Descendants
of William and Martha:
William
[2] FEIST and Jane (BROWNSEA)
1.
William [2] (b.1833)
Five years
and eight months after his arrival in New Zealand, William married Jane Brownsea
(or Brownsey ) in the private
residence of Mr William RANDELL in Karori Road (now Tinakori Road),
Wellington.
It was the 22nd of January 1864.
He was 30; she was 28. The
Rev. John MOIR was the minister and the witnesses were William Randell
and James MacLean.
After
forty eight years in New Zealand William died in Wellington on 30 January
1906. He was 72.
He died at his home at 52 Ingestre Street.
His occupation at the time was listed as "grocer", although
he seems to have had a varied career, including some time as a Parliamentary
mesenger.
He
had had problems with his health for some time, including diabetes for which
he had been receiving treatment for five years.
For several weeks before his death he had also been receiving treatment
for "asthemia".
1.0.
Jane BROWNSEA
Born
on 4 January 1836, Jane arrived in New Zealand on the Stormbird in
1857[1].
Her daughter
Hannah[2] named Weymouth,
in Dorset, as Jane's birthplace.
Jane's death certificate quotes Nottington.[3]
Weymouth is on the southern coast of England, about 40 kilometres as
the crow flies from the island of Brownsea in Poole Harbour.
Small enough
not to appear on a 1:200 scale map of the area which shows Poole, Weymouth,
and Brownsea Island quite clearly[4],
Nottington is situated only a few kilometres
north of Weymouth, between the villages of Radipole and Broadwey.[5]
Family
tradition has it that the family originated on the island of Brownsea,
and this seems plausible given the geographical proximity, although I have
not found any verification for this.
Jane's
father Samuel BROWNSEA was a brewer.
Her mother was called Sarah.
There were at least two other girls in the family.
One of them had a daughter named Bessie, who married Tom AYLES.
Tom managed a shipyard in Campbelltown in Scotland, where
Hannah, her brother Martin and
sister Edith, visited them. Another
of Jane's siblings, a brother, is reputed to have been a member of the Constabulary
in New Zealand (a "Fencible"),
and at one time fighting in the Taranaki land wars. [Corroboration
of this story has not been found].
When
Jane was still a young woman, she took ship for the colonies.
It is unclear whether she came directly to New Zealand, or, as now
seems more likely, she went originally to Australia, coming on later
to New Zealand "on the sailing ship Stormbird".[6]
Verna Mossong
of the NZSG has found references to a barque of 495T, called the Stormbird
sailing from Melbourne in 1855 under Captain SMALL.[7] This
sounds as likely as the coastal steamer of the same name, which was also based
in Melbourne before coming to New Zealand to ply the coastal routes, although
it does not entirely tally with Jane's supposed arrival in 1857
not 1855.
The precise
circumstances of Jane's emigration are not known.
In the economic climate of the time, it would have been quite possible
that Jane would seek work as a domestic servant.
Hannah wrote (of her mother),
"I remember
her saying that the pathetic faces at the window of a work-house near, made
her hope she would never have the same fate, and I think that had something
to do with her taking a chance,
when she got it, of leaving England".[8]
That certainly
sounds as though Jane might have decided to take passage with a family who
were about to emigrate.
It was in William
and Sarah Randell's house in Karori Road (now Tinakori Road) that Jane
married William FEIST on 22 January 1864.[9]
There is no record of how Jane spent the seven years from her arrival
in Wellington until her marriage, but had she been part of the Randells' household
that is not surprising.
Jane and William
seem to have lived from then on in Wellington, and it is here that all the
major events of their life together took place.
Jane
died on the 7th September 1907 at Central Terrace, Kelburnie, Melrose, from
carcinoma of the stomach. The
house belonged to her son, Martin. She
was buried two days later in the Sydney Street cemetery, like William,
by the Rev J K Elliot.
She had lived
in New Zealand for 50 years.
Jane and William
had nine children. They were:
1.1
Alfred William FEIST
(b 30 Oct 1864)
1.2 Lois
Margaret FEIST
(b 30 Oct 1864)
1.3 Oliver
Cromwell FEIST
(b 18 Oct 1866)
1.4 Mary
Martha FEIST
(b 4 Aug 1868)
1.5 Rhoda
Ruth FEIST (b 4 Aug 1868)
1.6 Adolph
Monod FEIST
(b 25 Apr 1870)
1.7 Martin
Luther FEIST
(b 26 Jan 1872)
1.8 Edith
Lydia FEIST
(b 1874)
1.9 Hannah
Elizabeth FEIST (b 12 Mar 1880).
Footnotes:
[1]Cyclopaedia of New
Zealand Vol 1 1897.
[2]Hannah Feist (1880
- 1955) letters & notes (in possession of D C Feist)
[3]Jane FEIST (nee
BROWNSEY) Death Certificate - NZRGO 1907 F (?)
[4]Collins Road Atlas
of Britain 1990
[5]Elsie Feist and
Beverly Price
[6]Hannah Feist, letters
and notes
[7]Verna Mossong: reply
to letter 27/3/1990
[8]Jean Feist thinks
that this may have been in London
[9]The site of the
Randells' cottage is directly behind the new Education Centre, between it
and the nurseries. The cottage itself no longer stands, although according to
Hannah it did in 1948. [Winsome
Sheppard, 1991]
