live in the world.