Maker: Jane McMillan

Panel number: 169

Petition Sheet Number: 205

Person honouring: Ellen Hempstalk

Relationship to makers: None

Ellen Elizabeth Fellingham was born on 8 October 1858 in Islington, London. She was the eldest child of Robert Fellingham, general labourer, and Elizabeth Margaret Stannard. At the age of 15, Ellen and her family left England for New Zealand as assisted immigrants on the ‘Winchester’, arriving in Napier on 27 July, 1874. 

She married Robert Alexander Jones, a Londoner and bullock-driver, on 18 November 1874 at Smithfield. They had six children and lived at Taradale, Cricklewood Station, and Chaucer Road, Napier. Hard times hit when on 26 January 1889 Robert died of pulmonary phthisis (tuberculosis). A fundraiser was held by The Federal Minstrels and a large attendance was reported. 

In February 1889, Ellen and her children moved to Canterbury to live with her parents. She applied to the Courts in September of that year to have sons, Robert, aged 10, and William, 4, sent to Burnham Industrial School, as neither she nor her father could afford to keep them. Thomas went to live with his grandfather and Ellen went into service at Lyttelton, taking Ethel with her. 

Life improved for Ellen when in 1890 she married John Hempstalk, a widower and shipwright of Lyttelton. Robert and William came back to the family from Burnham and three more children were born. John Hempstalk died on 29 August 1909, aged 64, and Ellen on 26 December 1932. Both are buried in the Lyttelton Anglican Cemetery.

Panel materials: Cotton fabric and fabric pen I already had, cotton thread which I purchased.