Ellen was born on 23 May 1882 at 4 Close St, Castle Hill, Hindley, Lancashire, England and was still living there with her parents and siblings in 1891 at the age of 8. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]
By 1901 she was living at 9 Close St, Hindley with her sister Mary Ann and Mary Ann's husband Alfred Gough. Also living there were their children and Ellen's sister Lucy. Ellen was working in a cotton mill as a cotton mill reeler.[2]
That same year, on 7 Dec, we find her at the All Saints Church, Hindley, along with her husband to be Lambert Jones, as a witness, to the marriage of her older brother John Knight and Rachel Alice Bowden. [10]
On 26 Dec 1903 Ellen, aged 21 and Lambert, aged 23 married at the Wesleyan Methodist Church, Hindley. At the time Ellen was still living with her sister Mary Ann. The witnesses to their marriage were James Clarke who was probably the James who married Margaret Alice Jones, Ellens half-sister and Lucy Knight, Ellen's sister.[3][8][9][11]
About 1908 we find the first reference to an illness that was to trouble Ellen for the rest of her life and eventually lead to her death by suicide. It was reported by her husband Lambert as a witness at the Coroner's hearing about her death. "About 14 years ago she had an operation for diseased bone in her head. The Dr said that if it was not done she would become insane and have to be committed to an asylum." [12]
At the time of the 1911 Census Ellen is living at 149 Bag Lane, Atherton, Lancashire with her husband and 6 year old son James William Jones.[3]
In 1913 Ellen and Lambert emigrate to New Zealand. At 7.20am on 25 Sep 1913, the New Zealand Shipping Company ship Remuera departs from the Royal Albert Docks, London, England and at 8.45 am embarks her passengers at Gravesend, sailing at 5.15pm with Ellen and her family and 579 passengers on board bound for Wellington, New Zealand. By this stage Ellen and Lambert have three children James, 8 Herbert, 2 and Edna, 9 months.[5]
The weather was fine during the trip to Teneriffe and the Remuera arrived there on Oct 1st at 6.41am to load 400 tons of coal. She embarked for Cape Town at 1.10pm and in fine weather with moderate to strong trade winds arrived at Cape Town at 11.26 pm on Oct 15.
She left for Hobart at 2.44pm the following day experiencing favorable winds with occasional gales and rough seas. Dances and concerts were held during the voyage with a successful fancy dress ball on Oct 31st. After reaching Hobart at 3.35 am on Nov 3rd some 300 tons of coal was loaded and about 850 tons of cargo discharged.
Departing Hobart on Nov 4th at 3.33pm with fine weather all the way, after 6 weeks at sea the Remuera arrived in Wellington in the afternoon of Sat 8 Nov 1913. However, after arrival it was found that there were cases of scarlet fever or scarlatina on board. Mr R Forbes, who was accompanied by Mrs Forbes and Miss Forbes, died of scarlet fever on 1 November and a small boy named R Gretney died on Nov 2. They had been buried at sea.
Because of the scarlet fever the passengers embarkation was delayed until they were cleared by the Port Health Officer and the ship was not permitted to berth until the affected passengers had been removed.The Wellington passengers were embarked by tender on the Saturday afternoon and the Auckland passengers on the Sunday. On the Sunday fourteen patients and contacts were removed to Somes Island. [13]
The intended destination for the Jones family on embarkation was listed as Greymouth on the Immigration Passenger List. While no documentary evidence has been found that they went there Irene Dodson, her granddaughter, recalls her mother, Edna Jones, telling her that Lambert, Ellen and her arrived by ship at either Westport or Greymouth when she was about 9 months old. That would place arrival at about 1913 and is consistent with the shipping arrival information. She was told also that they lived first on the West Coast (Westport or Greymouth) and then moved to Takaka to mine marble. [14]
Edna, Ellen's oldest daughter remembers clearly the moment Ellen arrived home from the Motueka Cottage Hospital with her son Harry (Henry Alexander) and the big proud smile on her face when she pulled the shawl back for them to have their first peek at him. She also remembers she was so proud of his mop of fair curls, and that she was always brushing his hair and curling it around her fingers, and all her women friends drooling over him. [15]
Edna remembers Ellen as a fairly big woman with long black hair and very dark brown eyes and darkish complexion. She also remembers that Herbie (Herbert Bromley Ron Jones), Ellen's second son, was the only child that resembled her in colouring - black hair, brown eyes and dark skin. She wondered if she did have gypsy blood as told to her by Betty, Herbie's wife. [15]
By 1919 Ellen and her family were living in Sandy Bay, Marahau near Motueka, Nelson, New Zealand. [16]
Edna remembers that the youngest daughter Ivy was born at the cottage in Sandy Bay with a woman, probably a midwife, in attendance.[15]
She (Ellen) was a very industrious woman - always doing something and seemingly never idle. I can see her now, with sleeves rolled up, and kneading great heaps of dough to be set to rise and then baked in the big brick oven in the back yard, then knocking on the crisp brown crust when it came out, to see if it was cooked. Then I can see her churning cream into butter - washing it, salting it working the water out of it, then patting it into pound lots, drawing buckets of water up out of the back yard well, for the washing which was done in tubs outside, drawing water, heating it in the outside copper for our weekly baths in those same wash tubs. Now I can see her peeling and slicing great piles of apples and putting them on sheets in the hot sun to dry for cooking later - no bottling then, all fruit was dried or made into jam.[15]
I can still hear her saying to Dad that he'd have to cut more bottle tops off as she had more jam and not enough jars. We kids thought that was good fun, watching the red hot iron ring go over the necks of bottles and the ping as they were plunged into a bucket of cold water and the necks fell off. A quick filing to take the sharp edge off and we had another jam jar.[15]
No matter how busy the days were, there was always time for visiting, or having visitors, especially on Sundays, and it was always Shank's Pony in those days with sometimes long distances to go.[15]
The winter evenings were just as busy. As soon as the evening meal was cleared away, and the open fire roaring, out came the knitting needles and after the clicking went on for some time off would drop another sock. I can only remember socks being knitted but these needles (a set of four) were never without a sock on them, and they, and her fingers just seemed to fly.[15]
Another evening pastime was to make rugs and she seemed to have made absolutely dozens. We kids used to help cut short strips of worn out flannel clothes - just about everything was made of flannel in those days - dresses, petticoats, men's shirts, you name it, then it was pushed into opened-out and washed sugar bags with one leg of a broken clothes peg, - after a pattern was penciled on it. They were very good too and wore for years.[15]
Then on other evenings we used to unravel old knitted garments, we loved doing that, and seeing the great piles of crinkly wool on the floor ready for Mum to stuff into patchwork cases she'd made ready for bed quilts. I just can't remember anything at all being wasted - everything was good for something.[15]
One night of the week I always looked forward to, was the day the Auckland Weekly News came and mum would read us the childrens page and the best part of the page was Bib and Bub, the Gumnut Babies, to us that was just something out of this world. I can just imagine the kids of today lapping all that up - ha ha.[15]
Summer times, we used to go on lots of picnics or fishing parties, - all the families got together. I can't remember going to one without Stringers being there too, it was the life they all seemed to love, and everyone was social and friendly and jolly. Mum was a very outgoing person, loved company and was popular with friends and neighbours, she seemed to talk a lot and laugh a lot, whereas Dad was a very quiet and serious and stern natured man and was not always easy to live with. We kids even used to be a bit scared of him, but I must say he mellowed a lot with age and as he grew old he was a dear old chap, and much more well liked. But in our very young days, it was always Mum we turned to.[15]
To us, Bill or 'Willie' as she called him, was the apple of her eye. He was the only child till he was about seven then Herbie and I came fairly close together, then I was nearly five when Harry was born, then you two years later.[15]
Looking back now, life then was very simple by today's standards, even primitive, no electricity, no conveniences at all, the nearest shop was in Motueka - a number of miles away - and it was a red letter day if we ever went there and had sixpence to spend. I often think of the first ice cream she bought and she invited me to 'have a bite' how she laughed at the shocked look on my face when I said 'I didn't know it was that cold.' On another trip to town Dad bought home the first sausages I ever saw. I didn't see them till they were cooked and on our plates and I was horrified, and did they ever laugh when I told them what I thought they were, and looked like.[15]
Around 1920 the family were living with about five other families at the marble quarry at Kairuru at the top of the Takaka Hill where, no doubt, Lambert was exercising his skills gained as a coal miner in Lancashire. Their housing was described in Down from Marble Mountain as "Chunky boxes, identical, ugly, [took shape,] unpainted or dabbed with creosote, shoddy, very badly built, thin malthoid roof, very draughty, but at least giving more room. The beating rain backed by wind seeped in." Ellen was described as "the dag of the colony" and in an interesting reference to Ellen's head injury, she was described as "a happy soul, despite a distressing injury to her face". She apparently had a "ready sense of fun" and her "Lancashire wit a wonderful asset to the little shut-away community". [17]
In that inhospitable place, Ellen's five children, despite their undoubted hardships, were "swift as goats among the logs and rocks" and "couldn't have cared less." Called Jonesey in the "colony", she had an often used slogan "Thanks to our neighbours' misfortunes, life is tolerably bearable" and her "cheery ringing call, wet or fine: "Away down for your cup of tea, lass." " And, when a fellow colonist had twin boys and, despite her useless husband, "Jonesey was very good. We were able to cope. The many sleepless nights, and miles of washing dragged into a routine. We managed to keep them alive . . . but tired. That is scarcely the word." [17]
All this cheerfulness and helping others despite needing to care for her own five children and endure her ceaseless head pain! It was not to be long before the "irrepressible Jonesey died".[17]
Edna wrote "I still remember the day Mum came home from seeing a Dr in Motueka and saying she had an incurable heart disease, and from then on things didn't seem to go well at all. I never knew any more about the health problem than that, or how long after that she lived, but I do recall she had increasing fits of depression and what seems to me now, as lapses of memory and towards the last had to be constantly watched as she just disappeared for hours at a time. How often I've wished since, that the end could have been different and that she could have the medical care there is now a-days. It would probably have been a different story."[15]
A disaster that no doubt hastened Ellen's end occurred in that flimsy, flammable malthoid clad house at Kairuru. One day Herbie poked the fire with a stick and afterwards thoughtlessly put the stick in a box of paper. The paper caught fire and Ellen, being on her own with the children at the time, needed to cope on her own, getting them out of the house, saving their stuff and attempting to save their home. She saved the children and most of their stuff but got badly burnt in the process. She had very badly burned hands and couldn't dress or undress herself let alone cope with her household duties.[15]
Prior to about Nov 1921 despite the events outlined above, according to her husband Lambert, Ellen was in good health living at Marahau with her family. About November Ellen had a nervous breakdown consequent on her considering that she was not doing her duty to her children and her work. About 14 years previously she had had an operation on a diseased bone in her head which, if not done would have caused her to have become insane and committed to an asylum. It is probable that the disorder caused considerable pain which may have continued until her death.[12]
About January 1922 she threatened suicide. One day Lambert came home to find a note from her to say he would find her in the river beside the bridge but she returned with one of her boys. On another occasion while handling the gun she said it fired through the bedclothes. After that, her son Bill hid the cartridges. So in January Lambert took her to Nelson Hospital to be treated for nervous breakdown where he told the doctor of the attempts. Lambert considered her condition to be bad when he took her in. She was admitted on 18 Jan for a week suffering from acute Melancholia, very much depressed and was suicidal but refused to sign as a Voluntary Boarder. She was definitely insane but was considered to have sufficient lucidity to understand the signing and the reasons for it. Lambert worked to put pressure on her to sign.[12]
She couldn't settle so Lambert decided to take her home and look after her. She was given a discharge on 25 Jan. The Dr said that if she did not improve he could bring her back but gave no instructions or warning about her mental condition. Lambert brought her home and considered her to be a lot better.[12]
On her return the family kept a close eye on her but she began roaming. She used to say there was something pulling her and she could not stop still and went for a walk. She wouldn't do her housework as she had before and sometimes she would leave it to the family. She said that she wished that she could die and be out of the way.[12]
Lambert worked around the home so he could keep an eye on her but she wandered about a lot. It is understood from an unknown source that her daughter Ivy once said that Ellen used to to make lots of whimpering noises and was sometimes locked in the woodshed. In the circumstances Lambert may well have had no other secure-able place and therefore no alternative to keep her safe from harm while wandering while he went about his chores. Nevertheless, according to the constable at the Coroner's hearing, domestic relationships were good and she and her family lived in good terms.
The last time Lambert saw her alive was at lunch time on the 1st of May. She got lunch ready and seemed more settled than she had been for a long time.[12]
He went out after lunch and about 1/4 hour later he heard a shot at the house. His boy, Bill, and he ran back and found her on the floor with a Winchester rifle alongside her. He could see she was dead with a gunshot wound in her head apparently fired from the mouth and through the top of her head.[12] [18]
She had put some bread in the oven and left a note to say `Bread ready at 3 oclock'. He found a bullet lying on the bed clothes. He sent for the police.[12]
At the coroners hearing on 4 May 1922 the Coroner found that Ellen Jones died at Marahau, Sandy Bay, Nelson on the 1st day of may 1922 from a rifle shot wound self inflicted while of unsound mind.[12][19] [20] [21] [22]
Ellen was buried on 3 May 1922 in a small local cemetery at Moss Rd, Marahau, Plot 40 near Sandy Bay.[4] [23]
Name: Ellen Jones;
Electoral Year: 1919;
Residence Place: New Zealand;
District: Motueka;
Region or Province: Tasman.
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Ellen is 17 degrees from Herbert Adair, 18 degrees from Richard Adams, 26 degrees from Mel Blanc, 26 degrees from Dick Bruna, 25 degrees from Bunny DeBarge, 25 degrees from Peter Dinklage, 25 degrees from Sam Edwards, 23 degrees from Ginnifer Goodwin, 27 degrees from Marty Krofft, 22 degrees from Junius Matthews, 21 degrees from Rachel Mellon and 24 degrees from Harold Warstler on our single family tree. Login to find your connection.
K > Knight | J > Jones > Ellen (Knight) Jones
Categories: Suicides | Lancashire, Cotton Mills | Motueka, Tasman | Hindley, Lancashire