WHO’S WHO PAGE 4 OF 4

from the book"A Quota of Qualtrough"Pages 14-22, Emigration to New Zealand

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ADVENTUROUS GROCER - EDWARD QUALTROUGH

THE South Seas obviously held a charm, or a chance in the really practical sense of an improved lifestyle, for the Qualtrough clan.

Annie May (TUNNICLIFFE) QUALTROUGH, wife of William Edward, pictured in later life. With her husband and family, she lived at Glen Eden, Auckland where they grew strawberries for the markets.

QUALTROUGH CORNER, on the corner of Symonds Street and Kyber Pass Road in Auckland. This grocery store was established by EDWARD QUALTROUGH in the 1890s. This valuable site was later owned by Sneddens and Grace Bros.

The father, William Ambrose (1825-1897) of Eairystain, had married Margaret Kinvig in the Parish Church of Arbory in 1851. William Ambrose had purchased land at Ballabeg, Arbory, from a Jane Caveen and this he sold to William Harrison of Ballabeg in 1859 shortly before leaving for Liverpool. At this time the family was living at Cronk Moar, Rushen.

William Ambrose and Margaret produced a family of five sons and three daughters. They were William John (1851-1916) who became a commissioned officer in the British Army and who served mainly in India; Edward, who emigrated to New Zealand; Thomas who grew up in Liverpool and became a baker; Joseph (known later as Ambrose Joseph) who emigrated to the United States of America and became an officer in the Navy; Margaret Ann (Clucas); Jane (Cashin) and Catherine (Watterson). Another son, Ambrose Joseph, died in 1857 aged one year

(NB It has recently been discovered that Joseph, the son who emigrated to the USA never did enter the Navy. Instead it appears he went to Cleveland, Ohio, and is buried there in the Highland Park Cemetery. It is thought he died in the 1890s. His name appears on the Mona’s Relief Society Monument in the Manx section of the Cemetery.) (Go to Cleveland, Ohio article)

Edward, who had learnt the grocery business first in Liverpool then in London (working for a large department store) arrived in New Zealand at 23 years of age and he married in 1887. (On the marriage certificate he is described as a 'settler'. This could have applied either to his electoral role status or his promptness in paying bills for Edward was man of excellent character, practising the Christian faith and later in life to be described by fellow businessmen as "one of Nature's gentlemen".)

His bride was Rose Matilda Whiteman (whose father was also a 'settler') and the pair must have been full of adventure for they sailed off to try their luck in sunny Queensland. (See Marriage Certificate)

Edward went into business for himself in Brisbane and thence to Tonga where he managed the Burns’ Philp Trading Store. During that period he and Rose were the only white-skinned residents in Tonga. Their daughter, Jessie, died there and the Qualtroughs returned to New Zealand.

In the 1890s Edward established a grocery shop - said to be the biggest and best for miles around - at the corner of Symonds Street and Khyber Pass Road in Auckland. It was known as Qualtrough's Corner while Edward was in business but later changed ownership -and merchandise which ranged from women's clothing (Sneddens) to furniture (Grace Bros). He then established a grocery shop in Kingsland which later became known in the district as 'Page's'.

As previously mentioned, Edward was a man of principle, a lay preacher and one often described as 'of the old school', but he was also kindly and with a good sense of humour, according to the memories of one of his daughters, the late Mona Thompson

When he sold his grocery business Edward became an orchardist at Oratia, a fertile fruit-farming area west of Auckland. He was a Mason for more than 20 years holding the offices at Waitakere Lodge of Past Master and Chaplain. He died in 1942.

(See Death Certificate)

Edward and Rose produced five children - William Edward, Jessie, Florence, Mona and Olive.

William Edward (born 1888) and called Billie within the family, served in World War 1. He was severely wounded - losing a leg -and returned to New Zealand with an English nurse as his bride, Annie May Tunnicliffe.

On his homeward voyage after war service, William Edward met up in Buenos Aires with his Uncle Ambrose Joseph, his father's youngest brother. Ambrose Joseph had called into Auckland with the U.S. fleet early in the 1900's but, rather sadly, the brothers had not seen each other.

(There appears to be a conflict of memory and fact here. Firstly Ambrose Joseph (or Joseph as he was also known) did not enter the US Navy and died in Cleveland, Ohio in the 1890s – see above. The Uncle in the Great White Fleet was in fact a more distant relative, one Edward Francis Qualtrough. He is discussed fully in the article on his life in the US Navy and his part in the epic journey of the Naval Fleet in the early 1900s.

(Go to Great White Fleet article.)

Digressing a little here, Ambrose Joseph had a daughter named Margaret Olive (now deceased) who had a son Henry Qualtrough Turville. Manx and American kinsfolk have been in correspondence with each other.

William Edward had land at Glen Eden, near Oratia, and grew strawberries for the market - and his children and grandchildren, no doubt. He died in 1958 aged 70 and Annie died in 1981 aged 84.

Of Edward's three daughters (Jessie having died in childhood), Florence married Douglas Farley and had five children. She died in 1981. Mona married Ernest Thompson and had one child. Mona died in 1971. The youngest daughter, Olive, lives in Ponsonby, Auckland, and is unmarried.

Florrie and Mona were most interested in their family's background and for several years before her death Mona corresponded with family connections in the Isle of Man. It is due to her industry and talent for research that so much of the Edward Qualtroughs has come to be known. How she would have enjoyed this book of ours.' (See Genealogical Chart 23).

IN CHARGE:

THE PASSENGER list of the Roman Emperor berthing at Lyttelton in 1860 bore the information that one MARGARET QUALTROUGH landed "in precarious health". But whether from seasickness or the strain of chaperoning forty widowed and single women and children on the voyage out was not stated. Margaret (29) of Middlesex (at the time of leaving England), was matron to the females emigrating under Government sponsorship to balance the sexes in the pioneering land. There appears to be no further news of the ailing Margaret, good or bad, at the time of writing.

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