RUDDUCK, Jessie Letitia
Born c1890; died 13 November 1918; buried 15 November 1918; age 27
Jessie Letitia DAY was the daughter of English couple, Agnes Britannia Day née GOODMAN, (born about 1874 in Haverhill, Suffolk) and her husband Walter Day, who worked as a plasterer. Walter had been born in Swaffham, Cambridgeshire, and was some 18 years older than Jessie’s mother. Agnes was about 17 when they married in Risbridge, Suffolk in 1891 the year following the birth of their daughter in Haverhill, Suffolk. Walter died in 1908 and the 1911 UK national census shows both Jessie and Agnes working in domestic service for a clergyman at St Andrew’s vicarage in Sunderland, Durham, UK. Jessie seems to have been their only child.
Jessie and her mother set off for New Zealand, probably in 1913 [i]. Their names are recorded in the 1914 electoral roll in Wellington and they were living in Alma Lane (at that time located off Tory Street). How they supported themselves is unknown. From a report in the Evening Post on Tuesday 24 February 1914, it is clear that both Jessie and Agnes had got to know (Charles) Edward Rossiter ‘REDDICK’ [ii], a 5ft 8 ½ inch tall, dark-haired, brown-eyed, and long-nosed [iii] barman at the Imperial Hotel in Cuba Street. They were staying with him at 75 Tory Street when a police sting led to their court appearance for sly-grogging offences. Although charges against Agnes, Jessie and their invited guest, one William Lewis, were dismissed, their landlord, Mr Reddick was convicted and fined £20 for a first offence of selling alcohol without a licence (and on a Sunday when alcohol supply was closely controlled). The size of the fine must have been intended to be a deterrent as it was a substantial sum for its time.
However, the fine went unpaid and the result for Charles ‘Ruddick’ was 6 weeks in the Terrace Gaol. This proved to be the first of several offences reported in the media, the second of which was forgery and uttering when later the same year he attempted to gain more secure employment with the Railways Department and doctored a certificate of his Oamaru school achievement and a testimonial to support his application (Evening Post 10 November 1914).
This was met with 2 years ‘reformative treatment’ served in the Waipa gaol[iii] from which he was released on 20 March 1916 on a probationary licence.
Born c1890; died 13 November 1918; buried 15 November 1918; age 27
Jessie Letitia DAY was the daughter of English couple, Agnes Britannia Day née GOODMAN, (born about 1874 in Haverhill, Suffolk) and her husband Walter Day, who worked as a plasterer. Walter had been born in Swaffham, Cambridgeshire, and was some 18 years older than Jessie’s mother. Agnes was about 17 when they married in Risbridge, Suffolk in 1891 the year following the birth of their daughter in Haverhill, Suffolk. Walter died in 1908 and the 1911 UK national census shows both Jessie and Agnes working in domestic service for a clergyman at St Andrew’s vicarage in Sunderland, Durham, UK. Jessie seems to have been their only child.
Jessie and her mother set off for New Zealand, probably in 1913 [i]. Their names are recorded in the 1914 electoral roll in Wellington and they were living in Alma Lane (at that time located off Tory Street). How they supported themselves is unknown. From a report in the Evening Post on Tuesday 24 February 1914, it is clear that both Jessie and Agnes had got to know (Charles) Edward Rossiter ‘REDDICK’ [ii], a 5ft 8 ½ inch tall, dark-haired, brown-eyed, and long-nosed [iii] barman at the Imperial Hotel in Cuba Street. They were staying with him at 75 Tory Street when a police sting led to their court appearance for sly-grogging offences. Although charges against Agnes, Jessie and their invited guest, one William Lewis, were dismissed, their landlord, Mr Reddick was convicted and fined £20 for a first offence of selling alcohol without a licence (and on a Sunday when alcohol supply was closely controlled). The size of the fine must have been intended to be a deterrent as it was a substantial sum for its time.
However, the fine went unpaid and the result for Charles ‘Ruddick’ was 6 weeks in the Terrace Gaol. This proved to be the first of several offences reported in the media, the second of which was forgery and uttering when later the same year he attempted to gain more secure employment with the Railways Department and doctored a certificate of his Oamaru school achievement and a testimonial to support his application (Evening Post 10 November 1914).
This was met with 2 years ‘reformative treatment’ served in the Waipa gaol[iii] from which he was released on 20 March 1916 on a probationary licence.
From Police Gazette 1915, vol 40, page 43, Archives New Zealand, Wellington AAAJ W5609
Available digitally at ndhadeliver.natlib.govt.nz/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE26199580
Available digitally at ndhadeliver.natlib.govt.nz/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE26199580
Jessie’s friendship with Charles had endured his absences and on 18 July 1916 she married him. Jessie was 24, and Charles 29. Their marriage certificate names him as Charles Edward Rossiter RUDDUCK: the marriage took place at the Presbyterian manse in Pirie Street, Mt Victoria. He had been in Wellington for 9 years and Jessie for 3 years [iv]. When Charles had registered as a voter in Wellington North in 1911 he worked as a day porter at the Pier Hotel in Grey Street; after his 1916 discharge from prison and at the time of his marriage, he was working as a night watchman.
Charles (born 1887) was the last child of nine born to a Scottish mother, Elizabeth née SCOTT from Clackmannanshire and Englishman Daniel Rossiter Rudduck who had settled in Oamaru (Yare Street) after an eventful army career at the Crimea in 1855, India, China (1860), Malta, and Gibraltar. Daniel had come to New Zealand in late 1862 on the Gothenburg after spending about a year in Melbourne. In New Zealand, he travelled widely and served as a sergeant in the 3rd Waikato regiment during the New Zealand land wars. He married Elizabeth in 1867 and together they raised a good-sized Oamaru family of whom several, sadly, did not reach maturity. Daniel supported his family working for the Waitaki County Council as a surfaceman
In October 1918 while living at 20 Karori Road, Jessie gave birth to a son named Walter William Rudduck. The baby was less than 1 month old when Jessie succumbed to influenza on 13 November. Although resident at 20 Karori Road at the time, her body was taken to her mother’s house at 14 Walter Street (off Vivian Street in Te Aro) and the funeral set off from there for Karori Cemetery at 1.15pm on Friday 15 November 1918. Jessie was buried in the Anglican section of Karori Cemetery. Jessie’s mother, Agnes, paid for the plot in 1919, and erected a headstone, commemorating her as the daughter of Walter and Agnes Day of England.
‘In Loving Memory of
Jessie
Beloved daughter of
Walter & Agnes Day
Of England
Died 13 November 1918
Aged 27 years’
There is no acknowledgement of either her relationship as wife to Charles Rudduck, or of her recently born son.
After her death, Charles worked for a time as a barman and was still living in Karori Road in 1919 (Wellington North electorate), but without the stability Jessie brought to his life, he was soon in trouble again for vehicle theft in Wanganui in May 1919 for which he received two terms of 12-months imprisonment, according to the Wanganui Chronicle 19 November 1919. In 1927 he was charged with sly grogging or the sale of liquor from his small confectioner’s shop on the corner of Bute and Vivian Streets in Wellington without the requisite licence, as well as for breaking and entering. There had been many other offences over the years – he was described in 1927 (the Press 14 May 1927) as a ‘bad character with a long list of previous convictions’. The same newspaper report told readers his ‘shop was frequented by a rough class of individual, both at night and on week-ends’.
Still working as a confectioner, Charles moved to Auckland and in 1928 he was recorded on the electoral roll at Auckland Hospital. He died of pulmonary TB on 11 June 1931 and was buried in Hillsborough Cemetery.
It is not clear who looked after the Rudduck baby, Walter, after Jessie’s early death – probably not his father as his goal terms and death when Walter was around 12 would have made this impractical and others must have cared for the boy. As a young man Walter also had his own encounter with the law (New Zealand Herald 28 June 1939) earning a term of probation with restitution for removing money from a girlfriend’s accommodation when he was unemployed and wanted to give her ‘a good time and make her happy’. Walter worked around New Zealand as a storeman, seaman, a Ministry of Works employee, a garage hand, and dairy proprietor before he died in 1984 and was cremated at Purewa Cemetery, Meadowbank, Auckland.
Charles’ own father, Daniel, died in Oamaru in 1915; his mother, Elizabeth, in Dunedin in 1932.
By 1919, Agnes was describing herself as Mrs Lewis of 14 Walter Street, where she lived with William Lewis, a driver. Presumably this was the same person who had been Agnes’ visitor in 1914 when Charles was charged with alcohol sale offences.
The Wilson funeral home’s records show that William had been born in Swindon, England to Ann and Henry George Lewis, a railway employee. William Lewis had arrived in New Zealand in 1911 and continued working as a driver, claiming to have married Agnes Goodman/Day in 1914 (no New Zealand BDM records appear to exist, though they could have married elsewhere). In their Wellington years, Agnes and William did not move far as they were still living in Walter Street, at number 29, in March 1928 when William took ill with acute appendicitis that turned to peritonitis and died in Wellington hospital aged 52. He was also buried in Karori Cemetery in another part of the Anglican section. The £15/8/0 for his funeral was unable to be paid; an account rendered was re-sent to Agnes, care of her friend Mrs Williams, living at that time at 47 Hanson Street, Mt Cook. The last record for Agnes is the electoral roll of 1928 when she had returned to live at 14 Walter Street. Her whereabouts from 1928 and information on her eventual death are unknown. She was not buried with either her daughter or her husband in Karori cemetery.
Researched and written by Jenny Robertson
Grave Information:
Section: CH ENG2
Plot: 36 E
Sources:
[i] Reddick was probably a misspelling, or typo, or the name Rudduck was misheard.
[ii] Police Gazette 1916 page 232 which also tells us that Ruddick had a lisp and wore on his left arm a tattoo of a tombstone inscribed ‘In loving memory of my dear Father and Mother’. The Police Gazette recorded that he also used the name ‘Riddick’. At marriage the couple seems to have settled on the surname Rudduck.
[iii] Now Waikeria Prison. near Te Awamutu, in the Waikato
[iv] 1916 Notice of Intentions to Marry Register, held by Archives New Zealand.
Charles (born 1887) was the last child of nine born to a Scottish mother, Elizabeth née SCOTT from Clackmannanshire and Englishman Daniel Rossiter Rudduck who had settled in Oamaru (Yare Street) after an eventful army career at the Crimea in 1855, India, China (1860), Malta, and Gibraltar. Daniel had come to New Zealand in late 1862 on the Gothenburg after spending about a year in Melbourne. In New Zealand, he travelled widely and served as a sergeant in the 3rd Waikato regiment during the New Zealand land wars. He married Elizabeth in 1867 and together they raised a good-sized Oamaru family of whom several, sadly, did not reach maturity. Daniel supported his family working for the Waitaki County Council as a surfaceman
In October 1918 while living at 20 Karori Road, Jessie gave birth to a son named Walter William Rudduck. The baby was less than 1 month old when Jessie succumbed to influenza on 13 November. Although resident at 20 Karori Road at the time, her body was taken to her mother’s house at 14 Walter Street (off Vivian Street in Te Aro) and the funeral set off from there for Karori Cemetery at 1.15pm on Friday 15 November 1918. Jessie was buried in the Anglican section of Karori Cemetery. Jessie’s mother, Agnes, paid for the plot in 1919, and erected a headstone, commemorating her as the daughter of Walter and Agnes Day of England.
‘In Loving Memory of
Jessie
Beloved daughter of
Walter & Agnes Day
Of England
Died 13 November 1918
Aged 27 years’
There is no acknowledgement of either her relationship as wife to Charles Rudduck, or of her recently born son.
After her death, Charles worked for a time as a barman and was still living in Karori Road in 1919 (Wellington North electorate), but without the stability Jessie brought to his life, he was soon in trouble again for vehicle theft in Wanganui in May 1919 for which he received two terms of 12-months imprisonment, according to the Wanganui Chronicle 19 November 1919. In 1927 he was charged with sly grogging or the sale of liquor from his small confectioner’s shop on the corner of Bute and Vivian Streets in Wellington without the requisite licence, as well as for breaking and entering. There had been many other offences over the years – he was described in 1927 (the Press 14 May 1927) as a ‘bad character with a long list of previous convictions’. The same newspaper report told readers his ‘shop was frequented by a rough class of individual, both at night and on week-ends’.
Still working as a confectioner, Charles moved to Auckland and in 1928 he was recorded on the electoral roll at Auckland Hospital. He died of pulmonary TB on 11 June 1931 and was buried in Hillsborough Cemetery.
It is not clear who looked after the Rudduck baby, Walter, after Jessie’s early death – probably not his father as his goal terms and death when Walter was around 12 would have made this impractical and others must have cared for the boy. As a young man Walter also had his own encounter with the law (New Zealand Herald 28 June 1939) earning a term of probation with restitution for removing money from a girlfriend’s accommodation when he was unemployed and wanted to give her ‘a good time and make her happy’. Walter worked around New Zealand as a storeman, seaman, a Ministry of Works employee, a garage hand, and dairy proprietor before he died in 1984 and was cremated at Purewa Cemetery, Meadowbank, Auckland.
Charles’ own father, Daniel, died in Oamaru in 1915; his mother, Elizabeth, in Dunedin in 1932.
By 1919, Agnes was describing herself as Mrs Lewis of 14 Walter Street, where she lived with William Lewis, a driver. Presumably this was the same person who had been Agnes’ visitor in 1914 when Charles was charged with alcohol sale offences.
The Wilson funeral home’s records show that William had been born in Swindon, England to Ann and Henry George Lewis, a railway employee. William Lewis had arrived in New Zealand in 1911 and continued working as a driver, claiming to have married Agnes Goodman/Day in 1914 (no New Zealand BDM records appear to exist, though they could have married elsewhere). In their Wellington years, Agnes and William did not move far as they were still living in Walter Street, at number 29, in March 1928 when William took ill with acute appendicitis that turned to peritonitis and died in Wellington hospital aged 52. He was also buried in Karori Cemetery in another part of the Anglican section. The £15/8/0 for his funeral was unable to be paid; an account rendered was re-sent to Agnes, care of her friend Mrs Williams, living at that time at 47 Hanson Street, Mt Cook. The last record for Agnes is the electoral roll of 1928 when she had returned to live at 14 Walter Street. Her whereabouts from 1928 and information on her eventual death are unknown. She was not buried with either her daughter or her husband in Karori cemetery.
Researched and written by Jenny Robertson
Grave Information:
Section: CH ENG2
Plot: 36 E
Sources:
[i] Reddick was probably a misspelling, or typo, or the name Rudduck was misheard.
[ii] Police Gazette 1916 page 232 which also tells us that Ruddick had a lisp and wore on his left arm a tattoo of a tombstone inscribed ‘In loving memory of my dear Father and Mother’. The Police Gazette recorded that he also used the name ‘Riddick’. At marriage the couple seems to have settled on the surname Rudduck.
[iii] Now Waikeria Prison. near Te Awamutu, in the Waikato
[iv] 1916 Notice of Intentions to Marry Register, held by Archives New Zealand.