suffrage_petition
Surname: 
Goldsack
Given names: 
Mrs
Given address: 
Eastown Wanganui
Sheet No: 464
Town/Suburb: 
Whanganui
City/Region: 
Whanganui
Notes: 

Biography contributed by Judith Mellsop (great, great granddaughter)

Ellender Sarah Allen, known as Sarah, was born about 1851 in Kent, England where her father was a labourer.   At the age of 17 she married William Goldsack, a shepherd’s son, in 1868. Two daughters and three sons were born in the following ten years.

English agriculture was in a depressed state during the 1870s and this caused widespread conflict between Kentish farmers and labourers over wages and conditions.  The Labourers’ Union fought this by organizing emigration to NZ where labourers with agricultural skills were needed.   So on 15 February 1879 William and Sarah Goldsack, along with their five offspring and nearly 700 emigrants, sailed from Dover to Wellington in the Stad Haarlem, arriving on 18 April.

By 1880 William was working as a labourer near Eastown, Wanganui.  He later became a dairyman and farmer. Two more sons and three daughters were born in New Zealand, with the sons becoming labourers, farmers or railway workers.  William was on the school committee at Mars Hill School and the family were involved with Matarawa Anglican Church and the Wesleyan Sunday School. Sarah lived the rest of her life in this area, dying in 1911. 

Sources

New Zealand, Electoral Rolls, 1853-1981
New Zealand, Cemetery Records, 1800-2007
New Zealand, City & Area Directories, 1866-1954
NZ Yesteryears passenger lists
Papers Past
Marriage Certificate Ellender Sarah Allen and William Goldsack
A Kentish Exodus of 1879  Rollo Arnold

Click on sheet number to see the 1893 petition sheet this signature appeared on. Digital copies of the sheets supplied by Archives New Zealand.

Community contributions

1 comment has been posted about Mrs Goldsack

What do you know?

Sharon O'Reilly

Posted: 02 Nov 2018

Ellender is my great grandmother. I would really appreciate if you could ask Judith Mellsop to get in touch with me. My mum is a Goldsack descendant of Ellenders first son Henry Stephen Goldsack b1869.