Meeting for the first time at lunch prior to the cemetery visit were Bev Prentice, her daughters Jane and Nicola and their half-second cousin Noel Bates.
Meeting for the first time at lunch prior to the cemetery visit were Bev Prentice, her daughters Jane and Nicola and their half-second cousin Noel Bates.
Isabella Scott Gilmore Laundy would have experienced hard times in the late 19th century.
Widowed and then divorced with several mouths to feed, there was no government support for her.
Isabella’s story was heard on a gusty day in Dannevirke when four of her descendants visited the Settlers Cemetery to view her plaque and honour their ancestor.
Her great-granddaughter Bev Prentice, from Napier, laid a bouquet on the grave where Isabella was buried, unmarked since 1908.
Isabella was born on November 1, 1834, in Montrose Angus, Scotland, the daughter of George Scott and Isabella Low. In the 1861 Census, she appears as a servant in a private home in Montrose.
The following year she was on a voyage to New Zealand on board the Arabella.
Isabella had a relationship with the captain of the ship, Richard Pinches. She became pregnant and upon disembarking at Napier, Pinches joined her.
They had a daughter, Margaret “Maggie” Scott, in 1862. Pinches, however, was already married with a family back in England and after a period of time, he departed. No one knows where to.
In 1864, Isabella married William Gilmore in Kahurānaki, Hawke’s Bay.
William was born in Edinburgh and died in 1873 in Waipukurau from a brain tumour aged just over 50.
They had five children: Jane, Isabella, William, Elinor and Jessie. Jessie was born just a month before her father died, so it was not surprising to see Isabella remarry 19 months later to Henry Laundy.
Henry was a Liverpudlian born in 1841. It does appear that he was a bit of a ratbag, as there is an indication that the marriage did not last and Henry was called up before the court on several occasions for not paying maintenance, among other things.
They had two children: Henry and Annie Laundy.
Isabella appears to have been living with family in the 1890s in Dannevirke - her elder children having married themselves by then.
At the time of her death, she was in Featherston where her daughter Jane, then Mrs Bartlett, and her youngest daughter Annie were notated on the Electoral Roll.
Isabella's headstone at the Dannevirke Settlers' Cemetery.
Isabella was brought back to Dannevirke to be buried, and her two younger Gilmore daughters were married and living in Dannevirke.
Isabella’s son was living in Hastings, and it appears this may have been the reason for her interment at the Settlers’ Cemetery.
This story and more can be heard through Cemetery Walks, with the next one planned for November 19.
