George, Frances (Southwell) I Mrs. Shale St. George, Mrs. St. George I The Office Book records payment for "Where Dwell the Dead?" [I, 596. Sept. 14, 1850] as made by post-office order (i.e., presumably to an address in England, though the contributor cannot have been in England on Sept. 9, 1850, the recorded payment date); for "From a Settler's Wife" as [IV, 585-88. March 13, 1852] "Remitted to New Zealand"; for "An Emigrant's Glance Homeward" [V, 80. April 10, 1852] as "Remitted to Auckland." In "From a Settler's Wife" the contributor states that she was brought up as "an idle English lady," dividing her time between "books and amusements, but giving much more of it to pleasure than to study." With her husband, an attorney, she emigrated to New Zealand. After a voyage "of four months and fourteen days," she writes, "we reached Auckland, our destined home ... on the 18th December."

      Information from the Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington: The New Zealander, Dec. 21, 1850, records that the Sir Edward Paget arrived in Auckland on Dec. 18, and that the vessel had left England on Aug. 5. The voyage, thus, lasted four months and fourteen days. Included in the passenger list published by the newspaper are Mr. T. George and wife. Thomas Shayle George, solicitor, appears in the Auckland electoral rolls and in Auckland directories of the 1850s and 1860s, the latest listing being for 1869. Chapman's Auckland Almanac for 1873-74 lists a school on Alten Road, Auckland, managed by Mrs. Shayle George; the school is also listed (under Mrs. T. George) in Wise's New Zealand Post Office Directory for 1875-76. The Registrar-General's Office, Wellington, appears not to have the death certificate for either Thomas Shayle George or his wife. The birth registration for one of the George children, in the Registrar-General's Office, supplies the Christian and maiden name of Mrs. George.

Author: Anne Lohrli; © University of Toronto Press, 1971