Jane Gubb

Signed family name

Gubb

Signed given name

Jane

Given address

Port Albert

Sheet number

Town/Suburb

Port Albert

City/Region

Auckland region

Notes

Biography contributed by Bernadette Siebert

Jane Utting was born 1852 in Norfolk, England, the eldest daughter, and a twin, of Frederic James and his second wife Ann Peek. Frederic had been previously married and had six children before his wife and one young son died in 1849.

In 1860, Frederic took the four eldest boys and sailed on the Red Jacket arriving in NZ via Australia. Ann worked as a school teacher in England, to support herself and the other six children. They arrived in Auckland on the Bombay in December 1863. Frederic was a surveyor and architect, but failing to find enough work in Auckland took his family to Port Albert, north of Auckland in 1866.

Jane married Benjamin Martin Gubb in Port Albert in 1873. He was 30 years old, born in Devon, England, the youngest son of William and Elizabeth nee Lake. He arrived in Auckland on the Ida Ziegler in October 1866 with his half-brother Thomas. By 1871 he was the sole teacher at Port Albert.

Jane and Benjamin had ten children at Port Albert, with eight living to adulthood:

Amy Caroline (1874–1936)

Edwin (1875–1937)

Ethel (1876–1882)

Mabel (1877–1960)

Clifford Carlyle (1879–1979)

Emily Marian (1882–1911)

Olive Mary (1883–1972)

Edith Ann (1884–1884)

Helen Edith (1886–1974)

Ethelbert Martin (1889–1947)

Benjamin was well involved in local affairs, being assessor for the Roads Board and on the School Committee. He was secretary for the Band of Hope (a temperance society) from its formation at Port Albert in 1880. He was a prolific exhibitor of fruit at the Port Albert Agricultural Shows for many years. Also being its secretary, and later a judge. In 1881,

settlers are finding out that they must depend on something more than making butter and cheese for the Auckland market, .. Perhaps no one settler in Albertland has given more attention to fruit-growing than Mr B. M, Gubb, and his orchard at the present time is a credit to him. We see by going over his orchard a pleasing result of an intelligent expenditure of capital, and at the forthcoming show a fine collection of fruit from Mr Gubb's orchard will be shown.

In 1893 Benjamin had been the headmaster of the Port Albert School for 18 years when he spoke against the rebuilding of the school at a new site. The School Committee voted and agreed with him. Jane’s mother Ann died in 1894 and the cemetery record notes B. M. Gubb, her son in law, as making arrangements for the burial.

An unfortunate accident occurred in 1906, whereby Jane was thrown out of a trap while driving with her son and married daughter to a fruit show at Maungaturoto. A witness saw the horse bolt dragging the trap and discovered Mrs Browne and Bertie Gubb uninjured and Mrs Gubb with a head injury. She was taken home and passed away overnight aged 53. The newspaper reported, ‘Quite a gloom spread over the settlement at the sad event. On Sunday the deceased was buried in the Port Albert cemetery, a large number of relatives and friends being present. Mrs Gubb was highly esteemed and will be widely missed.’ She died intestate leaving no debts and an estate worth 100 pounds.

Benjamin remained in Port Albert, still involved in local affairs until his death. He died in 1927 in Tirau, Waikato, at the residence of his son Edwin, where he had gone for a holiday. He was aged 85 years and was buried with Jane at Port Albert Cemetery. His obituary commented,

he was engaged for a while as an orchardist, making a speciality in apple-growing, for which Port Albert has long been noted. Eventually he was appointed schoolmaster at Port Albert, which position he held for 25 years, and had the pleasure of seeing many of his erstwhile pupils succeed in opening up the district, which is now a thriving settlement.

Jane is the sister-in-law of #24 Eliza GUBB and daughter of #24 Ann UTTING