Matilda Wright

Biographical information provided by Peter Gerrie for the He Tohu exhibition:

Matilda Wright (nee Ginger) was born in 1845 in Monmouthshire, Wales to George and Elizabeth Ginger, the youngest of seven children. The family arrived in New Plymouth aboard the ship Joseph Fletcher, and Matilda married Edward Wright in Wanganui in 1868. Edward was born in Lucknow, India and had moved to the Whanganui district to farm. During the New Zealand Wars he was burnt off the land by Māori fighting the Crown, and later became a Land and General Commission agent until his death on 8 December 1920. Matilda and Edward had five children between 1869 and 1878. Matilda lived on in Whanganui to reach the age of 93; she passed away on 14 August 1938.