Biographical information provided by Mavis Millar (nee Clark, her great-grand-daughter) for the He Tohu exhibition:
Isabella Laws nee Cullen was born on24 April 1859 at Murton Colliery, Durham, England. Her father, Peter (Patrick) Cullen was born in Ireland and a Catholic. Her mother, Elizabeth Cossgrove, was born in England and an Anglican but she was baptised a Catholic shortly after she was married to Peter in 1855.
Isabella was educated at a Catholic school and the Nuns taught her needlework crafts.
Her parents, and other siblings, immigrated to USA in the 1870s but Isabella was left behind in England.
In 1877 Isabella was married to Robert Christopher Laws at the Wesleyan Church, Newcastle and became a Methodist.
In 1878 their first born daughter, Elizabeth Simpson Laws was named after her maternal grandmother.
In 1879, Isabella, Robert and baby Elizabeth immigrated to New Zealand on the SS Rakaia and settled in Napier, Hawke's Bay where another daughter, Sarah Hobson Laws, was born in 1880 and named after her paternal grandmother.
Isabella and Robert had 12 children, 11 being born in Napier: Henrietta b 1881; Robert b 1883; Ethel b 1884; Ivy b 1888; Hubert b 1890; Gordon b 1892; Hector b 1894; Christine b 1896; Thomas b 1901; John b 1903.
Isabella was a kind, generous and faithful Methodist. She opened up her home, in about 1900, to a group of Salvationists to hold Cottage Meetings because her Salvationist neighbours, the Newtons, had sickness in their house. It was during these Cottage meetings that daughter Sarah came under the conviction of Salvation and later joined the Salvation Army, where she met her husband, Joseph Clark.
After Robert died in 1915, Isabella continued to live in the family home at13 Enfield Road, Napier for a few years but came to live with her daughter, Sarah Hobson Clark at Gisborne where she died in 1931.
At a Laws family reunion at Napier in 2014, a number of items of Isabella's handiwork of embroidery, crocheting and a tapestry (made when she was 11 years old) were on display. Her descendants include a number of full-time pastors/ministers and lay-members of the Methodist and The Salvation Army Churches.