Maker: Annie White

Panel number: 347

Petition sheet number: 416

Person honouring: Ellen Wrigley

Relationship to maker: Great-grandmother

A well-known dressmaker and a land owner in her own right, Ellen Wrigley was born in Lower Hutt in 1850, the third of seven children. Her parents were Mary Ann Welch born in  Dover, England 1827 and Thomas Gillian Wrigley, born in Southwark, England in 1825. They emigrated on the Oriental, arriving in New Zealand on 31 January 1840. 

Ellen married Andrew Brown in 1868 and they had 10 children. The sixth child was Eunice Brown, my paternal grandmother, who married Michael McCrossin.

Ellen passed her dressmaking skills down to her children. She bought several lots of land from the Palfrey estate in 1908. She died aged 73, on 14 February 1924 in Upper Hutt.

Panel materials: Linen, old doilies, lace, and hankies, plus embroidery thread – all were items in my possession.