Biography contributed by Jessica Colquhoun.
Arabella Gleeson was born on the 19th of May 1854 to Thomas James Gleeson and Charlotte Ann (née Morris) Gleeson. Thomas was born in 1806 in Tipperary, Ireland, while Charlotte was born in 1821 in Windsor, England. Thomas and Charlotte were married on the 13th of November 1839 in Capetown, South Africa, when he was 33 and she was 18. Their marriage certificate lists both of their occupations as domestic servants.
Only a few years after their marriage, Thomas and Charlotte made the decision to emigrate to New Zealand in 1841 with their newborn son, Frederick James (1841), Arabella’s oldest brother. After arriving in New Zealand, Thomas and Charlotte went on to have eight more children: Ellen Eliza (1842), Charles (1845), Charlotte (1847), Mary Anne (1849), Thomas Peter (1852), Arabella (1854), Louisa Jane (1857), and Joseph (1861). In 1848, the family was recorded as living in Mechanics Bay. Arabella signed the Suffrage Petition alongside her older sister, Charlotte.
Arabella married Edmund Wrigley, originally from Todmorden, West Yorkshire, in Auckland, New Zealand on the 25th of December 1873. Edmund was a builder who helped build the first tram depot in Ponsonby, and served on the Eden Terrace Road Board. Arabella and Edmund had eight children: Arthur (1874), Bertha Charlotte (1876), Hannah Mildred (1879), Mary Ethel (1880), Henry Edmund (1884), Maud Arabella (1885), James Frederick (1887), and Jessie Winifred (1890).
Arabella passed away on the 12th of January 1926 at the age of 72. She was cremated and interred at Waikumete Cemetery & Crematorium, Glen Eden.
Sources
- FindaGrave
- Eadie Forbes, ‘Roll of early settlers and descendants in the Auckland Province prior to the end of 1852,’ Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections (1940)
- FamilySearch
- Births, Deaths and Marriages Online