Mrs Brough

Signed family name

Brough

Signed given name

Mrs

Given address

Plymouth Street

Sheet number

469

Town/Suburb

Whanganui

City/Region

Whanganui

Click on sheet number to see the 1893 petition sheet this signature appeared on. Digital copies of the sheets supplied by Archives New Zealand.

Community contributions

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Jeff Saunders Posted: 24 Nov 2011

Formerly Mary Theresa Clune born County Clare, Ireland, 1846. Arrived in New Zealand alone aged about 14. Mary married Edward Tozer at Akaroa 1865, gave birth to five daughters and was then widowed in 1871 at Robinson's Bay. Remarried to Thomas Brough of Le Petit Carenage, Akaroa. The couple shifted to Whanganui where Thomas owned the Railway Hotel. He died soon after. Mary Theresa for more than a decade had problems with alcohol and as consequence, with the law. She was a feisty woman. RIP Great Great Grandmother.

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Jeff Saunders Posted: 3 May 2013

Wanganui Chronicle , Monday 11 August 1913, Page 4:
"Fifty years' residence in New Zealand is a record which one may very well honour. Such is the attainment of Mrs. Mary Brough, of Wanganui, who on Saturday celebrated the golden jubilee of her arrival on New Zealand's shores. A good colonist she has been, too. On May 1st, 1863, in the good ship British Crown, of which Capt. Hadfield was master and, Mr. Murray first mate, she sailed from Birkenhead, and on the 8th August stepped ashore at Lyttelton. After eleven years' residence at Akaroa she came ,to Wanganui, so that for 39 years she has honoured our town with her citizenship. She had eight children-one son and seven daughters, three of whom are dead, while the remaining five daughters are married to residents of the district. There are 51 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. Mrs. Brough, who is 67 years of age, is still hale and hearty, and we hope she will be spared for many years to celebrate the anniversary of the auspicious occasion."

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Jeff Saunders Posted: 9 Oct 2013

The Whanganui Chronicle no doubt recorded the information that it had to hand - however the facts are that the ship British Crown arrived at Lyttleton from Birkenhead, Liverpool on the 15th of August 1863 (not the 8th of August) under Captain Whitfield (not Hatfield.)

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Carol Tyson Posted: 27 Sep 2025

My great great grandmother was a survivor for sure. Arriving alone in New Zealand at the age of 14. Losing her first husband when he was only 35, and having 3 young girls at the time of his death, she was forced to take in washing from community residents to make money before meeting and marrying Thomas Brough and moving to Wanganui. No doubt her struggles led her to drink and whether it was that or her firey Irish spirit, she got into trouble with the law on occasion, and her girls were taken off her, spending some time in a children’s home in Christchurch, proving life was far from simple in those times.

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