Biography contributed by Bernadette Siebert
Alice Catherine COOPER was born in 1861 in Auckland, one of four children born to William Cooper and his second wife Emma. He had previously been married to Elizabeth and they had six children before immigrating to NZ in the early days of the colony. First wife, Elizabeth Cooper died in 1846. Ten years later William married again to Emma Brailey and they had four children including only daughter Alice.
Alice married John Holmes Hudson in 1879. He was 44 years old, the son of a Wesleyan minister from Mahurangi. In quick succession, they had eight children, who all lived to adulthood: Margaret Mabel (1880–1974) Frances Alice Mary (1881–1978) Silvia Hudson (1883–1971) Elsie Maud (1885–1938) Hermia Eleanor (1887–1979) John Spink (1890–1977) Geoffrey Clarence (1892–1980) and Alan Holmes (1901–1979). John was a chemist with premises in Victoria Street, Auckland for many years.
In December 1903, John died very suddenly, having been taken ill at his club, and then dying at home. His will left all personal effects except his library, and land in Auckland and Mahurangi, to his wife and guardian of his infant children. After bequests to his unmarried siblings, he left his estate worth 11,000 pounds to his widow. He ensured his library would be divided into near as equal lots for each son living.
Six years later Alice Hudson married William Porrett, a divorced man. He had previously been married to Jessie Ann Frater for 28 years, with no children. The newspaper reported that, 'William Porrett, a middle-aged man, petitioned for dissolution of his marriage...on the grounds of desertion and refusal to return', and it was granted in 1907.
Alice and William moved around Auckland, 1908 Grey Lynn where William was a commercial traveller, in 1911 Epsom, he was an indent agent, and in 1919 to retire in Remuera. William died 26 December 1933, aged 81 and was buried in Hillsborough Cemetery.
Alice Catherine died 13 February 1943, also at age 81, at the home of her son Dr John Spink Hudson. She was interred at Purewa Cemetery with her first husband John Holmes Hudson. Neither Alice nor her second husband William Porrett left a will.
Alice HUDSON is the sister-in-law of 378 Mary Jane Jordan and niece of 378 Emily Hudson
Sources
Findagrave
Historical BDM
National Archives (https://www.archway.archives.govt.nz/ )
NEW ZEALAND HERALD, VOLUME XL, ISSUE 12452, 23 DECEMBER 1903, PAGE 2
COLONIST, VOLUME XLVII, ISSUE 11266, 25 FEBRUARY 1905, PAGE 4
NEW ZEALAND HERALD, VOLUME XLIV, ISSUE 13425, 1 MARCH 1907, PAGE 7
AUCKLAND STAR, VOLUME LXXIV, ISSUE 38, 15 FEBRUARY 1943, PAGE 1
NZ electoral rolls (ancestry.com)