Emma Turner

Signed family name

Turner

Signed given name

Emma

Given address

Port Albert

Sheet number

Town/Suburb

Port Albert

City/Region

Auckland region

Notes

Biography contributed by Bernadette Siebert

Emma Gubb was born in 1832 in Devon, England, daughter to William and Elizabeth nee Martin. When Emma was 10 years old, her mother died and her father remarried. In the 1851 census in Topsham, Devon, William is an ironmonger, and Emma is listed as his assistant. In 1852, Emma and her sister Laura emigrated to Victoria, Australia on board the Bombay.

Emma married James Gould Turner on 8 Apr 1854 Collingwood, Melbourne. He was born about 1831 in Somerset, England to James Gould and Elizabeth Turner. After marrying Emma and James experienced colonial life, first in Melbourne, and then, following in the ‘rush’ to Bendigo and Ballarat, where for many years James was a miner on those goldfields. They had eight children born in varying places around Victoria:

Elizabeth Emma (1855–1934)
William James (1856–1889)
Laura (1858–1948)
Martin (1860–1946)
Anna Maria (1862–1900)
Mary (1864–1944)
Gertrude (1866–1957)
Alice (1868–1951)

Around 1870 the Turners with a family of eight children, joined their relatives at Port Albert, north of Auckland, where another four children were born.

Eva (1870–1925)
Beatrice (1873–1955)
Edwin Gould (1874–1941)
Lilian (1877–1964)

They farmed in Port Albert for many years. In 1889 their eldest son, William died after being struck by a slab on a circular saw in the Topuni Saw Mills, Port Albert. 'He was much respected in the district.'

James and Emma sold their farm at Port Albert and moved to Auckland and then Emma died in 1909, aged 75 years. 'After a long life of strenuous toil, Mr. Turner a few weeks ago sold his farm, and just three weeks since bought a cottage and settled down in Auckland.' She was buried in the Waikumete Cemetery.

James lived on in their Clark Street house and died there in 1916, 'On February 22, at his residence, Clark Street, Mount Eden, J. G. Turner, late of Port Albert, in his eighty-fifth year. Private interment.' He was buried with Emma in Waikumete Cemetery.

Emma is the mother of 24 Eva TURNER Port Albert