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| Briefly a happy family in Rochdale with Harry, William, Edward and Emma Purdy1907 |
Wie geht's?
This post is a continuation (and a much overdue correction) of Emma Purdy's history. My great grandmother - remember. Married to William Purdy (somewhat briefly as it turns out).
I've been delving into some legal papers that I've had since 2009. Until this week, I've not read them intently and Emma's story now comes into much sharper focus (out of the mists of time).
What I've been previously led to believe, turns out to be a smokescreen of stories.
So, to the true facts!
Emma Meachen was born in Rochdale in 1882. When she was 18, in 1900, she married William Purdy - he was 20, and so she became Emma Purdy.
A baby, James Purdy, died in infancy. My grandfather, Harry, was born in 1903 in Rochdale, and a third son, Edward, was also born in Rochdale, in 1906 (he passed away first of March 1998).
Sometime around 1907-1910 they (Emma, William, Edward, a baby, and Harry) all travelled from Rochdale to Wellington, New Zealand.
In August 1911 William 'willfully' deserted Emma 'without just cause'. We don't know why.
From 1911 to 1929 Emma lived off and on in Auckland, as did William. The divorce papers indicate that William 'continued to desert me without just cause'. She petitioned for divorce in 1929.
Emma's activities in Australia prior to 1930 are murky to say the least. It appears that she remarried in Australia prior to her divorce and subsequent third marriage to Reuben Davies. Which would make her a bigamist!!
The facts: this according to sworn testimony by Reuben's son -Emma Jones, in 1927 bought the Merewether property. Apparently, according to him, she had married a William Jones at some point. He believed that when she married his father, Reuben Davies, she did so as Emma Jones, not Emma Purdy. The marriage certificate certainly lists her as her maiden name - Emma Meachen.
The lawyers dealing with the later sale of the Merewether property ascertained that Emma Jones and Emma Davies were the same person.
The NZ Supreme Court divorce documents from 1929 indicate in a special closing notice that 'Notice is hereby given that if either the Petitioner (Emma) or Respondent (William) herein contract marriage before the within-written decree nisi be made absolute she or he will be guilty of bigamy'.
Holy homework, Batman!
After her divorce from William came through in 1929, she remarried in 1930 to Reuben (Rube) Davies in NSW. So, she then became Emma Davies. She was 46, he was 36. There were no further children. Whether she was divorced from William Jones is unknown.
Reuben Davies died 22 December 1980. He continued to live in the Merewether property until 1977. Upon his death in 1980 the property went to Harry and Eddie as per Emma's will. Other tenants in the property paid rent to Emma until her death in 1959 and then to Reuben Davies.
As to William and the boys? The two brothers stayed with William, it seems. Indeed, Harry's younger brother, Eddie, according to my dad, did not even know of Emma's existence until he was forty years old! So, Emma had also abandoned her young sons it seems.
My dad remembered how William and the two boys lived in Greymouth for a while and how, by the time he came along, Emma would make regular visits back to NZ. She was always ready with presents and stayed with my grandmother's mother of all places during her visits. So, she was never ostracised by the family, so that supposed abandonment is called into question.
I have no idea how she was presented to the boys who were then in their late twenties/early thirties with their own children. There must have been some sympathy for her because she eventually went blind as a consequence of her diabetes.
And William? Well, he also remarried - to Florence Worthington, in 1930, and also in NSW, Australia. They didn't have any children. Little is known about her and her relationship with Harry and Eddie, but she was their stepmother (or maybe to Eddie - his mother, until he learned of Emma).
In the mid-fifties my parents visited Emma and Rube in Australia. As stated above, Emma Davies died in Australia in 1959. She was 77 years old. The Merewether property in Australia was bequeathed to her two sons, as previously mentioned, and was eventually sold by my father and Eddie after Harry passed away.
Regardless of what went on, my four children and me and my brother all owe Emma huge respect and gratitude. Without Emma, we wouldn't exist. Maybe there are more revelations to come, but I'm sorry that the family stories have painted her as the cause of the rift between my great grandparents.
We will never know the precise reasons for the abandonment in 1911, but it seems that a divorce was needed in 1929 by both parties so that they could remarry, which they both did a year later.
Time works its magic on family secrets. My father must have known this timeline (the divorce papers were in his possession), but he didn't communicate any of this to me or my brother. Maybe he was still doing his protective bit. Who knows. He always maintained that Emma was left behind in Australia and didn't come to NZ with William and the boys but that is false. He told me that 'whatever happened we will never know but I'm sure he (William) was very bitter towards her.
In other discoveries:
William wasn't the only Purdy to come to New Zealand. His younger brothers Samuel (born 1887) and Richard (born 1894) also emigrated.
Samuel was a house painter who married Clara Smith. They had three children: Phyllis (one son - Benjamin), Ronald (married Irene Roberts - two children: Brent and Linley), and Annette.
Richard married Alice Beesley. There were no children. According to my dad, Richard worked as a sound engineer on the famous NZ film Rewi's Last Stand (the 1940 remake with sound).
There is also Jonas Henry Purdy (one of William's uncles) who emigrated to Auckland about 1914, after first travelling to Australia (a popular destination for our family it seems).
So, William, at least, had some of his relatives in close proximity in New Zealand and Australia.
Aside from all that, I have no other details, but it's added another layer of mystery - given there are other Purdys out there in NZ/Australia that I have little knowledge about.
Certainly, I'd be keen to hear from any other NZ/Australian Purdys who want to reach out with their own histories.
Love and peace - WNP
ad died and never really looked at them closely. Now I wonder why William deserted her in 1911. Coincidentally (!) he also remarried in NSW in 1930 to Florence Worthington.
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