Elizabeth DUST:
Elizabeth DUST, born 8 Oct 1825 in London, was my Great-Great Grandmother. A very sad
family "story" has it that she actually came from a very wealthy family in
London. Her parents were James HORN and Mary EDMEADES (Mary's family possibly goes back to
Rear Admiral Sir John Hindmarsh). We are not sure whether the HORN's had a coaching
business or whether they just had a coachman, still under research, but young Elizabeth
(aka Sarah Elizabeth) was supposedly jilted by her fiance and is reported to have said she
would marry the first man that asked her. A coachman named William DUST, duly proposed,
she accepted (I personally think it more likely that she just fell in love with a
coachman, a social taboo of the day for her), they married on 14 Dec 1854 (Parish Church,
Bromley St Leonards, London) and she was banished from the family and had to live in the
coachman's quarters. From records found we are sure they had six children; William James,
Sarah Elizabeth, Edmund Frederick, Emma Elizabeth, Beatrice Mary and Edith (Eadie)
Elizabeth DUST. Unfortunately, husband William slipped over on some icy steps in London
while out attending to a fare one day, doing tremendous damage to his back which
apparently was the cause of, or complications thereof, causing his death on 18 June 1876
at about 47 yrs of age. We have no idea at all about what happened to Sarah Elizabeth and
Emma Elizabeth. Family sources informed us that 'Elizabeth and her two youngest children
Beatrice and Edith sailed to NZ on the "Cape Finnisterre!" on ??28 Nov 1878-9 to
Canterbury to her son William J Dust'. (William J Dust married Alice RAINBOW and had
children, Gilbert (killed WWI), Lewis, Bernard, Maxwell and Beatrice but can't find them.)
Elizabeth's youngest, Edith Elizabeth (aka Eadie) DUST (abt 8yrs at the time of the
voyage) married James Willoughby and had a son named Fred and a daughter Zita who married
Ollie JOHNSTON, but have lost contact with them. Elizabeth's 2nd youngest, my G-G/ma
Beatrice DUST born 9 Jan 1866, would have celebrated her 13th birthday on 9 Jan 1879 on
the voyage to NZ. She married Joseph REEVES (from the Reeves family of bridge and railway
builders, Mt Reeves named after this family, built the old patent slip in Wellington, now
gone) on 17 Jun 1890 in Wellington and they settled in very primitive conditions which
became a sheep and beef farm in Hinerua, Blackburn Ridge in the foothills of the Ruahine
Ranges near Onga Onga, Waipawa, Hawkes Bay. (Their old shearing shed is now resident at
the Onga Onga Museum). They had five children, Emma Beatrice, Frank, Bertha Ruth,
Winifred, and Alfred REEVES. (Frank complicated matters by marrying his cousin Bessie DUST
(d/o Edmund Frederick DUST, who was s/o Elizabeth. He had settled in Cornwall, Eng. after
service in India with the Duke of Cornwall Light Infantry.) Frank went to meet them in
Cornwall on his way to serve in France in WWI. Frank and Bessie were my g/parents. For a
time they were market gardening in the Hutt Valley then moved their establishment, Reeves
Gardens, to Auckland, where in their heyday (1960-80ish) the family which took over (and
moved it to Matakana) became the largest producers of Summer cucumbers and Winter celery
in NZ, and were the innovators of waxing cucumbers and table celery being sold in plastic
bags.) Elizabeth DUST also eventually settled in Hinerua, close to her daughter (my
G-G/ma) Beatrice REEVES. Elizabeth DUST is mentioned in the book, "Pendle Hill and
it's people" by Rona Davidson as delivering Harriet (& the late Samuel)
FLETCHER's 13th child, Samuel James FLETCHER on 24 Oct 1892 at Pendle Hill. Elizabeth had
apparently worked for some time for a doctor in Wellington where she may have acquired the
nursing skills to be able to act as the midwife in the small community around Hinerua in
those days. Elizabeth died on 22 Jun 1908 aged 82 yrs and is buried in the Forest Gate
Cemetery close to Beatrice REEVES who died 26 Jun 1957 aged 91 yrs. Sadly, Beatrice's
husband Joseph also died quite young on 20 Aug 1916 aged 56 yrs. However Frank lived until
he was 90 and Bessie until she was 95! If anyone thinks they have any information about or
is connected to any of these families we would be overjoyed to hear from them. Please
contact Trish Myers |