Helen Gordon

Biography contributed by Stephen Donald

Helen Gordon was a daughter of John Forrest and Jane Amour, born in 1819 in Blantyre, Scotland. Little is known of her early life, but according to her obituary in the Wairarapa Daily Times, she had been at school with the missionary David Livingstone. Helen married James Gordon (b.c.1822, d.1913), a cloth tapper, at Glasgow on 25 March 1842.

Helen and James Gordon emigrated to Wellington, arriving in March 1852 with Helen Gordon jnr., their only child to that point to survive infancy; two more daughters and three sons were born in New Zealand and lived into old age. In 1854 or 1855 Helen and James began farming at Tawa Flat. They moved to join family in Masterton in 1875, and farmed on the Upper Plain. They both continued their involvement in the Methodist Church, where James Gordon was a well-known lay preacher.

Helen, her three daughters, and one daughter-in-law signed the 1893 petition. They were Helen Donald (1850-1938), Charlotte Donald (1854-1937), Fanny Smith Cresswell (1857-1931), and Rosina Mary Gordon (1868-1950).

Helen Donald is known to be a founding member of the Masterton Women’s Christian Temperance Union; it is quite likely that her sisters and mother were too, as they were all heavily involved in the Methodist Church. Both Helens, Charlotte and Fanny signed the 1892 petition. Helen jnr. and Charlotte were married to two Donald brothers who had emigrated to Wellington in 1864, and in 1893, Helen jnr’s husband David was farming at Homebush, Masterton.

Few details are known of Helen Gordon’s life. She is my great-great-grandmother, and I am descended through her daughter Helen Donald.