Therza Jane Mudge

Biographical information provided by Fiona Oliver for the He Tohu exhibition:

Thirza Jane Stocker was born in Devon in 1847. By the age of 14 she was working as a servant until her marriage to labourer Abraham Mudge in 1868. Nine years later, when Thirza was 30, they emigrated to New Zealand with their young son (6) and daughter (2), aboard the Hurunui. They arrived and settled in Wellington, where two more daughters were born. Domestic life perhaps became easier for her in 1900: one daughter, also Thirza, became an agent for a brand of washing machine, and her mother’s letters were published in the newspapers, claiming it a ‘splendid invention and a true friend of anyone that does their own washing’. Thirza died in 1908, aged 62.