Maker: Jennifer Newby-Fraser

Panel number: 326

Petition sheet number: 386

Person honouring: Mary McCarroll

Relationship to maker: Paternal great-aunt

Mary was born in Northern Ireland in 1870 and came to New Zealand with her father John and her brother Joseph (Willy) on the SS Aorangi in 1884. Her mother Jane and several other siblings arrived the following year.

Mary’s parents first lived in Auckland and opened a business selling Irish linen goods that the family had brought with them from Belfast. The family later moved to kauri bushland in Northland and initially lived in a bush camp at Mareretu in the Kaipara – where Mary signed the petition.

Mary married Douglas Worstley Hill in 1909 and had two children. She lived for some years in Hobsonville. Her sister Adeline was 20 years younger than Mary and was a very influential person in the Hill family, the much wider McCarroll family, and her extensive community.

Mary died in 1948.

Panel materials: Old linens (table cloths, table napkins, doilies, tray cloths) that belonged to my great-aunt Addie [Mary’s sister]. I like to think some of them belonged to their mother Jane. I also used fabric stashed in my mother’s ‘glory box’. My mother died nearly 30 years ago.