Maker: Marie-ann Quin

Panel number: 254

Petition sheet number: 312

Person honouring: E. Ashwell

Relationship to maker: Paternal great-grandmother

Ellen Ashwell was a pioneer, with her family breaking-in a 400-acre farm in Raetihi.

On Sundays Ellen rode her horse Toby to church. It must have been quite a contrast from her early life in England. 

Ellen Beard was born in January 1838 in Berden, Essex. She married Alfred Ashwell in April 1873 in Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire. They had four children – three sons and a daughter.

In 1894 they moved to New Zealand with their children, settling in Raetihi and breaking-in the farm. Her daughter-in-law Harriet recalls that the Ashwells kept open house on Sunday for ‘wayback’ farmers, some of whom lived as far as seven or more miles away. 

Ellen died in Raetihi in August 1919, aged 81.

Part of Ellen’s life story is described in a memoir by her daughter-in-law, Harriet Ashwell, called My Life [free from www.victoria.ac.nz/lals/staff/paul-nation.aspx].

Panel materials: Cotton fabric I already had in my stash.