suffrage_petition
Surname: 
Chamberlain
Given names: 
Rosina
Given address: 
Dome Valley
Sheet No: 379
Town/Suburb: 
Dome Valley
City/Region: 
Auckland region
Notes: 

Biography contributed by Bernadette Siebert.

Rosina Grimmer was born in 1840 in London, the eldest child of John Grimmer and Rebecca Jacques.

Two more children were born in England before the family sailed to Brisbane on the Fortitude in 1848. They had three more children before moving to New Zealand in 1855, and finally settled in Mahurangi, north of Auckland. They named the property Fortitude Valley.

See 379 Selina Bradman

Rosina married George Chamberlain, an Irishman, on 21 April 1864. They had five children: Elsy in 1865 (died in infancy), Eleanor Rebecca in 1866, Margaret Louisa in 1868, Edith Georgina in 1873, and John Grimmer in 1878.

See 379 Louisa Chamberlain

See 378 Ida Grimmer (sister-in-law)

See 379 Emily Grimmer (sister-in-law)

By 1900 George and Rosina were farming a property at Finnerty Road, Ngaere, Taranaki.

Rosina still took an interest in the election process. She is listed with her husband and daughter Margaret L as amongst those who nominated a Mr Ward for the Egmont seat in 1908.

George died at home in October 1912. His willed all his property to Rosina as long as she lived, and then after her death to their second daughter Louisa for her sole use. Only after the death of Louisa would the land (if not already sold) and effects be sold and distributed in three equal parts to the remaining children or their heirs.

After George’s death, Rosina moved with her unmarried daughter to Mountain Road, also in Ngaere – probably the property of her married daughter Edith Georgina Bond. She lived there until she died in May 1934 at the age of 93, 21 years after her husband.

A large obituary was published, covering her birth in London, her family’s move to Australia when she was young, and the move to Wellington. “They were there at the time of the big earthquake in the fifties, but later they took up land in Dome Valley near Warkworth.”

Rosina had lived in Taranaki for 36 years. Two children survived her, and two pre-deceased her. Both George and Rosina are buried in the Kopuatama Cemetery, Taranaki.

Sources

BDM Online NZ

Archives New Zealand

Papers Past

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

No comments have been posted about Rosina Chamberlain

What do you know?