Maker: Alison Ainsworth

Panel number: 397

Petition sheet number: 487

Person honouring: Phoebe Wagg

Relationship to maker: Great-great-grandmother

Phoebe Pearson was born in England in 1828. Her baptism records her name as Phebe. A previous sibling named Phoebe was born in 1826 and passed away in 1827. 

Phoebe married Thomas Wagg in 1847. They sailed to New Zealand on the Alma with their two daughters, Martha and Sarah, arriving in Wellington in 1857.

During her lifetime Phoebe had 12 children but only four survived to adulthood. The family settled in the Hutt Valley and ran accommodation houses, one being the Golden Fleece Hotel at Pakuratahi (on the Wellington side of the Remutaka Hill). They later moved to Masterton and ran the Prince of Wales Hotel on Queen Street.

Thomas died in 1885 and Phoebe carried on running the hotel until she retired around 1892. Phoebe passed away in Masterton in 1898. Her obituary described her as “a capital business woman, hospitable but thrifty, and probably the most popular hostess in the Wellington country district”.

Phoebe’s daughter-in-law Alice also signed the petition (same sheet).

Panel materials: Counted-thread fabrics and threads that I had. I did buy the flower embellishments.