Annie Arscott

Biography and image contributed by Carole Jackson. Annie is the daughter of Carole's great great grandparents

Annie Arscott is the daughter of Thomas Trist Arscott and Harriette Honeywill. Annie was born in Buckfastleigh, Devon, England in 1872.

Thomas started off doing an apprenticeship for a mining company in Devon. When he finished this he worked in Devon for a time but things were hard at this time so he decided to try his luck in America. He managed to get a job on a sailing ship taking cattle too America this meant leaving his pregnant wife behind at her parent’s house in Buckfastleigh in Devon, England. Thomas found work in America but he decided he wanted to get back home to England to see his new daughter this would be Annie. Once Thomas was back in England he was trying to decide to stay in England or go back to America. Somebody advised him to go to London and find out about the opportunities in New Zealand. Well he was told if he made up his mind to go to New Zealand a.s.a.p. then a passage to New Zealand would be arranged for him.

Thomas, aged 26, and his wife Harriet, aged 22, along with daughter Annie, who was three years of age, boarded the ship The White Rose on the 21 February 1875. They left Plymouth and arrived at Lyttleton, New Zealand on 21 July 1875. Thomas describes himself as a farm labourer from Devon. Thomas and Harriet settled in Timaru.

Annie Arscott would have been living in Perth Street with her parent when she signed the Women’s Suffrage Petition in 1893.

On the 6 January 1897 Annie aged 25, married William John Turner Watson, aged 34 at her parent's house on Perth Street in Timaru, New Zealand. 

William at the time worked as a hotel keeper in Makikihi. Once married they stayed here for a while before moving on to Gisborne, where they worked at the Record Reign Hotel until it burnt down. At this time William was very much in debt. 

From here they moved to Wellington where Annie had her first and only child Ralph Thomas Watson, born 25 December 1898 in Wellington. They left Wellington for Christchurch. When they got to Christchurch William sent Annie and Ralph to Timaru to live with her parents. William planned to join them but never did. Annie divorced William in 1910 on the grounds of desertion.

Annie took up dressmaking to support herself and her son Ralph. I’m unsure what took Annie from Timaru to Nelson. Ralph went to Nelson College from 1911-1914. 

On the 10 September 1913 Annie married Albert Everett who was part of the Everett Bros in Nelson. I’m guessing but I think Annie probably worked for Albert.

Annie died on the 29 September 1957 and Albert died on 17 August 1943, both are buried at the Wakapuaka Cemetery.

Annie’s son Ralph joined the Army. He lied about his birth year he said he was born in 1894. He joined on the 25 August 1915 at the young aged of 17. Just over a year later Ralph was killed in action fighting for his country on the 21 October 1916.

Further sources

Ralph Watson and the Everetts of Nelson (The Prow)

'Watson went but didn't return' NZ Truth, 26 Feb 1910 p6 (Papers Past)