Biography and image contributed by Jared Maddison.
Rosa was born on 9 Dec 1839 (baptised 29 August 1841) where the family resided at 89 Mount Street in Saint George Hanover Square, London. Rosa was born to John Wilson a local Watch and Clock Maker and Mary.
Rosa migrated first from England to Australia when on 25 September 1862 Rosa married Samuel Horatio Moreton at Trinity Church in Sandridge, Victoria. The couple later settled in Southland where in the Grasmere area of Invercargill they had five daughters and five sons. Essentially abandoned by her husband Samuel due to his many trips into the mountains to paint his various painting, Rosa was the foundation of the family raising her children apparently making ends meet with bare cupboards. It has been passed down through the generations that Rosa sometimes accompanied her husband into the Fiordland wilderness trekking the Milford Track.
Rosa passed away on 10 May 1908, aged 64 and is buried in an unmarked plot within the Saint John’s Cemetery in Invercargill with her children Annie Alice Paulina, Atlanta Minerva, Claude Loraine and William Henry. Samuel had already moved to Christchurch following his artistic work and re-married to a student Amelia Rose Woolley shortly after Rosa’s death.
A lot of the attention of this family goes to her famous husband, but it is worth noting that this strong and brave woman raised a family and is the reason that many descendants are here today including myself.
Click on sheet number to see the 1893 petition sheet this signature appeared on. Digital copies of the sheets supplied by Archives New Zealand.
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