Also signed as 379 Helen Horsley
Biography contributed by Bernadette Siebert
Helen was a daughter of Robert Widdrington and Helen Horsley. Robert was a master cabinetmaker from Newcastle-on-Tyne, England and his wife was Scottish. They married in 1847 and had two sons born in Newcastle.
- John (1848–1929)
- George William (1850–1918)
They arrived in Auckland in 1855 on ship, Josephine Willis and more children were born.
- Thomas Norrie (1855–1848)
- Helen (1859–1951)
- Margaret Ann (1857–1881)
- Clara Elizabeth (1862–1945)
Robert and family lived in the Dome Valley area for a number of years. He built the first hall in Warkworth, and he also built St. Columba’s Presbyterian Church, of which he and his family were members. Eventually, he retired and moved to St Martin’s Lyttleton, Canterbury, joining sons there, and taking his unmarried daughters Clara and Helen with him. Robert died there in 1905 and her mother Helen in 1915. Robert’s will left half of everything he owned to his daughter Helen.
This inheritance must have enabled Helen to set up house independently. She moved to Queens Drive, Lyall Bay by 1919, and then to Toru Street, Lyall Bay, until she died in 1951, aged 90 years. She was buried at Karori Cemetery, Wellington.
Sources
PAPERS PAST Rodney and Otamatea Times, Waitemata and Kaipara Gazette, 14 July 1915, Page 7
PAPERS PAST Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 160, 6 July 1905, Page 4
NZ Electoral Rolls (ancestry.com)
Archway probate