Biography contributed by Bernadette Siebert.
Gertrude Mabel Nisbet was born in 1872 in Kaeo, Northland, second daughter of Canadian, Alexander Guild Nisbet and his NZ born wife Mary Rogers Spickman.
In September 1894 at the home of her parents in Kaeo, Gertrude married 23 year old shipwright, Richard Solloway Gibbs. He was the eldest son of Richard Edward Gibbs, late of Lymington, Hampshire, and Miriam nee Lane. When Richard was 5 years old, his father, who was the storekeeper in Kaeo, was drowned in Wangaroa Harbour. As a young man he was connected with the boat-building industry in Wangaroa harbour, where, at that time, luggers were built for the North Australian pearling industry. One of a crew of three, he sailed one of the luggers, a 12-ton ketch, to Thursday Island, on the north of Australia.
The newly-weds first lived at Totara North, near Kaeo where Richard was a shipwright. Soon after, they became officers of the Salvation Army and lived in various parts of New Zealand including Waihi and Hastings.
And their first four children were born:
- Theodore Nisbet (1896 -1978)
- Edith Miriam (1897- 1944)
- Walter Frederick (1899 – 1981)
- Edward Alexander McKie (1901- 1979)
Around 1904, Richard reverted to his trade of shipwright and the family shifted to Lyttelton, where the last two children were born.
- Caroline Marjorie (1904 – 1979)
- James Reginald (1906- 1982)
By 1910, Richard was a commission agent and moved again to Linwood, a suburb of Christchurch. For a while, Richard’s widowed mother Miriam lived with them, and also Gertrude’s mother Mary Ann Nisbet until she died in 1911, and Richard continued working as a builder.
In May 1929, Gertrude died aged 57 in Christchurch and was buried in Bromley Cemetery. Richard retired and married Emily Jane Osborne in April 1935. He died suddenly of heart seizure, 13 months later, aged 65 in Christchurch and was buried with Gertrude in Bromley Cemetery. No will was found and letters of administration were granted to widow Emily and the estate valued at 1425 pounds.
Gertrude is sister-in -law of the #375 Lavinia Nisbet Kaeo and #375 Agnes NISBET and #375 Jennie Nisbet and daughter of #375 Mary Ann Nisbet Kaeo
Sources
- Findagrave
- Intentions to Marry Wangaroa 1894
- Te Ara
- PAPERS PAST Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21803, 8 June 1936, Page 12
- PAPERS PAST New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 9658, 2 November 1894, Page 12
- PAPERS PAST Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXXII, Issue 5207, 20 June 1876, Page 2
- Archway probate Richard
- Historical BDMs
- Electoral Rolls (ancestry.com)