Arthur William Emmett

This is what I wrote in 2021

As I can’t go over to the suburb of Shirley to walk Emmett Street because of lockdown I will do a write up on Arthur William Emmett while it is fresh in my mind.

Arthur owned a large block of land in the Marshlands area running from Marshlands Rd to Quinns Rd and after his death much of it was turned into a state housing area called Emmett’s Block. His son Edwin was still farming at 132 Marshlands Rd until his death in 1966.

The various family trees on the ancestry website give Arthur’s date of birth as 7th December 1860 in Cornwall yet his death record in 1948 gives his age as 65 years which would give a birthdate of 1883. Court details in 1935 gives his age as 74 which would match up with a DOB of 1860 which would mean that he was 88 when he died. This is a huge difference.

Arthur married Jane Dellow in 1890 and sadly she died in 1907 aged 41 of tuberculosis. William and Jane are both buried together in the Linwood cemetery.

Arthur remarried in 1909 to Frances Sarah Brading but by 1935 they were living apart. I thought that the only family family tree with the second marriage recorded might have been a mistake but no Frances was the second wife. Arthur was in the court news in 1935 for refusing to pay maintenance to his wife. Much was made of his property that was of considerable value and govt valuation was £25,000 for the various properties that he owned. This is equal to over a million pounds in today’s money. He earned an income from the various farms plus ran a model farm that he was very proud of. The courts gave his age as 75. In 1937 William appeared in court again and this time for refusing to pay maintenance for his son who was incapacitated through an accident. William was ordered to pay £2 a week to his son. Arthur’s address was Quinns Rd and in 1905 he was living there with his first wife Jane. In 1911 and 1919 he lived at the same address with his second wife Frances but by 1935 Frances was living at 144 North Parade Rd with a daughter Ruth. Arthur had a daughter Gertrude living with him and I suspect that the poor woman was an unpaid housekeeper for her father.

Arthur has a fairly large family but I am only going to write about Edwin Arthur Emmett. Edwin in the 1920s appeared a few times in court for driving offences but that was a minor thing for this man. Edwin married Nana ( Agnes) in 1922 and in October 1927 Edwin was in court as he was refusing to give his wife money to buy food. At that stage they had two children aged 2 and 5. The court mentioned that they were married in January 1922 and that they built a house in April 1922. Edwin took in his mother and brother but kicked them out when they were unable to pay board. As Edwin’s mother died in 1907 it was probably his stepmother and stepbrother. Edwin’s father was refusing to pay maintenance to his second wife so she wouldn’t have been able to pay Edwin any board. The year 1927 was a busy year for Edwin as in March 1927 Edwin was in court for blowing up his house on Lake Terrace Rd with explosives. He claimed it was an accident. In September of 1927 he received severe back injuries when his truck carrying a load of cement hit a tram in Moorhouse Ave. The article gave his address as 59 Bassett Rd in Burwood. I am not sure if Edwin was the son who Arthur refused to pay maintenance for in 1937 as Edwin was running a farm by this time.

Edwin was next in court in 1945 along with his wife Nana and the charge was harbouring a deserter. The deserter was their daughter’s boyfriend and he was living at their farm in Marshland under a false name. The deserter was sent to prison in the North Island and Edwin claimed he didn’t know that he was a deserter even through he knew the man was using a false name. Edwin and Nana are obviously still living together. Edwin and Nana were by this time farming at 132 Marshlands Rd. Edwin died in 1966 and Nana in 1961.

Interesting family and I don’t think that I would have liked either Arthur or his son Edwin.